On the Table: Alpha Legion Tactical Squad 1

This marks the beginning of my new army project for the upcoming year. I've signed myself up for two different hobby progress challenges to give myself smaller rolling deadlines. My January project is to finish up the squad of Tactical Marines from Forgeworld that have been on my project to do list for over a year. I opted for a different paint style than what has become the wildly popular Alpha Legion paint scheme. The metallic washed/airbrushed with a  Blue and Green glaze. I wanted something to expand my painting skills with. My last project featured the use of decals for the first time. The project before that was using edge highlights for the first time. I've brought both those elements into this one, to expand my practice with them. Really the key new element is OSL lighting from the base onto the models. Going with a Blue/Green color scheme on the models themselves I wanted a base to really pop with them. Being a Horus Heresy 30k army built from Forgeworld kits I opted to do a different style base that would match the army rather than the same base system I use with everything else.

Today I'm going to spend go over the technique of the base. The next On The Table will go over the painting of the army itself. It took me a couple tries to get the lava base to come out right. The first time I used the red/orange/yellows from Badger's Minitaire line. When I was all done, the base just looked dusty and dull. It wasn't vibrant nor, bright. I ordered up some airbrush paints from Vellejo and I was able to get a much brighter color. The base red of Nebula red from Minitaire is awesome. It is a vibrant bright red and layers down over black nice with a couple coats. The over-spray is subtle enough that it provides the beginning of OSL to the base itself. I give the lave area a giid coating. Applying 2-3 coats to get a solid and rich red coloring down. I pre-prep the base by dry brushing in a mix of 50/50 black and Reaper Storm grey over the black primed base. Then a last drybrush of Storm grey. Over the Nebula Red I put down a coat of Vellejo Hot Orange. at this stage I try and ovoid over-spray. In some narrow sections it happens and I let it. We are going for a natural look so soft edges are important. I thin mix in some Gold Yellow (also Vellejo), letting the last bits of Hot orange mix with it. This gives a good yellow/orange tone. Over this I come back with a narrow band of White in the center of each lava mass and across bubbles. Lastly I hit the white areas with Moon Yellow. Yellow being so transparent typically (especially for a bright yellow). This gives a good vibrant lava but its still missing something.

The secret sauce to bright lava is to remember it is liquid. So we need a nice wet look for it, and nothing makes a model look wet like a good gloss coat. Once I finished painting the whole model, assembled it (more on that next time) and sealed everything with Testor's dull coat, I go back and brush on some gloss coat over the lava. It gives it that vibrant wet look. That is everything for today. Until next time. 

Victory is Vengeance, teaser

I've created a nice teaser trailer for an upcoming campaign between myself and a buddy. The Alpha Legion vs Raven Guard. We will be gaming out the book Deliverance Lost, starting with a Victory is Vengeance campaign on Istavaan V.

On the Table: Skitarii Dunecrawlers

And here we are at the last model from my Skitarii force for the 2015 Standish Standoff. This is actually one of the few times I've painted up an entirely new force for this event. Usually I use half the previous years models and add a mix to it. The overly large bases on the Ongar prompted me to change up my usual basing style. It would have just been to barren. I also added the elements to the Ironstriders as well. I used some Woodland Scenic's  molds to cast some rocks. I attached them to the base before priming then layered the snow up onto the edges and to one side. I wanted to get the effect of windswept snow against a rock. During the build out i fell for the same trap I often do. The first three where full assembled prior to painting. This made getting at the undercarriage, and legs difficult. Fortunately when I changed up the list and added a fourth to the list I blue-tacked the top down to the legs during play testing but could pull it apart for painting. I used some good masking tools to help get a nice white stripe down for the lead walker of each unit. I opted to not put the stripe on all the models. This also means that if I wanted two units of two, I could use the striping to mark them distinctly from each other. I also magnetized the weapons allowing me to change up load outs for the future.  The decals once more really shone on these models allowing me to get some great details making the model pop once all completed. 

In game the Ongar performed awesomely, well specifically the trio with Neutron cannon's did. The 4+ invulnerable save grants so much toughness to the unit. They survived a great deal of hurt. Most notable during game three when I used them to bait a Chaos Space marine Typhon heavy siege tank. I was able to tank the shots from it for several rounds. The large spread and footprint meant the template would hit not more than 1 model from the unit and I kept rolling a 4+ to ignore the hit. All the rest of the army was able to avoid LOS with the tank, and by leaving it one target, the other player opted out of moving it and giving up shooting for a turn. The solo Ongar with the anti-air load out does great with flyers but as it snap fires at everything else was no help all day. I hit no flyers in any of my three games. I think that Ongar killed maybe two marines all day. I really am enjoying the aesthetic design of the Mechanicum models released so far. They have a nice 1950's sci-fi style that I just dig. I look forward to working on some more of them in the future but my next project is calling to me already. Hydra Dominatus!