On the Table: Alpha Legion Contemptor Dreadnaught

Well to help add some punch to my list I finished up the first Contemptor Dreadnought. I ended up using a lot of stencil marks on this Contemptor due to it being the plain one in the Betrayal of Calth boxed set. I also have the Forgeworld one (see next post), and on that one I used the scales stencil very sparingly. Here though with so many plain flat surfaces I felt like going hog wild and getting it all over the place. I also ended up laying out a ton of decals. The left shoulder shot is extra whited out due to these decals. They are silver metallic and reflected back the light at the camera when shot head on like that. I was kicking myself because unlike the rest of this project I basically built the entire Dreadnought before painting, that arms are magnetized to do weapon swaps at least. With the new cheaper version of the Contemptor Dreadnought in Horus Heresy book 6, Retribution it won't be so bad to squeeze him into my Victory is Vengeance force. Coming in at about 150 points. I enjoyed doing the free hand on the scroll-work on his chest. I used some great inking pens that where recommended by a modeler who used them to ink the recessed edges on his Eldar vehicles. I opted to mount him further back on the base do to the pervasiveness of the lava in the base. Looking at the finished product it really worked for allowing the OSL on the legs to work out great. Rather than being semi pervasive and everywhere on the legs, being front only means I got to focus on just the front being OSL and drawing the eye to the effect. 

I have to say this was a great kit to build and work with. Modding the arms to take magnets in the same location as the Forgeworld arms/weapons so I could interchange them between my Contemptors was some work. Still way worth the effort. With the upcoming narrative day, Fratris Salutem coming soon I've got my eye on how to continue painting out the army for use on that day. Something I should be able to do easily. At a minimum I need another Contemptor and 13 Legion marines. Until next time. 

 As a parting shot here is my Alpha Legion force completed thus far.

On The Table: Alpha Legion Vigilator

To lead my Alpha Legion force against the hated Raven Guard Alpharius tasked Centurian Draeyos to hunt down the survivors on Istavaan V. Cold and methodical this Vigilator attempts to trap the Raven Guard using stealth and beguilement. Unfortunatly for Draeyos his attempts are foiled by the superior stealth and hit and run tactics of the Raven Guard he hunts. Even as his own traps are being sprung he finds his men caught in a trap of Raven Guard design. Maimed in his encounter with the Raven Guard commanders Terminator bodyguard Draeyos nevertheless continues to strive to find a way to clip the wings of the Raven, even as his own men begin to see weakness in his failure.

So we played our first two games of the campaign. A screaming baby prevented me from getting any good photos' of the games unfortunately as my hands where occupied trying to keep her calm. We opted to change one rule before we played using a modified save rule from some more modern killteam games. Essentially allowing models to take all available saves. We did not anticipate the use of the action points and what they meant to unit survival already. Essentially these changes effectively nerfed shooting, models getting two or even three saves, while booting close combat. Couple this with the much shorter deployment gap of 6-12" and a smaller overall table and you have a recipe for vastly different game. Essentially close combat happened pretty reliably within 2 turns. Shooting doing little to no damage int eh 1 or two rounds you got. I was simply outclassed in hand to hand having built a shooty force. I have very little low AP weapons for hand to hand, and no Terminators finished from the paint table. My opponents Terminators just wrecked face. With multiple saves and re-rolls due to action points I just couldn't put a wound on them and then they would powerfist me right into the dirt. We both decided to roll back the multi saves rule. Action points granting a powerful tool to aid in survival to the heroes already. Well I go back to the drawing board behind two games in the campaign but he Hydra will rise again. You may cut off a head but two more will rise in its place. 

Group Shot of the completed ALpha Legion units so far.

On the Table: Alpha Legion Veteran Tactical Squad 1

Finished up my next batch of Alpha Legion marines. This time I finished up some Legion Tactical Veterans. I opted to do the special weapon bearers and the sergeants for all three squads first. As we are planning to start a Victory is Vengeance campaign I need options more than entire units. Completing this group gives me the modes I need to be able to start the campaign. Now that I have had some experience in building and playing 40k, I brought all the lessons learned to building out these units. I built the squads to accommodate all options. In this case two magnetized Veterans to hold special weapons. Given the nature of the missile launchers for 30k, I even magnetized the waist of 3 of the 6 to accommodate an entire torso holding the missile launcher. For this round of painting I opted to only paint bolters/meltas/plasmas & flamers. Leaving the Heavy bolters and missile launchers aside to be completed at a later date. Similarly the sergeants are only equipped with what they will have initially in the campaign but are magnetized to take all weapon options. This includes a wrist magnet on the gun arm to swap from bolters to various pistols and combi-weapons. The left arm is doubly magnetized both coming off at the wrist for power weapons/chain swords and thunder hammers. The left arm also comes off at the shoulder to allow power fists and lightning claws to be used.

So as we move onto painting steps we must first talk about the staged assembly of the models. I opted to heavily stage assemble the models. Shoulder pads where blue tacked to sprues, arms where glued to torsos and to legs. heads are also not attached but left on the sprue. the rest being magnetized where left off as they would always be removable. To paint up these models I started with a base coat of Ultramarine Blue using an airbrush. After that I applied a zenithal highlight of 50/50 Ultramarine and Minitaire Troll Hide. I finished by applying a stencil of dragon scales to the legs and shoulder guards using Troll Hide. After this we move onto the brush work. I applied a Null Oil wash directly to the seems and joints in the armor. Base coated the weapons with black on the plating edge highlighting them with Storm Grey. I also base coated the metallic areas with Gunmetal, also washing them in Null Oil. I then bring up the metal areas with Chainmail and edge highlight with Plate Silver. Hitting the exposed studs with the Plate Silver. I then edge highlight all the armor areas in Troll Hide then again with a fine Scorpion Green. I then airbrushed some OSL lava lighting onto the legs as I painted up the bases. I do this then so I know the position of the model on the base. Last I finish assembling the model and attach it to the base. Almost the opposite of the normal assemble paint method.