Micah's renewed Alpha Legion

[micahwc]

I've been away for a while collecting Astra Militarum. I decided to get back into chaos now that my Guard Army is coming along nicely. I'm starting with a Betrayal at Calth box which arrived today.

 

I started with the dreadnought. It's been repositioned and magnetized. Here he is at the battle of Keurig:

 

http://i.imgur.com/QrjwsMx.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/ULa7V8m.jpg

[micahwc]

Got the base coat done

 

http://i.imgur.com/olzNuAB.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/qJyNpCU.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/OhTRMp3.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/oOVs7tR.jpg

[hushrong]

Awesome start on the contemptor!

[WarriorFish]

Is that from a metallic primer and wash? Looks good and quick too :tu:

[micahwc]

Vallejo grey primer everywhere, Black airbrushed into resesses, white airbrushed from directly above.

 

Vallejo game air Steel paint everywhere, Vallejo Gun Metal grey thinned down and sprayed into all the recesses.

 

Createx Autoair Candy2.0 blue paint sprayed sparingly from several inches away. I didn't want the blue to get built up too dark. I sprayed a little closer in shaded areas.

 

Thinned down Tamiya clear green sprayed from directly above and then used to highlight specific areas I wanted to be more green.

 

 

Sounds a lot more complicated than it is, not counting drying time and time spent cleaning the airbrush between colors, this was only about 10 minutes of painting.

[micahwc]

It's my take on this tutorial by epic duck studios:

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OJR0lCHsvu0g

 

I use a different blue color because it's what I had available. I also did a little preshading with the airbrush.

[micahwc]

I started on the terminators. I'm attempting to magnetize all the weapon options. I started by assembling one body and putting magnets in its arm sockets. Next I started magnetizing all the weapons to make sure they will match polarity to the one body. Once all the weapons are complete I will use them to ensure the polarity is correct on the remaining four terminators

 

http://i.imgur.com/vMDNddA.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Ck2nNCU.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/8fOVeue.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/CatSxDa.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/nQ22GcK.jpg

[micahwc]

Slow day in the office. Got these guys completely magnetized.

 

http://i.imgur.com/XQkqVe8.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/X45CIki.jpg

[micahwc]

I gave freehanding a shot. I can't draw or paint a straight line to save my life.

 

 

And after seeing this pictures I realize that I have a lot to do to clean up the model. It's easier for me to see stuff like tide marks in these pictures than in person.

Edited January 5, 2018 by micahwc

[micahwc]

More progress on the contemptor

 

http://i.imgur.com/GmYpJBz.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/vihbiug.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/xitSOMt.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/OmQsXSQ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/n9tzYXu.jpg

[ChazSexington]

Have you considered stencils for that kind of work?

 

For the Emperor, frater. 

[micahwc]

I thought about using an Index card as a straight edge stencil with the airbrush. I couldn't find one at home last night. I'll borrow one from work and see what I can come up with.

 

A difficulty with this color scheme is that the basecoat is over metallic silver. The more paint you add on top, the less silver shows through. Also the paint color is a gradient from blue to green, so you can't just grab color out of a bottle to touch up an area.

Edited January 5, 2018 by micahwc

[Tallarn Commander]

The freehanding looks great!

[micahwc]

Lots of work today. I rounded off all the scales a bit to make them look like scales and not flannel pajamas. Then I shaded and hilighted all of them. I tried some more freehand which unfortunately looked really bad on the gun arms so I stripped them and will repainted them. I tried free handing a hydra on the other arm and I'm pretty happy with it. I covered the freehand I had done on the powerfist with a white band and then put a series of connecting can around it, like xxxxxxxx, for the 20th legion. Great idea in concept but the execution was even worse so I slapped some blue on it to cover up the cover up. Lastly I replaced all the gold with silver and added more silver to some areas to hide other mistakes. Previously I hit it with a gloss coat to keep my basecoat protected and now it's way to glossy, I think it will look a lot better if it were a bit fuller.

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/G1JOZFD.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/UCkie2P.jpg

[micahwc]

http://i.imgur.com/EuusuXC.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/uZ1dKmZ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/HaXEhO2.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/c1WccnA.jpg

[micahwc]

http://i.imgur.com/LeDL14s.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/NYFVLPs.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/0Wl25RM.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/9N6U9O6.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/oEMSwwx.jpg

[ChazSexington]

I thought about using an Index card as a straight edge stencil with the airbrush. I couldn't find one at home last night. I'll borrow one from work and see what I can come up with.

 

A difficulty with this color scheme is that the basecoat is over metallic silver. The more paint you add on top, the less silver shows through. Also the paint color is a gradient from blue to green, so you can't just grab color out of a bottle to touch up an area.

 

I'm aware - I do the same style of Alpha Legion. My workaround is having some black or copper panels and freehanding on those. 

[micahwc]

I had another slow day at the office today but I did get 28 marines from Betrayal @ Calth assembled.

 

5 havoks w/ 3 missile launchers

5 havoks w/ 3 heavy bolters

5 havoks w/ 3 plasma, combi plasma

5 havoks w/ 3 melta, combi melta

Lord in terminator armor

Dark Apostle

Sorcerer with Force Sword and combi plasma

2 lords w/ single lightning claw, bolt pistol

Lord w/ single lightning claw and plasma pistol

3 chaos marines with flamers

 

And the rest will have bolters

Edited January 11, 2018 by micahwc

[hushrong]

The contemptor is looking rad! They’re these disposable grill racks that I think would make great stencils for scalework on vehicles. Regardless I like the way yours came out, perfectly reptilian.

 

That’s also a ton of havocs!

[Pearson73]

The freehand pattern's coming on really nicely.

[micahwc]

Yeah, that doesn't count the 8 missile havoks I already had converted from press fit loyalist marines, or the 8 plasma havoks I already had. I have enough havoks I can run them in just about any configuration except for some of the heavy weapons, or run them as chosen/fallen.

 

 

I don't really see the point in kitting them out as chaos marines as I have enough Havok squads I can put together any chaos marine squad I would want to bring, and I have enough cultists that I don't really need to use chaos marines.

[micahwc]

I've discovered that if I spray my blue color before the silver layer has dried all the way that it will cause the blue to pull towards itself and pool in little scale like spots. It's kind of a cool effect but so far I had only done it on accident. Today I tried doing it on purpose on my Xiphon interceptor to see how it would look on a large area. Not sure what I think of it.

 

http://i.imgur.com/5akA4Ta.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/lL4q75C.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Uu0K7CL.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/jJK6QlW.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/54y1VrG.jpg

 

Also started on the cataphracti terminators. I'm painting them in the pre-heresy legion colors as I figure these are relics from that time worn by only the most skilled and worthy warriors in the legion.

 

http://i.imgur.com/VoUyUMT.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/FhOgfYz.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/AiqIRhR.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/5EZBNdq.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/rC6zSZI.jpg

 

Finally, I added some more green to the contemptor and am calling it done other than the base.

http://i.imgur.com/Nt25mZu.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/UVoZ5RQ.jpg

[micahwc]

I'm making final changes to a list I want to try. My local gaming store is currently doing a campaign for all of January, and I unfortunately was not able to sign up in time, so just about all the games going on are for the campaign. So I probably wont get another game in until February.

 

This is my VIP list using just about only things that have worked well for me so far between Astra Militarum and Chaos. I will have a detachment of Renegades for the tanks, and am thinking about bringing Lord Arkos for the extra command point. Honestly in the past I haven't been thrilled with Arkos, and I have begun to favor generic chaos lords over him for the re-rolls that he doesn't bring. A chaos lord with a lightning claw seems to be my current favorite, just to babysit the Havoks and help keep them alive and shooty.

 

Det 1

Lord Arkos the Faithless and bringer of the command point.

Dark Apostle because he's relatively cheap and boosts leadership of cultists

3x10 cultists to keep deep strikers away from my tanks. (I don't like any of the troop options and these are cheaper than chaos marines, although I like to field them in larger groups than 10 if possible)

 

Det 2

Chaos Lord, power sword, (murder sword)

7x Havoks with lascannons

2x Hellforged Scorpius tanks

 

Det 3

Xiphon Interceptor

 

Det 4

Malefic Lord (debating on bringing a renegade commander instead to save points for more cultists)

2x Leman Russ battletanks, 1 heavy bolter each

2x Leman Russ Punishers, 1 heavy bolter each.

 

The theory is that 8 lascannons, 2 battle cannons, 2 punishers, and 2 scorpius launchers kill everything while the infantry keep the tanks alive as best as possible.

[Pearson73]

The dappling on the Xiphon looks great.

[micahwc]

Thanks