Hydra Dominatus - [10.8. Squad #2 Finished]

[Nysse]

I figure it's high time I stop my lurking activities and finally start posting something as well.

 

After a long absence from 40k and GW games in general I've lately been getting back in and finally got started on a new force, Alpha Legion.

 

I've played tons of Fantasy and 40k in the late 90s and early 00s as a youth as well as the odd dabble in other GW games like Epic and Blood Bowl. I had massive Guard army as well as Death Guard in 40k and various Chaos and Undead armies in Fantasy, but when I got absolutely fed up with the tournament scene and my casual gaming buddies started to stop playing I ended quitting gaming as well. Plus booze and girls somehow started to be far more interesting during high school. Sadly nearly all my minis from that time have been sold.

 

Fast forward some years and during my University studies I ended up buying a few boxes of Perry Napoleonics to have something to paint and suddenly I was back gaming and painting stuff. Mostly historicals with especially my Flames of War collection growing to unhealthy sizes. But even though I'm mainly interested in historicals I've always loved the 40k fluff and have read the occasional novel every now and then as well as playing the computer games quite actively. 

My commitment back into 40k started pretty slowly with me wanting to kitbash some minis to pass the time when I didn't feel like painting at home. Luckily even though I sold nearly all my minis back when I quit gaming I did keep my bits collection so getting started was easy. Before I knew it I had a few slightly more chaotic looking guardsmen put together as well as the starts of a few Marines. With my appetite suitably whetted I figured maybe building a larger force wouldn't be such a bad idea.

 

The minis I'd put together were quite a haphazard bunch so I wanted to decide on a force with a suitable theme which I should build the minis around so that they'd at least be a bit more organized looking. I've always been a keen follower of Chaos so that was already decided straight away, but which god should I dedicate myself to and which Legion should I pick. Death Guard had been done before and on the Fantasy side I've had a few Nurgle armies so I decided against that. I don't find Khorne that interesting so ruled those out. I was thinking about Slaanesh or Tzeentch, but luckily ended up borrowing the 'Legion' novel from a friend and immediately thought that Alpha Legion was the way to go. Being such a mysterious force it gave me enough leeway to take the force anywhere I wanted and being Chaos Undivided no need to fuss about which god to choose.

 

So next up I needed to put together a few guidelines for building my minis. I'm not too keen on the "Add spikes for chaos" style of design that especially some of the older minis follow and I wanted to make my force look like a warband that operated far out of the Eye of Terror within Imperial Space in co-operation with some unwitting planetary governors etc. so slightly less corrupt looking gear was needed. I also like the new 30k kits so wanted to incorporate parts from there to show that the force had been fighting for millenia on end and had a rag-tag assortment of gear from different sources and eras.

• No spikes (or at least to a minimum)
• Every model must contain parts from multiple kits
• Every model must have some Chaotic parts to distinguish from loyalists
• Mix of parts from different eras when possible (30k & 40k)
• Regular backpacks instead of the chaos ones.

My Cultists do deviate from those a bit as I mostly used the Dark Vengeance ones with only some minor conversions like head and weapon swaps. But in the future they will be replaced by suitable Planetary Defence Forces models.

The Marines were the first full unit I put together with the guidelines in mind and I'm quite happy with how they turned out. Tons of different kits used to add variety. I also like the look that they have. There's still that chaotic vibe, but it's a bit more toned down so suitable for a legion that relies on subterfuge.

The long term plan is to grow this into a core Alpha Legion force with a larger PDF force around them using the R&H list. I figured starting with the Chaos Marines would be a smoother way to get back in as I can get a playable force done faster instead of painting a few hundred Renegades. Perhaps some Dark Mechanicus styled forces to be added later on as I do like the looks of the plastics. Fluff wise it would fit in quite nicely with the warband controlling a suitable Imperial world or manufactorum from behind the scenes through corrupt officials. And with most Imperial citizens living their lives without ever seeing a Space Marine, just hearing legends about them, I'd expect most of them wouldn't know a Chaos Marine from a loyalist one.

Paint scheme wise I ended up going for something similar to the 'official' one and to the scheme seen in some older codexes I have lying around (3rd Edition I think). So blue highlighted with light green and with steel trim. The base colours have been airbrushed and edge highlighting and details painted by brush before applying pin washes with Tamiya Panel Line Wash. In the future I'll probably switch the wash to the enamels I normally use as I wasn't 100% happy with the results. Especially the older plastic has detail that is sometimes too soft so the Panel Line Wash starts flowing everywhere instead of staying in creases etc. Work fine on the newer 30k models though.

I'll be adding new models every now and then. Probably not in a very fast pace as this isn't my main hobby project, but rather a way to let off steam when I've been painting too many identical uniforms for a Napoleonic or WW2 army. Right now I've got the units Rhino in the pipeline with quite a lot of resin detail added to spice things up.

It's been quite a wall of text so I guess it's high time I throw in some pics!

Any ideas, feedback etc. are greatly appreciated!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 10, 2017 by Nysse

[Marshal Loss]

I love armies with a clear theme, and yours is a really nice take on the XX. Look forward to seeing more. :)

[PeteySödes]

Awesome, striking color choices and well executed damage! Thats going to look killer on the table!

[Nysse]

Thanks guys! Will have to see when these will actually make it to the gaming table :) I haven't even read the rules since 4th ed. Probably should try to get in a few Kill Team games soon. Seeing stuff on the table really helps boost motivation.

[bloodhound23]

Very striking indeed. I love a good attempt at doing the green highlights over the blue base. Yours turned out great.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Nysse]

Thanks Michael! I did have to go through a few iterations to find something that worked out nicely. Pretty happy with it now.

 

Another finished unit with the Cultists from my Dark Vengeance box. Only a few smaller conversions like head and weapon swaps as especially the autogun toting guys turned out pretty hard to do. Still they'll be replaced by PDF forces at one point or another. I need to put in an order in with Victoria Miniatures for some heads, backpacks and weapons to use for the PDF troops. Planning to start on them sometime during spring.

 

These guys were actually finished before the marines. I'd originally planned on using the turquoise colour for the force so used that as to tie the cultists in with the rest of the force. Didn't like how it looked like on CSM armor, but works nicely with the Cultist so I'm going to let it be. I threw in quite a bit of rust pigments everywhere to make the weapons look a bit unkept. Worked out rather nicely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 20, 2016 by Nysse

[KrautScientist]

It has become very en vogue recently to paint Alpha Legion in metallic blue, but I think your Marines nicely show that a more "classic" recipe still has merits when pulled off well -- very nice!

 

And I really love those cultists! The amount of "pop" on them is just enough to make them read as visually interesting, yet they also keep the ragtag appearance one would expect of this unit type. I also really love the use of turquoise on the models!

 

All in all, a very promising start!

[Excessus]

Looking good there Nysse! Hydra dominatus!

[Noctem Cultor]

Some nice blending with the blue and the green there, great work with getting the perfect blend of uncorrupted armour but capturing the we are traitors/chaos look.

 

Look forward to seeing more.

 

-Noctem

[Dragonlover]

Nice work on the highlights! Makes a change from the 'shimmery blue/green' you see a lot of the time.

 

Dragonlover

[Nysse]

Hi, thank you everyone for the comments!

KrautScientist, yeah I was thinking about the 30k blue theme as it is pretty cool, but it just seems like everyone and their cousin is doing it right now. Plus I grew up with the older editions so those have kind of burned into my conciousness and won't leave

Holiday season was busy with visits at different relatives constantly and the parents visiting from Canada so time was spent with them. Some hobby things did go ahead, just not that much on this project.

I did however get some more work done on the first Rhino. Build is complete and the base rust colours have been applied as well as a gloss coat to prepare it for the next steps. Crappy cell phone photo tones down the colour differences, but I've got a more reddish brown and a yellowish rust tone on to show through when I do chipping on the main colours.

Now I just need to find a suitable slot with 4-5 hours of uninterrupted painting time as I'm planning on adding chipping liquids followed by a colour modulation basecoat and some scale effects with green. To make the chipping liquid work you can't really leave the top layers on for too long so I need to be able to do all the airbrushing and then the chipping in one go. Maybe next weekend will bring some more hobby time. Though I have a massive house renovation looming in the horizon as we bought a new place. Hopefully the missus won't plan too many trips to choose materials etc.

The Rhino's got a mix of plastic, Forgeworld and resins from Subtle Discord. Really love the launcher and drum magazine for the bolter. Oil from the moulds was stuck pretty hard on them though and washing them with soapy water didn't remove all and I did have some issues during basecoating. Couple of more layers solved the problems though.

Edited January 9, 2017 by Nysse

[Nysse]

Well it's been a long absence. Completely redoing all the surfaces and the kitchen in our new apartment reduced my hobby time at the start of the year to zero and with a busy spring at work and fatigue from the renovations I haven't really had the energy to do anything productive in the evenings. Most time has been spent watching NHL and playing on the computer, but I've managed to get my hobby space built up as well. Some storage is still missing and things are still lying on the floor, but it's slowly getting there! The space is pretty cramped, but definitely an improvement as now I have a dedicated space just for myself and my stuff. Though that did mean the missus got to decide on the rest of the place :D A suitable name sign was found abandoned on the street on a drunken night as well ;) Seems that somebody has the same nickname as I do...

 

 

Still I've slowly gotten back to painting and continued on the Rhino alongside other projects. I had previously painted a bottom layer of various rust shades and I finally followed it up with some chipping liquid and the main colours. I've previously used Ammo of Migs heavy chipping stuff, but that was too stark for my tastes. This time I tried their product that was meant for lighter chipping. Bit of a mixed experience as on some areas the chipping was nice and small and easy to control, but in others paint still left in large chunks. Needs a lot more practice and trying to figure out how much chipping solution is needed beneath the final paint layer. But it's getting there. The amount of chipping is bordering on a bit too much for my taste, but some of will get toned down when I get to throwing washes, streaking and dirt on the vehicle. The 3D feel that you can get with chipping fluids is really great though! Looks much better when the chips aren't painted on, but rather the top paint layers are peeled off to show the paint underneath.

 

Next up picking out details and applying decals before the final weathering stages. I've actually already picked out all the steel trim, but forgot to take pics of it. I have a few long weekends lined up with some days off work so hopefully I can get things moving again!

 

 

As an end note, how can I edit the title of the post? Seems to work differently from other forum software I've used.

[Dragonlover]

To edit the title edit the first post and go into... I think its called Advanced Options. It'll take you to a new screen where you can change the title and add tags and such.

 

Cool tank, my only quibble is the green glow on the missiles. Looks a bit out of place.

 

Dragonlover

[Nysse]

To edit the title edit the first post and go into... I think its called Advanced Options. It'll take you to a new screen where you can change the title and add tags and such.

 

Cool tank, my only quibble is the green glow on the missiles. Looks a bit out of place.

 

Dragonlover

Thanks for the tip! Hadn't checked advance options so missed it :)

 

And thanks for the feedback! I agree it stands out from the rest maybe a bit too much. Though the green glow will be toned down quite a bit. It's not really evident from the slightly crappy mobile phone pic, but most of the green surface is raised detail like a chaos star and the missiles themselves. So most will be painted in steel and black so shouldn't stand out so much. Hopefully it will help, otherwise I might need to go through with another airbrushed layer to make the area more blue

[Nysse]

Another long painting break, but with 8th edition out and everyone at my club hyped and getting back to 40k (most are historical players nowadays, but a long background in GW games) I finally got around to rebooting this project as well.

 

I continued on the Rhino, but somehow it just doesn't feel right at the moment. I think the chipping went a bit overboard and it just looks too banged up. Covering those will be a pain as everything is painted with an airbrush, and stripping it and restarting doesn't really seem like an option either. With that bugging me constantly I decided to put it back for a while and let my thoughts simmer a bit until I get some inspiration.

 

 

So with the Rhino pushed out of the way I went for what is probably my favorite Daemon Engine, the Decimator. Massive, dominating and scary as hell. Still looks reasonable and not as overboard as the Dinobots, but suitably chaotic. The bugger was fiddly to put together though with it being so top heavy. Massive amounts of pinning and green stuff was required, but at least it feels rock solid now.

 

 

I was thinking about different variations on the green accents with more realistic highlights, random splotches etc. but just ended up going with highlighting panel lines and corners. Outside of that it was a fairly simple job of painting all the steel areas, picking out some cables in different colours and highlighting the demonic features on his armor. I added some dusting and rust effects with pigments, but didn't want to go overboard so left it pretty light. Likewise the base was kept simple, partly not to take too much away from the model and in part, because there  really isn't much room even on a 60mm base as the model really is that huge.

 

 

It feels maybe a bit too clean at the moment so I might go back and add some streaking etc. to make it a bit more worn. Could help pop all the protruding Chaos insignia etc. more.

 

 

Outside of that I also started on another CSM squad and got through all the airbrush work. Next up metals and picking out any details on them. But that will probably wait a few weeks as I'm off for a bit under two weeks in Canada to kickstart my summer holiday. Still hopefully I can keep up a bit better painting pace than the last few updates

 

[Nysse]

I'm back from my holidays (four weeks went past way too fast). Canada was great, definitely gotta go there again, especially when the hockey season is on. The two weeks that I was at home was fairly quiet with painting as there seemed to be things to do and friends and relatives to visit for nearly every day of the holiday. Still I got around to continue on the next squad.

 

 

All detail has been picked out, edge highlighting done etc. At times I'm regretting deciding to do the light green edge highlights on them as it's just painfully slow, but they do seem to pop that much more. Just got a layer of varnish on them with decals and chipping going on next. Then it's just a matter of doing a panel line wash and building up bases and they should be done.

 

Still no more progress on the Rhino, except that I've put together another one.  Haven't put any paint on it though until I can come up with what I want them to look like. I'm starting to think that adding maybe some steel coloured chipping to balance the rest out would help. Now it just seems a bit too rusty and not that much "newer" chipping on it. I might have to do a test piece somewhere as there isn't really going back after more  paint is slapped on.

[Nysse]

The second squad is finished. Bases took a bit longer than anticipated as I managed to cram too much on some of them and had to clear them out and do some touch ups to get all the guys to fit on them.

 

Same story as on the previous unit. Plenty of bits from different kits ranging from 90s to the new 30k box. Some minor conversions as well with parts swapped around to create more variety on the base parts.

 

I decided to add a larger flag for their Icon and added one of the Forge World decals for iconography. Boy was it a pain in the **s to get to conform with the shapes of the flag. Considering that normal GW decals are pretty good quality and easy to apply, FW stuff just seems horrible compared to them. I just never really seem to get them to work as expected. They seem a bit thicker than others, but at the same time more brittle and they get creased quite easily. After massive amounts of decal softener, careful positioning and around 45 minutes of work I finally managed to get it evenly in all the creases in the flag.

 

In addition to the decals I tried a new paint line on the flag. I normally use Vallejo more  or less exclusively, but after hearing a lot of good things about Warcolours I ordered some of their paints in late spring. I've been tinkering with them at times, but this was really the first  time I tried them properly. I've always found getting smooth highlights and wet blending really difficult, but these  paints really made it suprisingly easy. They have quite a bit longer drying time and they are more translucent than the ones I've normally used so feathering out the edges of paint layers was super easy and fast to do. The images flatten the colours maybe a little, but it was really easy to do a highlight with a few different shades and blur out the edges in just a few minutes per shade. With the longer drying times they are definitely not useful in all applications, but for larger smooth surfaces I think they'll be super handy. And with a bit more practice and getting used to the way they work I don't think it should be too difficult to create seamless looking transitions.

 

Anyways with these out of the way I'm more or less done with the regular troop choices. I'm probably going to add a third squad with Boarding equipment somewhere along the line, but I'm really going to focus on getting the army to about 1800-2000 points and playable before going that way. Havocs, Terminators and characters still left for infantry choices, but outside of them it's mainly just vehicles and Daemon Engines from now on.

 

Havocs I've already got ready for paint, but the Terminators need some thought. I have enough Chaos Termies to make a large unit, but I'm not 100% sure if  I like how they would fit in with the rest. I'm somewhat tempted by Cataphrachtii Terminators, but haven't thought up a good way to chaosify them yet. Any tips and ideas for suitable Termies would be greatly appreciated!