Heresy Era Alpha Legion - Batch painting gets out of hand!

Got the heads on the Geno Five-Two, but the weather is chilly enough that I can't warrant primering 'em yet. That means it's time to switch gears and get stuck in with the Alpha Legion, and it was time to fire up the batch painting machine! Started off with the 20-man tactical squad, and suddenly got the idea that I may as well knock out the base purple on all of the models at once. I've often wondered how many models is too many. It turns out 46 is too many. Hah!

I started off with a basecoat of Vallejo Night Blue, which is a very dark blue/violet. Almost indistinguishable from the black basecoat in the pics.

Next up was a drybrush pass of Vallejo Dark Blue, which to me is much more of a dark violet/purple than blue in my eye. Definitely on the cooler end of the spectrum.

The next step was a much lighter drybrush of Hexed Lichen just on the upper surfaces of the models, leaving the naturally shadowed areas far darker.

Lastly the models were all given a wash of GW's Druchii Violet to tone down the purple and blend them all together. Bit of a slog plowing through all the models at once, so will likely break the units out for the detailing stages - trying to do all of them to completion in this batch size? That way lies madness!

Heresy Era Alpha Legion - Headhunters and Efrit Stealth Squad built

The flurry of building continues apace, and I've managed to finish building all of the Alpha Legion allies to accompany the Geno Five-Two. First up, the Efrit Stealth Squad:

Pretty much your bog-standard recon marines, with an Alpha Legion upgrade head for the sergeant. Nothing to write home about and not necessarily the best choice on an effectiveness-to-points ratio, but rather fluffy to have, as the unit is explicitly mentioned in the book!

Next up are the Headhunters, the second of the Alpha Legion's special units (alongside the Lernaeans). With banestrike rounds and Preferred Enemy (Infantry), they're really designed to gun down their fellow marines, and they can take a heavy bolter with a suspenson web for a little extra dakka. Wanted to bling them up a bit more than the basic marines, so they all got the Alpha Legion upgrade heads, and I added a scope to each of the bolters to help 'em stand out as having some specialist equipment.

Last but not least, I banged together the two characters from the box set. The terminator will be used to represent Sheed Ranko, the ostensible leader of the force. No real plans to field the chaplain at the moment, and I'm thinking I may clip the crozius off of him and replace it with some alternate weapon - perhaps another pistol and make him into a Moritat, or a paragon blade for use as a power-armoured Praetor.

It was nice enough out yesterday to get some models primered, so with the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday weekend I'm hoping to get some paint on some of 'em!