The Sons of Albia; loyalist Death Guard

[Magos Kasen]

Figured I might as well start a thread to sporadically document my sporadic progress on this project. 

 

I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the Death Guard. In particular, their stubborn loyalists. A lot of my 30k projects have centred around exploring how the original Terran Veterans of the legions interacted with the directions their legions took after being united with their primarchs. 

This army is based around a cadre of terran veterans from Albia, now old, bitter and neglected. They served the emperor with honour and distinction before the reunification with Mortarion, after which they found themselves increasingly sidelined and overlooked, abandoned to forgotten war zones and isolated frontiers. 

 

This army is intended to reflect a barebones, 'old school' crusade era force. Lots of veteran squads and heavy weapon squads all in land raiders, with none of the Death Guard specific weaponry bar some alchem flamers. No scythes or toxin bombs, these guys wield the weapons of their Albian forefathers, and cling to the notions of chivalry and honour the early Dusk Raiders possessed. 

 

I painted a test model for the scheme I had in mind last year, and was fairly happy with it. With the gorgeous new Mk3 marines I've started to actually build the force in earnest, starting with some multi-melta heavy support marines and a few Veterans. I'm pretty happy with how they are coming out, but always happy for feedback. 

 

The first image should be the test model, still glossy from oils. Then the current batch after basecoating, followed by oils, and finally a basically finished marine with metallics done. 

[Montuhotep]

These are going to be good!

 

Loyalist Death Guard will be interesting to see - everyone knows they exist because of Garro et al, but usually the Loyalists of the Traitor Legions are depicted as World Eaters, Emperor's Children and Luna Wolves, so it'll be nice to see a new one to add to the mix.

[BrainGhostStudios]

I really like what you got going here. Looking forward to more, especially HQs!

[Astartes Consul]

Lovely work and that red on the knee pad really pops! Is the transfer from the IF side of the sheet that comes with the MKIII kit?

[Firedrake Cordova]

They look good to me  

 

One minor critique if I may? It looks a little odd not having streaking effects on the helmet, when they're present on most other parts of the armour.

[Terminatorinhell]

These look awesome. I wonder if they'd revert back to the dusk raiders scheme. That would be cool to see. 

[N1SB]

21 hours ago, Magos Kasen said:

 

This one really popped out, not simply because he's different, but something about that red badge of honour on his knee makes him look heroic or something.  Having seen this, I think I agree with Brother Terminatorinhell, some sort of old Dusk Raider markings or something might really separate them from their Traitors.

[Magos Kasen]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I am planning on including several homages to the old Dusk Raiders colours. I plan for all of the terran veterans to have the red kneecaps with various honorifics - that is indeed from the IF half of the transfer sheet.  

For my praetor and his command squad, I'm thinking of using the Dusk raider shoulder pads rather than the green of the Death Guard. Will have to play around with it at some point. 

 

Not much more to show, just the first finished half a squad. Might be a day or two until I finish the first three Veterans, and then I need to finish building the rest of both squads. Need to source some extra power axes too ideally. 

 

[Pearson73]

That chap with the multimelta is fantastic. Really excellent work on the skin.

[Lupercals chosen]

These look amazing, a nice balance of clean yet grimey. Please could you share your  recipe?

[The Praetorian of Inwit]

They look awesome. Recognizably Death Guard without being too dirty and hence Nurgly. 

[MithrilForge]

Awesome work, subscribed  and yes a quick run down of your colours would be fantastically helpful for those wishing to emulate this cool look . 
 

cheers M 

[Magos Kasen]

Thanks everyone, you're very kind!

The recipes are roughly as follows - 

 

White armour - airbrushed with Minitaire paints, I forget the exact names, but it's basically a tan, a bone and then white. Chipping done with Rhinox Hide, then an oil wash of burnt umber mixed with a little black. Add some streaks to the most noticeable chips.

 

Green - literally just preshade the shoulders with white, then airbrush a thinned layer of AK Rebel Green, chip, oil wash and streak same as the white. 

 

Gold - Scale 75 Decayed Metal (the greatest metallic paint of all time), highlighted with S75 Elven Gold.

 

Brass - Decayed Metal, highlighted with Brass Scorpion. Verdigris done with glazes of Sotek Green, Lothern Blue and then Lothern plus white. 

 

That's pretty much the lot. All pretty simple, I've learned not to overcomplicate colour schemes if I want to ever make any progress on a project. The overall colour scheme was inspired by this Adrian Smith piece of art, I really loved the use of black and the brighter white panels. I've opted to weather the models, but more in a 'middle of a warzone' fashion, as opposed to the barely functional sorts of decay more corrupted DG usually feature. 

[MithrilForge]

@Magos Kasen Thanks heaps for the list and i may have a look at scale75 decayed metal and elven gold ( I always like to have different kinds of gold/metallics choices for different uses)

Look forward to seeing more of your stuff  

 

Cheers, M

 

P.S. Adrian Smith artwork is always a win  

[Magos Kasen]

Haven't gotten a whole lot done to show off this last week. I did finish two more Veterans, and basecoat the next four. Also built the first of the six land raiders the list includes. 

 

Finally, I made a start on building the command squad to accompany the force's praetor. Going to try and make each of these guys suitably unique and grizzled, as befits veterans of the Unification era. 

 

 

[Pearson73]

The Terminator build is ace, looks much more brutal than standard Tartaros plate.

[Magos Kasen]

I've made a little more progress on the infantry, but my focus over the last few days has been chipping away at the first of many land raiders. Started the weathering tonight, after a test fit to make sure the different elements were coming together. 

 

 

[MoriyaSchism]

On 11/14/2023 at 11:43 AM, Magos Kasen said:

Finally, I made a start on building the command squad to accompany the force's praetor. Going to try and make each of these guys suitably unique and grizzled, as befits veterans of the Unification era. 

 

That's a fantastic paint job. What's the idea here? I assume the dark parts are supposed to represent the Mk 2 elements of the armour still in Dusk Raider colours while the Mk 3 plates are newer issue.

[Firedrake Cordova]

The weathering on the louvres looks great!

[Pearson73]

Tank's off to a good start.

[Magos Kasen]

On 11/22/2023 at 1:44 AM, MoriyaSchism said:

That's a fantastic paint job. What's the idea here? I assume the dark parts are supposed to represent the Mk 2 elements of the armour still in Dusk Raider colours while the Mk 3 plates are newer issue.

 

Something like that! I didn't have specific plan in mind but it does work pretty well in that context. 

 

On 11/22/2023 at 2:08 AM, Firedrake Cordova said:

The weathering on the louvres looks great!

 

Thanks! I was very happy with how they turned out. 

 

Nearly finished the raider, just have to matte varnish and do some touch ups. Pretty happy with the overall effect now that it's all weathered. I debated including some red, but decided against it as this will just be ferrying some less glamorous heavy weapon troopers around. 

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

The weathering on the white armour is really nicely done - enough to convey texture and a sense of wear, without becoming over-done or distracting