How To: Painting Alpha Legion Marines

I started off working on the Forge Fiend as I often enjoy getting something really interesting finished first so that I have the ambition to push through to the rest of the models in the army. If you’ve ever painted on a deadline or just couldn’t get an army finished, trying different ways of staying interested is probably a good idea.

I almost never paint models before they are assembled but because the forge fiend is so complicated, I chose to do the first few stages on the pieces before they were glued together. Don’t worry about the paint hindering the models assembly process because if you use plastic glue, all you have to do is let a drop of the glue sit in place and it melts the surface layer of paint. This allows you to glue pieces together even after they’ve had a couple layers of painting done on them.

The model was primed black and I started off by spraying on basecoats on the armour plates, flesh, and metal areas. This always helps me visualize the paint job coming together and covers everything in the basic layers I need to work up from. I also highlighted the blue with a very subtle spray of the blue mixture plus a little Ceremite White. The colours and mixes I used were as follows; my apologies for the use of the older paints (I’m still working through them before buying the new versions).

The base coats of the model were laid down next by painting in each of the trim sections and painting in areas where the spray didn’t cover properly. I was trying to emulate the same colour scheme as in White Dwarf October 2012. 

The washes they used were as follow (from what I can gather):

After the washes dried, I went to work line highlighting the edges between the trim and the armour plates with Knarloc Green. To help only hit the areas I wanted, I added a bit ore water then I usually would and if any paint went where I didn’t want it, I used a piece of paper towel to clean up the trim and plating. I then did the exact same process when applying the Moot Green to the cracks but tried to keep my lining even thinner this time around.

This process achieved a sort of fade between the dull and dark blue mix and the Moot Green. The highlights on the trim were picked out using Mithril Silver to create a strong contrast between the darker metal and the highlighting.

Looking at the forge fiend from the white dwarf magazine it seemed too easy to lose the glow of the weapons because they were right beside armoured plates which are just as bright. I chose to do area lighting effects as they stood out more and basically gave the model some added personality and menace.

I sprayed on a mix of Sotek Green mixed 1:1 with Ceremite White and then highlighted the same areas with lines on the raised areas with a 1:3 mix of Sotek Green and Ceremite White. The appearance is that of slight glowing effects but retains the defined shape.

I’m happy with the way he turned out and I finished the Dark Vengeance kit in the same colour scheme with slight tweaks to the process I used. For example the cultists required a slightly different colour set all together and focused on more of the Turquoise and Brown than the dark blue and bright green.

They’re ready to subvert the will of the emperor and cause havoc across the galaxy.