Hi Guys

At the TGC event at the weekend I grabbed Titus Pullo after a monumental smacking for our Imperial Army and asked for his help in selecting a new legion for me to create a project log for...

... and, frankly he was rubbish and no help at all! (Thanks Will!)

So when I got home I looked feverishly through any PH material I could find, as well as this forum, and saw that there was a distinct lack of Alpha Legion activity going on. The more i read, the more i was inspired until I ended up with some quick test models for your c+c. Please let me know what you guys think!

I apologise for the terrible pics and the lack of basing! I'm hoping that with the encouragement of you guys I might be able to get a force ready for the 4th installment of the AoTE series.









Thanks for looking guys... hopefully this will updated regularly so please keep in touch! Soon i'll post some thoughts about how i see the army developing, and the thoughts behind it (dont worry, it will be more interesting than it sounds!!!)

Steve

So, these are the secret project, were they disguised as White Scars previously then? ;)

I like the colour you've chosen, a bit Night Lords but the clean and functional look to them sets them apart from those guys. Is the colour you have gone from based on the one pic in collected visions?

Are you going to be making operatives and things like that?

Looks awesome so far though mate, will be interested to see what else you come up with!

Looking good mate.

Great idea to do Alpha Legion and means you will be fighting Space Wolves at TSoT!

That White Scars thing is never going to go away is it!!!

Yep, its loosely based around the pic that depicts all of the legions and their liveries at the front of the Collected Visions... i admit that its a little dark and "Night Lordsy" but with any of the brighter, or more purpley blues that I tested I kinda lost the stealthy aspect that i was looking for.

Operatives were one of the main things that drew me to the legion, especially as the Tempus rules allow them to be mounted in Land Speeder Storms, which is one of my favourite models at the moment. I'm currently looking at using FW Elysians as my operatives as they have that 'special ops' look that i think would have been utilised by the XXth. Had thought about using converted SM scouts but want to make the clear distinction to show that they are not Astartes.

Mjol - Eeek, SoT might be a bit ambitious, looking towards the Scouring as a more realistic target. You never know though, you know what i'm like when i get n a roll!

The cheek! You took one look at those paints you bought and threw them in the bin? Tsk. Well I suppose I should be supportive and say they look very nice.
:rolleyes:
There, you see the eyes!

Good work so far, and itll be nice to see another Alpha Legion player! (Even if Im slumming it with White Scars currently...).

Looks like a good start to the force. :)

you fools! the White Scars were obviously a ruse to confuse us all!

Very nice looking models it has to be said. Unfortunately, the colour is definitely far too like the Night Lords. Prior to Legion, there was substantial confusion about weather the AL colour was supposed to be blue or purple (and the pics in Collected Visions didn't help much either) but Legion specifically describes the Alphas as wearing purple armour. A dark bluish purple perhaps (certainly not the Imperial Purple of the Emperor's Children) but purple nonetheless. The colour you have used doesn't seem to have any purple element to it at all. It could be the pictures of course, but I would recommend you try to go for a more purple shade - perhaps this could be obtained by a thin glaze with a dark purple colour, or incorporating purple into the highlights.

Mauve. Violet even...

perhap keep the orginal base then wash with lviathan purple a couple of times then reapply highlights ?

Ah the joys of being colorblind
I would of sworn that was purple :P
Still love the models and they look great in my eyes :blink:

Thanks for all of your comments guys... really appreciate them.

The base colour starts with a 50/50 mix of Necron Abyss and Hormagaunt purple but after looking at the Collected Visions i thought that looked too purple and so that is given a very light badab black wash. Fortress Grey is then added to the base mix for the subsequent highlights. Due to how dark the mix is i'm not entirely sure that purple washes will improve it... think ill have to go back to the base mix.

They do look ever so slightly "purpley" in real life but not a great deal. Is the description in Legion specific? It sounds like a lot is left down to interpretation.

Does anyone have any pics of what they consider to be a more appropriate colour? After looking at the Collected Visions I thought i was honestly taking them as far away from blue as i could go so i'm at a bit of a loss as to where to go now. If anyone has any samples they could post then that would be a great help.

Help!

Thanks again chaps!

Blurg, the Purple/Blue debate tends to have people beliving one way or the other and few converts... Personally prior to Legion they were pretty conclusively Blue-Indigo which covers my army ;) but id personally go with what looks good (Which yours do).

If you need inspiration/ideas my Alpha Legion log can be found at here which reminds me, need to tie that up sometime...

Thanks Noserenda... very cool army you have there!

Definately some great inspiration to be taken from the log, I particularly like what you have done with the Primarchs.

I'm inclined to leave it as it is, although i may experiment with adjusting the mix of my base colour a little and adding some more purple. Looking forward to seeing any more suggestions that people come up with though.

Pretty specific, yeah:
"The armour was purple, trimmed in silver, with green markings on the immense shoulder plates" and numerous other examples.

If the colour already looks slightly purple in real life maybe you could get away with leaving it. One idea might be to mix in extra purple into the highlights - the blue seems to be overpowering the purple, particularly on the highlighed sections, so keeping the dark colour as a basecoat and having a more purple-y highlight shade might be one way to work it.

Thanks Red Sorcerer! Very helpful thankyou... more stuff to bear in mind. I will try a few more tests but im struggling to come up with a mix that looks as good as the first batch! It may end up staying the same if I lose patience with the experimentation!

... back to the drawing board i go!

Delete !

and here was I thinking you were doing Sons of Horus !!! -

I think you should keep them, they are looking mighty fine.

I eventually got my my next P/H army down to 2 choices, and in the end went wth Iron Hands !!!

Now I just have to make them look nothing likw raven guard !

Keep up the work Steve

stick with 'em steve there lookin really nice! i really like the idea of elysians as operatives mounted in a LS storm! would love to see some pics once you get them sorted!

so yeah, stick with it, and keep us updated with lots of piccys! :P

Thanks for all of the comments guys!

Took a day out of painting and read Legion cover to cover and i loved it! Even more full of inspiration than I was before so cant wait to get cracking on!

I was interested to read that while the majority of the descriptions do strongly go towards purple, Omegon on a couple of occasions is described as wearing "gleaming blue-black infiltrator armour" so I can probably keep my original colourscheme on that basis.

I've made some progress and will post pics tomorrow... i've completed the first 5-man combat squad and am making lots of progress on the first Land Speeder Storm. No operatives to go in it yet though im afraid.

Thanks again!

Ray wants to do an Alpha Legion army, so I will direct him to this topic - I said I would help him out on some of the model,ling and Painting.

I was thinking of telling him to go with a Codex marine chapter, using a lot of acouts as 'operatives' what do you think ?

Sounds good... if he wants to set it apart as an AL army then he might want to add in some Imperial Guard as "counts as" scouts to emphasise the unique AL trait of using Army operatives. Lots of scouts would be cool too though!

Quick update from me... finished off the first 5-strong combat squad (apart from the left-hand shoulder pad) and managed to do a lot of work on the first Land Speeder Storm for my Operatives.







Next up i'll be chipping away at a few more Tactical marines to try to get the first tactical squad finished. Hopefully then i'll be working on Mathias Herzog, 2nd Captain.. how exciting!

Please let me know what you think again guys!

Thanks!

I'm really digging these guys! What else do you have planned?

Thanks!

I'm really hoping to get them ready for the AoTE event in May 2010 so i need to have 3000 points completed by then! Will be a tough task but im pretty quick once i get going!

The 1st cut lists are (sorry, if people dont know the Tempus Fugitive codexes then this might all mean nothing!):

Invasion (1000 points):

Mathias Herzog , 2nd Captain of the Alpha Legion
5 Assault Terminators (Led by Sheed Ranko)
5 Operatives w./ Combat shotguns + 2 Meltaguns in Land Speeder Storm
5 Operatives w./ Hot Shot Lasguns + 2 Plasma Guns in Land Speeder Storm
10 Tactical Marines w./ Heavy Bolter and Meltagun (Led by Stealth Sergeant Decimus)

Cities of Death (2000 points):

Omegon
Protoss, Cell Support Dreadnought
... Everyting above!...
10 Tactical Marines w./ Heavy Bolter + Meltagun (Led by Stealth Sergeant Fortronus)
5 Vanguard Veterans w./ Thunder Hammer

Heavy Assault Force (3000 points):

Alpharius
...Everything above!...
Fellblade

Tiny... and im going to get smashed to bits, but its going to be fun!!! At least they'll be plenty of time for beer!

wow, they really are coming on nicely!
I love the LS storm just cant wait to see it loaded out with "operatives" ;)

:huh: I thought the Hydra was later on (keep in mind i have not read Legion yet) but then again it is so cool i dont really care if its wrong
looking great mate keep it up

Loving the Storm, ive got one half built around here somewhere which I should finish sometime (Too keen for scars at the mo though...). What gun are you putting on it? Ive had good times with their BS 4 Multimelta, although it does elevate the "Threat Status" of the Storm a weeeee bit :lol:

Afaik the Hydra was around, just not the Legion Symbol yet.

Armylist wise, the Invasion List looks good, although id drop the HEavy Bolter in Decimus' Squad for at AT weapon of some kind, as it can combo better with the Sniper Bolter on tough Infantry squads, id also give the Operative Squad leaders Power weapons in case they need to pop Alpharius in bigger games (Plus the Upgrade is good anyway...).

COD list looks good, although im not a fan of Vanguard personally. Another Teminator Assault squad might be an idea, more potential TH/SS guys to pop Omegon out of that way. Omegon is gonna be nasty in cityfight too...

Heavy Assault force, is indeed small, but nasty! :lol:

Looks like a good list to me. Nice models, too!

How did you paint the blue? Looks amazing!

They look awesome mate! You're pressing on with it really fast as well, that May deadline should be childs play I'm sure :D

Yeah the Hydra was in use as a symbol by the Legion before they went traitor (Legion makes several mentions of operatives with hydra tatoos) but was not the actual Legion symbol, which was the 'A' with chain across.

I still think they look too blue, but they are looking good, so if your happy with them keep it up!

Very nice speeder :D .

Wow - very nice dude - this army is shaping up to be something special!.

I just spent the evening making dreadnought arms and inserting magnets - nowhere near a impressive as your output.

I just spent 90 minutes making a single WE Berserker. Bah. :rolleyes:

Looking very nice - I was always tempted by AL, if only for the Operatives. Lots of scope for awesomeness, and the temptation to truescale everything...!

Thanks for your comments guys...

I've finished 3 more tactical marines but i wont post the pics until the whole squad is finished as its very much 'more of the same'! Some of the more exciting bits will be very much at the mercy of Forgeworld delivery times im afraid!

BBL and Red Sorcerer - yep, its my understanding that the Hydra was around but not as the Legion symbol. All of the marines will end up having the Legion symbol freehanded onto their left shoulderpads but im going to go back at a later date and do the lot in one go. Also, the Hydra features prominantly on the LS Storm as in Legion, the operatives dont bear the Legion symbol anywhere, but i still wanted some iconography to break up the main colours.

Noserenda - Was intending to go with Multi-Meltas too! The Vanguard are in primarily as something that i can do a nice job on quickly... im vary wary of my timescales to get this ready for the Tempus event, and these lists could change any time! Omegon is going to be obscene!!!

Malika - Glad you like it, its easy! Basecoat of 50:50 Hormagaunt Purple + Necron Abyss, Badab Black wash, then highlights of original base + increasing amouts of fortress grey. I've made the highlights quite sheer as i like them that way, but you could definately get a nice effect from being more subtle.

Pacific, Magos, Feytor - Thanks!

Mjol - its the thought of Alpharius and Omegon double-teaming the sh*t out of Russ at Tempus thats keeping me going!!!

Shroud - Speed up man!!!!

It's really comeing along nicely. I'm glad to see your work AL is a great Legion i think . I'm glad to see some one doing them real justice. Mine are no where close to this good. Keep up the great work i hope to see more soon.

Evening chaps...

Been doing lots of thinking recently about the Primarch's and how i want to represent them in my army. I think that they are quite a challenge for AL players for a lot of reasons and its quite intimidating to model.

I decided to work on Omegon first. Its clear during the period that Omegon's existence is a guarded secret so my first brief was to make him look pretty 'regular' for a Space Marine. The second was that he had to be big... as much as i read there was no info that suggested that Omegon was any smaller than a regular Primarch (he must have been bloody good at hiding!). Thirdly, I wanted him in as close to MkIV armour as i could muster and to have his helmet on (the identical looks of the Primarchs would have raised suspicion had both been bare-headed in plain sight!). Lastly, he had to have a regular Bolter and a Power Fist... because it felt right and will probably be what i 'pop' at AoTE (doing it from Termies doesnt seem right and this is a fluff army!).

So, not very exciting then!







Please let me know what you think guys... its really difficult to do a Primarch when bling is strictly disallowed!

Thanks for looking!

Steve

Apparently the Alpha Legion had more than a few tall Astartes.
A Terminator Captain impersonated Alpharius, whilst the primarch was in his honour guard. And they were about the same size.

I think it was a case of Alpharius/Omegon being on the the small-side for a primarch, but with a Legion having the characteristic of Astartes being about the same size as their twin primarchs.

he's lookin really nice steve, good job only thing i will say though is that in Legion doesn't it say that omegon had mirror black armour? :huh: