Alpharius.....or maybe Omegon? But probably just a regular marine. Very pic heavy

G'day all,

It's been awhile since my last post so I decided to do up my version of Alpharius and whack him into a series of WIP.

I'm reading the Legion novel at the moment(slowly) and love the idea that Alpharius could be any one of the marines, changing his name and identity at will.  So I decided to convert him as just that, a 'regular' marine armed like any one of his comrades.  I used the two following pictures as my main inspiration for the conversion.  A quick disclaimer, I'm using these pictures in good will, and with no ulterior motive.

The first pic has fairly standard power armour, but is clearly an important fella, and the second one I like because of the flowing cape around him something I tried to emulate.

So to start with the materials I used are:

- A FW AL torso
- A FW AL head
- A set of Tartaros termi legs
- A left and right arm from the termi set along with left and right hands to go with them
- A left and right arm from the mk3 power armour set
- A bolter (Phobos I think)
- Greenstuff
- Sculpting tools (clay shapers, scalpel, pin)
- a junior hacksaw
- a little bit of 2mm plasticard

We'll start off with the legs.  I sawed them off at the hip (as per my earlier tutorial on mk6 marines) and then pinned them back on reducing the cowboy like stance a little and adding about 2mm extra height to the upper thigh while I was at it.  I made sure the stance was how I wanted it and started to greenstuff.  The purpose of the greenstuff on this part of the leg was to heavily bulk out the thighs, which on humans are naturally a lot larger than the calves, something that's a little lost in translation on space marines (not the only anatomical anomaly).  The end result is quite a change from normal marine legs:

But it's grown on me and I like the bulkiness of them.  As you can see I also added a belt buckle and inserted a pin into the legs for the torso to attach to.

I then took a torso and cut it in half with the hacksaw, gluing a small 2mm spacer in between, making sure the front and back lined up before the glue dried:

I attached the torso like this to the pin on the legs and made sure to leave a few mils of space between the two:

I used a bit of greenstuff as gap filler, ensuring that it didn't protrude out past the body and let it dry to add a bit of structural support before I started the actual putty work.






Greenstuff was then used to add a bit more size to certain part of the armour that needed to enlrged to meet the new scale of the model.

The ribcage:

And the waist, a little bit of detail can be seen here, I didn't go overboard though, it'll all get covered up soon:

His arms are made from the upper section of mk3 and the forearm of tartaros joined at the elbow, a fairly easy changeover that allowed the 2 handed bolter hold utlising the angle of the mk3 arms:

As you can see the skinniness of the mk3 is covered up by the shoulder pads, making a nice natural pose:

His backpack is a combination of the mk3 chassis with mk4 vents, I love the mk3 backpack but wanted him to have newer equipment so went with the new vents.  The pack on the left is the finished product:

His cape would be covering his arms partially so I had to glue them in place before continuing.  I also attached the backpack.  I wanted the cape to be a ragged one like in the source pic above so wasn't worried about keeping the putty smooth and consistent.  I wet my fingers well (to stop the putty sticking to them) and took small balls of putty flattening them out between my fingers and pulling them into position on the mini.  The cloak is meant to look like its blowing in the wind so I pulled the sheets of greenstuff out to the right a little.  I also lapped the left hand side of the cloak around the front of him to create the wind effect.  At this stage the cloak looks a little rough on the back but I fix it up later.  After leaving it to dry for 20 minutes or so I took a pin and teased out a few edges on the cloak to make it look torn..

The next day after the putty has completely cured I added some waves in the cloak.  I took sausages of putty and using photos of how material flows I laid the sausages on and smoothed them into the cloak with the clay shapers.

It took a little bit of trial and error but I eventually got a look I was happy with.

Finally I added some brand new fingers holding the bolter and gap filled any spaces left behind at joints like the wrists and shoulders

And there we have it my interpretation of Alpharius, father of all marines, for we are everywhere.  I think he looks important while still maintaining that ambiguity of the XXth.

A scale shot:

And a little action shot:

Thanks for reading.

HYDRA DOMINATUS

-Ded

AGIF Viewer Mailbag: Who is the biggest Primarch?

Hey guys, Macca here and today I'm answer some viewer questions.... such as how big certain Primarchs are, and who is the biggest so far?

I will preface this with a disclaimer *I don't have all the Primarchs*. I have seen them all, and compared them, but on hand, I only have 5 in my personal collection, so those are the ones I will show you.

Primarch vs Marine size:

To start with, here is the MK III armoured Ultramarine Commander we are giving away soon, and he is our scale model, a nice 32mm marble base is beneath his feet.

Lorgar and Angron, Shadow Crusading their way to Terra....

Ferrus Manus and Horus Lupercal, modelling this years Summer and Winter Cataphractii range respectively.

Perturabo, modelling Cataphractii Plus-Size.

Primarch vs Primarch size:

Perturabo is of course, the largest. Vulkan is huge himself, in fact, he is Horus' size and only wearing power armour. However, for total size, it's the guy riding part of a Knight Titan into battle. There is an optical illusion however....

The Illusion?

Perturabo hunches forward on his base, in much the way Angron is sprinting and hunched, so is Perturabo. When I lay him down at the right angle, his scale becomes very apparent.

Yes, Perturabo is about a head taller than Ferrus Manus, comfortably, and that's not including the little cogitators and such on top of his giant suit of Plus-Size armour.

For more on Perturabo, or Horus, our videos can be found here.

So who do you think should be the biggest? My money is on Magnus the Red, who is the biggest and the best Primarch. Space Wolves players, your opinions aren't valid on that one....

~Macca

Perturabo... now on YouTube

A new YouTube video from A Galaxy in Flames.

Direct link: https://youtu.be/iG2ArYM6fA8

Also, check out our other pages;

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/agalaxyinflames

Instagram: https://instagram.com/agalaxyinflames/

Or you can watch the video right here.

~Macca

Macca on Tactica: Characters and Challenges 101

Hello, and welcome to the first true Macca on Tactica in a little while. Today I wanted to take the time to look at the assault phase in 30k, specifically where our Legion Praetors and the like, as well as where a few special characters fit in. This is a cut-down and basic look at the HQ's a rock-paper-scissors look at what each is best used for.

Auxillia/Militia, Archmagos, Praetors & Centurions

There are a LOT of HQ options in the Horus Heresy, but a few really stick out. Lets look at them now.

For the Solar Auxillia, your HQ's are really more of an arm-wide buffing unit. You cannot expect to go toe-to-toe with an Astartes, unless you are willing to pay through the teeth for the wargear. Whilst it is possible to equip a Paragon Blade, Artificer Armour and a 3++ invul save, it's still not in your best interests to fight this fight, especially against the more martial of Legions.

With the Imperial Militia, your commander fights like a sponge, but unlike a sponge, he won't absorb much. It's probably best to stay away from combat with this guy and to instead drown your enemies in the corpses of your own men. Yes, this even applies to a cultist HQ with a tainted weapon, yes, you'll kill on a 6 to wound, but you'll probably be turned to a smear or pink mist long before this happens.

Ah, the Mechanicum Archmagos. Now here is a fish out of water. The Archmagos is a force multiplier like the previous HQ's, however, he is also quite a tough combatant, with good armour, higher than average toughness, and access to excellent wargear. Whilst unlikely to be instantly killed in a combat, save to a deadly strike of some kind, I wouldn't feel confident pitting this guy against anything more solid than a Legion Centurion, even with Liquifiers or other crazy weapons.

Legion Praetors. These guys are badass. Paragon Blade, Digital Lasers, maybe even a relic from their Legion, the Praetor fears nothing less than a Special Character or a Lord of War, AND even then, a well equipped Praetor can give a special character a run for their money. If you are using these guys, feel confident when throwing them into most enemies, as you are more than likely to win.

Legion Centurions. Ok, a stock Centurion is no good for challenges, so if that's the route you want to take, go for the Champion Consul option, Forge Lord with Servo Arm, Cataphractii plate, Rad Grenades and a Cyber Familiar (for sheer badassery) or, a Librarian Consul (force axe being a must-take). Pretty much any other kind of Centurion is simply too brittle to be trusted in challenges against most enemies. As a rule of thumb, use your Consuls to buff your troops or even a better HQ, a well placed Primus Medicae can buff a Praetor into the stratosphere with Feel No Pain.

Special Characters.

If you see any of these guys set up opposite you, and you have nothing better than a Centurion, AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS. Seriously, they will light a fire under your ass so fast, it's not funny. These characters are strong, but many only get stronger in challenges. Especially Sigismund. Seriously, even if you have a Primarch, avoid Sigismund, he will actually cause a lot of damage to the weaker Primarchs, with Kurze, Corax, Lorgar (minus powers), Dorn and Alpharius all likely to win but only walk away with a wound or two left.

Kharn is a human hand grenade, if he is thrown into a unit which outnumbers him, he can get up to 9 attacks. On his own. He is a one-man army, and he will wreck most units he touches. Bonus points if you can tell me what the fuck happened to his Artificer armour and Iron Halo in 40k.

Sevetar, on the other hand, is a surprisingly weak fighter, who ONLY excels once he is in a challenge and fighting dirty. In a regular assault, his chainglaive is not as strong as many weapons, and any clown with a power fist will end him. Keep the Master of the Atramentar away from Terminators at all costs.

Eidolon is a funny character. He is quite strong on the assault with his Thunder Hammer, however, if he isn't on the assault, you won't be striking with his superior initiative, and just like with Sevetar, any clown with a Power Fist will end him. Bonus Points here if you can tell me how Skrillex's cloak isn't burned by his jump pack.

Abaddon. Powerful, but overall, not much stronger than a Centurion. Best used as a buffing unit. I thought it would be interesting to note that the most powerful character in 40k is really a mid-level special character in 30k.

Primarchs.

I will say it once, and once alone. Primarchs will kill anything less than a Primarch. They won't however kill Primarchs, at least not without half a dozen player turns elapsing. If you play a game of 30k, and you and your adversary send your Primarchs into each other at a hundred miles an hour, you've effectively removed both Primarchs from contributing to the game.

Primarchs are best used for two roles: to either buff their army into the stratosphere (Dorn, Alpharius, Guilliman), or to kill enemy heroes and Death Star units, especially if said Primarch is named Angron.

Conclusion.

In the end, everyone will use their characters however they feel, but it is good to know that you have limitations. None of the characters listed should be thrown into Terminators of any kind, nor should they be thrown into specialist units like Templars, Invictus etc. because you'll likely lose 150-200 points of character for probably 70-100 points of slain enemies (which is bad on any planet).

Try to keep your characters set on the path they were designed for, buff your army if that's your job, hunt weaker heroes if that's your job. But don't try and take on Sigismund. EVER.

~Macca

Perturabo: The Lord of Iron, The Hammer of Olympia, Master of the IVth Legion

G'day, it's been a while in-between drinks here at AGIF, but today I just finished my Perturabo model (which arrived yesterday afternoon. Needless to say, I was REALLY keen to get him done).

The Family

Can you say "daddy issues"?

Ok, point to note here, I magnetised both hand options for Perturabo, but I sunk both magnets deep into the forearm of Perturabo, rather than drill into the hands and risk damaging them. This of course is because Perturabo can take Foregebreaker optionally, however his girly arms mean that he cannot strike with it at initiative like Ferrus. (Even tho Perturabo is fuck-huge compared to all the other Primarchs released so far, Lorgar is like chest high on this guy. Morale of the story: all show and no-go.)

The base is very basic dull tones, light blues and soft greys and bones defined it, as well a splenty of rust-orange weathering powder from Secret Weapon.

The base of course comes in a fuckzillion parts. I have decided that Forge World's sculptors are starting to go insane from being locked up in a resin sweat shop cranking out minis, and the bases are showing the edge of reason. Comparing Perturabo's base to Angron, I can't help but feel that if Angron was released today, his base would be 54mm tall and made up of 40 dead marines. Which is fine.... in any case, every part of the base is magnetised so that it won't fall apart on my shelf.

Lucky thing to note, the magnet in his hand was able to adhere to a hidden one on the base. This means I have a place to keep the hand, and thanks to the location, nobody will probably notice it.

Oh, I also took some quick snaps of Perturabo with the Tormentor. "Yo dawg, we gonna pimp you ride. That busted ass Shadowsword? We went and put a hatch on the rear, void shields on top, and 180" mag wheels on each side. Thanks MTV for pimpin' Pert's ride!"

So another Primarch on the shelf... with the books, my Mrs likes to point to this as my cabinet of financial shame.

So, if you like it or loathe it, let me know,

~Macca