Is there such a thing as too many Lernaeans?
Possibly. Or Not?
Exodus was a pleasure to paint! My take on him follows the standard Alpha Legion approach that I've worked on over the years with metallic blue main parts, silver edging, and highlights as appropriate.
The Instrument is not so picked out here - I was aiming for a plainer approach overall which is complemented nicely with the Armageddon Dunes on the base in terms of the colouring. The decal on the tabard is from the standard transfer sheet.
For the cape of the model, I decided on something much more original!
Behold a pointillism colour transition! The idea here is straight forward enough. Stripes of colour from black to blue and back again have been done diagonally across the cape. These have then had points of colour from the adjoining colours applied to them to help blend them together. From a distance the effect is beautiful. Even close up, it still works, but it becomes obvious how the transition has been accomplished. And maybe that's how Exodus' technology works: pixels of colour that change like a chameleon. Just my take on the concept anyway. Hope you like it!
And just before Christmas, here are two more Lernaean Alpha Legion terminators painted up.
The man on the left is toting a conversion beamer with a power axe. He might or might not get too much use depending on whether I'm thinking of a back line squad, or something much more aggressive.
The man on the right is intended to be the sergeant / harrower of the unit. There's a power dagger hooked on the right of his tabard which in game will generate a handy extra attack -- even with the chain fist that he is wearing. Indeed, the power dagger upgrade is almost always going to be worth taking for a character model in the Alpha Legion.
It seems like a long time ago since I posted the conversion I did for an Alpha Legion Lernaean terminator toting a volkite culverin! Regardless, here is the painted up outcome ready for the table top.
The model follows my newer approach to the metallic blue for the Alpha Legion (which is to say using contrast paints). This has come out well but is a touch darker than some of my earlier terminators. I can live with that since the Alpha Legion is notorious for slightly different armourial colours and iconography.
The silver edgings are reasonable, but I think they could do with a touch more edge highlighting as this is lost in the distance. The Alpha Legion icon on the knee is something that I might come back to to pick out in gold as well. Other than these minor issues, I think that this one is safely done and dusted. I'm very pleased with the base in particular which blends in with the ruined Imperial Sector terrain that I own in terms of colour scheme.
Behold: the assembled Exodus model!
Hopefully from this angle it can easily be seen that the right hand is feeding The Instrument. The level of detail on this miniature is absolutely insane though. Really looking forward to getting some time to paint Exodus now that he's here.
Exodus -- the one who is many -- has arrived!
And to whet everyone's appetite, here are the parts fresh out of the box!
Let me offer two bits of advice to anyone else who has bought and received Exodus.
(1) Dry fit the parts before committing to gluing.
(2) The left arm - the one that is holding The Instrument - is especially painful. Take extra care with this. It really is one of the more fiddly arrangements that I've come across and why the middle of the left arm could not be attached to the instrument or the shoulder is a bit baffling.
Regardless of the above, I'm really pleased with the level of detail of this miniature. What might not be apparent from the box art is that Exodus' right hand is inserting a bullet into the Instrument, rather than switching the modes on the end of the weapon. This is a really nice touch indeed.
Although I was sorely tempted to paint and then assemble, I have decided that I am going to do it the other way around. It will mean the inside of the cape remains solid black, but I can live with that!
Today, a second Lernaean conversion armed with a Volite Culverin, and a chain fist.
This one follows the same basic approach as the first Lernaean Volkite Culverin. The right arm is in a different pose to the first one and the basic issue with the conversion is getting the wrist of the weapon to sit flush with the terminus of the right arm. In this case, I have pinned the joint to supply more strength. I might yet add a touch of liquid green stuff to ensure that the joint is sufficient hidden for the painting stage, as well as more stones on the base. The handle of the Culverin has had the left hand removed for obvious reasons. It has been shortened, but I have retained the end of the handle which now looks a bit like a sight or a scope light? Meanwhile the left arm is simple a plastic chain fist and the head from the same terminator range. The idea behind this squad is to have them all chain fist armed and ready for close combat or tearing apart vehicles and dreadnoughts at close range whilst retaining anti-infantry fire power.
Behold! The might of a fully painted and operational Xiphon Interceptor that belongs to the Alpha Legion!
I wanted to aim for something that looks a bit more battle damaged than the usual affair. The reason for this is that the Xiphon is supposed to be an ancient construct and those that are in existence may have been pressed back into the civil war due to sheer need. I think this particular example shows this well. I have also taken some inspiration from the image of "survivorship bias" that you can see on wikipedia here and that I reproduce below under the appropriate CC-BY-SA-4 license.
To cut a long story short, there are certain shots on target that won't matter, and others that will. The picture shows the shots that returning planes in real life came back with. The point is not to reinforce where these shots are, but where they are NOT (i.e. on the pilot, engines, and so forth). Admittedly, I have a few shots on one of the engines here, but they're not mega serious otherwise the craft would already be out of action. Instead, I have tried to put most of the damage shots on areas where the craft would be likely to tolerate, survive, and return to base. I think this works overall, and the decals for the Alpha Legion really ties everything together very nicely.
The final confession is that I haven't actually modeled the base yet! Suggestions are very welcome as to what should be on that grand sized oval based!
