G'day

Hey all, Toby here 

I'm proud to say I've been inducted into AGIF, I’ve been a quiet follower of this blog for almost a year now so I’m honoured to be a part of it.  I’ve done a little hobby blogging in my past and found that it helps me stay focussed and motivated if I have a way to show others what I’ve been working on.

A quick bit of my hobby history.  I’ve been a fanatic closet hobbyist since the 90’s when I got my first miniature, a dwarven runepriest.  True I didn’t know what to do with it, not even that it needed to be painted, but I was hooked nonetheless.  Through the years I have in one way or another collected almost every WFB and 40k army out there, usually only until the next months releases come out and I realise I like them more.  I am first and foremost a hobbier over a gamer though, so my project indecisiveness has never really bothered me because at the end of the day it’s converting and painting that gets my rocks off.

However…..,

I genuinely feel like a 30k army might be my chance to finally build an army ready for the table and the xxth are going to help me get there.  Ever since the CSM 2^nd edition codex I’ve always loved the aesthetics and idea behind the Alpha Legion, their questionable allegiances and their constantly adapting tactics.  Being a keen converter as well I also like that their range is less than complete giving me plenty of opportunity to freely adapt the look of my army.  I plan on starting small with a 1000pt army then slowly building it up.

Take the following list with a grain of salt as I’ve never actually played a game, but the idea behind it is many small elite units backed up by some rapid moving support which I think is sticking with AL fluff.

Centurion, Consul Delegatus, Artificer Armour, Power Weapon                  100pts

7 x Vet Tactical Squad, Banestrike shells, Plasma gun                                  190pts

7 x Vet Tactical Squad, Banestrike shells, Plasma gun                                  190pts

Contemptor, Kheres Assault Cannon                                                             190pts

5x Headhunter, Prime, Banestrike shells, Heavy Bolter, Rhino                     240pts

Javelin Attack Speeder                                                                                   75pts

That comes to 985pts and seems like a pretty standard list.  However I’m open to suggestions on how to improve it.

I’ve got a few orders incoming so I should be starting on the bulk of the modelling in the coming weeks.  I have an order though Forgeworld (shoulder pads and rhino doors), faux Forgeworld (the bulk of the above list), Combat company (some Alpha Legion specific paints) and Anvil industry (pouches and weapon mods). 

Due to a generous donation however I do have several sets of Mk VI armour which I’ve started to modify a little to better suit my vision.

On that note my biggest gripe with space marines is their somewhat warped body proportions, for 7 foot super soldiers they are remarkably short.  So the first mod I’ll be doing is adding a little extra height and proportion to the legs, not too much, just enough to put the Alpha back in Alpha Legion.

Step 1:  Remove both legs from the hip carefully, cut inbetween the upper leg and the ribbed under-armour (there’s only one leg because at the time I couldn’t find the other one)

Step 2:  Sand/smooth down the top of the leg where you cut it, it’s important to get this as flat as possible so it sits flush with the plasticard in the next step.

Step 3:  Take some small squares of plasticard and glue them to the top of the leg, I used 2mm but 1mm would work just as well, 3mm might even be ok.

Step 4:  With the hip section, flatten out the top and put another bit of plasticard on top this extends the torso a little above the hips and adds that little bit more height.

Step 5:  This is where it gets fiddly.  Shave off the excess plasticard so it’s shaped with the contours of the leg and hip armour then sand and smooth it down so it’s nice and rounded.  If you sat the plasticard flush on top of the leg you will barely see the join between the two.  And even if you do it looks like another groove in the armour, so it’s ok.  The hip tops not quite as important to get smooth because it will be hidden in the torso.

Step 6:  You don’t have to but just to add a little more structural integrity I pinned the legs back onto the hips, it also gives a bit more freedom when posing the legs.

Step 7:  And lastly I took a little yellow grey putty and filled in some small gaps between the joins.  Every different putty type has its merits and yellow milliput is great for small gap filling, it has an interesting grainy consistency and smooths out really well with a bit of water.

As you can see the simple mod adds a little extra height and makes the upper leg a bit more realistically proportioned.  It’ll also help them to tower over the lesser legions out there.

Well that's all from me for now, back to chopping up little bits of resin.  I'll be back when my packages arrive.

Cheers,
Toby