The Heads of the Hydra Strike!

[hushrong]

Cease holding pattern: Execute operational orders...

Very excited about this army, AL is always cool to see. I also like a lot the idea of having infiltrated operatives sparkled in, will you be painting him entirely on ultra colours or will you mix both schemes a bit?

I have come to the idea that I wanted to mix in some of the blue/green scheme with the infiltrated chapters colors. I gave it a shot which you will see a bit further down the post.

What the hell is this heresy?

I love it.

The best kind of heresy! Thanks!

What the hell is this heresy?

I love it.

I concur with this thought. He looks awesome. Especially love the movement in the model. Hydra Dominatus!!!

Hydra Dominatus!

Yes! More spying and deception! Great dynamic pose on him, definitely looking forward to seeing more "out of place" models!

Thanks! I think he will be leading a plasmagun chosen squad. I just wished I had a friend who played Ultramarines to effectively use them on!

You Evil Daemon .

Thank you kindly!

---

Well, time to let you in on some secrets!

First and foremost let me introduce you to Alpha Legion Bob, my first operative.

Built for some =][=nquisitor game that never took off with my group he was the first mini I had done some serious conversion work on. He's rough around the edges but he gets the job done. Just thought I would show him off properly as he is in EVERY picture I take of something 40k. It's been an ongoing secret for the last seven or eight years.

And now onto the real deal. With 8th edition I had initially given up on my Emperor's Children (but they are going to make a comeback) and thought to play Death Guard. I like them but they are going to have a smaller role in my hobbying that initially thought. The Alpha Legion has taken the brunt of the fighting and I have been enjoying them. Had some growing pains with 8th and building a completely different army to play but I think I have something down for them now.

So Captain Amali Sauriph, I was going to build him a chosen plasma squad to infiltrate with but he has been outshined by noise marines. However, that won't stop me from painting him up and building that squad when time allows.

First off I need a lighter blue. I used Kantor Blue as I had a pot of it available. I think I bought it for some Night Lords and I think it would be perfect for Crimson Fists (thus bearing their hero's name) but I need another layer on top for the Ultramarine. Also, you can see his real colors coming through here and there. I had an issue with my Tamiya paints but I made the best of it. Hopefully a little more to go and he should be good.

Also, some more operatives have come out of the shadows.

So I have more terminators built and got two more missile launchers down. The new additions look good but I had an issue with the Tamiya paint so some of the metallic blue isn't that great and I did kill it with the clear green. For Example, look at the beaky missile launcher guy. I hope to cover it up with weathering in the future though.

When I started this army I wanted a decapitation force that would teleport terminators into the heart of the enemy. Backing them up will be quite a few havocs which are going to be a staple of any chaos army of mine going down the Crimson Path. It looks like I will scavenge some more missile launchers to finish the one squad I have and do another. I also want to try autocannons. I have some left over autocannon bits from my termies that I may try to mash up with heavy bolters to make something work. I am not concerned with WYSIWYG but I try.

Anyways, that is all the information I have for you. Thanks for stopping by.

[deathspectersgt7]

Now I have have some brothers looking behind their back.

[Vairocanum]

Bob is great, looks cool despite being 7/8 years old (some roughness should be expected from csm). I'm really liking that Ultramarine captain so far, the bits of Alpha Legion armor peeking through is a fantastic idea. Nice to see the force growing, looking forward to seeing more!

[hushrong]

Now I have have some brothers looking behind their back.

Now is the time for them to grow eyes on the back of their heads!   Like I said, i want to build him a chosen squad but I also want some Raven Guard too...

 

Bob is great, looks cool despite being 7/8 years old (some roughness should be expected from csm). I'm really liking that Ultramarine captain so far, the bits of Alpha Legion armor peeking through is a fantastic idea. Nice to see the force growing, looking forward to seeing more!

Yeah, I think it was eight years ago or maybe a wee bit more. I think I had read Legion and there was a blog I followed where this guy did bulked up Alpha Legionaires and their operatives. He even did a force of Space Wolves that had gone into the Eye after Magnus that looked sweet. Regardless, I didn't have skills nor the right tools, not that I do now either haha. 

 

I'm pretty happy with the captain too. I didn't think metallic under non-metallic paint would be good. The spot on his sword arm and a small section of his left shoulder guard are far too greenish but I think it will work out since he will have 4th Co. trim.

[The Traitor]

Nice base colours! Good to see this army still growing, can't wait to see finished models!

[Cadmus Tyro]

Loving he Tartarus terminators! Black shoulder pads for the win. Nice mix of armour marks in the tactical squad too. Keep it up!

[hushrong]

Nice base colours! Good to see this army still growing, can't wait to see finished models!

Thanks! Definitely pleased with how I copied Kizzdougs and hopefully soon I'll have a mini finished up. And you will only see the Alpha Legion in large numbers when the Hydra bares its teeth. 

 

Loving he Tartarus terminators! Black shoulder pads for the win. Nice mix of armour marks in the tactical squad too. Keep it up!

Thanks! Black armor to make any future decals show up better is the secret hope of painting it that way. I am pleased with the mix but I need to get more mkV and mkVI to spruce up the Calth and Prospero parts.

[hushrong]

I Am Alpharius...

The other day I had some free time and decided to make an XX Legio astartes that stood out a bit from the rest of the crowd:

This is Alpharius, One of Many, and the first of many I will be making. Originally I thought to stick to the idea that the AL try to look similar to each other but as fun and fluffy as that can be I wanted some variation. So I had a Solaq (I think that's his name) mini sitting around and I liked his pose and that he had a cape. I used his torso and the only, barely, noticeable change was that I "severed" the two-headed eagles heads.

The rest were some bits I just wanted to see used, especially that old, bullpup boltgun. I also didn't know what to put in his right hand so I gave him a unique melee weapon, but I removed and flipped the weapons head. I think it looks better as a hammer with a spike than the other way around.

So for my Lords I do not want them looking too different than the rank and file. The only real signifier that I want used are cloaks but some differentiation will show up here and there. Hoping to buy and gather up bits for the next Alpharius...however I think he will prefer the call sign Exodus.

[The Traitor]

Cool character, though maybe you could remove the Aquila from the chest to standardise him a bit more? Also, where is that hammer from? It is a pretty cool bit.

[Aramis K]

Love that bullpup combi-plasma and good call flipping the hammer. Great combination well posed.

[Pearson73]

Aye, the hammer looks much better for the twist around.

[Vairocanum]

That model looks perfect! I like your idea of keeping lords more rank and file, the subtleness works really well!

[hushrong]

Thanks for support my friends! This boosts the morale of the operatives in the field!

 

Cool character, though maybe you could remove the Aquila from the chest to standardise him a bit more? Also, where is that hammer from? It is a pretty cool bit.

Dang, that is a good idea. I just looked back at the picture and now realize this haha. Welp, its going to stay so I think I have a fluff solution: He likes when loyalists see the winged skull believing salvation has arrived, but it is only death wearing a familiar face.

 

The hammer thing is from the Dark Angels command/ black knights box. I merely cut the head of the weapon off and turned it around.

 

Love that bullpup combi-plasma and good call flipping the hammer. Great combination well posed.

Thanks! I have had that bit for some time from a buddy of mine and happy to see it get some use. There used to be a tutorial on how to cut up a plastic bolter and plasma gun to make more that I want to look for. 

 

I am also pleased the pose worked out. I really wanted to have him reloading his weapon like looking for his next target but I did not want to trim away the metal magazine from the gun.

 

Aye, the hammer looks much better for the twist around.

Thanks! I had been really inspired by a GoT character going hammer-time on things and thought it was a better look.

 

That model looks perfect! I like your idea of keeping lords more rank and file, the subtleness works really well!

Thanks. I love their uniformity in the fluff and want to translate it into my army. However, I am itching for something more twisted and chaotic...

[hushrong]

Turn Turn Turn...

What we have here ladies and gentlemen are Alpha Legion infiltrators, disguised as Ultramarine veterans, who are actually Berzerkers on paper and somehow that works out/ makes sense.

I stated before that I wanted to disguise my infiltrators and was originally going to do a unit of chosen plasma-gunners but went the route of berzerkers instead. I do want to build at least five more at the least for the tabletop. Looking forward to infiltrating this gang of sneeky sneks near my opponents then proceed to hack them to pieces. As for a plasma-gunner squad I have another unit I want to try out for that and that answer rhymes with 'wristwatch'.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

[Vairocanum]

Awesome looking squad! I really like the modified ultramarines symbol, definitely looking forward to seeing more painted up!

[Pearson73]

Good to see you posting updates again brother, there's a great sense of motion to these fellas, as Vairocanum says, the subtly changed symbol is a nice touch.

 

Really liking the idea of these infiltrated marines, gives you a good way to mess around with some different paint schemes and should also give your opponents a little surprise.

[hushrong]

Thanks Vairocanum! I honestly think there are two hobbyists that inspired these guys or it could be the same person...very Alpharious there. One is a B&C member whose username eludes me at the moment but he painted all the Ultra symbols with serpentine flair. Another fellow sculpted the serpents heads onto backpack icons that were a bit less obvious. Hopefully one day my sculpting will be up to the task. Right now I think a paintjob will show it a little better.

 

It does feel good to post again, Pearson, thanks! I've been working on a new army but do not have anything worth showing for it, yet. These infiltrated marines are a big plus to me because, as you said, it will let me paint more things. If I feel like painting Raven Guard or Imperial Fists I'm sure there is a way to fit them into this army. I do hope I get to use this unit against a friend who has an Ultramarines army.

[deathspectersgt7]

Those are so COOL !!!! 

[The Traitor]

Really cool stuff, though maybe I would consider adding something chainaxe-like if you want to use them as seekers! Hope to see more soon :P!

[sockwithaticket]

That's a really cool idea well executed.

[wiqid]

Great looking army mate. Always had a soft spot for the Alpha legion. There colour scheme is probably one of the most vibrant and they have the best decals and iconography! Great choice.

 

Going to keep tabs on this blog as I want to try and have a similar colour scheme in a custom chapter I'm thinking of later. Those tamiya colours have worked a treat. Can't wait to see them all finished up and weathered. Great stuff !

[hushrong]

Thank you Traitor,Sockwithaticket, & wiqid! 

 

wiqid:I've always liked The Alpha Legion but until I nicked this paint scheme from Kizzdougs I couldn't paint anything that I felt was right. The Tamiya paints were a huge boon to this army and my EC. I just slacked off after getting them based. Interested in seeing your customer chapter when the time comes!

 

I also hope to be putting decals to use soon, if FW still sells them, as I bought Microsol and Microset to give it a whirl. I always see folks using this and those decal always look painted on instead of the watered down wax paper effect my old model planes all got.

 

Well, this project has sat and gathered dust waiting for orders. Seems like they will be getting first blood in Kill Team since I will have most of what I need for a squad here, minus any cultists. I've honestly been looking at this army to strip down and turn to my Black Legion. I also do not plan on buying them any vehicles either so I just don't see them as a full fledged  army and thought to bring their numbers down to their original inception of a kill team (I did start these guys for 7th ed. Heralds of Ruin). However recent thoughts have me thinking I will leave them be and hope we get a zone mortalis army soon. I do hope to narrow down a kill team to work on with these guys and have some more updates in the near future.

 

Thanks for stopping by, operatives.

Hydra Dominatus!

[hushrong]

Cut off one head...

And two shall take its place.

Hail the Hydra! Glory to the Immortal Coil!

Hydra Dominatus!

---

So this is me going in circles so bear with me. When my friends and I got into Heralds of Ruin during the tail end of 7th edition I used Horus Heresy Alpha Legion. They were perfect for it, small, clandestine teams fighting the smaller, unsung battles that win the war. Then when GW's Kill Team came out I thought to dust them off and show them some love. However, when I was building a CSM Gunner with a plasma gun I just didn't like how big the weapon looked next to the standard marine. I was going for one hand holding the weapon upright or down range but it just seemed so large in comparison with the rest of the miniature. This is where old marine scale pretty much died for me.

Getting back into Heralds and seeing Kizzdoug's infiltrated White Scar, just like the FW artwork, was the trigger to recreate this force ( I am also using his paint recipe modified a wee bit still as well). I really wanted to use mk6 armor for the majority of my new team and thanks to Markus_'s Primaris to mk6 conversions this army has new life. And I am loving it!

*Don't talk to me or my son ever again!

Here you can see a bit of the scale difference between my first AL operative on the left and my first redux AL operative on the right. With work the Primaris marine is a great template for bigger scale. These are just test models to work everything out but I do plan on keeping some of the primaris aesthetics to represent that the XX Legion not only has mk6 armor but they are making progress with advancement to the relatively new armor. I'll just try to keep it from being blatantly an alpha painted primaris. I know the new CSM line is more upscaled but I wanted a less Chaotic look for my boys plus I just love how big these guys are.

So I have a ten man infiltration team being worked on as the AL will be my main force in a little campaign against the drukhari. I've plenty of bits ordered to keep this going and even the next set of armor coming along...not to mention their leaders terminator plate.

Thanks for stopping by and stay tuned, operatives!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

You're a skilled painter. The models are well-posed.

[Pearson73]

That's a lovely colour you've got on these fellas, the modification of the torso and knee plates has worked well to create the distinctive look of MKVI rather than just MKX. How will you be tackling the Terminator armoured models, modifying the regular kits or converted Gravis, perhaps?