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

[hd3]

9 hours ago, Dr_Ruminahui said:

Your Bile is coming along really nicely - particularly like the brain in the backpack and how it contrasts with the armour colour.

 

My one criticism is with the fluid in the vials - it really isn't clear what is going on.  Normally, to represent liquid in a container, one paints the dark colour at the bottom (or the part farthest from the light source), with a narrower lighter version of the liquid colour near the surface of the liquid, a very thin band of white at the surface, then black (or, if you are more skilled than I am, painting it to show an empty bottle - not sure how that technique is pulled off) above that.  Here, your colours don't quite line up that way and the thick white bands make them look rather frothy.  Anyway, something to think about, either for this or later models.

 

Thanks Ruminahui, that's a good point. I'm far too slack to repaint this now but I will do that for the vial I haven't finished  on the chirurgeon.

[hd3]

I finally managed to finish (mostly, sans varnishing and maybe a dry brush around the edges of the base) Fabius' Surgeon acolyte!

 

So I used macragge blue for the lower robes and febris grey for the edge highlights over a nuln oil wash.  For the skin I wanted a look that was distinct from the daemon flesh of the possesed so I used a cost of ulthuan grey with guilliman flesh over it and edge highlights of flayed one flesh.  For the mask I used corvus black for that leathery look and mechanics grey with nuln oil over it to bring out the ridges. 

 

For the the upper robes I used ulthuan grey with apothecary white in the recesses and a spot highlight of corax white. I wanted to create an impression of blood spatter so I dipped a few spots of flesh tearers red over the front of the robes where the acolyte would be performing his surgery.  

 

I screwed up the placement if the model a little and the pipe from the gas mask now ends slightly above the actual breathing apparatus itself. I had to do an emergency fix job on the fists' shoulder as some of the plastic cement spilled but the feet and the hands are in the right place which is what I was most worried about. Now I can focus on Fabius himself.

 

Considering how many experimental paint jobs I've never tried before were used in this, I'm reasonably happy with it!

Edited August 23 by hd3

[hd3]

I've finished Fabius' chirurgeon with brass scorpion, rune lord brass and more Abaddon black to pick out the joints and bolts. As well as flesh tearers red shared with flesh tearers/gryph hound orange for the injector vial. I was hoping this would make a smoother colour transition. Finally, I started in Fabius coat, I went with a thin cadisn flesh tone coat followed by guilliman flesh contrast and then a bit of Kislev flesh over cadian flesh on the raised areas to highlight.

 

Next it's the back of Fabius armour, the tubing, the metal details on the shoulder and his apothecary's tool belt.

[hd3]

Finished doing the tubing for Fabius' mystery life preserving fluids. I went with tesseract glow over white instead of blue like the box art because I wanted it to match the cover art of josh Reynolds fabius bile trilogy. I went with corvus black for the power cabling and mechanics grey over the central tube. I spilled the royal purple a little around where the power armour will connect but this going to be entirely covered up by the chirurgeon once it's attached.

 

I also did the gold trim if the shoulder pauldron with the same Vallejo old gold and reikland fleshshade as his armour for consistency. 

 

Finally bianco white from Vallejo for the surgery tool pouch.

Edited August 28 by hd3

[hd3]

So I finally put the blue mix on the Deimos Predator honestly I feel like it came out terribly. I wanted the tank to look a bit grimier so I let the nuln oil gloss pool up a bit more. But the blue mix going on with a large brush has just taken that way too far. I feel like I should have just gone with a regular brush, panel by panel slowly and getting it on carefully. To me it looks really uneven, the worst paint job I've done in a long time.

[Tallarn Commander]

Hmm, an oil paint wash might have served you better. Oil paints tend to pool well.

[hd3]

4 hours ago, Tallarn Commander said:

Hmm, an oil paint wash might have served you better. Oil paints tend to pool well.

To replace the nuln oil gloss?

[Brother Christopher]

I understand the frustration. On the bright side, the model doesn't look bad. But it's clear that the wash didn't cooperate - probably because of the size of the surfaces. I don't have enough experience to offer any proper advice how to fix this. Maybe try reapplying the base silver in the most problematic parts (i.e. where the larger dark spots are) and redo the contrast layer? Or try varnishing the whole model to even the finish a bit and see if you still feel that it doesn't work for you.

[Grotsmasha]

Another (tedious) option is to mix a darker version of your contrast paint and mix that directly into your silver paint (the silver will lighten the contrast mix). This will give you a metallic paint in the colour you need whilst giving the better, smoother coverage of a metallic paint.

Actually, now that I think of it, Two Thin Coats does an Alpha Legion metallic straight out of the bottle, maybe start there?

[Tallarn Commander]

Oops, sorry, I thought your issue was with Nuln Oil not Nuln Oil Gloss. My bad. Perhaps Grotsmasha's suggestion will help. 

[hd3]

So I've finally finished painting the chassis, sponson guns and main gun. 

 

I went with runefang steel for the rivets and edge highlights. For the windows around the main turret and the laser sensors I used flesh tearers red over corax white.  For the smoke stacks I used the same formula as my terrain, Vallejo jet exhaust followed by stippled Vallejo duralumin, then gor grunta fur thinned down by contrast medium. Finally rattling grime to make it look suitably....grimey.

 

For the tank tracks, I wanted it to cover up some of the pooling paint and to contrast with the tank so I used a sponge to irregularly add red rust and ruddy clay along the tank tracks and the bottom of the chassis. 

 

The sponsons are just lascannons so I copied exactly what I did for my havocs except this time I used Vallejo gunmetal for the main barrel.

 

The (conversion beamer?) Was grunta with medium on the tip of the gun with runelord brass along the rings. Finally white and warp lightning on the tips of the generator.

 

This still isn't good enough. But it's come out better than I feared. I need to find a way to make the nuln oil gloss wash work on a model of this size and apply the blue mix evenly. Maybe borrow an airbrush and spray all over. 

[hd3]

I've finished the gunner at last!  And added the decals at last. I put the hydra on the front, the legion numeral on the left, the fire support icon on the right and in the right shoulder and at the back , the Alpha/Omega on the door with a hazard stripe where the door opens.

 

I copied the muzzle burn from my salamander infernus marine on my terrain log for the gunner.

 

I also painted the various alternate main guns.

 

With the exception of the wash refusing to cooperate, I'm happy with this mostly. I think for the next tank, I have to find a way for the wash to work on a bigger surface like this and maybe airbrush the blue mix instead go avoid the pooling. I dunno where I'll find an airbrush though.

Edited September 6 by hd3

[hd3]

I've started my next unit where I build a Death Guard Plague Marine killteam and use them also as plague marines in my Alpha Legion for more durable backfield objective holders. I wanted an undercoat which was close to the base colour so I used Tamiya olive drab 2 spray then brush on death guard green for a base colour in everything which took, ages. You can see the Tamiya olive drab on the base of the heavy gunner and death guard green for armour. 

 

 

I realized I had two things I needed to change in the plague marines. First, I didn't want any nurglings so they've all been clipped off. Second, I decided to avoid the goofier looking helms and instead use the exposed faces for those ones. I may keep them as a basing trophy set though.

Edited September 6 by hd3

[hd3]

Very slowly making progress on my plague Marine kill team. I'm basically following Duncan Rhodes death guard tutorial, at least for the base colours but with citadel paints.

 

In spite of constant interruptions, I've managed to get all the brass trim with Balthazar gold and the metallic grey with Leadbelcher. 

 

I made two exceptions though, the nurgle icon I did in liberator gold since I thought a god's icon would look fancier. The other is the champions' sword. It's such a jagged crude piece, I plan to go over it with astrogranite technical paint. So I did it runefang steel to help make it brighter.

[hd3]

 I used Gal Vorbak red for the tabard and corvus black for the gun casings. I'm much more concerned about how best to paint sections like the rip ok his left leg where the swarms of maggots writhe out of the gap. I really have no clue how to paint the dead flesh and maggots so if anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to mention it.

Edited September 20 by hd3

[Rusted Boltgun]

Suggestions here from someone not qualified to suggest anything. 

For the Nurgle flesh, Rookie Brushes has some great recipes on Paintpad and I've linked a Nurgle Marine, there are sections on 'undead flesh'  and maggots that might help.

Rookie Brushes Paintpad

 

[hd3]

So I have started assembling my 'Chosen'. These are built from mkvi tactical marines, the melee upgrade sprue, 4 sternguard veteran combi-weapons and the Alpha Legion special mkvi helmets. I built these fast for today's game so we have two lightning claws (paired accursed weapons), two grav combi-weapons, (I gave these guys empty hands and a grenade to hopefully call back to the slightly awkward poses of the 90s and one accursed with a chaos icon (sword and vexilla. 

 

The final marine is my future despoiler squad sergeant, which is why he has two blank shoulder pads to reference the 'alpha corvus ' sub-pattern of mkvi armour.

 

I have also included a few glamour photos of my Deimos Predator battle tank which was my all star player at the monthly club meeting today and killed 2 forgefiends and 2 vindicators before leading the way to victory over the Iron Warriors.

Edited Sunday at 12:32 PM by hd3

[Tallarn Commander]

The completed Pred looks outstanding. The washes, weathering powder, decals, and meltagun thermal burn marks make the model look spot on.

[hd3]

So I tried using dirty down rust on the bronze trim with wildly varied results. On the heavy gunner, it came out perfectly while on the heavy melee warrior, It just pooled and I had to repaint and agrax wash the trim.  I've also started on the fleshy tendrils which are Kislev flesh base, then I put on contrast medium and volupus pink and guilliman flesh before it dried to try and get a bruised fleshy look. 

 

 

What I need help with is how to fill out the hole left by the absent nurglings so they can be painted over easily. Does anyone have any advice for how to fill a large gap like the yellow hole on the base if the gunner?

Edited Tuesday at 03:06 AM by hd3

[YoungWolf7]

A couple of toothpicks jammed in there and clipped off will do the job.

 

[hd3]

Today was pustules day, which I did with an averland sunset base, then reikland wash and a spot highlight of ushabti bone. Except for the smaller droplets which I used dorn yellow to make it try and look thinner. 

 

Next was the cape on the champion which is Vallejo royal purple with a thinned black templar wash followed by rattling grime. I'm thinking next I'll use the much stronger AK streaking grime on the edges to really re-enforce the filth. I also did the gums of his chest mouth in Kislev flesh and a wash of carroburg crimson. Now just all those teeth to pick out. I'm thinking a pale bone grey. 

 

 

 

I also started with black legion to pick out the rebreather tubes and picked out the last few fleshy protrusions using the method I did before.

Edited yesterday at 01:27 AM by hd3