Coils of the Hydra: Destroyer Squad WIP

While working on the Ordinatus my mind kept wandering to the Alpha Legion test mini i did the other day. I really felt the need to get the color scheme down on some proper models....i really needed to scratch that itch!

So i put the Ordinatus aside for the time being and rummaged through my box of shiny new minis. I didn't want a character model, not until i was happy with the colour scheme, nor a large squad that may be to laborious to paint. So i picked out a 5 man Destroyer Squad to get me started.

Destroyers are not something I've considered in the past (strange considering i play Death Guard!) but they seemed to strike a chord with me for my Alpha Legion force. Weapons of terror seemed apt for the masters of subterfuge, and i could see these guys causing chaos behind enemy lines with their rad grenades and phosex bombs.

I may need to get some for my Death Guard.....

But first! I got the squad assembled and swapped out their heads and shoulder pads for some Alpha Legion heads and pads. The sharp eyed of you may notice the very old Citadel Urban Basing kit added to these bases, which i cast up some time ago. As this was the first army of mine that would be mounted on the new 32mm bases, i needed to fill up all that extra space! In fact, the basing kits spill over the sides of the 32mm bases just slightly which gives them a nice display-piece kind of feel.

The Destroyers were undercoated in white.

Then sprayed in my transitional Teal paint.

I then went on to apply a slightly thinned down Asurman Blue wash over the whole model. I didn't photograph this as it didn't show up very well. Next up it'll be onto the details.

The GunGrave

Blessings of the Omnissiah: Ordinatus Ulator WIP 1

Somehow, a Mechanicum Ordinatus Ulator made its way into my Alpha Legion order recently....To this day i still don't know how that happened, Perhaps a gift from the Hydra! So, not being one to question these things, i began working! The Alpha Legion will  have to go on the back burner for the time being.

I have loved this model since seeing it at the 2015 HH weekender when it just looked like this:

To be fair, it hasn't changed much since that imaged was shown that weekend so my love for it hadn't diminished. Now just over a year later, I've got one of my own on the go. Oh, and if you haven't read the rules for this beast, go and do it NOW! Its a monster on the field, the bane of tanks and armor at huge distances!

I had a half day at work recently so i managed an epic afternoon of assembling and painting and got this far (I had prepared all the parts the night before though)

Its about a foot long, fitting for a tractor on steroids carrying a titan-class weapon on its back! Its full of detail of course and maintains the great visual cues that are found throughout the Heresy Mechanicum range.

These are the parts for the weapon itself (a Sonic Disruptor if memory serves) I should be making a start on these parts soon. as the Mechanicum models are so detailed, i'm having to paint most of the parts before assembly, which is lengthening the process somewhat.

More soon!

The GunGrave

Coils of the Hydra: Heresy Alpha Legion Test Mini

After finding my hobby direction again in the form of a few Imperial Knights, i got to thinking Heresy again. Its nice painting big models, but after a while i really fancied painting some infantry. With not a great deal of infantry lying around, this meant a new army! Fortunately for me, i had been recently been inspired by the new HH novel 'War Without End'. In particular the short story 'The Harrowing'. 

In brief its a short story about the Alpha Legion and their infiltration of a Mechanicum bulk transport full of Titans! I won't spoil it for you if you haven't read it, but it was very cool and i really liked the way the Alpha Legion operated. They weren't a Legion that i had really taken much notice of in the past, but this story gave me a new appreciation of them. I especially like their 'Legion Flaw', where they were compelled to ensure that the enemy knew how awesome they are and how much the Alpha Legion had royally screwed them before their inevitable deaths! If they don't achieve this, then they felt that they haven't fully completed their mission. Pretty quirky.

So what does this mean for the hobby? Well, a brand new Alpha Legion force of course! I didn't go to mad, just a few squads, transports, snipers, jet bikes, etc (:-S) My force will be more designed to be an ally to fellow Traitors rather than a stand alone force. We'll see how it goes.

So my models arrived the other day, but  before i broke them out, i had to nail down a decent colour scheme. I had trawled the internet for a scheme i liked: blue with a bit of green, green with a bit of blue, cyan, teal, the list was a bit endless! Then i stumbled upon one hobbyist's efforts with a metallic transition paint with pretty much all of the above rolled into one!

This is it, a metallic paint by Pentart, the colour designation is Teal.

It creates a beetle carapace-like effect which i really loved! The hobbyist had applied this paint to a full squad of marines and a Spartan, all of which looked totally cool! So i jumped on eBay and grabbed myself a pot for £5.99. A little steep, but its probably the only pot i'll need for the whole force as its quite big.

I did 2 test minis: one with a basecoat of white and one with a base coat of blue. Reason being that as i want sure how the paint would come out on the mini itself, i wanted to give myself a bit of scope with a light undercoat and a darker one (black being way to dark so i didn't bother)

So on the Teal paint went and these were the results:

Looks great, but you can see how the blue undercoated Terminator on the left produced a darker colour than the white undercoated marine (which of course was expected) I wanted to apply a blue wash over the top of this to provide some quick shading, so we'll see how they fare after that.

You can see now how the Terminator is a lot darker now following a Asurman Blue wash. While the shading is good, i felt that it had darkened down the base colour a bit to much. A bit more work would be required to brighten up the base colour. The Marine on the right fared better though, so i proceeded with that test mini.

I picked out a few of the details, metallic silver forming the bulk of the additional detail. These were washed with Nuln oil and the eye lenses were picked out in red. If this was a proper mini then i would go over the silver again to brighten it up a bit, but i just wanted an idea at this point. I also brightened up the base colour at the apex's with a thin layer of the original colour.

(I appreciate that the picture is a bit dark, it is a bit lighter in the flesh!)

Once some Alpha Legion shoulder pads are on and this guy is packing some heat, then i think the colour scheme will look pretty ace! For now this will be the recipe i'll go with. Now, time to put together some FW minis and get cracking!

The GunGrave

Legio Astorum Knight Errant 2 Complete

With plenty of recent Knight painting experience under my belt, i was able to got this Knight painted up quickly. I have to say, i think this may just be the Legio Astorum's best yet!

I moved away from the Astorum transfers a bit for this Knight, otherwise they'd all look the same. I looked instead to the Imperial Knight transfer sheets for a bit of diversity.

Then went full Astorum on the other shoulder pad!!

I jazzed up the shield with a white stripe this time. I decided to make all the Errants have the same face plate, and i'll do the same with the Paladins as well.

As to not relay to much on the transfers, i went with some stripping on the shin plates.

My favorite part of this paint scheme was the Reaper Chain Sword. I don't know what it didn't occur to me before, but i went with hazard stripping his time. I really like the effect!!

The base was a bit plainer than the other 2 so far, so the barrels, razor wire and lamp post were added afterwards to break it up a bit.

Here's the Astorum Crew so far! Looking sharp boys!

The GunGrave

Legio Astorum Knight Errant 2 WIP

Hot off the heels of the Knight Paladin is the second of my Legio Astorum Knight Errants (though i do have 3 of these planned!)

As you can see, I've done a bit of work on the legs to create a dynamic charging pose for the Knight. The static pose is the only thing i really dont like about the Knight kit.

I cut the joints between at the knee on both legs and re positioned them. I also removed some of the hip joints to adjust the overall position. This helped me create a pose with forward momentum.

Lastly i had to lengthen the leg pistons, as they weren't long enough (or to long in some cases) to accommodate the new pose. This was done using 3mm plastic rod.

The build is near enough complete now, so i'll be on to the painting soon!

The GunGrave

Legio Astorum Knight Paladin Re-Paint

Last post i said i was going to get the first Knight Paladin repainted. I  managed to remove all the armor panels without any problems, which let me get the repainting done quite quickly.

The color scheme is now updated to match the Warlord, Reaver and Knights. I also added some Legio Astorum transfers. 

Much better! Now onto the next one - i've got Knights under my skin now!

The GunGrave

Legio Astorum Knight Errant

So, after a quick pallet cleanse with some Istvaan terrain, i found where i needed to go with the hobby post-Warlord. More Titans! Well, their mini cousins anyway.

I figured that the Legio Astorum needed their Knight Household expanding, as they will be the foot men which proceed the God Machines themselves. As i had 5 Knights waiting to be built, i got to work. First up was a Knight Errant.

The colors are of course that of the Legio Astorum. For such a big and ancient forge world like Lucius, it seemed right that they had their own Knight Household.

To mix things up a bit i added chevrons to the pilots hatch.

Getting the Legio Astorum transfers onto the shoulder pads was a lot of work. Circular transfers just dont do well on rounded surfaces. I also had the same problem with the transfers as i did on the Warlord, in that they seem to dry with this nasty film around the edges. Still working on how to get rid of  that, so if anyone's got any ideas, please let me know.

The transfers went onto the shins a little better, as the surface only curved one way.

The Thermal Canon was washed with some purple and then blue GW washes (i always forget the names!) Then finished off with some black weathering powder.

Finally the basel. This was a lot of fun to do, and i always try and create interesting bases for the larger models. The Knight Astorum will be making their way through a ruined city!

After finishing this Knight i feel that i really need to go back and update the first Legio Astorum Knight i did. I have started taking that apart for a quick repaint, more on that soon.

The GunGrave