As is often the case, this started on twitter while discussing with Warmongers and quickly escalated in a new project…
« Truth my friend, is a sketchy notion. You die today, in service of what you call the « Imperial Truth ». What if I told you your masters are already our servants? »
Audio file recovered from Lord Inquisitor Severus personal servo skull after his presumed death. M.41.
Mobile
Well this is all a warmonger’s fault. He was looking for motivation for painting some terrains one night and I was looking…I do not know what I was looking for but I was there. I said that if he got to it I would paint an Alpha Legionnaire, since I know he likes those and we have been making Alpha Legion jokes for a while (by the way, check his Alpha Legion project, it is awesome).
Well, he did paint some terrains that night (or at least he pretended to paint some, you can never fully trust members of the Alpha Legion, even when you are one), so I was in…
Opportunity
I have some (ok a lot) minis lying around waiting to be part of an hypothetical project. A couple of years ago GW tricked me into buying the 30th anniversary resculpt of the first ever « Imperial Space Marine ». I thought it was a good collector’s mini but wanted to keep it for something special.
Looking around to find a suitable Alpha Legionnaire I had a good look at it: the strange gun, exotic and outdated armour, old style beaky helmet and sneaky pose… He was Alpharius!
Means
Now I needed to find a recipe for Alpha Legion’s armour….
I asked around on the twitterverse. Some recomanded colour shifting paints from greenstuff world. I was eager to test these and ordered some but had to wait for them to arrive.
In the meantime I went to London and, as usual when I am abroad, I visited hobby shops. I found myself at Dark Sphere (great place) and started to look at the exotic paint ranges they sell. I ended buying a couple of greens and blues.
In the end I had a couple of options.
How to paint him?
I hesitated between two colour schemes: what I call the « chaos » colour scheme, which is mainly blue and what I call the Heresy Era / Forge World colour scheme, which is lighter and greener. In the end I tested some things on a random shoulder pad and ended up going my own way.
I went for a « green » colour scheme. It seems to me that heretical 40k Alpha Legionnaire are often depicted as wearing blue armour whereas 30k Alpha Legion (especially on the FW website) looks greener. I fancy the green colour scheme and decided to go that way. On top of that I wanted a « veteran of the long war » feel since the guy is a Rogue Trader era resculpt.
Another thing I decided quite early was to tune down the metalic aspect of the armour. Alpha Legion’s colour scheme is often depicted as shiny colour shifting metalic armour. It looks great but first I was afraid to get it wrong and second I like non metalic power armour. I decided to use metalic paints on equipment, shoulder and knee pads, but not much else.
Last but not least, I wanted to experiment something I rarely do: keep the mini very « clean ». My usual painting style involves a lot of dry brushing, wash and more or less controled « mistakes » which gives them a « worn out » and « dirty » look (see here for examples). This time I wanted a « neat » mini, more as a painting exercise than anything else to be honest, but I feel « one mini projects » are good opportunity to learn something.
My recipe was, in the end, quite straightforward :
- undercoat white;
- base Hydra Turquoise from the Army Painter range;
- the whole armour is outlined in plain Abaddon Black and edge highlights are a mix of Hydra Turquoise and white;
- weapons and metalics are GW Runefand steel (with a bit of Nuln Oil to shade and Runefang + white were I wanted highlights);
- the knee and elbow pads are colorshift Cobalt Blue from Green Stuff World, outlined with Abaddon Black;
- on the left shoulder pad, I used a layer of colorshift Storm Surge Green (Green Stuff World too) on top of my Hydra Turquoise base;
- for the visor and optics I used Gunmetal Blue from the Mocel Color range from Vallejo.
The crime…
« The Art of deception has nothing to do with lies. It is accepting that truth is a relative notion that makes us what we are. Truth, my friend, is a matter of point of view. »
Here you have some pictures of the finished Brother Odysseus. If you follow me on social media, you have already seen him, but here are some better pics.
Who are you Brother Odysseus?…
I served many masters but was faithful to none but One.
Of course you would not understand, how could you since you lived in the cave of your mind for so long…
If you read everything to this point, maybe you deserve to know more about Brother Odysseus.
Brother Odysseus’ memory is a tricky thing. There is not much he knows for sure and he often wonders if his memories are real or were implanted in his brain at one point in his life. Many would say his sanity is lost, but Brother Odysseus does not think so.
He knows his armour, as it is his skin, eventhough he could not tell you when it was crafted and what mark it is. He is pretty sure he did not build it himself, for he is no forge master, but he has never seen another of the same kind (at least none he remembers).
He knows his guns and blades, as they are extensions of his arms and hands. He knows of their destructive power and he honours their spirits. He believes they were made on Holy Mars, eventhough he is not sure why Mars should be Holy…
One of the few things Brother Odysseus knows for sure (but there is no telling if you should believe him or not) is that one day he was reborn as an Astartes of the XXth Legion. Since then, he serves the Hydra.
Brother Odysseus remembers his Fathers. He also remembers the Emperor walking among Astartes and men. Some days, if you ask him, he will tell you about the Great Crusade and some days, he would just look at you with blank eyes as if those words meant nothing to him.
Brother Odysseus is a veteran of the Long War, eventhough he forgot a long time ago which side he is fighting on and sometimes he even has difficulties to grasp why that war is waged…
He remembers when a pack of wolves burnt Prospero, but he has no clue as why he would have been there. He remembers semi-gods fighting and diing before the walls of the Imperial Palace on Terra, but always wonder how he could have survived such a cataclysmic battle. He rememebers the Eye, eventhough he bears no touch of the Warp and thus wonder if he ever went there. Brother Odysseus’ mind is a complex one…
For ages Brother Odysseus has travelled the galaxy, in plain sight and in disguise. He has fought many many wars and killed foes and allies alike. He has fought under the Aquila and the Eight Pointed Star, and many other lesser banners. Why, would you ask? For Honour? For Glory? Brother Odysseus does not crave those things. For revenge? Maybe, but Brother Odysseus would tell you he does not remember what wrong has been done to him that would justify ten millenia of fighting.
If you explored the dark corners of Brother Odysseus’ mind you may find that he keeps on fighting for the Hydra, but that may well be only part of the truth.
Brother Odysseus is the poison and the cure, for he is the Alpha Legion. He keeps on fighting.
For his Legion. For his Brothers and Fathers. For the Hydra.
We are One.
Well that’s all for folks. Hope you liked what you read, see you soon.
Banner picture found on the interweb, other pictures are mine.
Le Terrier du Verménarque 