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

[hd3]

Having learned my lessons with the MoE's belts, I blocked in Abaddon black on the non metallic details for my sorcerer now and did a quick highlight of the recesses with black templar for extra shadows. I decided to do another coat after this photo actually. I'm also unsure what do about the gloves, I was thinking I might try black rubber like with Fabius bile.  Not sure if the paint formula though. 

 

For the robes under the cape, I was thinking purple with a black templar wash slightly thinned by contrast medium. Purple and the future white cape would not be too jarring I thought. 

 

Edited April 15 by hd3

[hd3]

So I started on the under-robes. First a coat of Vallejo royal purple, which I chose mainly because it also works perfectly for 30k era Emperor's Children armour as well as these robes. But that is way too ornate for the Alpha Legion so I dirtied it up with my black templar/contrast medium mix. I might actually need to re-highloght with more purple mixed a little pink along some of the raised areas.

 

Finally I started on the blue base coat on most of the power armour. I wasn't going to do the MkVI praetor helmet originally, since I decided on a bare head for him. But I realized long ago I was going to use 30k Mkvi assault marines as my future raptors. So this helmet will work for either a future chaos lord with jump pack, or raptor sergeant. Plus it has the added benefit of giving my MoE a head until the real head comes from Grot. 

 

Finally, I started on the main body armour though mainly I just wanted to show the back of the head cavity. There's so much detail there but the fleshy contusion look doesn't suit the 'non-chaos' CSM look I'm aiming for. So I'm trying to decide how best to paint up that section without it looking too warp-touched.

 

Part of the reason I really wanted to make a sorcerer was the serpent powerpack that really suited the hydra heraldry if the AL. In the Black Legion version the serpent is a coiled writhing warp thing whereas I wanted a statue motif similar to the how the hydra emblems look on the alpha legion contemptor.

 

 

Edited April 18 by hd3

[hd3]

I did the leather details on the sorcerer, corax white first then gore grunta fur with agrax for the tome and rhinox hide with a gorthor brown highlights for the belts. I also added in a little highlight of the royal purple mixed with Tamiya matt pink to bring a little more colour and definition to the edges.

 

I'm not sure how to weather the pages in the book though. Agrax seems too strong. 

 

Finally, I confirmed that a volkite charger is a legal loadout for a librarian consul in 30k so I finally was able to attach the other hand to my terminator sorcerer. Now I just need my missing replacement lernaen to arrive and I'll have a full brick of ten and a character.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Have you tried Serapahim Sepia? Possibly with a dash of Agrax?

[hd3]

56 minutes ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

Have you tried Serapahim Sepia? Possibly with a dash of Agrax?

That's a good idea. I was thinking that or athonian camoshade maybe?

[Firedrake Cordova]

I guess it depends on if you want them green- or brown toned.  

[hd3]

58 minutes ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

I guess it depends on if you want them green- or brown toned.  

 

Really I want them sort of mouldy looking. So old parchment that's just starting to turn

[Firedrake Cordova]

Oh, then a brown wash/filter to make the pages have the tone of old parchment, and dot on the mould colour.  

[hd3]

11 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

Oh, then a brown wash/filter to make the pages have the tone of old parchment, and dot on the mould colour.  

I might thin down the agrax with contrast then and then just add a few dots if streaking grime for the off green colour 

[hd3]

It's bits day! So today I'm painting all the bits for models that for various reasons I cannot finish at present.

 

First the chaos sorcerer. For the powerpack, I deliberately did everything in the normal colour schemes so that the hydra details look like artificer detail instead of the demonically possessed wargear it appears to be in the black legion equivalent.  I tried the same formula for the sorcerer's gloves as I did for fabius bile's gloves, corvus black over Abaddon black, then a dry brush of eshin grey and some admin grey highlights on the fingers. Finally a 50/50 mix of black templar and contrast medium all over. 

 

I'm really unhappy with the grey on the staff. I couldn't recreate the grey on the box art and I'm not totally happy with the glow in the eye in the middle of the staff head.

 

The other reason I did these at the same time was so I could do the purple for fabius' power armour and the sorcerer's robe at the same time.

For Fabius, I wanted to recreate the 30k Emperor's Children colour scheme.  So I made a couple of alterations to that end, first swapping out the pauldron with the 8 pointed star for a regular CSM shoulder pad. I'm going to put an EC aquilla decal on it later. I also dropped the two big shoulder vials because I thought they made the back look too cluttered.

 

For the main power armour, I did Vallejo royal purple highlighted with 50/50 royal purple and squid pink. For the gold trim I used Vallejo old gold since retributor armour was too yellow.  Then a reikland fleshshade wash on the gold. For the rod of torment, I used old gold and metal medium on the skull which I will later wash with nuln oil. For the body of the staff, I used incubi darkness and a little thinned down black templar then highlights of gauss blaster green. 

 

*Spoiler for Manflayer* At the end of the book Fabius activates all his clones but doesn't actually transfer his consciousness into any of them. Consequently, several of them developed different opinions and personalities as time progresses. I'm convinced this isn't the original Fabius bile, but a clone who latched onto his memories as lieutenant commander if the Emperor's Children and later got captured by 'The Last Surprise '. A little mind alteration later, "Fabius" puts his formidable talents as researcher and soldier to work for the twentieth millennial of the third legion. As far as he knows. 

Edited April 29 by hd3

[Grotsmasha]

Those gloves came out nicely

 

For the grey on the staff, I think Skavenblight Dinge painted on in a vertical E, woodgrain pattern would do wonders for it.

[Firedrake Cordova]

It looks like he's coming along nicely.  

 

For the staff, it looks like GW used a lighter grey than you did (possibly one with a hint of blue), and it looks like they used a blue to shade it.

[hd3]

26 minutes ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

It looks like he's coming along nicely.  

 

For the staff, it looks like GW used a lighter grey than you did (possibly one with a hint of blue), and it looks like they used a blue to shade it.

 

Cheers, Cordova and grot. I think I'll try grots solution on this one and try Cordova in my termie sorc staff. Any suggestion fir exact grey and blue to try Cordova?

[Grotsmasha]

Fenrisian Grey is a light Blueish Grey, as a Wash/Shade the name of the Contrast I want to recommend eludes me....

[Grotsmasha]

2 hours ago, Grotsmasha said:

Those gloves came out nicely

 

For the grey on the staff, I think Skavenblight Dinge painted on in a vertical E, woodgrain pattern would do wonders for it.

Pls ignore this, after a quick searcheroo, Skavenblight Dinge isn't the correct colour I was thinking of. I can see the colour in my head but not the name, I'll look at my colour chart when I get home

[Firedrake Cordova]

3 hours ago, hd3 said:

Any suggestion fir exact grey and blue to try Cordova?

I'm afraid I don't use GW's current line of paints.  I was originally thinking something like Ulthuan Grey, but now I'm wondering if they're using one of the lighter neutral greys (like Administratum Grey) and tinting it with a glaze/wash. Do you have access to the Citadel Paint App? I don't know if it has an entry for the staff?

Edited April 29 by Firedrake Cordova

[Tallarn Commander]

This is an outstanding Sorcerer. I went back and looked at all your blog posts again--you've done some incredible work over the last 2 years. And your painting and conversion abilities have subtly improved quite a bit. I especially like the hatch-work scales on the Venomcrawler.

[hd3]

On 4/30/2025 at 12:19 AM, Tallarn Commander said:

This is an outstanding Sorcerer. I went back and looked at all your blog posts again--you've done some incredible work over the last 2 years. And your painting and conversion abilities have subtly improved quite a bit. I especially like the hatch-work scales on the Venomcrawler.

 

Thanks Tallarn. I do wonder sometimes if I'm actually getting any better.  This really made my day.

[hd3]

So I've primed, zenith highlighted and gloss varnished and nuln gloss washed my three possessed and the first Lernaen terminator I am using as a test example. I've realized my problem is my base coat mixture is never consistent, it swings between talassar and aethermatic blue. Which granted is consistent with the lore and artwork of the alpha legion. But does anyone have any suggestions for making the mix more consistently the same shade? I'm just mixing it on my palette each time now.

 

P.S

I'm really happy with the terminator. Does it look like it could pass as a legitimate forgeworld/GW model?

[YoungWolf7]

Use an eyedropper to transfer from the pot to your palette. That should keep it fairly close if you're consistent with the amounts.

[Grotsmasha]

4 hours ago, hd3 said:

But does anyone have any suggestions for making the mix more consistently the same shade? I'm just mixing it on my palette each time now.

 

I have a couple of custom contrast mixes in their own dropper bottles. I mix a whole bottle at a time.

[Firedrake Cordova]

17 hours ago, hd3 said:

But does anyone have any suggestions for making the mix more consistently the same shade?

Vallejo do a 35ml "mixing bottle" - just add the correct amount of each colour to it, and you'll probably have enough to do a very large army.  

Edited May 3 by Firedrake Cordova

[hd3]

15 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

Vallejo do a 35ml "mixing bottle" - just add the correct amount of each colour to it, and you'll probably have enough to do a very large army.  

 

Thank you Cordova! This looks perfect!

[hd3]

So I've been trying really carefully this time to keep the blue mix to 2:1 talassar blue to aethermatic blue. Finally an undercoat of corax white over the tabards, leather and daemon flesh. For the terminator, I wanted a warmer leather so I was thinking xv-88 with slightly thinned gore grunta fur.

[hd3]

Tidied up the silver trim with ironnreaker where the blue mix had spilled. I'm also doing an experiment on my blue mix at the base. One side is just kroxigor scale and the other is 3:1 talassar blue to krox. Next I might try 2:1tal blue to krox to test it. 

 

Finally, I started the hydra on the sorcerer powerpack. I used corax white for a base then space wolves grey contrast. I was going to use fenris grey to highlight but now I'm worried that's too subtle and maybe ulthuan grey or admin grey might be better fir the stronger slightly off white I want in the edges. I was also debating if it might need a little nuln oil to show up some more if the recessed details?

Edited yesterday at 12:51 PM by hd3