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I get it, horus heresy is all about the bling. Every model they make has to be as fabulous as possible.
It falls flat to me, when this is applied to the alpha legion. Time and again we where told that the alpha legion is all about deception, uniformity, annonymity and stealth.
Why the hell then would they design armors that have a lot of individual markings? It makes no sense.
Why can´t we have armors that are understated, functional and featureless? Lot´s of tactical webbing and such? It would sell like hotcakes. /rant over.

Someone out there has to feel the same way right? At this point i have no idea why the made novels first, if they are going to ignore everything in them.

Well, it's not like they were all clones of each other, right? In The Horus Heresy Book Three - Extermination you can see that they have individual heraldry, as well as well as different armour and helmets. It also seems like they have a taste for exotic weapons.

Relying on deception and subterfuge doesn't mean they all have to look the same - individuals looking different doesn't really make that big of a difference for those outside the legion - but it might help with their own convoluted internal hierarchy and organization. You can see the pictures from the book on the wikia gallery: here

There's also this quote about Alpharius from Aurelian:

"Alpharius was the last of those present through long-range sending. He stood helmed, while all others were bareheaded, and his hololithic image was stable while each of the others suffered corruption from the vast ranges between their fleets. Alpharius, almost a head shorter than his brothers, stood scaled in crocodilian resplendence, his reptile-skin armour plating glinting in the false light of his manifestation. His salute was the sign of the aquila, the Emperor’s own symbol, made with both hands across his breastplate.

Lorgar snorted. How quaint."

So yea, apparently even Alpharius wore outlandish armour sometimes (and I assume he also wore plain armour depending on what the situation called for).

 tarnish wrote:
Time and again we where told that the alpha legion is all about deception, uniformity, annonymity and stealth.

Except it's not, and the lore in Extermination makes that abundantly clear. The legion operates along two halves. One half holds to complete uniformity and infiltration, the other makes themselves as visibly noticeable as possible, feeding the enemy all the information they want, then making sure all of it is false before the battle commences. This half makes heavy use of heraldry, insignias, bright colors, heavy ornamentation, and big tanks. Then all of it changes at the last second. They're the distraction while the first half operates unnoticed. Yet if they're ignored, they pack enough firepower to take on an enemy army in a more traditional manner as well.

Huh, how about that. I only read legion.
However, have a look at the primarch rules. Not that deceptive are they? You get a big superhero like you would expect, and yes he gets a lot of tactical fiddlestick rule-stuff, but at the end of the day it IS the primarch... in a flashy costume... why not represent him as alpharius would fight, from where you expect him the least, in a toned down piece of kit with less flashy nonsense all over the place.

Or even better, actually have it be twins

How do you know one of the marine models aren't the twin?

 tarnish wrote:
However, have a look at the primarch rules. Not that deceptive are they? Why not represent him as alpharius would fight, from where you expect him the least, in a toned down piece of kit with less flashy nonsense all over the place.

A Primarch cannot *fight* discreetly. As soon as his starts tearing people apart with his bare hands it gives away his identity no matter what he's wearing. You want covert? That's when he's hidden in a unknown unit behaving *exactly* like the rest of that unit so as to not give away his identity to the enemy as per the One of Many rule, you really can't get more deceptive than that..

Every miniature being the same would be extremely boring.

I don't think any Primarch does subtle

I know it`s not Alpha Legion, but it does fulfill that tactical look your craving for.



Also, from what I`ve read in the books, most of subterfuge was left to their human agents with a legionnaire handler.

All about misdirection. While your busy dealing with the flashy guys, his stealthy brothers have secretly recruits a 5th column of traitors, learned all your secrets and replaced you with a member of the Alpha legion. You lost before you even started.