Alpha Legion - Advice on paint scheme

[fish0311]

After painting up way too many Necrons over the years (and general disgust at the flying circus and change of fluff), I decided to stretch my comfort zone and try out some Space Marines for a change of pace on both the table-top and hobby-top. I've always had a soft spot for the Alpha Legion, and with the recent love in BL novels (I still remember "Legion" fondly, keeping me up late at night while deployed on ship), decided to give them a go. However, after a couple of attempts (and de-greaser baths!), I've come to settle on 2 separate paint schemes, and the choice and direction on where to go with them are causing me some concern.

I'm going with vanilla Space Marine models (never liked the spiky bits and warped models of Chaos Marines for the AL) using the new Chaos Codex, as my intent is to build a post heresy renegade legion list sans any and all Daemons and marks; mostly traitor guard allies/cultists with a strong core of "veterans of the long war" tactical marines, light vehicles, and a couple of havoc teams.

So here are a few pictures of each style I've started to paint up, and I'd love to hear any and all feedback/criticism of each style to better base my decision on.


Missile launcher Marine, blended highlights from purple to blue with a black ink wash, silver and scorpian green details.
http://i45.tinypic.com/4g3p6d.jpg

http://i49.tinypic.com/2mchmjt.jpg

[fish0311]

And an autocannon Marine, blended highlights from purple to blue with a purple wash, silver and bronze details, teal and scorpian green extreme highlights
http://i50.tinypic.com/ou5i02.jpg

http://i46.tinypic.com/2m4zsy8.jpg

http://i47.tinypic.com/1zx2rtd.jpg

[fish0311]

And both side by side.
http://i45.tinypic.com/mn2haq.jpg



Obviously, both are still heavily WIP. I like how the extreme highlights turned out, especially for my first time trying them out. I am more than likely going to go back in and thin them out a little so they don't overrun the model too much. But I also enjoy the simple look of the ML Marine. Another idea I wanted to explore was to do the extreme highlights in a brighter teal instead of the scorpian green, keeping the head stripe and hydra head scorp green. Freehanding symbols is still beyond me at the moment, but I might revisit the option at a later date to give some more life to the flatter areas.

So let me have it! Which would you choose and how would you proceed from there? Any critiques welcome!

[Narcissus]

My vote is definitely for number one. I like the stripe on the helmet on number two, but the highlights on the edges are not my favourite.

Ultimately though it is your army. You have to paint them so pick the scheme that is the most fun to you!

[White Tiger88]

Number two is pretty good, only thing besides the green highlights you need are the lightning strikes on the armor.

[Deadlift]

Number two is pretty good, only thing besides the green highlights you need are the lightning strikes on the armor.

Thats Night Lords :)

Number 1 I think, the green highlights look a little unnatural, but then it is Chaos so.......who knows :)

[RealGenius]

I prefer the one on the right, with the green highlights. It is immediately identifiable as Alpha Legion and has much more interesting contrast than the one on the left. Really, all the work is lost on the left, it just looks like you put on a blue base coat, there's not enough highlight.

[fish0311]

I just wanted to thank y'all for the input and figured I'd post up an update with the finalized (and finished!) paint scheme:

http://i46.tinypic.com/el87y0.jpg

http://i48.tinypic.com/1yptag.jpg

http://i46.tinypic.com/x24g9k.jpg

[RealGenius]

That looks great! I love the serpent cloak. You gonna do that on all the guys or just specials?

It looks like the green is a little bit more muted, not as bright as before, and I think that works better.

[fish0311]

Thank you! I plan on giving all bolter/tactical marines the cloaks and leaving the heavy weapons/havocs without (since they usually have cool and monstrous backpacks). The bulk of the army will comprise of cultists or guardsmen, so I can afford to get cute with the "elite" of the army.

As for the green, I had a wonderful jade green color sitting around that ended up doing most of the work for me. I liked the look of the edge highlights, but the scorpion green was a little too "in your face". I tried out that jade green and then thinned the lines out with a custom made turquoise to blend it with the blue. I found immediately it was a lot easier on the eyes but still really made the model "pop" in a much cleaner way. I tried to get fancy with the cape so many times (highlighting each scale, heavy washing, etc.) and finally went with a more simplistic approach that left me very happy in the end.