And Now ... Alpha Legion!

Sorry, Stylus, you can't have all the Traitor Legions to yourself.

You know me - see a band wagon, hop on. Inspired by Stylus's evil hordes, here's the other half of that Shadowspear set I split with Kas the other day. Feels like it took an age, this one! Nippy though I may be, I still can't do baroque armour trim at anything more than a snail's pace.

These are great models, and I totally get why Stylus has been hitting them hard. A multi-pose kit certainly seems tempting right now, even after the slog of painting. And sure enough, I've some more on the way, although they're homebrew Noise Marine conversions.

Having a Chaos army in the house seems like a completionist box to tick. Now I have one each of Imperial, Xenos and Heretic armies, the three main factions. More to add to this before it's table ready, of course. Or before my new army buying frenzy gives out.

Alpha Legion because I'd already painted three for Blackstone Fortress, because I like the colours and the fluff and because they have a solid army trait (-1 to hit at over 12" away) that helps pretty much everything survive. The sensible thing would be to take long range firepower, so I haven't done that of course. This lot will probably run assault heavy, but at least they're a bit more likely to make it in over the first turn or two.

There are a few do-overs in amongst the new models! First up is the venerable Helbrute, who had a perfectly good paintjob before. But a square base, because I used to field him as a Khornate Daemon Prince in Fantasy Battle, so that had to go. And I figured I might as well repaint him while I was doing the others.

That also meant that the lead Obliterator needed a new lick of paint too, so I could field a full unit of these nasties. Or three units of one, to fill out a heavy detachment. Quite why I decided he needed a boar's head back in the day, I'm not sure. But I fixed it on with Araldite and Green Stuff, and it wasn't coming off, so the Big Pig stays.

Finally, a guest commander - it's Fabulous Bill!

Lovely model, it's been kicking about my boxes for ages unused. There were duplicate arms on his backpack when I got him, which I never bothered doing anything about until now. Some quick drilling and fiddling replaced one scalpel with a pincer, and that will do. He's nothing special on the tabletop, but he's got fun random roll rules which will certainly never ever bite me in the ass with mortal wounds. And he's cheap, and he doesn't break keywords for detachments I think, so he's going in the pot.

Painting scheme:

• Armour trim - Black undercoat, Gunmetal, Coelia Greenshade, Shining Silver layer
• Armour Plate - Black undercoat, Macragge Blue, Druchii Violet wash, triple layer of Emeral Getaway shimmer paint, the latter layers aiming to highlight the upper portions of each panel
• Guns - Black, Dark Reaper and Russ Grey edge highlights, Nuln Oil, light Praxeti White drybush
• Shells - Weapon Bronze over the armour trim colours
• Leather and Fur - Leather Brown, Dark Tone, Monster Brown
• Bone - Karak Stone, Sepia wash, Ushabti Bone, Longbeard Grey drybrush
• Horn - Gorthor Brown, Dark Tone, Zamesi Desert, Ushabti Bone, Tyrant Skull drybrush
• Greens - Incubi Darkness toned up towards Kabalite Green or Moot Green with white
• Whites - Celestia Grey, Nuln Oil, Ulthuan Grey, White
• Flesh - Rakarth Flesh, Reikland Flesh wash, then a variety of purple, red and blue washes stippled in for bruising and damage, then Kislev Flesh and Flayed One Flesh highlights
• Decals - Courtesy of Stylus, much quicker but I still regret not freehanding them for some stupid reason
• Purple Plasma/flames - Screamer Pink, Druchii Violet wash, Warlock Purple shaded up to white
• Bases - Oak Brown, a layer of jungle basing chipped wood, assorted tufts of hog's hair and lichen, a light and super-fiddly dusting of Krycel Powder that as usual hasn't fixed very well and should have been done on the bases before sticking down the models so that I could varnish it properly

More to come for these in time!