EPIC: Space Wolves Vehicles

  I haven't posted in a while!

  I have managed to get some energy for painting my Epic, concentrating on my Space Wolves.  This is due in part to finding a local person who has been kind enough to really teach me the rules of Epic: Armageddon and about list building.

These Drop Pods are figurative models, used more as markers than actual vehicles in the game.  Technically you could just use a marker for them but I mean, that could be said about absolutely anything in wargaming!  They had an in built base but I worried about it getting chipped in handling so I glued them to Renedra 40mm round bases.

These Predator Annihilators are anti armour tanks.  These are the original Games Workshop models, which are a bit chunky.  As with most of my GW models they are from the last hurrah of Specialist Games just before the range got scrapped in 2013.  As such they are latter day casts and are a bit wonky but paint hides a lot of sins!

These Predator Destructors are the much more modern and svelte fan-casts which are sadly no longer available.  Predators in Epic can be mixed and matched in pairs, so usually I deploy them in formations of two of each so that they can target both enemy armour and infantry effectively.

These Razorbacks have a rather muddy yellow on them as I started painting them with discontinued colours half a decade ago and couldn't face the rigmarole of stripping and repainting them from scratch!  I thought I wouldn't be using them so much but now I'm wondering if I should have more.

These rhinos have some symbols on them from when I used to fuss and get incredibly over ambitious about projects without actually finishing them!   One is a Warhammer 40k scale Wolf Guard Terminator shield, one is a Forge World brass etch, the other four are resin symbols, again from Forge World.

These tanks were ones I had started painting with now discontinued colours years ago - but I stuck with them, repainting them in Army Painter 'Wolf Grey' and I'm really glad I did!

On my table next are more Wolves, but I have got some Orks and Tyranids on my mind as well!

Epic Space Wolves: Now With Snow!

  Things have moved on a bit!

  I don't have as much painted as I would like, which is an Eternal Mood, alas.

  I have been challenged by someone new I have met at a local gaming club to concentrate on Epic and really get at least some of one of my own armies ready to play with.  So, I went and properly polished off my infantry and salvaged the first of a series of Space Wolf tanks, variously from Games Workshop or third parties.

  When I started these, it must have been half a decade ago. I finished a single Rhino tank on a Flames of War base and it wasn't bad for essentially a 'first properly painted model'.  Since that time, though, Games Workshop have, in their eternal wisdom, decided to change their entire paint range.  In addition, third party suppliers have either provided their own paints to compete through quality, or to compete through offering gaps that Games Workshop have opened in the market by discontinuing older colours that long term fans may be a fan of.

I've decided to make the main colour of all of my Space Wolves the Army Painter 'Wolf Grey' paint.  I think it's a good compromise between the different shades that official Space Wolves models have been painted by Games Workshop over the years.

  It's all still a learning process but have decided to try for better contrast and brighter colours as I evolve as a painter.  The Whirlwind tanks up above are much brighter with grungy but still eye catching dirt painted into their recesses.  The tanks I began painting years ago are being painted anew to give them the same look, and mounted on round Renedra 30mm bases so they 'look right' to my eye.

  I found a problem with the 'strip' bases.  Epic are 6mm scale troops, small but with chunky base bottoms, designed to fit into slots.  Games Workshop stopped selling those bases along with all Specialist Games stuff in the Great Dying of 2013, but thankfully, third party bases sell equivalents, the best ones currently available being sold by the excellent Vanguard Miniatures.

  I finally had a couple of games at a local club to learn the rules, thanks to a chance encounter with a new friend.  I struggled with some of the basics of Epic: Armageddon, which is very different from the old Space Marine game I used to play as a kid, but I think I am getting the hang of it after a couple of games.

  I managed to get a hold of some wonderful Eldar proxies in 6mm, but I want to force myself to concentrate on the Space Wolves before splitting my attentions between two armies.  One 'cheat' I've found is the new texture paint from Games Workshop, 'Valhallan Blizzard'.  I was very skeptical of a lot of the new Citadel range as they are very hit and miss for me, but I gave this gritty fake snow a try and it works a charm.  They claim you can peter it out a bit to make it look like slush but I haven't managed to get that looking right.  I also tried using the Citadel gloss varnish called 'Ardcoat to do that but again, didn't get the right look.  In any case, I've found it a superior addition to these bases compared with how the old Citadel Snow white flock looked.

EPIC: Space Wolf Infantry Formations

  These are not technically finished units, as they are unvarnished and have no snow or scatter on their bases.  However, I wanted to post something to prove I'd made progress.

  First up are some Blood Claws.  The fan-made Space Wolves army lists in Epic are still being play-tested.  This means that I might simply proxy these as Tactical Marines in a vanilla Codex Astartes list.  With all of these models I went for brighter colours than might be expected - favouring red on the chainswords and bolt pistols, as well as on the backback exhausts.  I wanted different units to 'pop' and be 'readable' from across the table.

  These are the Grey Hunters, who are ostensibly the backbone of a Space Wolves force.  They lack heavy weapons but that can be compensated for by having Razorbacks supplement their free Rhino transports.  The younger Skyclaws and Bloodclaws I painted with red and pale hair and beards, with the Grey Hunters and Scouts having more black and brown hair, to suggest their relative age and experience.

  The Scouts are quite small and fiddly, their official colours dominated by blue-grey, which made them a bit duller to paint.  The trousers they wear are a khaki though, which adds some contrast.  They're not technically meant to have sniper rifles unless you pay for them as an upgrade but I needed to add those so as not to use duplicate sculpts on each stand.

  My finished Skyclaws are my favourite.  Essentially the same sculpts as the Blood Claws, just with jump packs instead of backpacks, these break up the outline of the model and allow some bright blue exhaust colour to add contrast.

  There was lots of fiddly detail all over these models, such as wolf pelts and wolf tail totems.  I'm sure I probably missed something here or there, but there's point where you're squinting at tiny little toy soldiers a quarter inch high and you realise there's only so much effort you can put into them!

EPIC: Space Wolves WIP

  I've been wanting to learn and play EPIC: Armageddon for years.  Space Marine 2nd edition, as it was then called in the early 90s, was my first ever GW experience, bought by my older brother, who collected Space Orks.

  I never really stuck with a side as a little kid, barely understanding the rules and mostly making them up as I went along, hopping from one bunch of unpainted plastic to another playing on a bedroom floor.  I enjoyed reading the background and poring over the artwork even more than rolling dice.  Eventually I got a grab bag of Eldar 2nd hand to try out Epic 40,000, but again, that was moth balled.

  Eventually it was Warmaster which caught on in my local club when I floated it, in terms of an obsolete, unsupported Games Workshop game, and that is where my painting and modelling energies went for a few years.

  A few years ago I bought a mix of Space Marines, Grey Knights and Eldar but never got a head of steam to really paint them up properly.  A couple of people in the new clubs I've visited have suggested an interest in Epic and it would be great to get people to dig out their own old abandoned projects and revive them.

  So, I've dug up the models and I can see the really obvious mistakes I made painting them first time around, and how I've improved painting in the years between.  In addition, a couple of Games Workshop colours I used no longer exist so I've had to figure out a new paint scheme. I've tried repainting some of the old tanks, using these Whirlwinds as a test formation and I think they're coming along really nicely.

Instead of slathering wash / shade all over the models like I did in the past, I'm pin-washing; carefully applying shade into recesses.  Also, I'm mixing orange and bright brown into a rusty looking glaze to suggest wear and tear and accumulated grime.

  This is my first test stand for infantry, starting with Skyclaws, who are in essence, assault marines for Space Wolves.  I'm going for quite bright colours, more red and yellow than I would perhaps do on 28mm models because I really want things to stand out and be readable from a distance.  I figure their Great Company shoulder markings might as well be Ragnar Blackmane, simply so that I get an excuse to do a flash of yellow on what might end up being very grey looking models, overall.

  I'm really happy with these, so far.  They're going more slowly than I would like but it's more progress in a fortnight I've made at all over the past  few months or so.

EPIC: Grey Knights Test Stand

  After a dozen Warmaster units, my brain rankled at the thought of more.

  I tried putting Infinity and Blood Bowl on my desk but neither of them did the trick. 

  Then I dug out a bunch of EPIC models, most of which I'd bought years ago.

  Someone on the Tactical Command forum had sold me some rare Imperial Flyers for no more than they would have cost from Forge World when they were still available; on the condition that I painted them - as he had never gotten around to it!

  I washed, prepped and glued them to put alongside some Thunderhawks I've had lurking for years in a box and some Warhounds gathering dust on my bookshelf.

  The big challenge awaiting me is always painting something, especially something unfamiliar or at a different scale.  Warmaster, which I usually paint, is 10mm, whereas EPIC is a diminutive 6mm.

  These fellows are the result of me grabbing the nettle and concentrating on just one stand of troops as a test before doing any others.  As a guide I used the lovely Tale of Painters how-to for Grey Knights although, not painting them to that level of detail!

  The base is a fan-made resin cast that I thought would look more dynamic than the old plastic strip bases.  It looks good but it's easy to miss a bit on the undercoating or basecoating steps .

First steps in EPIC: Armageddon

Whilst I love Warmaster and am prioritising that for painting, I have been giving myself a "break" to do modelling and painting for other scales and systems.

The smaller lead mountain I have for EPIC contains Space Wolf, Eldar and Grey Knight forces.  My aim for Epic is the same for Warmaster in that I want to be able to put out good looking and unobtrusive terrain and markers.

These are 5 official resin Forge World markers that are now OOP, and a scratch objective made from 3 Warhammer 40k Terminator squad teleport beacons.  They are based on 40mm steel washers for transportation and weighting.

I got distracted by the idea of a Grey Knight army and am using the provisional fan list on the Tactical Command forum.  These are Inquisitorial Chimeras, for transporting retinues; hodge podge mixtures of highly disciplined shock troops... And insane fanatics!

These are the first real Grey Knight unit group I completed, rhinos painted in the GK scheme.  Might have to make more depending on how the fan list evolves.  Really proud of these.