Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Epic Titans!!! And a well known titan-weapon from the Internets...

So, here's a litte rant regarding my latest side project (aka '40K-progress derailer' hahaha), the rebuilding of a few old Epic miniatures. For those of you that are unaware, Epic is essentially Warhammer 40,000 but in 6mm scale- thats right, a single infantryman is 6mm tall, compared to the 25-28 mm of 40K. Entire squads are stuck onto single square or rectangular bases, and move, shoot and assualt all as the one entity. Combat on this scale also lends itself to the use of massive armour columns, superheavy tanks as well as my favourite- the Titans. These walking monsters can decimate opposing armies in shooting and close combat, and are such an iconic image that I have collected a few across the years. The hardest part, to be honest, is actually finding someone to have a game of Epic with, although I've found recently that Canberra has a very decent sized Epic fanbase so here's hoping i'll get some games in soon!

My old Dark Angels Epic army was essentially what came straight out of the "Epic:40,000" box set (from 1997), with the addition of 4 metal Dreadnoughts and a very recently purchased metal Thunderhawk gunship. However, as is the way of things, I decided to change their colourscheme and chapter orientation- so they've now taken a bath into the Simple Green, and have been there for around two weeks now. Initial cleanup on a few units has been extremely promising- the paint comes off with minimal scrubbing with a light toothbrush and some running water, and my earlier fears regarding infantry snapping off at the legs during cleanup appears unfounded- it simply doesnt happen. So, with my recent purchases of 40 1988-era 'Space Marine" tactical marines and the cleaned up ones from my prior DA army i'll soon have a large assembled army ready for undercoat and paint. Takes roughly 10 minutes per base to paint up if you really, really take your time, including highlights- thats how tiny they are!

A selection of Titans, for your viewing pleasure... 

MARS-PATTERN WARLORD

Here's another work in progress- this Warlord Titan was purchased along with another two around five years prior,  they've had multiple cleanup sessions to get all the old Enamel paint off (takes a lot longer in Simple Green, but most things that dissolve Enamel arent good for plastic either), and this one has now been re-undercoated and the arms and guns have been glued solidly onto the carapace. What i've been going for is a build for a 'standard' Warlord under the GW Epic: Armageddon rules (the latest version), and my others will have mix 'n' match loadouts for games using the Net EA rules. So, this guy is rocking the 1988 weapon equivalents of a  gatling blaster and volcano cannon, however i decided his pointy short 'defence lasers' on the carapace did not look like the double-barrelled twin turbolaser destructors they were meant to be. So, with a lot of care and a bit of luck I cut off the existing barrels, and then chopped up a twin barrel setup for both guns- these are made from a Tau burst cannon, and look fantastic in my opinion!! They arent glued in place as yet, i'm going to paint the carapace up before they are permanently attached.  I'll also be removing the multi-fit mounting lugs under/on top of all guns where they arent needed anymore.  

 IMPERATOR

And here's a mini i've had for a long time- the biggest and baddest of the Emperor's land-based weapons- the Emperor Class 'Imperator' Titan. I originally bought him from a friend unassembled, and i threw him together in a single night and then spent only a few hours painting him up- suffice to say its a claggy, thick and nasty job (but hey, i was young and stupid...). Also, along the way I decided that Epic wasnt for me, and the Imperator donated his Plasma Annihilator to one of my Dark Angels Dreadnoughts, cut down shorter (and thus, never  reclaimable for Epic...). With my recent 'repaint and rebuild' bent I decided the Imperator needed a complete rebuild, and to this end I would need a replacement Plasma Annihilator. I ended up sourcing one through eBay, but thought there was something very familiar about it.. turns out, the actual PA I bought is the one used in the Warhammer 40K Online Wiki... Seriously- if you Google Image Search "Plasma Annihilator", the first image that comes up is a claggy thick painted red/silver poor excuse for a titan weapon- that exact gun is sitting on my desk at home waiting for a dip into the greenstuff... yay, quasi-famous weapon for my titan.... hahahaha!

BANELORD

And just for some completeness, and to make this less of an Imperium-fest, here's my Khorne Banelord Titan- essentially a close combat/short range Warlord, it uses metal arm weapons, metal head (with a minigun coming out of the mouth!!!), metal tail and metal missile rack and banner poles! But, its the same plastic warlord chassis as the other ones, im always impressed at how much variation could be acheived with some 'add ons'. Hoping to get a small Chaos warband assembled and painted soon (I have the minis), and then get some games in as well...











WARHOUND SCOUT TITAN

This little fella is the smallest Titan type available, I purchased him on eBay with another matching one (Warhounds can operate in packs of two), both with these awesome freehand serpent iconography and handpainted banners. Unfortunately, in moving stuff around i've misplaced the other Warhound's leg (it'd fallen off), so i'm temporarily down to one until it resurfaces. They both have the original style 40mm square base- later ones have round 40K Terminator-sized bases. If push comes to shove i'll source another leg online and paintmatch it to the original scheme...   


Possible delay with next post??

Thought I'd also mention that this may be my last post for a little while, as my wife is due to give birth in less than two weeks time- meaning the baby could come along at any point from now! This means i'll most likely be spending a lot of my free time getting last minute things in order and wrapping up/ handing over things at work for my 5 or so weeks off work. But, who knows, my time off may allow me a bit more freedom to get some hobby work and blog updates done (in between nappy changes :P).

Anyhow, i'll be back, sooner or later.

Tempest!

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