Well then, I have worked out how to upload photos that will stick around and I have rephotographed my Alpha Legionaries with a snowy background that came free inside a recent White Dwarf. I figured I might as well completely redo this first post so the comments below may make little to no sense.
I was very happy with these models when I painted them, my painting abilities have definitely improved since then but they're certainly on the border between Battle Ready and Parade Ready. The work that went into this army included my first real attempts at: basing, weathering, glazing, applying transfers, plasma effects and some conversions that I'm still very happy with.
I shall start with a little background, when 8th edition was first announced and GW revealed the new Primaris Space Marines, I instantly fell in love with them having never been a fan of loyalist marines up until that point. The chaos player in me couldn't, at the time, bring myself to fully turn to the Codex Astartes so I instead constructed a force of Alpha Legion. Are they loyalist or traitor? Maybe.
Having read a brief synopsis of Deliverance Lost, I decided that these are some new Alpha Legion Astartes created using the Raptor blueprints that Omegon stole from Corax (before tainting what was left) which would explain why they have bigger marines. Partially as a result of this headcanon (and mostly because I wasn't a fan of the newer vehicle models) I opted to use Primaris infantry alongside Heresy-era vehicles. I have mostly stuck to this premise but naturally if the 20th Legion see something they like, they'll just acquire it.
Now onto the models themselves, and I shall start with the HQ choices:
My Warlord is generally a Captain in Phobos Armour, occasionally with the Chapter Master upgrade (or Harrowmaster if we're sticking to Alpha Legion naming conventions, which we are hence most of my chaps being called Alpharius). He's based on the standard Phobos Captain but with a Forge World Alpha Legion Praetor helmet and a meltabomb that I found somewhere.
Joining him in the command of the force (two heads are better than one, the Alpha and the Omega) is a Captain in Gravis Armour. His head, like quite a few dotted inexplicably around the army, is another Forge World one, from the Mk IV heads set.
Following on from the Captains we have the Lieutenants. Like most depictions of the hydra, here we have three heads; two from the original 8th edition boxed set and a Phobos Lieutenant with a custom silencer that I constructed from the inkwell of an old biro.
Next up we have the Sorcerous duo, two Primaris Librarians, one of which is in Phobos armour, both of which have some fancy transfer-work on their cloaks.
And now we move onto the Elites, starting here with the characters. Here is my Primaris Ancient, his original banner replaced with a FW Imperial Fists one with the original iconography removed. I really like the standards that appear on the FW Alpha Legion transfer sheet (I think I've got three of those in total, they're just so useful).
Then we have my Apothecary (or Chief Apothecary as he is more often than not). It made more sense to me that he'd be acquiring the geneseed of a different chapter, so I painted up the dead Marine as a friend of mine's Dark Angels successor. I'm sure he doesn't mind.
Returning to Forge World I have my trio of Dreadnoughts, here are the Alpha Legion Contemptors; one with each standard weapon option, the multi-melta wielder striding over the remnants of a Khornate Rhino (another friend collects World Eaters)
And the big one of the three, the almighty Omegon. A Relic Leviathan Dreadnought. He's still decent now but was positively terrifying in 8th edition, walking unharmed through a Fire Dragon shooting phase
I also bought him a transport, which sadly he no longer fits in (thanks Imperial Armour Compendium) so if it gets used for anything other than scenery then it'll transport the multi-melta Contemptor. My giant block of resin, a Lucius-pattern Dreadnought Drop Pod
Might as well start with some infantry now, they don't do very well on the tabletop these days but I do like Reivers. This squad of ten is combined with the Alpha Legion Headhunter Kill Team box (more Forge World), notably the heads, the shoulder pads and the hip plates which I have attached to the back of their backpacks just so they'd get used somewhere
Heading swiftly on to the Troops, here we find another component from the aforementionned Headhunters upgrade kit. I was never overly fond of the Marksman Bolt Carbines found in the Infiltrator kit, fortunately I had a very fancy replacement available. Also, very not fond of the Infiltrator helmets so they all had to go...
I have a total of 15 Intercessors with Bolt Rifles, two of whom have Astartes Grenade Launchers. I also have four Sergeants so I could switch out weaponry for different army lists back when those melee weapons actually cost points. Theoretically this group would either be fielded as a unit of twn or two of five but for display purposes I have grouped them into three fives, one with two sergeants.
I also have two squads of five Intercessors with Stalker Bolt Rifles, as with the Phobos Lieutenant above (and in fact preceeding him) they have silencers made from that same pen.
Fast Attack next and we begin with the big lads, the Inceptors. I think my original plan was for a couple of squads of five (one with bolters, one with plasma) which would require a total of three boxes plus an extra guy, so I got the extra guy and didn't really proceed from there (who knows, maybe at some point in the future). I found a tutorial online showing how to paint the exhausts which I'm rather pleased with.
My Suppressors are the standard kit as they came in the Shadowspear box when they were first released with the only customisation being the replacement helmet on the sergeant. I might as well note at this point that there's almost no consistency when it comes to these Alpha Legion helmets (or lack there-of), the same design could be (and is) used on a Lieutenant, a Sergeant and a standard infantryman, the same is true of bare heads and the regular heads that came with these models. We can't make it too easy for enemy snipers now can we?
The Outriders are a great kit, although I could that they didn't go together well after a coat of Chaos Black spray (I needed a vice to push the sides together).
And now we come to the Heavy Support.
Clad in Phobos Armour and looking very good against this backgroud we have the Eliminators
In Indomitus Armour we have the Hellblasters, I chose yellow plasma as I feel it contrasts nicely with the metallic blue of the armour
And in Gravis Armour we have the Eradicators, the sergeant's head in this instance comes from Harrowmaster Armillus Dynat, I initially acquired it for my Gravis Captain but it didn't quite suit him so it got swapped out
I am a big fan of the Firstborn armoured vehicles and so now I present my trio of Predator tanks:
The first is a Predator Annihilator with the now OoP Extra Armour kit and an Alpha Legion Rhino front plate
The second is a Deimos pattern Predator Annihilator
And the third is a Predator Destructor with a Dozer Blade and a converted Tank Commander (torso from the Headhunter Killteam and a Primaris backpack)
I may have gone a little overboard with the transfers.
Finally, for now at least, I have something in a box that will eventually see the light of day, we have the Militarum Tempestus.
Back in 7th edition, the Militarum Tempestus Scions got their own Codex Supplement which went into detail about a number of regiments and one in particular caught my eye. I'm sure GW won't mind me sharing a brief fluff page from a book that has been out of print for a good few years now (that makes me feel old).
As you can imagine, I had to own some and I figured that the best way to incorporate them into my army was to make them counts-as Space Marine Scouts.
I kit-bashed two units of them, one with shotguns, the other with sniper rifles and camo cloaks. At one point I intended to pick up a Land Speeder Storm to ferry the shotgunners around but when they moved from Troops to Elites they stopped seeing as much use on the tabletop. That isn't to say that I'll never acquire one but it isn't high on my list at the moment.
But anyway, here they are...
And to finish off entirely, an HQ choice for the 55th Alphic Hydras. Because what clandestone operation would be complete without a member of the Ordo Hereticus in your pocket, to feed the Imperium false information and to put down potential threats to the right sort of cult.
My Inquisitor is constructed from a Scion's torso, a Cadian command squad arm (old version), a Krieg command squad arm (FW version), the legs of a High Elf archer with the feet removed (very, very old), a Stormcast Eternals head (FW version) and a Boltgun that I found on ebay which could feasibly be thirty years old at this point.
And for now that is all. Hope you enjoy.
