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Did some test prints of some Epic Ultrasmurfs. Posted over on the 3d printing forum also.

I had a bout of nostalgia when I saw the cover of my old Epic 40k armies book and had to do the old red gun style Ultras, lol. I dunno if I'll continue with that theme, the goal was to do HH era marines and they tend to be more blue-white-black-gold rather than blue-white-red-gold of the 90's Ultramarines.

Trying to decide on a base size, so I mocked up a blutac 32mm round base and 25mm square to see how they looked, I'm leaning towards square but maybe bigger than 25mm.

The red really makes them pop right? I mean, they look amazing!

Yeah, it does make them stand out, just not sure I’ll like it on a whole army, the typical HH ultra scheme is more subdued, but maybe at this scale it’s better to have some extra pop?

One thing that impressed me was the rivets on the rhino and predator printed at this scale, lol. The original STL didn’t have them, so I added them half expecting them not to print, pleasant surprise.

Very nice indeed, AllSeeingSkink. I wouldn't worry too much about the red, go for it if you like it and leave it off if you don't. Lots of variation within the legions, there's room for both subdued and more flamboyant schemes.

Personally I like the look of it, the result is delightfully retro with your bright blue.

They look fantastic AllSeeingSkink!

Agree that the colours pop really nicely.

Some crappy pictures of an epic game I played over the weekend.

"Some crappy pictures" is obviously a subjective term, they look bloody brilliant!

Wow that looks like a good game and I like the combination of terrain, and the Aeronautica minis go really well with it too. The important question, who won the game?

Yeah, those look great to me.

I've been working on some Ultra infantry, not gonna lie, these guys took longer to paint than I was hoping, lol, probably about 10 minutes per model, which given how many I intend to paint was a bit slower than I was hoping. The vehicles go pretty quick though, got a dozen Predators and another 3 Spartans coming.

What do people think about basing? I can't decide. The dudes on the left are 40x15mm (same width but a bit deeper than the original Epic bases), the dudes on the right are 25x25. As I went for 8mm, the original 40mm wide bases maybe feel a bit too cramped now, and I haven't even printed any Terminators yet.

Orderly lines like the strips on the left would fit Ultras well, methinks. Unless you want to put some more effort into scenic basing, in which case I'd go with 40 x 20 mm bases.

I have reached the next milestone in my epic armageddon project, and now the forces for training scenario 2 are ready. Rhinos were great fun to paint

 Gitdakka wrote:
I have reached the next milestone in my epic armageddon project, and now the forces for training scenario 2 are ready. Rhinos were great fun to paint

Those look awesome! Can I feature them on the very unofficial Vanguard Miniatures Instagram fanpage? I can tag you if you’re on Instagram as well.

Looks great! How big is the vanguard infantry? I was wanting some not-DKOK epic but wasn’t sure if they’d be tall enough.

 Malika2 wrote:

 Gitdakka wrote:
I have reached the next milestone in my epic armageddon project, and now the forces for training scenario 2 are ready. Rhinos were great fun to paint

Those look awesome! Can I feature them on the very unofficial Vanguard Miniatures Instagram fanpage? I can tag you if you’re on Instagram as well.

Absolutely, go ahead!

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Looks great! How big is the vanguard infantry? I was wanting some not-DKOK epic but wasn’t sure if they’d be tall enough.

I bought a squad of guardsmen to test paint aswell.
Notice in my picture thet the guardsmen are a bit smaller thah the marines.

It's hard to measure but seems like they are 7mm to the eyes and 8mm to top of helmet. This includes their metal rondell though, i just glued it ontop of a regular 25mm base, no slots.

The marines are 8mm to eyes, and 9mm to top of head

 Gitdakka wrote:

 Malika2 wrote:

 Gitdakka wrote:
I have reached the next milestone in my epic armageddon project, and now the forces for training scenario 2 are ready. Rhinos were great fun to paint

Those look awesome! Can I feature them on the very unofficial Vanguard Miniatures Instagram fanpage? I can tag you if you’re on Instagram as well.

Absolutely, go ahead!

Awesome! Are you also on Instagram? I can tag you then

No that's ok. I never use insta.

Thanks!

Here you go: https://www.instagram.com/p/CikViatI5BQ/

 Sherrypie wrote:
Orderly lines like the strips on the left would fit Ultras well, methinks. Unless you want to put some more effort into scenic basing, in which case I'd go with 40 x 20 mm bases.

I don't see me doing much in the way of scenic basing. Was planning on throwing down some Vallejo Thick Mud texture paint, give it a wash and a drybrush and that's about it.

I'll probably do another army after this one, not sure which army yet, maybe a traitor Space Marine, or perhaps Tyranids or Eldar.

Some very good eyes evidently in this thread!

Beautiful work AllSeeingSkink and Gitdakka, looking forward to seeing what comes next.

Thanks, my hands and eyes aren't what they used to be, I'm in awe of some of the stuff I've seen in this thread.

The omega symbols on the shoulder pads are probably the smallest things I'd attempt to paint, and they're pretty rough. But I found at this scale, even being rough they add some much needed contrast. Even just a dot on the shoulder pad looks better on the table top (maybe not in close up photos though). Luckily the omega is a pretty easy symbol to paint.

There's not much exciting coming from me in the near future, I have another 50 marines to paint, a few more Rhinos to get up to 8 total, another 3 Spartans, another 6 Predators, another 17 bikes... all of which were part of my test paints so nothing new. I have printed up some Contemptors, but like an idiot I did them with twin autocannons that are extremely delicate at this scale, lol, if I do any more of them I'll probably print them with Assault Cannons or something like that.

So here we have more of the same.

I always wanted a Predator squadron, my favourite 40k tank, now after 25 years I finally have one (just in small scale ).

After this I have a bunch of bikes and enough Tac Marines to fill those Rhinos already printed and ready to paint. After that I might take a break from the Ultramarines to do some Titans as I just bought the Adeptus Titanicus starter set (not so much for the purpose of playing AT as it was to get the Titans to add to the Epic forces).

Why not both, great games as they are

About to start painting some 6-8 mm HH, a lot of inspirational paint jobs in this thread. Thanks!

 Sherrypie wrote:
Why not both, great games as they are

I have no familiarity with AT (even the old versions). Is it a pretty simple game to pick up? I don't really want to learn another complicated set of rules right now and most GW games seem to be over complicated, Epic and Aeronautica Imperialis probably being the exceptions. I only glanced at the AT rulebook that came in the boxed set and thought "this feels like a weighty tomb" and didn't really look much more of it

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Sherrypie wrote:
Why not both, great games as they are

I have no familiarity with AT (even the old versions). Is it a pretty simple game to pick up? I don't really want to learn another complicated set of rules right now and most GW games seem to be over complicated, Epic and Aeronautica Imperialis probably being the exceptions. I only glanced at the AT rulebook that came in the boxed set and thought "this feels like a weighty tomb" and didn't really look much more of it

Best game currently made by GW, like cooler Battletech without Excel spreadsheets. It's certainly crunchy mechanicswise, but intuitive to play once you grok the flow of the gameplay decisions. With only a handful of minis per side, they have space to be interesting on the resource management front (the game is about bipedal nuclear warships maneuvering to kill each other while riding caged explosions, after all). The starter box contains a fully playable force of about 1200 points, regular games being mostly between 1250-1750 points.

Very nice work again AllSeeingSkink! That is a beautiful looking force you are building there.

On painting Epic it used to be super fast as you had so little detail on the miniatures - my orks used to be a main colour for whichever clan they were, blob of green on the head (maybe hands if you were feeling adventurous and boltgun metal on the gun). The titans and larger tanks were the opportunity to make a nice display piece but you could knock through a whole clan in the time it took to paint a couple of 28mm miniatures.

Now with some of the new proxy miniatures (Vanguard & Onslaught) and 3D prints, as well as slight scale increase, they are carrying enough detail to really go to town on them. This is nice, but it does mean they can take a long time to paint (and also have to be careful with eye strainI have found) - I try and add a bit of detail but still mostly use washes and drybrushes, and leave the chapter symbols to the mentalists! xD

A few more updates for my Orks, have got a lot of these guys to get through and lots of them are too cheap in points!


Some Gretchin lurking near a swamp


A Cult of Speed catch up and surround a World Eater patrol, hooting and hollering as they race along


A Mekaniak's mad inventions ! Tin Botz and Shokk Attack guns

Upon finishing these I need to make some tiny crazed snotling bases, mounted on 10c coins or something like that, to represent when the miss in Space Marine/Titan Legions and try to assault nearby units. My method for making snotlings is to use the Vanguard miniatures gretchin (which are so tiny!) and then just paint them naked xD

 Pacific wrote:
Very nice work again AllSeeingSkink! That is a beautiful looking force you are building there.

On painting Epic it used to be super fast as you had so little detail on the miniatures - my orks used to be a main colour for whichever clan they were, blob of green on the head (maybe hands if you were feeling adventurous and boltgun metal on the gun). The titans and larger tanks were the opportunity to make a nice display piece but you could knock through a whole clan in the time it took to paint a couple of 28mm miniatures.

Now with some of the new proxy miniatures (Vanguard & Onslaught) and 3D prints, as well as slight scale increase, they are carrying enough detail to really go to town on them. This is nice, but it does mean they can take a long time to paint (and also have to be careful with eye strainI have found) - I try and add a bit of detail but still mostly use washes and drybrushes, and leave the chapter symbols to the mentalists! xD

Thanks!

I think I'm just a slow painter, I'm painting them with a pretty simple technique, it just takes me a while, lol.

Your Orks are looking great! Love the cult of speed, would love to get a detachment of them done up myself some day if I can find some good models (I think I have a single blister's worth of the old metal buggies and that's about it, lol).

In general I'd love to get an Ork army going, I've been thinking of digitally sculpting a Great Gargant in the square-body style of the mid 90's, one of my favourite models but I'd like one slightly upsized to match the current Adeptus Titanicus scale, from memory they should be roughly the size of a Reaver. I don't have an original one, but from the pictures I've seen I'm guessing it's smaller than the new AT Warhound Titan.

If you do find a good new Gargant design please let me know! I have been searching for a while and not found many good candidates at that scale.

There was a really great one from Nuclear Shrimp Games, which was apparently about 12-13cm tall, but sadly he isn't trading at the moment.

I'll let you know if I see anything. What I want is something that is "inspired" by this guy...



I'm tempted to just buy one of the old ones off ebay as it's one of those models that inspired me as a kid, but it'll be a midget next to my Imperial stuff.

I feel like I could do a digital model of that in like a day or two because it's all angular surfaces (full time day or two, so probably a month or two in actual calendar time) but given my lack of free time I dunno if it's worth the effort, lol.