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I've recently found myself in a bit of a hobby rut due to a combination of burnout, apathy and complete lack of time. So with my weekend free and clear of obligations and an actual spark of hobby enthusiasm warming my backside, I decided to make a start on something I've been meaning to do for a while now. A small Steel Legion force.

I've loved the Steel Legion ever since I almost simultaneously come across them in both the old Fire Warrior video game and the White Dwarf Armageddon campaign series. Fire Warrior throws you straight into battle against the Steel Legion in a massive trench network and you've got to fight your way through them to the Imperial base, while the Armageddon campaign was 2 or 3 white dwarf issues full of Armageddony goodness.
At that time as a young lad with not much in the way of disposable income a trench based Steel Legion army was very much a pipe dream. And now that the range has been retired, it's even more of a pipe dream. I did how ever treat myself to a single infantry squad last year before they went OoP. Roll around to now, and I'm going to do something 14 year old me would be very happy about.

I envision this as something of a recon force. An infantry squad moving through an abandoned part of a trench network gathering data for high command, backed up by a sentinal in case they run into anything nasty. Ol' priest probably heard of the mission and volunteered to tag along. Gotta bring the Imperial Light to the dark places and all that waffle.


To the project itself.
Here's what I'll be working with.

-A priest
-10 man infantry squad
-Armoured Sentinal
-There's a Leman Russ kicking about somewhere too that I was going to paint up, but I have less of an idea then i'd like as to its current location...

First thing's first was prepping the models. The sentinal went for a bath in isopropyl alcohol, the infantry squad had all their flash and bits cleaned off and I spent a nerve wracking minute drilling out the haft for the priests devotional totem. (And I fething aced it even if I do say so myself! )



While I was at it I also drilled out and pinned the other hand with the chainsword.


With the minis almost ready to go beyond a minor bit of greenstuff work on the priest, I moved on to the bases.

For the bases themselves I'll be following MediocreHobbies method of making Tench Bases.
They're really straight forward and I like the results. The only thing I'll do differently is i'll be gluing the mini down first before basing as I want everything black anyway. And i'll use Armageddon Dust instead of Stirland Battlemire, as you know.... Armageddon...

So the planks all glued down.


Trimmed up. I feel I might have made them a bit too neat. A bit of messy overhang probably works better of this kind of base.


And with the minis glued on.


That's as far as I got today with about 2.5 hours work done in total. I still need to add some barb wire and other trenchy detritus to jazz them up a touch. And I just need a nice day so that I can prime them, but given we're in the grip of Autumn that might be further away then i'd like.
As far as painting the minis themselves goes, I looked at every resource I had at my disposal and the most detailed guide to painting the old school Steel Legion scheme I could find was by Martin Footitt in Codex: Armageddon. None of the Imperial Guard codices have guides for them. There's shockingly few tutorials on youtube and even Warhammer TV's video is kinda crap (and ironically doesn't use Steel Legion Drab at all! ). The following is from Codex: Armageddon and is what I'll be using, which also fits in quite neatly with the overall nostalgia vein of this project.

Martin Footitt wrote:I've Painted the Steel Legion army with sand coloured uniforms. The light brown uniform is painted Bestial Brown over a black undercoat.
The model is then highlighted with Snakebite Leather and Bleached Bone. The helmets are a mix of Camo Green and Chaos Black with a Rotting Flesh highlight.
The leather effect on the boots was created using Scorched Brown highlighted with Bleached Bone.

I no longer have any of these particular colours, but I do happen to have the Vallejo equivalent to all except Snakebite leather and I reckon I can mix up a good compromise for it.
If you do happen to know of a more detailed guide to the old Steel Legion scheme, let me know!


So that's where I'm at for now. Thanks for having a look at my project and I hope you'll stay tuned for more!

Going to make a display board for them as well?

If you are just doing a squad of them, how well would they fir into KT rules? Would it be worth putting some extra bits on a few guys to call them out as specialists? I’m not up on the latest rules, so this might be a non-starter.

Looks like a fun project, I’m looking forward to seeing your progression with this force. I’ve always been a huge fan of Steel Legion.

Nevelon wrote:Going to make a display board for them as well?

If you are just doing a squad of them, how well would they fir into KT rules? Would it be worth putting some extra bits on a few guys to call them out as specialists? I’m not up on the latest rules, so this might be a non-starter.

I hadn't thought about a display board. It's certainly a good idea though! Only thing is I don't really have the room to keep it anywhere. I'll keep that on the back burner though for the future.
I wouldn't have a clue about Kill-team rules as I've dropped 40k completely since 8th in favour of 30k.

Ruberu wrote:Looks like a fun project, I’m looking forward to seeing your progression with this force. I’ve always been a huge fan of Steel Legion.

Thanks!

So as expected the weather is gak for the coming week, so no priming for me.
Added some spice to a few of the bases though in the form of some razor wire and skulls.




It's not much, but it adds a little visual interest. More then just mud and duckboards.

So a week of crappy weather might have turned into a 5 months of me doing nothing...
Anyhoo. I've made significant progress on the Steel Legion squad. In fact they're all but done as it stands. Just need to finish of the bases and do a few touch ups here and there.

A couple of wip shots. Half way through their coats.


Coats, leather and metal parts done.



I've got the house to myself tomorrow, so my aim is to finish them off and get the photo booth out for some proper pics.
See you in another 5 months I guess...

Looking good. Any progress is good progress!

A great project! It' not every day you see Steel Legion models! They are looking really good already!

Something about all of this rang to me. I guess it must've been the "14-year-old's dream project".
For me it was the sisters, and now 17 years later, I finally bought a box. The plastic ones of course, so it's not quite the same. I'm no stranger to long breaks either haha.

Looking forward to see these finished!

Nevelon wrote:Looking good. Any progress is good progress!

Thanks Nev!

Ezki wrote:A great project! It' not every day you see Steel Legion models! They are looking really good already!

Something about all of this rang to me. I guess it must've been the "14-year-old's dream project".
For me it was the sisters, and now 17 years later, I finally bought a box. The plastic ones of course, so it's not quite the same. I'm no stranger to long breaks either haha.

Looking forward to see these finished!

Thank you Ezki.
A sisters army was a big thing for a lot of people I think, you're certainly not alone in that regard. I'm glad you got yours too!


Infantry squad is done and dusted.

Infantry Squad





Larger images in my gallery

I'm very happy with how these turned out. Pretty close to what I had envisioned in my head at the start of this project. A couple of things I've now seen thanks to the photos that need to be fixed up, such at razorwire and a few blobby yellow bits on boots, but other then that pretty satisfied.
I'll move on to the priest and sentinal when I get time.

Thoughts and comments always welcome!