Epic Update

Back from holiday - spent the last week laying on a Greek beach working on my tan when i should have been indoors painting!

as penance the first thing i did after unpacking was finished off some support for my Ultramarines and Imperial fists armies;

I decided to give the 'Fists the vindicators as it seems to suit their fluff as siege masters, and i give the Ultramarines the predators for some anti-armour options and the Thunderhawk to get those scouts in deep behind enemy lines.

Hopefully this will spur me on to finish these forces off once and for all, as i still need an infantry company for the imperial fists, then i can get started with some Titans/Knights that I've got gathering dust!

So without further ado...

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. 

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!