[Turnip86]

A new army, a new plog!

Last time I was back home I found myself practically living in the flgs down the road from my parents house and while there I got in a few games of 40k with my nids. Now, I've always been more of a fantasy player but the fact I can easily find pick up games makes 40k more appealing to me, especially when I only really get chance to play when I'm in the UK. I love my cute little bugs but I think it's time for a change and I happened to be flicking though the new CSM codex and I decided I'd turn the the slightly lighter dark side and start an army!

The first choice was what kind of army? I play my nids in a variety of ways but usually with lots of bodies so with this army I'm going for a medium sort of body count with a couple of 10 man CSM squads with rhinos, a cultist squad of between 10 and 20, a large-ish bike squad, some predators, maybe a vindicator a helldrake or 7 and a havok squad. I may also throw in a winged demon prince for shits and giggles.

The next choice was a colour scheme! My focus will be slaanesh but I'm not a fan of the noise marine models or post heresy Emperor's Children in general but after reading up on fluff and deciding I liked the blue and green and hydras in general I went with Alpha Legion. Funny thing is I'd just finished Descent of Angels as I made that choice and Legion happened to be the next book in the series so I ended up reading up about them more. I like the fact they use advanced tactics even when it's totally unnecessary which is kind of how I play with my nids, lots of units that can threaten but my opponent always has to guess where the killing blow will come from.

Anyway, it wouldn't be plog without pictures so here's the start of the army! So far I have a 10 man CSM squad, one bike and 20 IG which will be used as cultists (well, operatives) for now until I get a full army together at which point they'll be used as traitor guard allies with a couple of Leman Russes and Vendettas

And here's my colour scheme on a test IG model. I didn't start with the CSM's purely because they'll be my army for the army painting challenge so wanted to paint a whole squad up at once

The currently red IG are from the army I was going to start a while back but lost interest after I decided 2 horde armies would be a bad idea (4 if you count all my fantasy stuff too). They'll get resprayed and painted over as the paint that's already on them is thin enough to not be a problem.

Anyway, comments welcome - especially on the colour scheme

EDIT: iPod pics suck but it's the best I can do at the moment as my other half decided to leave the camera in Warsaw a couple of weeks back >.< The left shoulder pad does actually have a scaled pattern and generally the whole model has green edge highlighting!

 

[Turnip86]

Ok, lots of views so far so taking that as a good sign xD

Small update with bits I've worked on so far along with MUCH better pics of the tester model.

First up a WiP shot of the next 3 traitor guardsmen operatives I'm doing.

And here's the test model:

And now a slightly better shot of the 10 CSM's I'll be painting this month for the monthly painting challenge.

 

[Turnip86]

Here's some WiP pics of the CSMs. As you can see the blue is done... mostly. I started with Kantor Blue then put a few layers of thinned down Alaitoc blue over it but trying to layer it slightly so it's shaded in the recesses and corners.

The next thing to do is the silver trim. I'm not sure whether or not to bother with a rusted effect - part of me thinks it would look good but another part of me thinks why would ceramite rust? So I I'll either start with a base of tinny tin or Ironbreaker - just need to decide which!

One the trim is done I'll then move on to the blue again and touch up any areas I messed up and then give it a Drakenhof Nightshade wash then start on the green extreme highlights and scaled effect on the left shoulder pad. Depending how comfortable I feel freehanding the scales I might extend it to the leg armour on a few of them too

Any thoughts, especially on the rust effect, are very welcome

 

[Gothic]

Great work so far...I can't wait to see the marines painted.

 

[Turnip86]

Great work so far...I can't wait to see the marines painted.

Cheers Gothic

Small progress update. Silver is done but is in need of a wash, I just decided to make a start on the green highlights first so here's where I am at the moment.

Slowly but surely getting there.

I'm not sure what colour to go with on the weapon front so I blacked them out. I experimented with a green diagonal stripe over black but I didn't really pull off the effect I was going for so will probably scrap that idea. Any suggestions welcome

 

[forkmaster]

You got some interesting start here! Will be looking forward to more.

 

[Turnip86]

You got some interesting start here! Will be looking forward to more.

Cheers

Here's the finished CSM squad, rushed a little at the end because I'm going away for a few days over the long weekend and leave tonight so had to get them redy for the monthly painting competition

Feedback welcome!

 

[forkmaster]

Oh nicely done!

 

[Turnip86]

It's been a while! But since summer is well and truly over I'm back to working on my chaos marines.

Here's the raptors I've been putting together.

5 man squad, Champion with 2 LC's, 2 Melta guys and 2 Bolt pistol/CCW's

I've made a second melta gun out of a bolter, the end of a flamer and some green stuff - it's currently drying and needs a bit more work but this is what it currently looks like:

I'll update with some more progress once I've started painting which should be fairly soon if things go at the same rate as they have been going.

Feedback, as always, is appreciated. Especially suggestions regarding the melta and if it looks ok

 

[neferhet]

Well done, Turnip! The Alpha legion colours, you made it very well!

 

[Turnip86]

Well done, Turnip! The Alpha legion colours, you made it very well!

Thanks

A small update on the raptors - I managed to get them sprayed and I've put the base coat on a couple of them but frankly I've been getting distracted by other projects and keep flitting between them, I think I'm in more of a construction mood than painting which is why I've picked up some stuff that I've had hidden away over a year - progress on that stuff is in my other plog

And a close up of the melta that I kitbashed

As always, apologies for the iPod pics but it's all I have for the time being (and one of the reasons I'm not even bothering entering any of the heresy painting comps) And other than comments on general quality of the pictures, critique of the models is welcome

 

[Turnip86]

Done a bit more work on the raptors - or at least have the blue base coated on 4/5 rather than 2/5... it's progress right?

At the moment I'm still in more of a construction mood than painting so I couldn't resist getting a box of chaos bikers the other day and have the last day or so putting them together.

Because my raptors are a 5 man 2x melta unit I've gone with plasma on my bikers. It was actually kinda fun kitbashing the guns. I took the plasma gun from both the chaos marine box set and the raptor box set, cut out the grip and most of the back then cut off the tops and barrels of the right bolter of each bike and put them together. I ended up with:

And a close up of both:

The third biker from the set is currently being pieced together as he will become my Slaaneshi lord. He's gonna be equipped with a LC and the Burning Brand - the LC is already attached - I used the raptor LC that has the open hand and Wolverine-like claws so he can still hold the handlebars. The rest of him is just the body of the biker with the Slaaneshi champion head from the CSM box as well as a few additional parts. Hopefully he'll look "lordy" enough and if not Alpha Legion are all supposed to look the same anyway (although granted they tend not to have patron gods either but meh)

I'll post up more pics once I've gotten a bit further on the lord.

 

[Nordicus]

Oooh Alpha Legion. You don't see many of those around!

I will keep an eye on this. It's always good to see another Chaosmonger in the making

 

[Jacobite]

Awesome plasma gun conversions, it took me a second to realise what you had done there, thought for a second they were part of the kit. +Rep.

 

[Turnip86]

Oooh Alpha Legion. You don't see many of those around!

I will keep an eye on this. It's always good to see another Chaosmonger in the making

Thanks Alpha Legion look awesome, I'm surprised more people don't do them to be honest - I'd love to see more people's takes on them.

Awesome plasma gun conversions, it took me a second to realise what you had done there, thought for a second they were part of the kit. +Rep.

Thanks I picked up the idea from a melta conversion I saw plus the grip on the plasma guns are perfectly shaped to be hollowed out and slot over the trimmed down bolter snugly.

Quick update on the Lord conversion. I think I'm finished!

So I used parts from a few places. As I mentioned in a previous post the body is of the chaos biker although the front of the torso is from the CSM sprue. Right arm is that of a warptalon and is positioned to wrap around the handlebars.

The right arm is from the CSM sprue and has half of a flamer from the same place (in fact the one I cut up to make the melta for my raptors - just goes to show how leaving left overs lying around can be beneficial ) I then added the barrel of an Imperial Guard flamer for some extra length and to top it all off (literally) A small dragony sort of thing which is actually from the Empire cannon set and is supposed to be some sort of ornate handle... well I chopped it up and stuck it to the top of the flamer to make it stand out more. The icon on the backpack is also from the CSM sprue, as is the head which is that of the slaaneshi champion.

Anyway, do you think he looks "lordy" enough? Or should I add more? Feedback appreciated

 

[Squire]

Nice work man, but I'd recommend not fully assembling your guys before painting. With space marines the backpacks and guns (if they're carrying two handed weapons like bolters) really get in the way of the chest and back areas and make it difficult to paint them. It's not much fun assembling most of a model but not getting to see it fully assembled until it's completely painted, but you'll almost certainly get better results by painting some of the parts separately. Give it a try!

Anyway, I always like seeing Alpha Legion; I'll keep an eye on this thread!

 

[Turnip86]

Nice work man, but I'd recommend not fully assembling your guys before painting. With space marines the backpacks and guns (if they're carrying two handed weapons like bolters) really get in the way of the chest and back areas and make it difficult to paint them. It's not much fun assembling most of a model but not getting to see it fully assembled until it's completely painted, but you'll almost certainly get better results by painting some of the parts separately. Give it a try!

Anyway, I always like seeing Alpha Legion; I'll keep an eye on this thread!

Yeah I do leave certain bits off before painting but only if it's really hard to reach - raptors are pretty plain underneath the guns and there's still room to get in to paint. The bikers aren't attached to the bikes yet for instance because I wanted them painted first. Things like the khorne lord in my fantasy (and other random bits) plog for example had the shield left off but it's pre pinned so I just need to glue it once it's painted

 

[Ddraig Cymry]

Good work! I like the shades of green and blue you're using

 

[Turnip86]

Update time again. And yet again it's been a while but December was frankly kinda crazy and I didn't have much time to do anything but work and then fly home for Christmas. So now I'm kicking back a bit with a slow January thanks to so many school holidays over here so had time to get more done on the raptors. There's a tournament coming up in a week which I'm considering entering although it's 1000 points and I'm at about 750ish at the moment so need to get everything painted plus buy some new plastic crack in less that a week... doable right? I doubt I'll go but either way there's a new 40k night starting in the FLGS so I'll be headed down there sometime soon with these guys.

I'm getting a new phone in the next few weeks and one of the main features I'll be looking for is a decent camera so this might be the last of the shitty iPod pics I'll post - I did use photobucket's edit tool on these to make them at least viewable but I know they're not ideal.

Oh, one other thing - I actually broke these guys in at the end of November/Start of December in a 750ish point game against tau and I actually won! Mostly because I had 2 units of 10 cultists camped on objectives and the tau player left it too late to move in to claim or contest them - but a win's a win

More updates soon!

 

[whittsy]

*whittsy getting given DV set from a mate*
"OH Chaos, i really like Alpha Legion. Hell YEAH!"
*sees colour scheme*
"fuck that."

+rep for alpha legion!