Quick and Easy Epic Terrain

Hi!

While I've had rather a lot of fun painting up lots of tiny figures of late for my Epic project, I do seem to have neglected the terrain side of things somewhat so have decided to remedy the situation with some quick and easy pieces of scatter terrain to act as cover or objectives for games.

I don't have much time for hobby related activity so I quickly rummaged my bits box and found a couple of large bottle lids I had saved from something a while back, stuck them on a piece of spare plasticard and gave them a suitably grubby paint job.

Sadly the initial results looked suspiciously like two bottle lids so after a bit of head scratching, I added some wire pipework and glued on some plastic tubing too and think it looks a little bit more convincing, especially now the base is done too.

 Promethium? Spice? Water? Beer? Who Knows!

With the addition of a few other bits and bobs I have saved over the last few years, I have enough to represent a decent industrial site but figure it might be time to add some settlements and the odd hill to my terrain collection as my gaming surface is still a bit flat looking.

 Dark Reapers and Falcon transport seize the high ground!

I am also experimenting with some roads to give a bit of sense of scale to the project as it's not all going to be fought out over a flat expanse of wilderness after all so there's need for civilian vehicles, ammo dumps, spaceports and lots more as a good piece of terrain can be used to hang a narrative on and make a game far more interesting!

Close up

I also don't want all the terrain pieces to look grubby Imperial as there's need for Orks, Eldar, Squat and all sorts of gribbly alien stuff too so I think I am going to have another look at what I have and see if I can't throw together some more interesting pieces. 

Something else I want to try is to experiment with different types of terrain for different worlds too. Farpoint may be an arid desert of a place but I do fancy trying to play a game on a frozen iceworld or lush alien jungle! 

Hopefully over the coming months there will be ample opportunity to build a better battlefield to go along with my epic forces as they too expand. 

All the best!

Epic Eldar Swordwind Reinforcements

Hi!

I'm just getting ready to head out to work but have taken the opportunity to finish off a couple more bits for my Epic Eldar!

First up, I finished a couple more Mk1 Falcons to give me a bit of vehicle support and transport for my troops. The old plastic Falcon grav tanks paint up quite nicely and with a quick ink wash, the detail really shows on them but for some reason it doesn't seem to show too well on the left hand vehicle in the pics.

 Falcon Squadron supported by a Vyper Jetbike

Next up, there's some heavy firepower from two stands of Dark Reapers:

 Dark Reapers

I had planned on painting them in traditional 2nd edition colours but rather liked the black and bone armour finish so kept them at that. In keeping with their fire support role, I built up one of their bases a bit to give myself a mini vignette too which looks rather decent.

That gives me rather a decent little force to be getting on with too as all I feel I need to do at present is to add some more Guardians, the odd heavy weapon and some jetbikes as well as another stand of Howling Banshees and I'm ready to rock!

The Force Thus Far

With a little bit of work, I may actually have them sorted by the weekend and will then move onto something a bit different to keep me from burning out. I am thinking of fleshing out my Ultramarines a bit as well as my Squat force and even making a start on some Orkish raiders to boot so watch this space!

Epic Squat Force Takes Shape

Hi!

I've been slowly working on my Epic Squat force for a while and thought I'd share a couple of pics of progress thus far!

 A Squat force taking up positions near an industrial site

At present I have still to add another squad of warriors to bulk up the infantry platoon to full strength and need to put together an infantry command team which is currently primed and awaiting paint but I do like how they are turning out thus far!

 Fast attack formation

I have plans to add some fast wheeled vehicles to the unit to allow the force to move and deploy quickly before I move onto painting up some heavy tanks and artillery to give me some heavy hitters too. I suspect some of the old plastic Ork Battlewagons will be converted for use as a rapid strike vehicle once the big skull has been removed from the front...

Warrior Platoon with Thudd Gun support

I also have enough plastic Thudd Guns and Mole Mortars to provide a rather decent light artillery section should I wish to and even have an airship lying around waiting paint so I will have some Overlord support too!

I've also been thinking about what sort of game I want to play with my slowly expanding forces. Much as I'd love to play vast games of 2nd edition Epic, I don't have nearly enough space for such an endeavour so have been pondering using Epic 40k as a basis for some smaller scale games.

Epic 40k

For those not in the know, Epic 40k was the third and least popular edition of the Games Workshop's Epic game. Doing away with much of the crunch of individual weapons fire, formation cards and whatnot, Epic 40k was a fun and streamlined game that I really enjoyed but seems to have been reviled by most in the gaming community which is a real shame as it's rather good.

With this in mind, I have perused through the old issues of Firepower magazine and found the Squat list but a brief peruse leaves me thinking I may need to tinker with it a bit as there's several bits and bobs missing that I feel would suit the Stunties at war.

The general plan from here is to build up some small formations of 2-300 points each and play out a game or two and see how things go. I will be using the 2nd edition 40k codexes as a guide too with Characters, Squads and Support being taken into account and must admit that I am finding the whole process rather fun too and there may even be a weird 2nd edition 40k sub game played out in tiny scale at some point too but we shall see!

In the meantime, All the best!

Epic Shenanigans

Hi!

Well lo and behold, I have two days off in a row! Wonders will never cease apparently so I figured I would post a quick pic or two of my ongoing Epic project.

 First up, here's a quick shot of my new fast attack vehicle for my Eldar, the venerable Vyper Jetbike:

Vyper

For an old plastic model, the vehicle is surprisingly detailed and rather fun to paint too which has been a reel boon in stopping me becoming bored with the project. It's actually starting to feel like I actually have a proper force for Epic related games and am looking forward to trying out a game of Gruntz using my Eldar and Ultramarines.

 Eldar and Ultramarines clash over a crashed shuttle somewhere on the border

I think I could do with a support weapon for my Eldar to give them some long range punch but am quite pleased with how they are turning out and once I have the Dark Reapers sorted, think they should be quite a decent force.

Next up, here's a pic of something I've been pondering for a while. I love the Squats in Epic with their oversized vehicles and terrifyingly shooty warengines but they are quite pricy to source second hand these days. Instead I wanted to find something suitably high tech and inkeeping with my alternative Imperium so found this chappy in my bits box:

Heimdall Monitor Tank

It's a Battletech sculpt for one of their superheavy battle tanks and I love the look of the beast from it's aggressively large gun to the sloped tracks and with a little bit of conversion (ie the application of a shield boss) I think it would make a super addition to the Squat force I am slowly putting together.

The only thing that's holding me back is trying to choose what colour to paint the beast so suggestions would be most welcome!

Another force that I am very keen to get to grips with is my Ork forces. Looking at my bits boxes, I do seem to have a fair number of Boyz and some Battlewagons but seem to be missing an awful lot more. I am going to put up a page of WANTED stuff and see if I can't trade some of my unwanted lead for stuff that I am wanting to paint so do check back over the next day or two!

In the meantime, All the best!

Epic Eldar Reinforcements

Hi!

Gosh, I have another day off and have managed to paint some more stuff over the last few days. Wonders will apparently never cease!

I've managed to add a command element to my Epic Eldar force in the form of a Farseer and a unit of Howling Banshees to give my force some close combat clout and to break up the monotony of painting lots of red:

Eldar Raiders

At this rate I think I will be able to play a game or two before too long which will pit my Ultramarine Veterans against an eldar raiding party using Gruntz to see how things go. I am also perusing my old copy of Epic 40k with the vague notion of playing out a small game or two with the rules, which are by far my favourite of the classics. It's heretical I know but the fast play allows for a great game without the need to roll individual attacks and is one of the least appreciated of GW's specialist games!

I still need to finish off a stand of Dark Reapers, Jetbikes and possibly another Falcon or two but I am really enjoying the chance to work on some small warbands and have been rooting around my Epic collection for more interesting stuff to paint as well as seeing if I can find some suitable proxies for some of the rarer items from Epic too.

As with all things to do with my hobby, I have no interest in slavishly sticking to only GW stuff and plan on supplementing my collection with some gubbins from Ground Zero Games, Brigade, Ral Partha and many more!

The general plan is to produce a load of smallish forces, usually with a decent amount of optional extras and get gaming. Looking at what I have in plastic with a few metal bits, I am going to be able to field the following:

Defenders of the Imperium

Ultramarine Veteran Detachment (DONE)
Space Wolf Warband (STARTED)
Blood Angel Detachment
Dark Angel Detachment
White Scars Detachment
Crimson Fist Detachment

Rebellion Forces

World Eaters Warband
Thousand Sons Warband
Deathguard Warband
Emperor's Children (STARTED)

Xenos Scum

Squat Brotherhood (ALMOST DONE)
Outlaw Squat Brotherhood (STARTED)
Alaitoc Craftworld
Biel-Tan Craftworld
Iyanden Craftworld
Saim-Hann Craftworld (ALMOST DONE)
Ulthwe Craftworld
Goff Warband
Bad Moon Warband

As you can see, there are quite a few gaps in the lineup with Imperial Guard, Tyranid and several others still to be located but I think I have enough to keep me entertained for a while. Hopefully I will be able to post an update on the State of the Imperium over the next few days as well to give a bit of background to my alternative Imperium setting and more pics of forces as they develop!

In the meantime, All the best!

Epic Eldar

Hi!

Not only do I have a day off but it's snowing which is rather exciting!

Better yet, I've had a bit of spare time on my hands for the first time in ages and actually sat down and painted something in the form of some reinforcements for my Epic Eldar!

Eldar Detachment

I am never going to have enough space to play a proper game of Epic with the little chaps but have plans of playing some games of Gruntz in 6mm scale which will allow me to field a platoon strength force with some armour assets which is fine by me as the eventual army is going to be more akin to 2nd edition 40k in size rather than an epic warhost.

Upcoming Warbands?

I currently have some Howling Banshee's and a Warlock stand on the painting table which will give me the command and close combat troops that I need and also plan on painting up a couple of support weapons for my Guardian squads before fielding them against my Ultramarines and Squats!

 Ultramarine Veterans 

I don't know what has brought on the sudden urge to paint tiny figures but I am rather enjoying it and suspect that my Alternative Imperium is going to get some more attention soon which will be fun as I have quite a lot of Epic figures which will allow me to field multiple small forces of Eldar, Imperial, Squats, Orks and other assorted riffraff.

Squat Brotherhood

With a bit of work, I think I can get the Eldar finished today and even add a few reinforcements for my other units which will allow me to get some games in the coming week but I do find myself in need of some scenery suitable to the scale so will be rummaging around to see if I can't find some bits and bobs to bodge together!

I've also been inspired to re explore my 6mm fantasy stuff so am aiming to finish off the wartowers for my Horned Folk force and possibly even add a few bits and bobs to my Grey Elves...

 Horned Folk Warband

Looking at what I have, I need to paint up another four stands of Beastmen and two more wartowers and my Horned Folk will be complete for the time being, although I am looking for some larger warbeasts to add a bit of visual punch to the force...

 Wartower

The Elves on the other hand, need quite a bit of work as converting the spearmen is quite time consuming and a bit boring to be honest but I only need a few more before moving onto archers and warbeasts which is handy!

 Grey Elves

I must admit that I really want to get some of the Microworld miniatures as they look so much better than the Irregular fantasy stuff I have at present but my budget won't allow for it at the moment so I suspect that my plans for a Dwarven army will have to wait till next year...

I think that I am going to have enough stuff to keep me going for the remainder of the year though which is good and better yet, it's varied enough to stop me becoming bored!

All the best!

Capellan Confederation Infiltration Mech

Hi!

Well it's been two weeks since I have had chance to update my blog and once again work has kept me really busy so hobby time has been really limited but I have managed to finish something that's been lying half finished on my painting table for ages: The Capellan Infiltrator!

 Capellan Infiltrator Light Mech

Constructed from an EM4 Miniatures plastic mech with a few conversions, namely reposed waist, reposed legs and scratchbuilt arms, the mech turned out rather nicely!

The Infiltrator is the newest addition to the Capellan Confederation's arsenal but the cutting edge technology that is required for their construction has thus far limited their deployment. The original blueprints for the Infiltrator were from the Draconis Combine but a unit of Deathshead Commandos stole them and with several modifications, the Capellan scientist have created a supremely fast and maneuverable machine that can rapidly engage opponents with a devastating salvo of short range laser and machinegun fire before heavier, slower foes can respond.

The Capellans have been using the growing disorder on the border between themselves and the Federated Suns as a testing ground for their new tech and thus far the Infiltrator mechs have proven themselves in several engagements.

Hopefully I will get chance to add to both my forces in the coming few weeks but I suspect that it might take me a bit of time to get another update!

In the meantime, All the best!