Sunday 28 February 2021

Epic Space Marine Army !

 

Hey everyone ! So I've been busy clearing the desk from all sorts of half finished projects to get some closure and free space !

Amongst the long term sources of guilt, my epic force (I'm not painting an army, my armies days are over). This started in 2019 and has been sitting on the corner of the table for too long a while !


It all started with a lot of motivation and the idea was to make the best of the 2nd edition space marine box (thanks to the generosity of a dear friend) and to give it a more modern take.
The first thing was obviously to get rid of the square bases, I've had a life time's worth of those so I'll skip any occasion for something else.
My plan was to use Renedra bases, they're pretty low profile which I reckon suits epic models better given their height and since most epic infantry models come on an integrated 6mm base, the idea was to simply drill 5 holes with a 6mm drill bit in the base, the aim here was also to give a random pattern to avoid having all bases identical. Since all the marines would be the exact same pose, I thought it was a good thing to add a little variety.


That done I had a small force quickly painted up to base colours, merely a company card and a couple of reinforcements.


And those even got some play time at BOYL19 although incomplete...

Visible at BOYL in 2019 already 

But my friends being what they are, I came back from that wonderful WE with even more models than I had come with :


So I took the cards out and tried to design the most efficient plan with the miniatures I had available (not willing to go look for others).
I did cheat to get a Thunderhawk in all honesty ^^'


So here you go, let's take a look at the units individually ! Now I'm sorry but epic models seem to be an absolute pain to focus on so some of the photos aren't top notch, there's honestly not much to see though, these are all old scupts with little detailing and I opted for a fairly basic paintjob for the bulk of the force. ANd I wanted every model to have markings which meant A LOT of freehand. A LOT !!!

Remember this force was started in 2019 right before the appearance of contrast paints, so I had to stick with the same basic methods until the end. I would totally do things differently now though and contrats paints would definitely be the main base for this job.

Now these were done last but they're the ones givig the identity to the force, I wanted one of every character (or at least as many as possible). In gaming terms, I'll either use them as regular HQ for my 2 companies or as dedicated special character cards depending on what I want.


Now the tactical company is probably the least intersting one since there are only 3 different models in it, the rhino, the captain and the basic marine. I reckon it gives that sens of mass though and at tabletop distance I think the varied dispositions add just the right diversity (or maybe I'm trying to convince myself here). 


You can also enjoy the Thunderhawk in the back. Now I know there's a clear break of date cred here. I just couldn't use the old flying brick, I ... just couldn't. And the second ed TH is not exactly easy to come up by so I settled for this one which is pleasingly heavy and looks exactly like the gigantic iconic lead TH !


Now even better, how do you tell veteran from regular marines when they'll use the exact same models ! Well my answer was to add a colour to the mix and I think it works well enough to tell them apart.


The devastators have the same problem but at least they have an alternative model with missile launcher which helps a lot :


Now land raiders are cool, no questio, so I kinda had to have them. I initially built 6 to have é cards of them until I realised I'll need some for the terminators leaving me with one too much or missing another 2... Who knows, maybe I can fix that later ?


Oh and since we're talking aout the terminators, here you have them along the colossus robots !


I didn't have predator models but I did have a few whirlwind models and spare turrets for the Epic40k land raider, a little conversion and I think despite missing the side turrets these say predator clearly enough (clearly enough for me at least).
The whirlwinds are just the regular thing and they looks cool although I've seen some with only one missile pod and thought it looked cool.


Now the Ravenwing company... as you'll have noticed, these aren't Dark Angels... well I reckon it's just fine to count them as, I didn't want several colours, I've always been about strong colour coherence and the main appeal of building this arm... FORCE (I'm not building armies) was to have a strong vidual impact. So deal with it.
And yes, sourcing the land speeders was tricky but at the same time I fell on some talented chap online who had designed those marvellous Deo stick grav attacks and I just HAD to use them as land speeders !


Now I just happened to have ONE land speeder and if you remember my previous posts, I needed one for my sneaky barrage warlord titan !
The shooting platform grants a free land speeder the titan can use to draw direct LoS even with barrage weapons, that's getting close to meta BS but I just had ti try !


Now if you remember, the 2nd edition box comes with more than marines, there are orks of course but there are also buildings !
A few decades had taken a toll on them so I decided to fix and upgrad them a bit !


So I measured the inner space for all the sections and found the appropriate wood profiles to just cut and insert.


That solution has the benefit of being cheap, extremely quick and while making them considerably stronger, it also makes them more bottom heavy and hence stable. Win on all points !


Now that's 93 models out of the desk and it's defintely left a void ! It does feel hugely satisfying though, first because because it gives me a huge achievement kick and I feel like doing right rewarding the generosity of my friends who provided most of what you see here.


Now the eagle eyed among you will have spotted the possible following steps for that project and I have scenery well in progress which should be faster now that those are done !
I wish you all the best and a happy painting time to all !

28 comments:

  1. Brilliant project and really great looking force! Those deodorant grav tanks are fantastic - they really add character to the overall army.

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    1. I really think they work well, I'm glad to atone for the thunderhawk with these.

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  2. You painted the markings on the kneepads, you absolute crazy person. This is an incredible project!

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  3. Lovely looking old school force! I particularly like the low profile round bases and the deodorant bottle speeders!

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    1. Thanks ! these might have been the trigger to get the whole thing pleasant and hence finished !

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  4. Great work man! Drilling the bases is how I do that as well, and it REALLY makes everything a lot cooler and with a sly profile!

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    1. It's not that long, just a bit tedious but I reckon it does improve the overall look and is well worth the time !

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  5. Fantastic work! I'm in awe how you can paint that many small things at once, and make them look so great.

    Also my buddy is super jealous of the deodorant speeders and is trying to figure out where he can land some.

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    1. I got those in 2019, the creator had posted them on a FB page and I just couldn't resist, I got some other cool concepts from him which we'll see in the chaos force !
      I thing Epic just needs a few details here and ther to make the difference to work !

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    2. Et on attend avec impatience le Chaos ! ;)

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  6. Oh, wow. I have a soft spot for Epic, so I'm totally in love with this. I have neglected my minis for too long, I may have to revisit them. I have an inner conflict with square bases too, but had never thought of your solution. I may have to steal it!! So great!

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    1. To be honest, your Imperator is one of the things that teased me into doing 6mm so swings and all I guess !
      thanks mec !

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  7. Wawa wee wa! Mammaa miiaaaaa!! That's what you call a blog post! Holy moly. And the Emperor finally makes an appearance. What an incredible job you did on them. As someone who us blogging 6mm stuff lately, I can say it is not easy to make the paint look good on camera. You've really brought your usual charm to these, and it looks like you didn't rush any part. As many pictures as there were, I wish there was more! Congratz, that's a huge project.

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    1. Thanks !
      I love your 6mm stuff and especially your scenery, this is definitely the kind of terrain I'd want to play on. I'm glad I'm not the only one struggling with taking photos at that scale.
      I did rush a lot of things but I reckon 6mm works if one focuses on the essentials !

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    2. Hey appreciate it! I actually got 3 sets of those asia inspired 6mm buildings you were so kind to show off and link finally. The 6mm table is the big goal these days. Looking forward to see what you do with em :)

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  8. can't believe i hadn't commented this yet... Anyway, congratulations for this magnificent project. The markings were really worth the work and i love the characters' rhinos having their own colour variations, but boy i can only imagine the pain it was. Looking forward to meeting them.

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  9. That's really nice what you've done with those marines. I fond that same box in my father's collection. I should find the same motivation to paint them to place them alongside his eldar's army.

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    1. It's honestly an easy scale to work on with the right methods, contrasts are a killer and I'm definitely doing the next army this way !

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  10. Superbly done ... at this scale highlights are everything and you managed it brilliantly!

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    1. To be honest, I took most shortcuts I could find but I'm pretty happy with them in the end !

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  11. Très belle armée ^^

    Toi aussi tu as réalisé un rêve de gosse d'avoir une armée EPIC jouable mais pas forcément jouée ? XD

    Serviteur,

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    1. Ah mais complètement ! Titan Legion m'avait mis une claque à l'époque même si j'ai commencé plus tôt que çà, je compte bien la jouer par contre, au moins une fois lors d'une campagne le temps d'un WE avec des amis pour le plaisir de l'avoir fait !

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  12. My word, that takes me back a bit! I adored Epic back when it was in its first edition, still have piles of the stuff in the attic, painted and unpainted. It was mostly Imperial Guard for me, used once or twice with the more recent Epic Armageddon rules (which are pretty good). That's a fairly legendary task you took on, looks great, and I'm still chuckling over the deodorant grav tanks!

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    1. Ah cheers ! I have one last bit to complete this army so I can move onto the bad guys !

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