Epic Imperial Fists Update 1

Not much to say - sliced my finger up in the garden trying to get it ready for the BBQ season, so took my rage out on ole' Yella aka the Sons of Dorn.

got a load done despite having to do multiple coats per unit (I hate painting yellow - the black undercoat was a bad move!)

nothing quite finished yet, but as a bonus i found another 2 Terminator models on an old sprue, so was able to bump the unit count up to 3 per stand, which looks a bit more intimidating!

Also - started reading the netEpic rules and was pretty impressed. I'd always assumed they were based on the Epic:40,000 or Armageddon rules, rather then SM2/Titan Legions, but was pleasantly surprised to find out otherwise!

Epic Ultramarine Progress Update 2

Two Posts in one day?! I don't see this happening much.

Anyhoo, not much chat - bit of a hangover meant a lot of productive painting time this afternoon. I've completed my Ultramarine battle company, Scouts, Chaplain, Apothecary and Librarian (and their respective Rhinos) to a standard I'm happy with - its not going to win any Golden Daemon awards (do they still do that?!) but I think they are certainly 'Table-Top' standard. (now looking at the photos I've spotted a few things to do - lights on some rhinos, and a bit of basing to tidy up!)

Holding a glass of whisky, staring in to distance through a window, as the rain runs down it. (AKA not painting and looking at old photos instead)

As i embark on the latest cycle of collecting, painting (and talking about playing) war games miniatures i cast my mind back to the last time, or it might be two times ago, its all a bit of a blur...

I've mentioned before that Epic/Space Marine was the pinnacle of GW games for me and it is one of the few that i played regularly with my brother and some school mates during my childhood and into my early teens.

During these years my older brother must have sank a fortune into buying stuff for the 3-4 decent armies we had, and he had them painted an in the fight before i could blink, (a skill that doesn't seem to run in the family!) along with great homemade terrain.

Our love of the game wandered as we got older (as it did for GW too it would seem!) and 4 or so years ago after a bit of a general clear out we decided to sell up everything that i had kept boxed up under my bed from my parents house.

We photographed it all for eBay and it was all gone within the week - if i remember i think we got a decent price for it all so can't really grumble too much!

Now - i find myself trawling the web, buying back almost identical minis and feeling like a total idiot for selling it in the first place.

I suppose the good thing this time around is i get to personalise them for myself and can seek out the stuff we never had and hopefully rekindle my love of this awesome game.

C'est la vie, and on to the photos.

Orkies - never got much play time as we tended to go for Imperial vs Eldar, but great fun none the less!

'My' army - loved the Warp Hunters and Revenant titans!

The backbone of the Imperium - we had a load more incidentally - but the bigger items, like titans were sold individually.

Our Dark Angels and Blood Angels marines - Thunderhawk awesomeness. makes me wince seeing the price i'd have to pay to get one of those again for my new Ultramarine/Imperial Fists!

And a wee brucie bonus - 40k (30k?!) MK1 Predator and scout. in the grim, dark future there is only Grey.

Epic Ultramarine Progress Update 1

A quick update on the progress of my budget-friendly Epic Space Marines.

The plan is to squeeze two different Space Marine chapter battle groups (using 2nd ed. Epic/Space marine conventions) with a bit of variation/fluff for them, all from the Epic 40,000 boxed set contents and a few other odd sprues i have to hand;

So Far;

1 x Ultramarine Battle Company (6x Tac marines, 6x Assault, 6x Devestators and a company HQ, all in Rhinos)
1 x Ultramarine Scout detachment (6x scouts)
1x Ultramarine Land Raider detachment (3x Land Raiders)
1x Ultramarine Whirlwind detachment (3x WhirlWinds)
1x Chaplin/Librarian/Tech-Priest/Apothocary + Custom Rhino (more on this later)

then;

1 x Imperial Fists Tac or Devastator company (depends if i can find some more of either unit type!)
1 x Imperial Fists Terminator Detachment (4x Terminator Stands + 2x Land Raiders)
1 x Imperial Fists Land Raider detachment (3x Land Raiders)
1 x Imperial Fists Whirlwind detachment (3x WhirlWinds)
1 x Imperial Fists Bike detachment (5x bikes)
1x Chaplin/Librarian/Tech-Priest/Apothocary + Custom Rhino

So, in order to do this i'm cutting a few corners regarding miniatures per stand - and i think this will look good/better than the prescribed 5x minis per 20mm square or 10x40mm base, as long as i'm consistent!

I'm going for 1 pence and 2 pence coins as bases (as they are cheap, have a nice weight to them, and some are magnetic...)

I plan on mounting medium armoured units (i.e. bog standard space marines) in groups of 3 per 1p coin
for larger units such as terminators i'll do 2 per 1p coin
for smaller units like imperial guardsmen or ork boyz i'll try and squeeze 4 minis on per 1p or bump them up to 5x on a 2p coin (will do some testing later)

Bikes, speeders, sentinels etc i'm going 1 mini per 1p, and as for mounting vehicles - a 2p would work for most, but i'm undecided whether to bother!

So, enough rambling... on to the pics!

Ultramarine Devestators - fairly happy with these guys, got a bit bored doing them as they were the old 2nd ed minis on the new sprue and i was looking forward to all new toys! Anyhoo, i did a quick bash on a few of them to turn their missile launchers into make-shift plasmas, and it looks ok from a distance, just need to tidy up the edges of the stands with some brown paint and i'll consider them done!

Ditto for the Tac Marines - plus it looks like i've missed a few shoulder details on some!

The company HQ - Standard bearer needs a snazzy banner to hold for a start!. HQ Rhino needs finishing - i've added the comms dish from a 40k rhino kit and the chapter symbol from a 40k land speeder kit (my bitz box is unlimited it seems!) to mount them flush i simply filed down the top hatch and front panels.

Coming soon... the Imperial Fists (although the test unit of Assault marines will soon be Blue as i don't have enough for a detachment of them!)

Notice - all my character units (Librarian, Tech-Priest, Apoc and Chaplin) are all magnetized on their bases?! This allows me to create a unit per chapter of 2 std marines on the rear of a 1p and simply swap the front guy out depending on the scenario - neat huh? (I am scottish, so any way to save money works for me!)

It means i can also make up mixed HQ stands with various characters on them.

Anyhoo - thats all i've got for this update, heres what i've got on my immediate 'to-do' list (hopefully in order of sorts!);

Finish the Epic Space Marines off
Clean up the Warlord Titan
Make a start on either the boxes of Imperial Guard, Orks or Eldar i've got piled in the corner of the room!
More 6mm Terrain
Actually play a game of Epic Space Marine! (first time in 15 odd years!)
Figure out what 40k stuff to keep/sell (got boxes and boxes of it in various states and no motivation to do anything with it - unless i can find some 2nd Edition 40k players who fancy a game, and i can be bothered re-learning the rules!)

Cheers!

Craig,