I am Alpharius. Also, Syra.

                                          A case of split personalities

Peer pressure. That's where my hobby story begins: 

At the tender age of 11 I had just started a secondary school where the kids were playing this crazy game with dice and they simply demanded I join them. I can still hear them saying: "...don't collect Space Marines, everyone does... there's Orks and Eldar and they are way cooler!" 

I had no idea what they were talking about, I didn't even know what an 'ork' was back then... 

My only previous experience of miniature models was ruining my brother's Airfix MIG29 jet by pulling all the numbered parts off the sprue in my excitement to 'help' him. At that time Warhammer 40k's Third Edition was just coming out and of course it transpired that the 'everyone' who collected space marines were actually the kids telling me not to (clearly they had need of a punching bag).

So that weekend I convinced my parents to take me to the nearest Games Workshop store and bought some Space Marines.

And they looked a little something like this (but worse)

Hobby history:

Over the last 15 years I've had a little taste of everything in 40k. I confess to having dropped in and out of the hobby over the years as interest has waxed and waned, but luckily reading Black Library novels has always kept the grimdark fires of war burning, drawing me back. I'm a collector at heart and a bit of a magpie in that I need to have all the pretty shiny things. This has resulted in some eclectic collections of models, and some ill-conceived conversions, but nowadays I'm a more focused hobbyist - I can build an army to a list. As long as I have the odd passion/painting project on the side! 

Armies Collected in the past:

• Space Marines:
• Angels of Death (Blood Angels) - briefly in 2nd Edition (gone)
• Craftworld Eldar: 
• Beil-Tan - from start of 3rd Edition (evolved)
• Yme-Loc - 6th Edition (going) 
• Chaos Space Marines:
• Khorne - 3rd Edition (evolved)
• Alpha Legion & Night Lords - 4th Editions (evolved)
• Renegade Warband - 6th Edition (evolved)
• Tyranids: 5th & 6th Editions (going) 
• Imperial Guard - 6th Edition (gone)

Current armies:

• Chaos Space Marines (Nurgle) - 7th Edition
• Imperial Knights - 7th Edition
• Space Marines (Imperial Fists, Crimson Fists, Black Templars) 6th & 7th Editions - In the lore this army is perhaps my truest love, and will be evolving to a Horus Heresy army in time for the Siege of Terra!

Soon we shall stand on the ramparts of Terra my precious Sons of Dorn...

I made my first pilgrimage to Warhammer World earlier this year with Buteo for the Horus Heresy Weekender and the doors of my mind were blown open. It was time, I realised, to leave Games Workshop trailing in the dust and become a resin fiend. I've already planned the return trip and will be heading up to the Forge World Open Day with my fellow bloggers next month!

So why the Alpha Legion? 

Well, I've always harboured a passion for the subtle, the deceptive and the downright sneaky. I value the thief in the shadows as much as the paladin in gleaming plate, which lets face it is more of an ideal to aspire to than the reality of the rogue it's so easy to be. Maybe I just can't decide where the line between good and bad is.

For a while I have been tempted to begin a 30k army but I wasn't really sure if I should take the plunge. My Chaos army too, has a long history of being affiliated... or infiltrated?... with/by the Alpha Legion. On top of that I was further inspired by the gorgeous paint job on the FW Alpha Legion contemptor at the Weekender (which made me buy one there and then!).

The pact was finally sealed when one morning weeks later I opened my work bag (which I don't even keep in the same room as my warhammer) and found, lying at the bottom, one of these:

Now which operative of the Legion planted it there I have no idea, but I have been marked by the hydra and so I will serve (completely true story).