March (early) round-up - Mostly Epic!

 I'm a little early this month, but making hay whilst the sun shines i guess!

It's been a productive few weeks, where I've had a little spark of creativity and decided to revisit some 6mm projects I had bouncing around my brain and bits box...

I started with some Ork character stands and their gretchin body guards - a Painboy, Mekboy, Wierdboy, Runtherd and Warlord, which i had based up last year and finally decided to put paint to plastic. (At the end of the month i realised i was a few Nobz short too, so added them).

Some Goff Gutrippas followed - I just had them and fancied painting them, which is a recurring theme this month.

I (sort-of) made some squat progress, although not in the way i wanted. I still couldn't bring myself to paint the infantry, instead I knocked out a Collosus and it's recon Gyro-Copter, a Leviathan for the IG which was already thick with paint and I didn't bother stripping it, and them some kit bashed Goliath Mega Cannon.

The Cannon were inspired by a few things.

• Dog turd bag roll tubes - looked a decent size (probably a bit big in fairness!) and I had lots to hand.
• The price of the originals - some crazy scalps selling them for £15+ a model!
• The fact i don't like the originals, and felt they needed to be somewhat self-propelled to be 'realistic'
• an excuse to kitbash, and it ties in nicely with my squat lore, that my guys are closely tied to the ad-mech, sharing tech and resources, so the older STLs and vehicles have been passed on and modified

I messed around with a few configurations settling on a more compact design, mostly to make them easier to store and more robust, and I'm really happy with them.

The Poundland/Dollar-store tunneller got some paint too as a test. I have another 2 so will maybe run them as Moles to take my squat warriors into combat.

The green imperial Knight Palladin Household were finished - after sitting base coated in my bits box for a year or so. They are rough, but passable.

The last 2 demon prince proxies from Vanguard got a lick of paint. These projects are great for a rainy mid-week lunch break effort as they (and everything this month) come together very quickly.

Lastly - more Orks! Madboyz, 3 units of them to fill up any 2nd edition army free support slots. Had to be done!

On to April now - Squats! Bikers, Infantry, Light artillery and then we are done.

Bolt action - finish the Volksstrum.

Maybe some more kitbashing... We'll see.

A new Craftworld sighted - Epic

Having recently acquired more Epic minis than i'll ever likely paint/play with in a single life time i've decided to do the sensible thing and... Start duplicating my painted armies! :)

To a certain extent at least.

I'll be painting some new stuff (should finally be able to 'complete' my Ork force, as well as start some proper Chaos now that i have the infantry sprues.) However to rekindle my painting fires, and for an excuse to use the airbrush i'm going to start with a new Eldar force.

I'll use these to bolster my existing Biel-Tan dudes, or for use in smaller/allied games.

I've set aside;

A Company of Falcons

A Jetbike Company

2 Phantom Titans

2 Revenant Scout Titans 

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And if i can be arsed, some other skimmers and some infantry.

Paint Scheme on the test Falcon below, i'm pretty happy with it, and it will blend nicely with some painted stuff i've picked up, as well as provide a nice contrast to the other armies in my collection.

Couldn't resist having one of the Phantoms doing a bit of posing.

Also on the cards - Paint up a couple more Traitor and Loyalist Warlord Titans in the schemes below to allow me to play some nice big titan games! (New Adeptus Titanicus next year hopefully!)

And in other news - finally got hold of Star Wars: Rebellion board game for a decent price. played it a few times now and its great. Blow those Wookies to hell!

Have a great Christmas, and a Happy New Year! (Resolution as always is going to be to paint more, and post more... We'll see.)

Post Holiday inspiration - Epic Land Raiders

I seem to always start posts with apologies of lack of posts, but hey ho!

Apologies for the absence - I've not got a massive amount of new stuff to show for it either, although I have been playing a lot, so guess that's something!

Here's some old school "rogue trader" era pattern Blood Angels land raiders - i'm toying with the idea of having each detachment of the company in a slightly different scheme, to show their elite status and that they have been around for a while!

These are my first attempt, and I'm fairly happy, might add some more bits later (finishing off with flags etc is always the part i miss, but love the old white dwarf look it gives)

So the plans for the remainder of the year (and beyond realistically) are;

Bump my current Blood Angels detachments up to company size (Terminator, Devestator, Assault, Tactical, Bike), Add to the Death company and do some Veteren Assault troops, Furioso dreads etc.
Re-base the old guys (currently on goblin green bases, which looks kind of cool in an old school way, but its a bit boring)

Finish my Dark Angels army (Deathwing, Ravenwing, Battle Company, support units) - mostly base coated, just need detailing.

Finish the Adeptus Titanicus battle group - got 8 Warlord titans, 4 loyalist, 4 Traitor - i've collected all the bits together, just need to decide some paint schemes and crack on.

Orks! - my perpetual back-burner project, still got all the basic clans (aside from Bad Moons, Kult of Speed) to paint, and a boat load of support too.

As well as this i'm still hunting for some bits on eBay and the forums to complete my Ad-mech force...

No worries eh, easy!

Update: The re basing has started! Definite improvement, or waste of time?

Angels of Death - Epic Blood Angels update

Some daylight pictures of my new 'practical' space marine force
As mentioned previously i'm trying to keep these guys simple, as gaming pieces rather than making them overly detailed, fragile display pieces.

I want to be able to churn out new units quickly and get them play tested, in saying that - a little bit of shading and highlighting doesn't take too long!

Anyhoo,

Here's my Death Company - under NetEpic rules a Blood Angels codex army must include a Death Company, it is made up of one command Death Company Chaplain stand, and each detachment of infantry must sacrifice one stand to add to the DC, as such I've painted up 4 stands of DC marines, and may need to add more later if i build up any more standard infantry units.

Also, i've given them their own snazzy Thunderbrick... eh i mean Thunderhawk.
I'm hatching some devious plans for putting some ferocious close combat troops behind enemy lines and causing some disruption (all good ideas until i start rolling 1s and 2s!)

Busy, Busy, Busy - General Update

Done a fair bit of 'hobby work' recently, despite not doing a huge amount of painting.

1) Had my first actual game of NetEpic (evolution rules) and thoroughly enjoyed it, suffice to my pretty space elves were absolutely torn apart by mu opponents Deathwing and Ravenwing Dark Angels.
A combination of poor tactics and bad dice on my side, plus the obvious skill of my opponent meant i was done for in 2 turns!
I has left me buzzing however and i'm already assembling my force for the next game, hopefully next month, work permitting!

2) Acquired some new shelving to keep all my war gaming stuff together, separate from my board games and freeing up a whole chunk of the spare room for my girlfriends books/dvds - which should keep the peace!
i've used a few of the shelves to show off what i've painted so far and i'm giving my self a pat on the back for 8 months of dipping in and out for an hour every other night, i've amassed a fair whack of stuff!

3) Finally decided to "tart up" a lovely, but basic, retro Blood Angels army (green bases, little detailing) i've had for a while, after seeing the devastation my opponents marines were capable of i figured i needed a decent Space Marine force of my own that was more substance over style. so to start with i've got;

A full Battle Company
Land Raider Company
Death Company
Terminator Detachment
Whirlwind Detachment
Predator Detachment
Thunderhawks
Bikes
Land Speeders
Librarian
Medic
Chaplain

4) Continuing to grow my IG and Eldar forces, got some Nightwings, War Walkers and another squad of Tempests and Wave Serpents for the Biel-Tan, and some newer era Bombards for the IG.

Anyway, here's some photos to corroborate the ramblings above...

Epic - Pre-Heresy World Eaters Update 3

Had another hour to spare mid week and started the remainder of the Rhinos/Land Raiders (just need to do the tracks and details to finish)

Also rescued a couple of guys i had steeping in Detol (make-shift paint stripper) and i'm adding them to my traitors...

A Storm Hammer and a Warlord Titan, which is getting a 'Storm Lords' paint job.

Thinking once i add some dreadnoughts, or Robots this suitably "Space Marine 1/AT" era force will be complete.

Work continues!

Space Crusade!

Not got any updates on painting - got a load of stuff on the bench in various stages, so will hopefully have something to show shortly!

In the meantime i've been distracted by board games...

had some friends over to play King of Tokyo and Forbidden island, and have been playing a bit of the Zombicide with my newly acquired Toxic City Mall expansion.

Also - just managed to tick something off my nostalgia bucket list and play Mission 1 from Space Crusade, not too shabby, although i got my ass kicked!

Arrghh! Dreadnaught!

Epic Eldar Update 1

The ball is rolling on these guys now...

Falcons done (nearly!)

Guardians nearly done too

Hopefully the Phantom Titan will turn up this week and i can make a start there, then its just a case of picking up the other units when i can.

Also - i may seem to be fickle in switching between projects, but i get bored so quickly i feel i need to work this way, although during this time i've changed my mind on my Imperial Guard colour scheme and i'm going to start again with a more desert-y style soon... well maybe not soon, but soonish!

Epic Update

2 Posts in one day you lucky pups! (not been super-productive, just forgot to publish the last one late last week!)

Now that i'm at a happy stage with my core Imperial Fist and Ultramarine armies i thought i'd give them some support options, or even adversaries, lest we not forget how fickle alliances are in the grim-dark future!

Starting small(ish) with a couple of Warhound titans, and some Imperial Navy Marauder bombers.

I'm happy enough with the Scout Titans, the colour scheme is almost exactly (accidentally!) the same as the ones i had as a kid that my brother painted, in reality i was just trying to work with the bizarre blue primer left by the previous owner.

I've base coated the Marauders a rather oppressive/tactical Grey and will add highlights to the wing tips/nose to show sqdn. markings etc and hopefully make them 'pop' a bit.

As a wee bonus I've quickly knocked up a couple of test models my next project.

Biel-Tan Eldar!

In typical fashion i had the notion to do this just days after ebaying off a whole unpainted Eldar Warhost box set (previous owner had glued them to the bases in a way that didn't work for me and it would have taken longer to fix than start again!), but luckily i've got some bits winging their way to me as i type.

For starters i'll have;
2 x Guardian Warhosts w/Falcons
1 x Phantom Titan
2 x Support weapon detachments
some aspect warriors/harlequins/Warlocks

I'd love to get some Revenant Scout Titans and some Warp Hunters or other grav tanks to paint up, but baby steps first!

I choose the Beil-Tan style pattern just for a change and to make sure it contrasted with the Imperial armies i was working on.

Anyhoo, that was more typing than I intended, so... Photos?

Epic Distractions...

Just a quick update to show some limited progress on the Rogue Trader/Necromunda guys i've been working on, been away with work recently and going away on holiday for the next few weeks so can't see much happening blog-wise there.

I hate taking photos of my minis as it shows no mercy, and my painting/attention to detail is bad enough without the lens picking up the obvious things like the horrendous lack of mold-line cleaning up on the Ogre, they all look better in the flesh!

I think that's part of the attraction of 6mm/Epic for me, as it is a lot more forgiving as you aren't looking for extreme detail most of the time, just a representation of the unit.

Anyhoo - outwith these guys i've had a bit of a clear out and stuck some stuff on eBay, i've also picked up another SM2 boxed set to fill the gaps in the one i had from my childhood, my plan post-holiday is to at least finish off the Space Marine armies (so i know what excess stuff i can punt!)

It would also be good to get a wee game going, either of Necromunda or custom rules with our new space pirate rogues - got some scenery to build for this and some scenarios to come up with!

I've picked up some minis from the Reaper range and have an eye on some Hasslefree ones that the missus fancies for her gang so hopefully will have them up soon too!

Brainstorming - Rogue Trader, Hive Gangs, etc...

Having been inspired by the work of the guys on the Oldhammer forums putting together gangs for thier RT, Sensai, Necromunda and Gorkmorka games i've begun rummaging through my bits box...

This notion has also been inspired by watching Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Wars, Firefly etc, and reading some of the earlier RT era 40k fluff, and the idea of rag-tag misfit gangs of different races/backgrounds fighting and working together on the frontier appeals to me in a big way.

I don't want to spend any/much money on this project, and i shouldn't need to as I've got enough interesting 'bitz' to choke a rancor. 

So i'm thinking;

The weary warrior - an old space marine, in mismatched power armour that has seen some action, now a gun for hire, currently this fella is fully magnetised, so the options are endless!

The Muscle, a feral Ogre/Ogryn - found this guy in the box and reckon with a bit of work (more than me just sticking an Ork gun on him as present!) he could look pretty cool.

The fast one - a female Eldar pirate - got a few bodies/heads lying around as well as some nice eldar/dark eldar and wood elf accessories i could bodge.

The marksman - i think i'll replace the Catachan fella with either a squat, ratling or another race just to mix it up a bit (would love to do a Skaven conversion if only i had any to hand!)

The Scoundrel - Ork Kaptain, will probably keep him with the rest of his RT Ork cohorts for an enemy/ally force for the gang, i reckon he'll be replaced by a human, possibly guardsman conversion to form my Han Solo style swash buckler.... Maybe!

The idea then would be to use them in games of Necromunda, or in a custom PvP and Co-Op rule set i'm working on.

In terms of adversaries i've got;

An RT Ork gang of 10 or so (mentioned above)

More Imperial forces than i care to mention...

A bucket full of Genestealers, and small Tyranids 

The Orlock/Goliath gangs from the Necromunda box set

Chaos Cultists from the DV box

So there should be plenty of scope for some interesting scenarios out in the ash wastes, hive cities and alien worlds...

As a bonus this type of narrative driven game appeals to the missus (in a way that 40k/Epic etc doesn't!) so I've instantly got someone in the house to play with, hurrah! 

Imperial Guard Update 2

Slow progress... However I've calculated what i've got Imperial Guard wise and made a start on painting them.

So far I've completed the Assault Company (aside from the HQ) - I don't remember if these guys were any good in the game, but I've got a got a tonne of them, so made lemons - so to speak.

The Shadowsword company is untouched since last update, just need to add some comms aerials to the HQ I reckon.

Everything else is in a state of mid-to-no paint but should be pretty quick to finish due to my lazy/boring Olive Drab colour scheme.

Might see if i can pick up another 3 basilisks (preferably the angled ones, as the flat trajectory ones annoy me!) and then I can complete an Artillery Company, as i'm pretty sure in its current state the force is 'illegal' due to the Company to Support card ratio?

Imperial Guard Update 1

Quick update to show what I'm working on... Not much to be honest!

Cleaned my painting station/spare room up as we had folk over so I took the opportunity to categorise and store some stuff in either 'To-do', or 'To-sell' and separated the completed units out so they are easier to get to, anyhoo, you don't really care about this, so on to the pics!

Got my Shadow Swords in from eBay - they were in better condition than they looked in the add, so rather than stripping them and starting again I used the simple paint scheme as a base and just washed them with Nuln Oil, added some decals from a W40K Imperial Guard Chimera transfer sheet, added some lighter green edge highlights and carried on the red/white company markings that were on one of the tanks.

I'll add some aerials to the lead tank to show it as a command unit but after that I think I'll leave them alone, meaning this simple pattern will probably find its way to the rest of the IG armour I have waiting in line.

Also working on some terrain - basing some of the Epic 40,000 buildings and bashing together an Ork settlement, more on that later!

Before;

 After;

Epic Imperial Fists Update 2

Been away for the last week so not much progress - however I thought I'd share what I have, as well as show the rather daunting eBay haul I had waiting for me at the post office, thinking I've bitten off more than I can chew!

So, in the coming weeks I hope to;

• Finish of the 'Fists
• Start the Titans + Knights (got some conversions to do too!)
• See what I need to complete the Orks (add some Stompas and bring the infantry up to SM2/NetEpic company sizes)
• Start the Imperial Guard - pick a colour scheme that contrasts with the other forces
• Decide where to allocate the new Space Marine toys and paint them (probably Preds to the Ultramarines and Vindicators to the IF)
• Build some more terrain (got loads of bitz for a nice Ork settlement)
• Sell the stuff I'm never going to use to clear some space! (might ditch the Eldar, don't know if I can be bothered with them, and now I have far too much Ork stuff.)
• Play more games!

(apologies for the photo quality on the last 3 - taken in bad light with the phone camera!)

More Titans for my growing legion - they all need stripped and redone.

Space Marine haul - looks like most of the Epic 40k starter set, plus a load of metal Predators, Razorbacks and Vindicators!

A decent starter for an Imperial guard force - got some Stormblades on the way too, just need some artillery and then i think i'll leave it there.