Epic armies

As well as showing my latest painting and hobby projects, I'm going to use this blog to share some of my collection of older models. Most of these will be from the early to mid 90s when I played a lot of GW games, including Warhammer, Bloodbowl and Space Marine (Epic). So if you're in the mood for a nostalgic look at brightly painted armies then you should enjoy these.

Staying with Epic for the moment, here's a look at my Ultramarines force from SM2, which I recently lined up for the camera. I'm very excited to say that these fellas will be taking to the battlefield once again next month when they take on an army of Orks using NetEpic rules. NetEpic is something new to me, but is a fan-driven set of rules that evolved out of 2nd ed Space Marine. If you're interested in knowing more about it, head over to the Tactical Command forums at http://www.taccmd.tacticalwargames.net/

Old lead...fresh paint

One of my favourite games from years ago was Games Workshop's 2nd edition Space Marine (aka 'Epic'). I had (and still have) a sizeable force of Ultramarines (bolstered with some Imperial Guard tanks) which would go up against my brother's Chaos army, and we had some absolutely storming games! I never actually managed to beat him, but the games were mostly very close fought affairs, and usually went down to the final turn to be decided. I loved the tactical nature of Space Marine, which seemed more rewarding than Warhammer Fantasy Battle in that sense. It was also refreshing to be able to collect a large army for not too much coinage, and be able to paint it quite quickly.

I recently dusted down my Epic figs - both my own and my brother's - and had an enjoyable couple of games again (albeit only solo ones). My brother had a small number of miniatures that he never got round to painting, including this Nurgle Greater Demon. Since I'm custodian of his figs these days, I couldn't resist the temptation of giving life to this great miniature and painting him up. I hope my brother doesn't mind!!! Next up is Mortarion, the Prince of Decay. Watch this space... :-)

Finished: Roman Scorpion Catapult

I finally finished off the Early Imperial Roman Scorpion yesterday. It took a little longer than anticipated because I decided that a base this size really needed a bit of time and effort put into it.

I used Milliput to model the ground and, while this was still wet, added a few small stones from the garden, together with some smaller scenic gravel. Once that had all dried I undercoated the base black and started drybrushing greys and white for the stony areas and various mixes of green, yellow and brown for the earth. I used some ink washes here and there as well, just to blend everything together. I'd run out of scenic bushes and tufts, so I used an old model tree and cut some pieces from it to use as shrubs. A few daubs of yellow paint gives them the appearance of broom. A final touch was to scatter some of the particles of the tree cuttings around the bases of the shrubs.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with how this piece turned out. Hope you like it.

Something old, something new...

Things have been a bit slow on the painting front this past week, so here's a couple of pics from my collection - an oldie and a newbie. Actually, they're both old, but I only got round to painting these crossbowmen last year - about 20 years after buying them!

Note the absence of goblin green on the crossbowmen bases. Ah, how times have changed...

Back in the day, I would usually just try and emulate the amazing talents of the Games Workshop 'Eavy Metal team, so a lot of my miniatures from that time (such as the giant here) pretty much followed the colour schemes and designs of what I saw in the pages of White Dwarf. Not very original I know, but it was a good way to bring on my painting skills.

Kallistra barbarians

After putting in lots of hours recently on 28mm projects, I decided to take a little break and paint up some of my Kallistra barbarians. I'm part way through putting together this army, having already painted units of boar riders, archers, ballistae and chariots earlier in the year. I'm not sure yet if I'll use these guys to play some Warmaster or Kallistra's own Hordes & Heroes rules (neither of which I've ever tried).

These barbarians were good fun to paint up. They're technically 10mm, although I think Kallistra describes them as 'big 10s', so they're more like 12mm really.

In progress: Roman Scorpion catapult

Just a quick post to show a couple of progress pics of the Roman Scorpion catapult I mentioned in the last post. The crew are now done so it's on with the artillery piece and the basing. As a side note, I decided not to paint the eyes on the standing figure since he's shielding his eyes from the sun, and I thought that painting the eyes might spoil the illusion of him squinting.

I'm aiming to finish this model early next week in between other projects, so final photos to follow soon, hopefully.

Finished: Celtic Warriors

I finally got round to finishing off my first batch of Celtic warriors this week. These have been more or less finished for some time now. I just had to add some small details and do the basing. The figs, like the Roman legionnaires in the previous post, were from Warlord Games's Conquest of Gaul boxed set. I think there are about 60 Celts in total, so still plenty to do. Because of the poses, I found that it was difficult to get four miniatures on each 40x40mm stand, so just went with three, but they still look fine at that, especially if a second row was added as per the Hail Caesar! rules for warbands. Once again, the shield transfers are by Little Big Men Studios.

Elsewhere, I'm about half way through the French Old Guard Napoleonic unit from Victrix that I'm painting up, and also working on a Roman Scorpion catapult, which I'll post up tomorrow probably.

Finished: Napoleon's 3rd Swiss Regiment

Delighted to say that I finished up the 3rd Swiss Regiment that I've been working on this past week or so. These were the models I had left over from the Warlord Games boxed set of French line infantry - hence no command figs at present. I do like the black, red and white uniforms of this regiment, and they should look good on the wargaming table, and add a nice bit of variety amongst the French colours. Enjoy the photos :-)