Alpha Legion Color Scheme

Well after what seems like ages of trying to figure out what color scheme I wanted to do I think I have finally figured it out.  As I was writing my last post about color schemes and picking a Horus Heresy Army I posted this picture, which I love, and realized I wanted to figure out a color scheme as close to this as possible, while giving it a bit of my own flair.  So, what do I love about this scheme?  I love the metallic blue paired with grey/silver.

So, as I was perusing blogs I came across a post (unfortunately I can't remember whose or I would link it here) where they talked about spraying a glaze onto a model instead of brushing.  This allowed a relatively even coat and you could make it darker or lighter depending on how many coats you did.  Well, I decided to try it out with a bright metallic base with a badab black wash and got the following after two passes.  

I really like the color scheme of this model.  You can tell that it is metallic blue and the glaze makes real shadows as the light hits it from different directions.  As an added bonus it is relatively quick and I feel that it looks different from a typical Ultramarines blue.  I really like the white helmets and I can't really figure out why except for the contrast.  I also like the grey detailing but I'm still trying to figure out what the spot color should be.  What do you think, orange or green?

On the model above you can see that after washing the original metallic color with black I went back and line highlighted with the metallic color.  I decided not to do this on the final models mainly because I don't like the look.  I really enjoyed the finished look of the blue model above and how it contrasts with the line highlighted grey detailing.

So, that leaves me with a color scheme mostly decided upon (besides a spot color) and I can now get to work on my Legion Reconnaissance Squad.  I have loved this squad since Forgeworld first put them out and hope I can do it justice.  I'm also going to try doing some battle damage with drybrushed silver and so we'll see how that goes.  This is my last post of the week which means I'll be going to 2 or 3 posts a week from now on.  In the next post I hope to have some really good updates on the legion tactical squad for your comments and criticism!  Until next time.

Kabal of a Thousand Nights

The Kabal of a Thousands Nights is the very small and WIP Dark Eldar army.  I've long been a supporter of the Craftworld Eldar but wanted to take the dive and try out a Dark Eldar army.  The updated models are absolutely gorgeous and the difficult play style is something I wanted to try out.  So, if you can tell from my iPhone photos, these Dark Eldar are not dark at all.  They are painted in Dheneb Stone/Rakarth Flesh with Blue/Grey weapons and green leather/flesh.  As I thought about the DE I decided that I wanted to do something out of the norm and so I began brainstorming army ideas, background, color schemes, names, etc.

Something I love about the Dark Eldar is their semi-nomadic nature in real space.  The appear seemingly from nowhere, descend upon isolated settlements or worlds, take what they need and want, then vanish.  This idea reminded me of the marauding tribes in pre-islamic Arabia that would descend out of the desert and attack villages, trade caravans, etc.  So, I wanted a color scheme that was simple, striking, gave homage to Islam and the history of the Middle East (I studied Arabic, Farsi, and the Middle East in University).  So the armor is painted to look like sand and camouflage the raiders and warriors as they attack out of the desert.  The green color is fun to paint, striking with the desert colors, and is recognized as the color of Islam because this is the color that Muhammed wore.  Not only that, but I thought that it looked remarkably like Ork skin and that the nomadic nature of the DE could transfer into them hunting, and herding tribes of Orks in addition to terrorizing other peoples.

As I hope you can see in the photos I used greenstuff to create scarves around the faces of each of the models.  This will be a recurring theme throughout the army (except possibly on the Incubi who are too awesome to need scarves).  This is a throwback again to pre-islamic marauders, but also a realistic way for the DE to keep the sand and sun away from their mouths and skin.  I am really bad with green stuff so it also gives me an opportunity to practice and get more comfortable with the medium.  Perhaps I'll do a short tutorial on how to make them for people that are interested.

I don't want to write a novel and have a ton of work that I should be doing instead so I'll leave the back story until a later post.  I know that the army badge will be Arabic script for one thousand in a stylized and brutal way.  I really enjoy writing Arabic so it will be fun to incorporate it into the models.  I'm actually hoping to practice painting a few of these guys with the airbrush soon and see if I can speed up the laborious line highlight process.  We'll see how that goes (I don't have a lot of hope because of the thickness of the paints).  I'll leave you with two more WIP models.  I haven't quite decided on the basing scheme.  I had thought to use desert themed but know that contrast is nice so I might base them in an urban theme as if they had just entered the city.  I don't know yet.

The shock prow already looks like
it has Arabic Script on it!

Alpha Legion Test Models

So I've been using the Dark Vengeance Dark Angels to try out the airbrush and figure out what scheme I like the most for Alpha Legion if that's what I decide to go for with my Forgeworld Horus Heresy stuff.  This is the first time I've ever panted without a base and I must say that it is really fun, much easier, and makes me feel way more legit because it's what I see on other people's blogs.  One of the hardest things to figure out about painting Alpha Legion is what color to paint them!  Pictures I've seen put them in dark blue, light blue, all shades of green, and even purple like the cover of the Legion book.

"Metallic Look"

These are three of the looks that I have been trying out.  Unfortunately I actually like them all I think but I have to pick just one right?  So, if anyone ever sees this I'd love to get your take on what you think is coolest or most accurate.  Another consideration is time.  Line highlighting sort of sucks and maybe the new airbrush will help me speed that up.  Not only that, but airbrush line highlighting will make the color modulation a lot better and a lot cleaner.

I posted these pictures on a facebook group and one person said they like the metallic one the best.  At first it wasn't my favorite but I'm actually starting to lean towards it.  It looks pretty cool, different, and changes based on how you look at it sort of like the Alpha Legion.  Anyway, we'll see which one I end up using if I don't go with Iron Warriors or Imperial Fists instead.

Blue

Greenish Blue