Table Ready: Alpha Legion Praetor

[This post was originally posted to Otherverse Games & Hobbies as part of a series called Plastic to Painted, or P2P. You may see logos or references to this site and series]

Praetor Lore

The title of Praetor was an Astartes rank used during the Great Crusade and throughout the Horus Heresy.  These guys were exceptional leaders and warriors that were typically only exceeded by their Primarch in terms of martial and political skills.  Praetors typically led Legion Chapters and can be compared to Chapter Masters in 40K terms.  Whether directly leading military forces or acting in a support capacity, the Heresy novels are riddled with these guys.  Some of the more notable Praetors are Corswain of the Dark Angels, Calas Typhon of the Death Guard, Azek Ahriman of the Thousand Sons, and Sigismund of the Imperial Fists.  Needless to say there were a lot of these cats moving through the void in the 31st Millennium.  However I want to focus on one Praetor in particular for this article: the one I painted for my Alpha Legion force.


The Model

Now for the most part I’m not one to go full bling on my models.  Honestly it’s a rarity if my dudes even get decals on their pauldrons.  This is especially true of Alpha Legion.  It’s not that the upgrades aren’t cool or beautiful, it’s the fact that I want almost my whole force to be anonymous.  It’s that whole lore piece of ‘I am Alpharius’ and no one is who they really claim to be.  There’s a sense of power behind that feeling and it can’t be ignored.  But for tabletop purposes I need to identify key models for the sake of playability.  However I broke my anonymity rule with both of Forgeworld’s Praetor offerings for the Alpha Legion.  Consequently I ended up picking up the Cataphractii and Power Armor versions at the same time.

At this stage I’ve only built and painted the Cataphractii version and am hoping to get to the Power Armor version in the near future.  I have to say that this model was a joy to build and paint.  I generally tend to shy away from resin as I’ve never had a great track record with it.  But in this case the model was pretty clean with minimal filing and trimming needed.  Overall I painted the whole model in sub-assemblies to make it easier for myself.  I did the standard black priming, drybrush base coat of Sotax Green, painted the trim and metallic pieces Leadbelcher, and picked out a few cables and hoses in either Corvus Black or Mephiston Red.  I then applied spot washes of Nuln Oil on the metallic, black, and red areas.  I followed up the red by applying a thin coat of Evil Sunz Scarlet, Dawn Stone on any black tubing, and drybrushed the Volkite Charger in Leadbelcher. 

For the cape and strapping I wanted more of a cream color to set him apart a little more than the typical reds that I see most often. For this I started with a base coat of Rakarth Flesh, followed by a Seraphim Sepia wash.  From there I did a pretty heavy drybrush of Ushabti Bone.  I then went back and painted any rivets or metal clasps in Leadbelcher and applied a spot wash of Nuln Oil. 

For the base I applied the rock, primed everything black, applied a coat of Astrogranite Debris, washed everything in Nuln Oil, then drybrushed Longbeard Grey over everything.  I cleaned up the base ring with Abaddon Black and then applied skulls and grass tufts from GW and Army Painter, respectively.  One issue I did run into is that you need to glue on the cape before you attach the arms.  There are grooves on either side of his waist where the cape slots in and are then covered by the arms.  I accidentally glued the arms on first and then went to attach the cape.  Luckily I didn’t snap any resin but just something to be aware of.

The end result?  I love it.  Sure it’s a heavy bend on my anonymity rule, but sometimes you need to let that stuff slide.  The end result in table performance?  I like to think it was a legionnaire in the armor and not the actual Praetor.  I’ll discuss more of that in a future article, but I’m saying the jury is still out on rating the job done.  Although he whiffed a lot in combat, and I DO MEAN A LOT, he was still a nice addition to the list and a great model to have on the table.  We’ll have to see how he performs in the future. 

Until next time: Hydra Dominatus.



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Ryan

A New England transplant that originated from parts westward, Ryan is a bit of a nerd that knows a little bit about a lot of things, all while claiming to know nothing about anything.  Seemingly part Khajit a logistician by trade, he’s the kind of guy that can get you virtually anything if there’s coin to be had a problem to solve.  Ryan began to learn the scrounging arts while serving time in parts east as a Loggie and has been perfecting them steadily over several decades.  He has a problem with continually purchasing models, paints, and terrain that he doesn’t really need but his wife doesn’t seem to mind.

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