We Are Alpharius

In my previous post, I noted some of my general feelings surrounding burn out in the hobby. I'd like to thank everyone who commented on the post and who mailed me with their words of support (and similar confessions in one instance). Clearly I am not alone out there. Thank you. 

In many ways, I think I have been waiting for something to sufficiently pique my interest again. Something that would enable me to rekindle some of the enthusiasm that I had and get me going again. Well ladies and gentlemen, I think this happened today. 

Forge World announced that the new sculpt for Alpharius would be made available soon -- and early purchases could be made at the Coventry convention in later May. On Warhammer Community, a preview of the fully painted Alpharius model has now been made and I have copied the relevant image below (I do not have copyright on this image, and I acknowledge the owner, Warhammer Community, as the rightful owner of this image and will gladly take it down if requested. I use it here under the fair use copyright clause for the purposes of review). 

I like many aspects of this model, I have to confess. Firstly, the overall pose is one of dynamism. It is not a static pose like we see with Lorgar (whose sculpt is very much one of being in place and broodily looking); or Dorn (whose sculpt is very static and stoic, surveying the battlefield). This is a sculpt that shows the Primarch in the midst of attack, swinging his weapon to kill with a stabbing thrust motion. I suspect with a bit of a tweak, he would be made to look like he is in mid-swing or a defensive pose (add in a little head tilt, and bring the arms around a little bit perhaps to achieve this). He also, very wisely, is wearing his helmet. As joked about in some of the Horus Heresy novels, why would any space marine go in to the crucible of battle without it? Why wear a tank's worth of armour to have an exposed scalp? Alpharius shows the extent of his genius by actually wearing a damned helmet for once, unlike his lesser (more arrogant?) brothers! 

Obviously the miniature has a removable base that is smaller than the entire scenic base pictured in the image. One can almost make out the circular shape at the back left of the larger base that will be removable - in common with other primarchs. 

Interestingly, there is a marine in the base that is trying to plead or crawl away from Alpharius. I find it interesting that the painters have chosen (I use the word chosen deliberately here) to paint it as a Space Wolf. There are not too many instances in the novels of the Alpha Legion and their Primarch facing off against the Space Wolves. Perhaps this is something to look forward to?

However, when I do purchase this miniature (and that is most assuredly a "when" rather than "if"), I think I will be painting the miniature in other colours. I have toyed with a number of ideas for this ranging from Raven Guard or Salamanders to represent the Isstvan campaign and others. However, what I think I will do is convert the marine (if feasible) by attaching one of my remaining Alpha Legion heads and paint the miniature in Alpha Legion colours to represent the internal civil war within the Legion that eventually comes along to hurt the unity of their cause. 

I'd like to see a close up of the cape that Alpharius is wearing, as I think I will probably be painting it black (or at least green or purple) rather than the white we see in the image. That is about my only complaint about the paint scheme. In terms of the sculpt, I really like it overall. Not so sure about the surroundings on the base (its not got Horus or Guilliman's sense of awesome backdrop - this is very much a dirty battlefield), but I still totally like it. 

Anyway, more at future (not so far away) point...