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Figured it was about time I started a blog on here.

Recently my local group has got back into epic 40k massively.
While this is a good thing, I had long since sold off my epic, leaving me without an army.

I took to ebay at the start of the month and acquired enough to get me going.


We use the netepic rules and initial games would be 1,250.




So, enough text for now and a few pics.














And for a later project I needed 2 quake cannons, yet ebay let me down.
So I took to my bits box instead.






So, this is where I'm currently up to with the project.

I need an initial 1,250 painted as my starting army, which will consist of:

Tactical company:
1 command stand
18 tactical stands
10 rhinos

3 vindicators
3 land raiders
Thunderhawk gunship



I have painted a contemptor unit, but that was me getting side tracked.
I will try and keep this updated as often as possible by having to do it all via my phone as my tablet is currently playing up.

C&C always welcome.

We need more of these blogs! Looking to seeing some sweet epic goodness

Cheers bud.
Slowly burning through 12 infantry stands and 10 bloody rhinos all at once.

While it's getting done it is soul destroying lol.

Love the spray prime on the old GW paints, I've been using cork bottle tops. I'll steal that idea for FoW / 8-15mm scale infantry on square bases

Hated those paints as they only ever had a 3 month or so life before drying up due to the bad design.

Atleast now they are slightly weighted and the hex shape gives them a good grip too.

Hopefully by the end of tonight I'll have all 18 infantry stands and the command stand done.

I'm a slow painter and I've been painting those for around 14 hours now.
Be glad to see the end of them.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well, long painting session but all infantry from the tactical company are now done and dusted.
Just the rhinos to go at last!

Very well done! It's kind of amazing just how nice these tiny tiny guys can look when painted up so well.

It's surprisingly rewarding to have an epic army painted up.
Once I have a 2k tournament army I plan on building a display Base for it.

However, current tournaments are 1,250.
Sat down today and got the last of all 10 rhinos painted up so I now have my 1,250 army fully painted.
Those dreads aren't part of it though.






I also had some spare time between painting stages while stuff was drying, so managed to build a rough mock up of a deredo dreadnought.
I know it's body is meant to protrude out further and it has underslung guns, but those guns don't have rules in epic and I physically couldn't change it any more lol.
Disecting something this small was a severe pain in the arse lol.










Essentially it's a plastic contemptor with both arms and shoulders cut off, body cut and twisted at the waist, land raider sponsons for his arms.
The launcher is a chopped down targeter from an onslaught miniatures grav tank, with the missile pods from the same tank.



With all this done though I've now started a unit of rapiers and undercoated more stuff between bloody snow showers.

I've also placed a few orders so I should have enough to boost this to 2.5k soon.

Don't have any goal of a points total so I plan to just keep going lol.

Beautiful!

Any yellow/brown/green grass on the bases? Or pure wasteland?

Cheers Steve.
It will have some grass on them soon to go with the wasteland.
Got a light/burnt brown 2mm on its way but as usual, it's late.
I still have to paint the all the Base rims as well so I'll more than likely do a job lot all in 1 go.


Also grabbed some better close up pics.
As always though, using my phone still as the camera and tablet both died on me.


Captains stand:



Captains rhino:





Dreadnought unit:




Tactical detachment:





And random tanks:

Those flames are five or six layers of highlighting something the size of a matchhead - if not smaller! Amazing!

Any reason you decided to base the vehicles? I did this for my 10mm Scourge force for DZC, but never for my UCM DZC or my 6mm Netepic armies

Hiya Steve,

I cheat with the flames anyway.
They are painted white then I just use layers of yellow, orange, red and burgundy washes to fill them out, so makes it all easier.


I tend to Base my vehicles as my previous epic army had a huge issue with paint being chipped during games.
So I trialled this idea back then and it saved repainting models every few games.
Since then it's kind of stuck.





Rapiers now done too:






Now onto a unit of whirlwinds too.
Got a few models turning up in the post still, so waiting for those as I'm running out of epic marines to paint.
Worst case scenario I'll paint the up some epic necrons, tau or tyranid, but I rather be getting on with my marines.

Ah man, there's something really cool about the epic stuff...

Everything looks great too, top work on such tiny dudes.

EDC

Cheers for the comment

Nearly through a unit of whirlwinds now too.
Spent most of the day stripping old metal dreadnoughts and landspeeders though.

Also quickly remembered that 98% acetone removes skin after a while too lol.

Due to the snow we had royal mail never got out to me this week either, and since there's no post on Sundays it should all arrive Monday now instead.



In the mean time I've just converted up a few more epic necron destroyers to give me a full company of those too.

Been a bit too long since the last update.

Due to the tiny bit of snow we had though the postal service seemed to shut down, along with my progress due to having no marines to paint.

However, the post guy arrived this morning and gave me a supply drop.

Including terminators and my reaver titan at last!
Wanted to work on the reaver first as it would be the more intensive job of the 2.







So, this is the titan I got off ebay:




This is the titan taking a bath in pure acetone:



And this is the result after an hour long soak and a quick scrub:









So, with that done I began adding parts here and there to make it a bit more unique:







Nothing too extreme really, just a bit of cutting, filing and adding of extra bits.
Including some cobbled together pads as I hate the original ones.



And as a final result for now:






So it's getting there.
Just need to GS a few parts here and there and tidy bits up, but that's pretty much the titan done.
Wanted twin quake cannons with the missile launcher so made my own earlier on in the thread.



Now I have more supplies I'll get on with updates.





Disclaimer: before anyone comments on the pink floral pattern knife, I couldn't find mine so borrow the other halves one instead :p

That knife is glorious, I want one now. Love the Marines as well.

Nothing wrong with floral patterns.

Or angry titans, either. He looks good.

Cheers guys lol.
The blade does its job so no complaints from me.





So, slightly different from my usual posts, but while doing this blog I also wanted to do a quick review of a 3rd party product.

Now I never usually do these sorts of things but I was actually bloody impressed with these and they fit perfectly into my marines.




Novan elites - affray heavy armour

So, let's start off with a quick bit of info then I'll get to the pics.

Novan elites - affray heavy armour
Quantity per pack: 40
Price per pack: £8.20
Structure: 32 normal heavy affray and 8 with heavy weapons (assault cannons)

So, let's get to some pics:

Firstly, scale:



As you can see, the affray on the left is a perfect match to height for the GW terminator.






Naturally, being bare metal they don't like cameras.
The level of detail though is ridiculous on something this small.
Plenty of different sculpts too so your not stuck with monopose units.





So, next item.

Novan elites - affray heavy armour command


Novan elites - affray heavy armour command
Quantity per pack: 18
Price per pack: £6
Structure: 9 officers, 3 banners, 3 mystics, 3 priests.
The 9 officers have 3 different sculpts and 3 of each are in the pack.


So, quick picture:






So, all in all?

Price: big factor for most people as this is usually make or break.
Postage to begin with is not only cheap, it is stupidly fast too.
The models themselves are amazing quality for the price, so 10/10

Quality: the level of detail on these models is severely top notch to begin with.
Throw in the cheap price, multiple sculpts and perfect use as proxies and you have an amazing product.
Again, 10/10

Working with them: they are attached by a single peg to a sprue, meaning a single clip removes them and no stupid fill points on important parts of the model.
This to start with is great as countless other companies have fill points on the actual models, meaning loss of detail.

Flash wise, around 1 in 20 had a single strand of metal on it, which came off when picking it up.
So cleaning them up pretty much happens without any work atall.

Casting quality is again another point.
With small models it's common for parts of the models to appear melted as the mould hasn't filled properly.
Now I ordered 2 packs of heavy armour and a command set (98 models total)
Not a single miscast in the whole lot.

So again, 10/10


Customer service: this is huge for a lot of people, myself included.
Before placing this order I dropped John at vanguard a message on Facebook to enquire about their scale.
I got a response within 30 mins to let me know he'd get me a scale pic when he finished.
Later that day I had the message pop up to show the scale (I have used the same pic here)

After this it lead to a discussion about ongoing projects and ideas for the miniature line.

So, polite, helpful and a fellow epic collector.
Genuinely a great guy and more than helpful, so like previously, 10/10




So, thats the review done.
All in all they are amazing models and I would highly recommend them to anyone.

Vanguardminiatures.co.uk




As always, I'll get some progress done in a bit and try and get a Base of these guys painted up with my salamanders.

Vanguardminiatures.co.uk is 10/10

I've painted up a Grey Knight Force using mostly

Novan Elites Affray Heavy Armour Command. Ace models. 0 issues with casting


Are you painting the titan Salamander colors? Or a legion?

Mate, I can't recommend them highly enough to people.
Just made another order with them for a load of stuff and plan on making another once I clear some junk on eBay lol.


And I plan on going pure salamanders colours with everything, including titans.
So hopefully it comes out looking OK.

Either way I'll get it sprayed up tomorrow morning and I'll make a start on it.
Will be the current centrepiece of the army lol.

Well, updates were slow due to the reaver taking up most of my time with stripping, converting and painting.
But at last it's finally bloody finished!

I think I added a bit more detail than I planned which slowed the painting down a lot.
But in the end I feel it's worth it.

So, without further rambling, the reaver:


























So, thats the beast now finished and I can get back to painting ting as usual.

Only thing left for him is a name.

Wow! I'd say he turned out worth the time and effort.

Thanks turtles
Definitely a labour of love haha.
Need to add in more titans soon to give some variety.





Now, mixture of a teaser and reviews really.
After being impressed by the novan elites heavy armour I placed a bigger order with John at vanguard.
Which ironically only took a single working day between ordering and arrival.
So sweet postage yet again.

Now vanguatd also stock onslaught miniatures too, so expect to see some of their range popping up in this blog.

As my marine army grows the vanguard range is perfect for adding in proxies or just better than original models.

Just wanted to take some time to detail today's supply drop.





So, let's get to it.



Name: sisterhood sentry turrets
Manufacturer: onslaught miniatures
Price: £4.95
Quantity: 5 models
Options: turrets come with twin linked heavy machine guns or laser cannons, so you get 5 spare weapons no matter how you equip them.

The model it's self:



Size wise this thing makes a perfect tarantula.

Bonus points for the extra parts here too as the spare turret top fits perfectly on the plastic rhino chassis, making a nice razorback proxy too.

Clean up was easy, much like vanguatd defeat in detail range the clean up job takes seconds, if any is even needed that is.

All in all, it's a decent kit and the extra parts really are a nice bonus.
Epic weapon options are rare so getting extras is great.

9/10 for the kit but that's mainly due to price.
Vanguard tends to be a lot cheaper on their range as it's working out at 99p per turret, which is rather a small model.
Still great value and beats ebay prices at around £3 each for an ugly model haha.




Next item:


Name: Novan elites anti tank skimmer
Price: £9.50
Quantity: 6



It's essentially a land speeder javelin proxy which it works perfectly for.
The price seems high at first, until you see the size of them.
Just like FW's javelin it's a big model compared to basic troops.

Again, clean up is a dream and poses no issues as always.

This thing fits together perfectly.
Simply the skimmer and the stalk as 2 separate parts, 1 drop of glue and job done.

All in all?
Seems expensive at first but the level of detail and size make it hard to knock.
The only drawback is the guns are fairly thin (like all 6mm) So take care as they will bend.

This however is an issue with the scale rather than product.

Solid 10/10 and perfect for all 40k/30k needs.






Next item again:

Name: Novan elites sniper tank hunter
Price: £12
Quantity: 3
Options: laser cannon and heavy machine gun sponsons both included

The model:




Sicaran venator proxy inbound!
OK, to start with the sponsons are on ball mounts, making them fully posable.

The main gun fits into the chassis perfectly and then the hatch drops straight on.

This thing is fairly damn big too!
Slightly wider and longer than the old land raider but this actually looks beautiful.

Fits together like a dream, clean up takes seconds and only takes that long because the parts are on a metal sprue.

All in all? Solid 10 all day long.
This miniature is beautiful and by far the best venator proxy around.









Now, take a breath as I saved the best for last.



Name: Novan elites stormer siege breaker assault carrier
Price: £16
Quantity: 1
Options: top mounted AA machine guns and tube style launcher included.







The first mastodon proxy so far.
Now, to begin with I've mounted it on a base, like all of my epic.

This however is an oval AoS CAVALRY base, and this thing hangs over it on all sides, so it is huge!

This is a thing of beauty and a dream to assemble.
It's design allows for an openable front ramp with detailed interior (on a 6mm scale model!)
4 sponsons total (2 laser cannon, 2 flamer thrower) and a top mounted AA weapon of your choice.
All while having a heat based weapon built into the nose.

While I can describe my love for this thing in several hundred ways, I won't as I should be painting.

However it poses questions.

1: do you play marines or epic 30k?
2: do you like painting well detailed 6mm models?
3: do you collect epic in general?

If yes to any of these, ask yourself more questions.

Do I own one of these?

If no, then why not?
If yes, why not another one?

Plain and simply, just bloody buy one and smile when it turns up.
You really won't see anything like this on the market currently.

Overall rating?
Somewhere above 10 as it broken the fething scale.








So, there's my supply drop and a few reviews done.
Just going to get back in my corner and painting again? While placing another vanguard order.






And on a final note: buy a stormer! (Mastodon)

They look great! Love the Mastodon. Ace work on the Reaver as well

Cheers bud.
Slowly getting there now.

Managed to get a chaplain and librarian both in terminator armour painted up.
Although 2 single models on bases are hardly update worthy :p

Will get some more work done tonight and in the morning.

Want to aim for having some whirlwinds done along with Atleast starting a venator or even the mastodon lol.

Lots a fairly productive painting session so far.
Plan was to get the whirlwinds painted and then throw a coat of paint on something else.

I did get a bit too caught up in it though and got carried away.


So, today's painting has yielded: (poor lighting in the pics mainly)



The 3 whirlwinds I aimed to do:






A chaplain stand (pain to get a pic of!)






As librarian stands (pic probs yet again!)








Oh, and this beast!



















So, thats the painting done so far for today!
Fair bit more than I expected to manage so always a good thing.

Defeat in Detail is awesome I backed a lot of the original kickstarters for it.

Funnily enough I've had another supply drop arrive thismorning.
So I'll get that on here later on to review it all along with a painting update.


All in all though, vanguard is one of those companies that does everything perfectly.
They go over and above what is normally expected so it's a company you want to see growing.


Had plenty of dealings with other 6mm companies and there's a reason I don't use those anymore.

Oh haven't had any real problems with most 6mm companies and I've used several of them. C-in-C, Microworld, Brigade, Scotia Grendel and Brigade have all given me reasonable service.

Wasn't so much with companies, more the suppliers for them.

One of which is now closed and another i get through vanguard instead.
Had multiple order from one of them "lost" and never arrived.
Despite paying for tracking in the end.
Never even received order confirmations or shipping notices from them.
All of which was at my expense as they said it was down to the postal services.

Yowch. Troublemaker Games which folded into Vanguard had huge problems with it's plastics kickstarter but eventually I got my plastics. Equally I accepted it as a kickstarter and was willing to carry on backing them for the metals and eventually they came through. Really happy with the fruits of my support now as well.