From GregB - Alpha Legion Marines (40 points)

Thought I was only painting fantasy? Wrong! It was more Alpha Legion deception! Fresh recruits for Alpharius...

These fantasy diversions have been fun, but I can't forget my main focus for this edition of the AHPC - and that is getting 30k stuff done.  This submission includes a squad of five tactical support marines carrying specialized energy weapons and three tactical marines carrying their standard boltguns.  The models are plastics from GW's "Betrayal at Calth" set, with some add-ons and transfers from Forge World.

Tactical support squad with plasma guns

Comms trooper on left, vexillary on the right

I love the little read-out screen on the comms trooper

The so-called Tactical Support Squads carry various specialized weapons to provide some heavy firepower alongside the regular rank and file marines.  These particular troops are carrying plasma guns, energy weapons which are useful is carving up armoured targets.  In the Horus Heresy, the opponent is often another Marine, so these weapons will come in handy in situations where even the heavily armoured witnesses need to be dealt with...

Customized bits from Forge World...expensive, but lovely sculpts

Some detail on the back packs

The three tactical Marines are just extras from the first two tactical squads.  Adding these three models frees up some of the "beakies" I had previously painted to form their own small seperate unit if I feel like it.

These models are just a ton of fun to paint, very well done by GW.  And I know it is a silly expense to incur, but I also love the accent packages from Forge World.  The sculptors hit it out of the park, and sprinkling the custom bits throughout the units is a lot of fun, and I'm thrilled with how they have turned out.

#Horus4Hope taking shape...

Every so often it is fun to put a group shot of the progress so far.  This is the Alpha Legion group that has been completed to date - 31 marines so far! This could even represent a bare-bones force on the table.  They will need some support - vehicles, maybe dreadnoughts...or just more infantry.  We'll see what comes next!

The Chaplain urges you to feel the love...

This particular submission includes five 28mm figures, so that should be another 40 points towards my target.  See you all next week!

Alan and Paul: Scraping in just in time for the end of Tuesday, here's another great bunch of GW minis. You have managed to give a stylish nod to both ends of the GW universe time line today - nice work! I must say, these are some of the nicest Space Marines (registered trademark) I've seen. I really like the slightly muted blue you've used, as well as all the details. See you next week!

From GregB: Beta Bunch for Alpha Legion (60 points)

More lads from the 20th Legion

Well, my submissions are getting repetitive, but here is - you guessed it - more 30k.  This is a second tactical squad for the 20th Legion, known as the Alpha Legion, for GW's Horus Heresy setting.   There are ten fellows wearing Mark IV power armour, plastic kits from the "Betrayal at Calth" box set.

I painted a white knee plate on this crew to help tell them apart from the first bunch

There are also a pair of Mark VI "beakie" power armour suits in this submission, kits from Forge World.  They are carrying special weapons, and can be swapped into the squad to create a unit of legion veteran troops as opposed to a vanilla tactical squad.

Comms trooper on the left and vexillary on the right

Some examples of the custom Alpha Legion heads from Forge World - nice dabs of character

The embossed shoulder pauldrons, transfers and a few of the helmets are upgrade packs from Forge World.  The helmets are available in packs of 10, and you can sprinkle the heads from one package across several units to add a bit of additional character to the overall force. 

Mark VI armoured troops from Forge World, probably my favourite models...

Love the "shark fin" style missile launcher.!

As I said previously, while the plastic Mark IV armour kits are very nice and fun to work with, the Mark VI armour sets from Forge World are a pure joy, a hidden gem for Space Marine junkies like me.  No skullz...great proportions...beakie helmets...and they mix perfectly with any plastic or resin spares or accessories.  It is everything you get from the old RTB 01 plastic box, but with better proportions and full compatibility with all of the bits out there.  I have a small and declining stash of these models, and I expect I will sprinkle them around the different forces in my collection so each one has a dash of "beakie" look to them.

When I contemplate how much fun the "beakie" models are, I'm surprised Forge World was ever allowed to release the Mark VI armour kits.  After all, they are connected to the heritage and original inspiration of the game, and Space Marine players and collectors love them - in my experience, both of those seem to be deal breakers with GW.  I imagine it all played out as some kind of dysfunctional corporate situation, where the Forge World guys had to sneak the designs online...

GW corporate tool: "You are not selling those old 'beakie' Space Marines are you? You KNOW we are not 'in' to that anymore..."

FW designer: "Of course not, Liege - we would never stoop to releasing anything that popular, connected to the collective positive experiences we all shared when we got into this hobby. That is fully against..."

GW corporate tool: "...against the business plan! As it is, this whole 'Horus Hesresy' thing seems dangerously popular, and we may have to give it the ol' 'specialist games treatment' at any minute, before more players start to enjoy it..." [makes throat-slashing gesture]

FW designer: "Not to worry, Liege - ensuring the best prices for the most accessible Horus Heresy models are only found in box games few people are actually interested in playing is doing a trick to ensure it is still harder for a gamer to get into the Horus Heresy than it otherwise might be..."

GW corporate tool: "Right then - get back to designing that new special character, Skully Bonerz McSkullz, King of Kaos Kookiness - he will be a special release, front page of a White Dwarf, etc."

Anyway, I digress...but the Mark VI suits ARE getting harder and harder to find on Forge World's byzantine web site, and I'm sure it is only a matter of time until word reaches GW leadership that these beautiful models are available for sale, and the sculpts are withdrawn from the web store...

Putting the "me" in team - the Alpha Legion...

So a total of 12 models in 28mm, good for another 60 points or so. The completion of this unit provides the absolute bare bones of a force for the tabletop - two troop choices (tactical squads) and an HQ (the chaplain).  This is next to nothing under the current iteration of the 30k/40k rules, but would be plenty for a game of Rogue Trader, or even just enough to wreck things for someone as some "allies" - and with friends like the Alpha Legion, who needs enemies?

This bunch is ready for action, but will require some reinforcements before they have any impact on the table...

Up next? Well, no prize for guessing the setting, but hopefully I might change up the scale...or not...whatever it is, we'll see you next week!

Alan and Paul: Excellent painting, Greg. Your very clean style does justice to those nice Forgeworld sculpts. Like you say, it's very refreshing to see Space Marines without skulls hanging off everywhere. Oh, and great GW rant!

From GregB: The Alpha Legion Arrives (45 points)

The Alpha Legion arrives on my painting table

My second submission today features a new Legion for my 30k collection - the 20th Legion, known as the Alpha Legion.  The Alphas have one of the more entertaining back stories among the numerous legions featured in GW's "Horus Heresy" setting.  The other Legions have elaborate histories - some noble, some bloody, nearly all grim, and all with long service in the endless wars which abetted the rise of the Emperor and the establishment of the Imperium.

Veteran Sergeant on the left, Chaplain on the right

Back view of the officers

The history of the Alphas, on the other hand, is not well known, on purpose.  They started off as a black ops, special forces-type organization, used by the Emperor and his senior officials for specialized activities of the sort that archivists were not meant to record. Eventually the demands of the "great crusade" were such that this force was elevated to the status of a Legion itself, and they became the 20th - and final - of the Space Marine Legions. One of many decisions the Emperor would likely come to regret...

Vexillary on the left, and a communications trooper on the right

Rear detail on the communication and vexillary models

The last Legion established, but taking the name "Alpha", is a contradiction action that fits well with how the Alpha Legion rolls.  Where the other Legions strive in the shadow of their elaborate histories to pursue greater causes and honour their ponderous histories, the Alphas just seem to be trolling the galaxy.  The Alpha Legion is all about wheels-within-wheels, schemes, plotting, subversion, spying...like a Space Marine Legion-sized version of the CIA, complete with its own military industrial complex to sustain its machinations. They can do all of the standard, scary, appear-in-orbit-and-destroy-your-world Space Marine stuff.  But before they would bother, they will probably have wrecked on the pension funds, crashed the property markets, illegally seized the leases for resource extraction and rigged the elections.  If all that wasn't enough fun, then fine - orbital assault.

The Alphas built a galaxy-spanning network of informers, agents and contacts, even infiltrating the other Space Marine legions.  They spun endless webs of information and misinformation, mixing freely and spreading them widely. As such, they were disliked and distrusted by their brother Legions. 

Some Alphas in Mark IV armour

The embossed shoulder plates are from Forge World...an expensive addiction, but I love how they look

The outbreak of the Horus Heresy was almost a coincidence for the Alphas.  Although they sided with Horus in the Heresy, the Warmaster had difficulty controlling them.  The Alphas would interpret orders as liberally as they liked, and had so many schemes going they were just as likely to fight the rebels as the loyalists.  Their main operational motto is "no witnesses".  With a bunch like this, there are a lot of possibilities for fun scenarios!

Mark VI "Corvus" power armoured figures from Forge World - the Alphas are often portrayed employing these classic "beakie" armour suits, much more so it seems than the other Legions

As an aside, if you are a Space Marine dork like me, you will fine no models to be more fun to build than these Mark VI suits from Forge World - the price is eye watering, but these are faithful to the original RTB01 plastics - you will love them

The other reason I wanted to collect this force had to do with their colour scheme. They are often seen in a blue, or blue green, with a metallic sheen, the colour of a sports car.  The downside to this cool look is that it almost always seems to involve an airbrush, a general deal-breaker for me. I tried for a couple months before the Challenge started to find a way to come up with that cool metallic blue without an airbrush, but just couldn't make it work.  So I came up with a different blue-green approach - it's not a cool, metallic-looking finish, but I'm still pretty pleased with how it is turning out and there is no airbrush involved.

Chaplain for the Alpha Legion...given their approach to the universe, I expect this guy would be into irony more than anything else

This model will do as a command figure for the Alphas until I can get some more command troops

Can you feel the "faith"?

These models were a ton of fun to paint.  They are a mix of plastics from the "Betrayal at Calth" box set, with some upgraded bits from Forge World, and some resin Mark VI power armour marines from Forge World.  The Chaplain is the "Kurtha Sedd" plastic figure from the "Betrayal at Calth" box set, painted to be an officer/command figure for the Alpha Legion.

This submission has 11 28mm infantry models, but two of the models were test paints from before the Challenge so they don't count, so this should net me another 45 points.  See you with more next week!

Great additions to your 30k collection Greg, I'm sure they will continue to sow distrust and heresy on your gaming table with skill and panache!  Your blue-green colour scheme looks very good indeed.
45 well earned points!

Paul & Alan

From GregB - The Raven Guard Arrive (50 points)

Raven Guard tactical squad for 30k

Here we have a squad of ten Space Marines for GW's Horus Heresy setting.  These Marines are from the XIX Legion, known as the "Raven Guard".  The models are 28mm, new multi-part plastics from GW's "Betrayal at Calth" box set, but the embossed logo shoulder pads are from Forge World. The Marines are wearing Mark IV power armour.

To date I have been painting the followers of Horus in 28mm - believers in "Horus for Hope" :) These are the first "good guys" I have painted for this setting and this scale.  Dallas has been carrying the Loyalist side in our gaming group, with a beautiful collection of Marines from the Blood Angels.  And, of course, the setting is very malleable, so you can even have the Sons of Horus or World Eaters fighting amongst themselves, representing the early stages of the fighting as Horus and his followers removed the loyalists from their own ranks on the world of Istvaan III.

Trooper and comms trooper

Another view - I like the comms unit a lot - nice accessory

I'm a certified 30k nut, and I thought it would be fun to do some Loyalist troops as well. The Raven Guard were loyalists in the Horus Heresy wars,  but they get kind of a raw deal in the story - their Legion (along with the Salamanders, who Jamie has been doing an incredible job painting, and another Legion, the Iron Hands) get caught in a battle known as the "drop site massacre", slaughtered in a trap set by Horus and his followers on the world of Istvaan V.

Vexillary

Legion Sergeant - I love the comb on these figures...kinda whacky...

At first, this kind of deterred me.  After all, "Who wants to play drop site massacre? That should be fun!"  But as I read into their background, they seemed kind of neat, or at least, not a pack of tools like the Ultramarines.  They have a cool symbol (Ravens - scary!). The roman numeral - XIX - has a nice look. And while the Legion took huge losses in the drop site incident, several thousand troops survived. I can imagine they would be pretty pissed about what happened, and keen to keep on fighting, making for some good potential scenarios.  One final bonus, the name "Raven Guard" opens the possibility of Edgar Allan Poe references - cool!

Ready for deployment to Istvaan...what could go wrong?

While most references have the Raven Guard in black armour, I thought I would do them in a very dark grey instead, with a black shoulder plate and a stark, white Legion symbol.  I got this idea from the Forge World guys - they painted up one of the Raven Guard dreadnoughts on their web site in this way. I'm pleased with how it turned out, and I like it a whole lot more than trying to paint so much black!

The plastics from the Betrayal at Calth box set are well done, providing the basis for a solid starting force of these fellows.  I hope to add quite a few more before this Painting Challenge is concluded.  Ten 28mm troops will get me 50 points for my sci-fi and Horus Heresy side duels...not enough, but starting to catch up! 

These are completely awesome Greg. I love the minimalist slate grey aesthetic you've gone with on these guys and those embossed Forge World shoulder pads really make them pop. I'm a big fan of the whole '30K Betrayal/Heresy' lore as well and have to admit that I'm a little jealous that I've missed the boat on this surge of building/painting. But who knows, maybe I can catch up later with an ancillary force. In the meantime, I will vicariously enjoy excellent figureslike these here. Well done Greg!