Alpha Legion Finished!

The 12th painting Challenge approaches and I've been preparing various projects to work on over the winter. I've also been trying to clean out the last pieces of some old projects that have been lingering for a while. One of these projects is my 30k Alpha Legion. I've finally managed to complete the last unit I intend to build for them them. This is a unit of Lernaean Terminators from Forgeworld. They come equipped with power axes and volkite charges. They also come equipped with a conversion beamer which is a bit silly such a close combat oriented unit. As such I converted the beamer to look a little vague so it could reasonably represent several of the available weapon options.

I had originally earmarked some other models for this army, but I received some unexpected reinforcements from GregB when he moved. About half the infantry and a few of the vehicles are Greg's Alpha Legion. Our painting style are a bit different, but I used the same colour scheme and the two groups blend together fairly well I think. This isn't it for 30k however. As I mentioned above, I had other models earmarked for the Alpha Legion and those are being diverted to a new legion project that I hope to start some time next year.

Thanks for visiting

Contemptor Twins

Here are two Alpha Legion Contemptor Dreadnoughts I completed this week. The Contemptor Dreadnought is a must for any 30k army. It's one of those iconic units that immediately separates a 30k army from a 40k one. This is especially true when they are the legion specific models designed by Forgeworld. I got two of the legion specific dreadnoughts for the Alpha Legion a while ago and finally finished them this week. No transfers were required as they are already covered in chapter icons. I gave them the usual paint job, but painted the hydra symbols on the chest with a different wash. They are also armed differently. One is armed for close combat with a chainfist / meltagun and a multi-melta. The second is armed with dual Kheres Assault Cannons! I wanted him posed like he's letting loose with both cannons while bracing himself from the recoil. I doubt that would be necessary giving what one of these things must weigh, but I imagine the space marine pilot inside retains some of the old behaviours and habits he had in his mortal life.

Posing a Contemptor is itself an artform. The various components that make up the foot, lower leg, upper leg and hips offer a variety of positions, but also tend to produce a stance that is either too narrow (looking like it's prancing) or they're sticking one leg forward in an odd looking swagger. These are by far the best poses I have ever built for the contemptor and I have been unable to achieved similar results before or after these guys. Thanks for visiting.

Alpha Legion Assault Squad

I'm in the process of completing the remaining models I have earmarked for my 30k Alpha Legion. The first up is an Assault Squad. It's a basic 10-man squad armed with chainswords and bolt pistols. Two of the models are armed with a power sword and power maul, while the sargeant is armed with a power fist and hand flamer. I painted one shoulder pad white so I could use the metallic green legion symbol that came with the Forgeworld transfer sheet. The transfer is a bit underwhelming, but the white helps break up the sea of turquoise a bit. My Alpha Legion army is mostly long range, so some close combat is a nice addition.

Thanks for visiting!

August Projects

It's been a few weeks since anything's been posted, which is failry typical of August. I haven't been idle however and I wanted to show some of the things I've completed / been working on. First up is the Arachnus Heavy Lascannon Bettery for the Deredeo Dreadnough for 30k. Greg was kind enough to entrust me with his 30k Alpha Legion prior to his move to Toronto. This included a Deredeo Dreadnought with weapon arms fully magnetized! I decided to up gun the dread and picked up the heavy lascannon battery from Forge World. It's a higher strength lascannon for taking on pesky loyalist tanks, which my Imperial Fists have a few of. The magnets lined up failry well and my paint job blends in ok with Greg's I think.

Next up is a Land Raider conversion I built for a yet specified 30k legion. The kit is the standard Land Raider from GW. The tracks, side sponsons and top plate are from Blood & skulls Industry. The kit serves as a replacement for the top hull plate and tracks of the land raider to make it fit with the 30k vehicle asthetic. It's well thought out and mostly fits together smoothly with the plastic kit. The only issue I ran into was that the wrap arount tracks left a space that was too narrow to fill with a single link of the tracks. I had to shave down two track pieces to make them fit. It came out fairly well and you can't really tell the difference. It should be noted that this is not a "cheaper" option unless you already have a land raider sitting around. It is cool though and worth getting if you feel comfortable sorting out the track issue. Don't expect this to be painted in the near future, I just wanted to show off the build!

In non-GW gaming, I picked up Stargrave when it came out and it's got me raiding my bitz box and pile of shame for appropriate figures for crew and creatures. I located a suitable figure to represent a bounty hunter who periodically appears during a game and hunts one of your crew. The model is from Copplestone Castings.

Finally, I completed a bunch more Battle Fleet Gothic stuff. I have two more cruisers and a squadron of frigates from Vanguard Miniatures for my Imperial Fleet. These are resin and require very little cleanup. I really like his stuff and I hope he branches off into chaos stuff at some point. I also received a bunch of ships from fellow conscript, John C. He had a bunch of models from the predecessor of BFG, Spacefleet. They're solid peweter and placing them on a plastic flight stand was a bit tricky. I have no idea how long these models languished on John's shelf, but BFG was new when I was in High School and Spacefleet was before that, so long enough I guess. I painted them up so quickly that I forgot two of them on my shelf! I refuse to let them linger for another 20+ years and promise to paint them ASAP. These ships will be used as transports and troop carriers for BFG games.

Well that's it for summer 2021! They don't last long in Canada and I can already feel the chill in the air. Hope everyone stays healthy and hopefully we can game this fall/winter.

Painting Challenge XI Final Submissions

 The painting challenge ended a few weeks ago, but I wanted to post the final submissions on our Fawcett blog. I completed some more Alpha Legion and Minotaurs.

I managed to complete 732 points worth of stuff for a 46th placing (out of 84)! This is by far the largest amount of stuff I've painted in one of the Analogue Challenges. Considering that, I'm amazed at just how much stuff some of the participants were able to paint.

Painting Challenge Super Post!

 I haven't posted here in a while due to the analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. I kept meaning to copy my posts from there to this blog, but I kept putting it off until there were too many entries to get through. I decided to create one super post with all my entries to this date, plus a bonus entry that doesn't qualify for the challenge because they were partially painted before it began.

I also slowly completed a tactical squad for my delayed, but not forgotten 9th edition Minotaurs project