I've been playing a few games with Wadey and Keepy lately and been having a great time getting into the swing of a new game (despite my absolute tabling today ;)).
But I digress, back to the photos of my Alpha.
First up is my converted headhunter unit. I've used secret weapon Oni masks superimposed onto mk6 helmets, more for the rule of cool rather than any solid fluffy reason but they turned out looking quite nice regardless.
The one on the left has transitioned from his rifle to knife and is about to hook into someone backhand style. On the right is the units banestrike heavy bolter, the whole unit also has scales sculpted onto various parts of their armour, primarily their chests.
And three more, two standard and the Headhunter prime who's run out of ammunition and switched to his pistol. He has a greenstuff symbol on his shin and his right shoulder is scaled up. I use a very simple method of making scales that I'll do up a little tutorial for sometime soon.
Up next is my obviously WIP contemptor, although what you see is done he just needs his arms finished up. His eyes are done with watered down coats of vallejo fluros. I reckon the Alpha Contemptor is by far the nicest in the range, chock full of nice little armour details.
Using parts from Autillon Skorr, Mk6 marines, Mk3 marines, EC Palatines and Anvil Industries is my Praetor, Tavi Psi. He has neato minotaur transfers of the greek letter Psi adorning his armour. I love how this guys pose has turned out, just a chilled out badarse.
So as you can see I'm slowly getting there one Legionnaire at a time, but I feel like my batch painting is getting better, something I don't normally do.
I'd love to hear any feedback you have on them.
FOR THE EMPEROR?
Very cool! The oni masks are rather cool, really gives 'em a menacing air. Loving the contemptor as well!
ReplyDeleteThanks mate, yer I can't get enough of the Alpha Legion contemptor, such a nice sculpt.
ReplyDeleteLoving the look of your AL.
ReplyDeleteHow did you paint them? And how did you do the scales?
I am about to embark on a alpha legion my self and would be very interested in your technique.
Thanks for the interest Stephen.
DeleteOk, so the painting, I'll list it out in the order I do it to make it easy.
1. I leave the arms off and attach them to paperclips where theyll later get pinned onto the torso.
2. I prime with a white rattlecan.
3. Airbrush game air blue over the areas you want.
4. Selectivey highlight this with game air magic blue from a downward angle.
5. Dust model air blue (I think it is, its a light sky blue anyway) onto the tops of the mini, do it really lightly.
Now I switch to brush work, all of the next steps apart from the edge highlighting are done with a 1:3 paint:water ratio, so sometimes I need to do 3 or 4 layers to get the effect I want.
6. First shade is with the game air blue into the crevices and towards the bottom of armour plates like the leggings.
7. Second shade is a 1:1 mix of the same blue and model colour royal purple, do the same thing with this working it into the crevices and further shading the bottoms of armour plates.
8. 1st highlight is magic blue this time focusing on the raised areas
9. 2nd highlight is 1:1 magic blue and the sky blue colour you used in your airbrush, same thing as step 8, focus on raised areas.
10. Now take a scorpion green colour (again I cant think what it's called off the top of my head but you want a toxic almost fluoro green) and do a final blend highlight of this on the very tops of the blue. After doing this you should have a nice blend from dark purple in the shadows up to a bright green on the edges.
11. Last step is to edge highlight with the skyblue colour. After this you can always do one last layer of green to really accentuate it.
I also sponge weathered with a leather brown, then a little silver.
As you can see there's a few steps, and it doesn't really lend itself to speed painting, but looks auite nice when it's done. They were an experiment for me that kind of just happened, so I'm sure there's an easier, quicker way to get the same result.
I hope that helped.
And this is the technique I use to make my scales:
Deletehttp://www.ogrestronghold.com/forum/index.php?topic=5116.0
Its very easy once you get the hang of it.
Wow dude thanks for the quick reply, was not expected!
ReplyDeleteLooks like an involved scheme. Gotta get myself a air brush. It's been overdue for a while now.
Totally worth it though!