Progress Log: Alpha Legion Warband: "The Last Surprise"

[hd3]

So I've finished kitbashing my Dark Apostle. This is designed to imitate a chaplain to help further the theme of the Alpha Legion's unclear beliefs (unclear perhaps even to themselves). I used a dark apostle as the base but removed the daemon horns on the armour in favour of traditional skulls, removed the cursed tome for a nice standard bolt pistol and swapped out the cursed brazier power pack for a nice normal one with extra skulls for the chaplain motif. 

 

I wanted a black distinct from the norm so Im going to use a doom death black over Tamiya light grey primer.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Simple changes but effective

[hd3]

Just wanted to show that my Chaos Lord/Legion Praetor is finally assembled with cape and all thanks to grotsmasha. Ibid Plague Marines and Disharmonist.

Edited August 19 by hd3

[hd3]

So I finally mounted my Warpsmith on an appropriate base. They don't make a sector imperialis base for the unique base size of the warpsmith alas. This is from the 'Derelict Spacecraft'  range of bases by Admiral Apocalypse and printed by ClassyKomodoMinis on Etsy. I searched for ages to find a 65 x 35 size base that matched the more usual sizes of bases. Thank the emperor I found this.  Next is just varnishing and then I'm moving onto a certain epic Dark Angel....

[hd3]

For Cypher, I had to get grotsmasha to help with the cloak and face. For the armour I'm doing him like a 30k dark angel so I'm using doom death black from two thin coats as the base. I mostly worked on the base which is a forest resin base because I thought it would be reminiscent of Caliban. I used a rhinox hide base for the soil, then an agrax wash and a dry brush of mournfang and warpstone glow to help try and create a forest feel. Then mournfang brown for the roots with Caliban green on the plant leaves and an edge highlights of moot green. The fruit is Vallejo royal purple with magos purple on top. Then Mechanicus grey, nuln oil and administratum grey for highlights on the rocks.

Finally Gorthor brown for the side which is my hint at what I think of Cypher's true allegiance if you've worked out the order behind my base sides colouring scheme.

Edited August 22 by hd3

[hd3]

I started blocking in more of the details, gorthor brown with guilliman flesh for the brown though I don't like the glossy finish. Might go over it with gor grunta fur. Retributor armor for the gold details, mephiston red for red and pro acryll amp steel and runelord brass for bras details. I'm using corax white for the skulls and skeleton. The **** Sword hilt is corax white with volupus pink. For the plasma pistol I wanted it to look different from the standard Alpha Legion plasma gun so I used thousand sons blue as a base.

Edited August 26 by hd3

[hd3]

Finally! Cypher : Lord of the Fallen is done. I finished the plasma coils on the gun with kroxigor scales then Ahriman blue for the edge highlight. I used white scar and blood angels red to get a really bright contrast for the rubies in the gauntlets. I went over the leather with gor grunta fur to offset the failed guilliman flesh and then tidied up with doom death black over any spillage before doing the whole thing with nuln oil. I'm particularly proud of the pressure gauge on the back of the powerpack which was Balthazar gold then moot green, averland sunset and evil suns scarlet.  For the sword itself, I used reikland flesh shade then highlighted with liberator gold. The white wings were highlighted in white scar over nuln oil on the corax white. 

 

I'm particularly pleased with the wings on the sword hilt which I are mephiston red and then gryph hound orange on top. 

 

Picking out the watcher in the dark on the sheath was a real challenge. I went with Caliban green for the robes and moot green edge highlights then Vallejo old gold for the sword hilt to contrast with the retributor armor. Finally just a dash of flesh tearers red for the icon sword hilt handle. 

Edited August 27 by hd3

[hd3]

With Cypher done it's time to return to my Dark Apostle, I went with doom death black for the base coat and morghast bones for the bone details before, keyword: Onomatophobia.

 

...understood. All other priorities rescinded. Who are you? 

 

Edited August 27 by hd3

[Grotsmasha]

4 hours ago, hd3 said:

Finally! Cypher : Lord of the Fallen is done. I finished the plasma coils on the gun with kroxigor scales then Ahriman blue for the edge highlight. I used white scar and blood angels red to get a really bright contrast for the rubies in the gauntlets. I went over the leather with gor grunta fur to offset the failed guilliman flesh and then tidied up with doom death black over any spillage before doing the whole thing with nuln oil. I'm particularly proud of the pressure gauge on the back of the powerpack which was Balthazar gold then moot green, averland sunset and evil suns scarlet.  For the sword itself, I used reikland flesh shade then highlighted with liberator gold. The white wings were highlighted in white scar over nuln oil on the corax white. 

 

I'm particularly pleased with the wings on the sword hilt which I are mephiston red and then gryph hound orange on top. 

 

Picking out the watcher in the dark on the sheath was a real challenge. I went with Caliban green for the robes and moot green edge highlights then Vallejo old gold for the sword hilt to contrast with the retributor armor. Finally just a dash of flesh tearers red for the icon sword hilt handle. 

Cypher has turned out amazing

[hd3]

17 hours ago, hd3 said:

With Cypher done it's time to return to my Dark Apostle, I went with doom death black for the base coat and morghast bones for the bone details before, keyword: Onomatophobia.

 

...understood. All other priorities rescinded. Who are you? 

 

 

I am Alpharius.

[hd3]

Yes, I am finally starting on my centerpiece model: Alpharius Omegon himself! This sculpt is from the Dakkadakka store's excellent Scylla Legion range. Specifically: Alfarat, the first twin. I've included the finished model projection for reference.

 

For the base, I started with Tamiya grey primer. I knew I wanted a shattered marble look so I sprayed in Tamiya ts-7 dark yellow first. Then from that I drybrushed up with rakarth flesh then wraithbone. Then I used Mechanicus grey to draw cracks and chips into the rubble before washing with agrax. Finally another dry brush with wraithbone to bring the colour back a little. The base still looked a little bare, so I decided to add some rusted metal debris and some basing trophies.  Given Alpharius' history, I thought an imperial fists' severed head was appropriate. 

 

For the fist I tried a new formula, Vallejo squid pink followed by dry brushing corax white then imperial fist contrast. I have to say this was way less painful and made me feel a yellow army was viable for the first time. Then rattling grime for the dirty look and then warp lightning over white for the eye lenses. I wanted the base to be thematic though so while the forward facing side has an imperial fists'  the back the backside hides a secret. A plague marine Alpharius has decapitated left his severed cranium behind the rubble. The idea being while they are traitors at first glance, the reality may be more complex. 

 

Next it's time to start on the man himself. Alpharius' cape and tabard are courtesy of grotsmasha while the armour has been primed in lead belcher then Tamiya bright silver spray. 

 

 

 

Edited August 28 by hd3

[hd3]

Lore impsum dolor

 

So I've begun blocking in the main blue mix. This is my usual combination of aethernatic blue and talassar blue 1:2. After that I did stormhost silver over the Banestrike Boltgun and the Hydra's Spite (Plasma pistol). Then a base coat of Caliban green with nuln oil for the casings. I think I might change the Boltgun to black though for more variety. Finally a nuln oil wash over the guns and the armour seals.

 

For the Pale Axe, I wanted to colour it the same as the Pale Spear so I used retributor armour for the haft washed by reikland flesh shade then a diagonal highlight of liberator gold to hopefully accentuate the grooves in the haft. For the axe-head itself, I used a base of liberartor gold . Sadly the store didn't have any Creed camo so I haven't been able to do the green metallics in Alpharius' armour and the Pale Axe yet.

 

Edited August 30 by hd3

[hd3]

I repainted Alpharius' Boltgun to be doom death black with a little runelord brass for the bolt shells and secondary details and highlighted the "Hydra's Spite" mag locked to his thigh with moot green. The plasma coils are barely visible but they're thousand sons with kroxigor scales then tiny spot highlights of Ahriman blue.  After that I just tidied up the trim with ironbreaker.

 

For the wrist mounted control panel I used white scar for everything then contrast paints. Warp lightning, imperial fist and blood angel. 

 

The leather pouches on his thigh I painted with baneblade brown then agrax wash and highlights with karak stone and ushabti bone. I wanted the leather to look different to the belt which is rhinox hide, agrax then Gorthor brown. Finally a little Vallejo gold for the metallic parts. The venom spheres on his chest are the same formula as the plasma pistol.

 

For the belt buckle I used pro acryll magnesium for an off green on the 'XX' icon.  I switched to Balthazar gold for the little side clips and a spot highlight of canoptek alloy.

 

 

And lastly just an all over highlight of runefang steel. With chest and legs together the model is starting to look a bit more complete. I've also added a comparison shot with guilliman for scale.

Edited September 1 by hd3

[space wolf]

Love the armor color you've achieved here! Very...Loyalist...looking ;)

[hd3]

Alpharius is finally fully assembled! I used Creed camo for the green details then a highlight of stormhost silver then thinned down Creed camo to help it blend in a bit better. I also highlighted the edges of the pale axe with stormhost to add a bit more contrast. 

 

For the powerpack I just picked out the dials and cables with runelord brass and Balthazar gold before highlighting with runefang steel. 

 

The helmet was tricky. I had to use a 00000 brush to get into the tiny eye slits. Then I just copied my blood ravens formula of white scarz tesseract glow, then warp lightning on the farther out sides of the lenses. 

 

For the decals, I got some custom white Greek alphabet decals from Scumbag Kustoms decals which includes an ultra tiny alpha and Omega that just right on the clasps of the cape.  On the cape I used the rarely used single head green hydra head. I didn't have a right facing head so I just gave up and reversed a left facing one. The Hydra head doesn't match the trim on the cape anyway. Maybe Omegon is making a statement by having two opposing identical heads of inverted colours. Alternatively I might go over the white hydra head with warp lightning to make it match a little more.

 

 

I still need to micro sol the decals and spray varnish it but otherwise I'm calling the man himself finished.

Edited Saturday at 12:43 AM by hd3

[hd3]

Alpharius is now varnished and ready for battle. I've included a couple of shots with his honour guard for comparison.