The Painting Bunkerc y

The XIVth Legion – The Death Guard – Epic Armageddon

Posted: May 22, 2016 in Death Guard, Epic Armageddon

Hey there everyone,

Just two very brief posts today. A bit of Sunday morning epic scale Legion Astarte glory… So, as many of you know that follow this blog, I recently held a dedicated 6mm Epic Armageddon 30k competition. As a part of this monumental undertaking (seriously, it was…) I also made up two ‘starter’ armies to help teach the basic set of rules to prospective players. In both armies, the three basic types of units found in Epic Armageddon were present. That is an Assault Unit, Direct Fire Unit, and an Indirect Fire Unit. These armies are based loosely on the training scenario contained in the Epic Armageddon Tournament Pack rule book. For those interested, you can follow this link and download counters to assist in game play, as well as a set of counters that you can print out onto some card that represent the units found in the training scenario. That way you can print them out, then have a game using counters while you’re assembling an actual army. One last link I thought I’d share, it’s this one. You can download a PDF quick reference sheet that is quite handy to use for new players that are in the throws of a game and don’t want to go rifling through a rule book.

So the second army I did up was a Death Guard list. Please note, that these list are 1,000pts and are meant to conform to the so-called ‘mini-geddon‘ rules supplement. I’ve added a little more to this list it since its original conception. The 1,000pt list contains the following, based on the community list developed for the Horus Heresy supplement.

Tactical Detachment with Praetor and two Predators (tounge twister…) – Assault Force

Terminator Detachment – Direct Fire

Medusa Detachment – Indirect Fire

This list contains all of the ‘big muscle movements’ of the rule book, and will allow new players to get a solid understanding of the foundation epic rules set down, before moving on to more complicated aspects of the rules. Don’t make the mistake I made, and had my first game that included air craft, orbital bombardments, space ships in orbit, plant falling units (drop pods) and air assaults. Really stupid of me. I would have been much better just easing myself into a few small games to get the swing of things, and then build from there. Anyway….

I also painted up a set of objective markers for each list too.

Here is what I did up.

As you can see, I’ve since added some Terminators and some Sicarians to the list too.

Thanks for dropping in

John

The IIIrd Legion – The Emperor’s Children – Epic Armageddon starter army

Posted: May 22, 2016 in Emperors Children, Epic Armageddon

Hey there everyone,

So the first army I did up was an Emperor’s Children list. Please note, that these list are 1,000pts and are meant to conform to the so-called ‘mini-geddon‘ rules supplement. I’ve added a little more to this list it since its original conception. The 1,000pt list contains the following, based on the community list developed for the Horus Heresy supplement.

Tactical Detachment with Praetor Supreme Commander – (Assault Force)

Landraider Proteus – (Direct Fire)

Whirlwind formation – (Indirect Fire)

I also painted up a set of objective markers for each list too.

Here is what I did up.

As you can see, I’ve since added some Terminators to the list too.

So jump onto the next post, to have a look at the second trainer army I’ve done up, the Death Guard.

Thanks for dropping in

John

30k Epic Armageddon at BrisCon 2016 – Wash up

Posted: May 3, 2016 in Competitions, Net Epic, Scenery, Tournaments

Hey everyone,

So the 30k Epic Armageddon competition that I hosted at BrisCon 2016 has come and gone, and the day was a huge success. In total 8 players attended, which is a great number considering the game has been OOP for around 10 yrs now, AND the era we gamed in (30k) was not contemplated by the game designers when the game was released. The rules for the units are completely fan created.

So we had on the loyalist side, Emperors Children, Dark Angels, Ultramarines and Iron Warriors factions present. On the Traitor side we had World Eaters, Alpha Legion, Emperors Children and Death Guard. The Loyalist took the day, winning quite convincingly in the final round (it was actually neck and neck at the end of the second round).

The Alpha Legion won Best Painted, the Loyalist Emperors Children took out first place on battle points, followed by the World Eaters in second, and the Iron Warriors in third. However, overall, the scene in Brisbane had a massive win. I hope that this event will be a catalyst for more Epic scale 30k gaming into the future.

Michael and Tim, from the Eye of Horus podcast were in attendance, so no doubt in the coming weeks they’ll also be doing a feature on the event too. So go check them out to hear a more detailed break down of how events unfolded on the day.

As an aside, it was very pleasing to see the BrisCon format reinvigorated. The venue was great, lots of room, plenty of tables, good on site facilities and lots of very high quality vendors and tournaments being played all coupled with a solid turnout of gamers and curious onlookers. I anticipate in the coming years BrisCon will become a regularly booked event on the Brisbane (and dare I say, interstate) gaming calendar.

Ok, enough waffle, here are some pics

The first three are of the tables. You’ll notice that the tables are only 120cm x 90cm. I did this for two reasons. 1. The epic scene is in its nascent stage in Brisbane. So I wanted to keep the comp as simple as possible to allow the gamers to get a feel for the game mechanics. I also limited the type of units gamers could chose, and also the size of units too. This meant that the games only had to deal with the core rules of Epic Armageddon. 2. I didn’t want to be making tones of scenery for this event. Prior to putting my hand up to run this event, I didn’t have any scenery, so all this was made for the comp.

A few action shots….

Thanks for dropping in,

Until next time

John

The Xth Legion – Iron Hands – The Flesh is Weak

Posted: April 5, 2016 in Horus Heresy, Iron Hands

Good morning all,

Heres a project I’ve been working on over the Easter Holiday break. It’s about 4,000pts worth of 30k Iron Hands. I’ve still got Ferrus to go, and quite a substantial amount of Mechanicum too. This is just the first tranche to get the ball rolling. It was a real pleasure to paint. Black, as you all know, is a tricky ‘colour’ (it’s actually a shade) to paint. To make a black army look good is very difficult. I tried a few different techniques on this army to help overcome some of the obstacles faced by painting a black army.

You’ll notice that I’ve used the new Forge World Iron Hands decal sheet. I have to say, I am a little disappointed by it. There are a few pros, but also a few cons too. Let me explain. The main pro, is that, unlike the older FW decal sheets, each decal is printed on its own piece of clear film. So no more spending hrs cutting around 50 shoulder pad markings. Oh, the time I’ve spend doing that. Another pro is the totally awesome Clan markings. There are some really nice ones on this sheet. So thats it for the pros. A few of the cons. There are not enough Clan markings to do anymore that 15 or so marines. So that means, with a force this size, I would have needed to buy about 3-4 sheets if I wanted to do a whole army from the same clan. The other con is the lack of the roman numeral “X”. One thing I really love about 30k modelling, is festooning the marines and their vehicles with their legion number designation. It just looks hard as fuck. There are no Xs” on this decal sheet. Also, the new style ‘graphic’ decals look childish to me. I used them, and they look ok, and some had some cool shit on it (an inverted pentagram) but overall, not that impressed. I preferred the old decal sheet….

Ok, the models, behold!

Thug Really like the new Spartan. Having the tracks cast on to the hull makes SUCH a massive difference when painting and assembling.

So as many of you know, the hull is based on the plastic Baneblade kit. The instructions that accompany the Fellblade are basically useless. This kit is a real prick to assemble. Looks fucking cool though! Tough as nails too…

I bought a Glaive turret off eBay so I could make two tanks with the one chassis.

Probably my favourite models from the FW Iron Hands range. These guys look like Special Forces about about go and kick down a door or something. They’re covered in bits of kit and just look like they’re ready for business. I want to get more.

Husta la vista…. These guys are magnetised so that they can take a variety of support weapon choices.

Thats it for the time being. Back to study now. See you all for the post Emperor’s Legions Epic Scale 30k Comp I’m supporting at BrisCon on 01 May. If you’re thinking of coming, please head over now a pick up your tickets.

Thanks for dropping in

John

BrisCon 2016 announcement – FREE Stuff!

Posted: March 20, 2016 in Horus Heresy, Net Epic, Tournaments

Hey everyone,

Just a quick note on the upcoming Epic Armageddon 30k event The Painting Bunker is hosting at BrisCon 2016. We’re about 6 weeks out from the date and about 6 people have confirmed their attendance. If you’ve read the Epic 30k 2016 BRISCON Players Pack, you’ll know that places are limited to 12 players. So, the guys organising BrisCon 2016 have updated the website so that you can now actually buy a ticket. As the Epic Armageddon 30k event is only 1 day (1 May) the cost is only $20(!!) I’ve cooked up some incentive in an effort to get the amount of attendees squared away, and add a little value for participants.

So here is the deal. If you pay up $20 and have your list submitted to me by 17 April you’ll get a free set of objective markers and an awesome Epic Armageddon gaming aid. Don’t finish reading this post, go to the BrisCon 2016 website and confirm your attendance. I’ll wait here will you do that….

Before I continue, I would like to acknowledge the creator of the original template that I’ve modified for my event. This supremely useful template was conceived by the awesome guys at the Newcastle Legions wargaming club. If you recall, I’ve mentioned this great bunch of guys from a previous post. Suffice to say, they’ve generously allowed me to modify this template to give away for BrisCon 2016.

Ok, now you’re back I’ve got some awesome tables planned for the comp too! We’ll be playing on 6, 120x90cm boards. The themes for the boards are based around the early part of the Horus Heresy civil war. The first board is based on Choral city, so think ruined buildings, and a generally bleak landscape. The second theme is based on the Urgall depression, bunkers, hills and killing fields, and the final theme is based on lush forests. So dust off you old epic minis, come along and roll some dice, it’s going to be a great day,.

Just a quick summary of the players pack

2000pt army – Legion and Titan list only
Max unit cost is 650pt
No flyers or orbital deployments
3 games
Any minis can be used (within reason of course) to represent formations
Net Epic Armageddon rules can be found here
Legion army lists can be found here
12 places are reserved, 6 for loyalist, 6 for traitor
Outrageously awesome prizes, including an epic scale Reaver Titan!
You get some FREE awesome stuff too!

So, lets get this scene happening, go sign up and help build the 30k community

Thanks for dropping in

John

The Painting Bunker hosts Epic Scale 30k at BrisCon 2016 – 01 May

Posted: February 17, 2016 in Competitions, Net Epic, Scenery, Tournaments

Just a quick post to let you all know that BrisCon is back and I’ve put my hand up to run an Epic 30k one day tournament. BrisCon is held over the May day long weekend in Windsor, however the event I’ll be running is just limited to one day, the Sunday. It’ll be a 2000pt comp with a few limitations. You can download the players pack here. Epic 30k 2016 BRISCON Players Pack

If you are interested, please contact me via the email address 30k BrisCon at gmail dot com (all one word). Numbers are limited to 6 Traitors and 6 Loyalists.

I’m pretty excited about this comp and the resurrection of BrisCon, so drop by the BrisCon website and show your support.

Now to build some terrain… Luckily a good friend of mine has sent me a little something-something to help get things started….

I just had to throw in this picture, because it’s badass.

Thanks for dropping in

John

ConCon 2016 – Epic Armageddon

Posted: February 5, 2016 in Competitions, Net Epic, Tournaments, Warhammer 40000

Good afternoon everyone,

Well, CanCon 2016 has been and gone, and what an event it has been. I have now attended three CanCon events over the years. Once in 1997 (yep, seriously), in 2013 and now in 2016. I can unequivocally say that 2016 was by far the best I’ve seen, for many reasons. Allow me to explain.

Firstly, I was playing in a new type of tournament to what I usually play in. I’ve been playing 40k (now 30k as far as I’m concerned) for over 20yrs now, and I’ve not really dabbled into too many other systems. So to participate in a new system in a tournament setting was a new prospect for me. As I predicted, the event organiser was right on top of his game. Right from the players pack, to the terrain, to the trophies was all superb. Best of all though was all of the great gamers I met from all over Australia. Even Perth had a representation! As you all know, the person on the other side of the table during a game makes or breaks the whole experience. So playing in a system where all of the gamers were seasoned veterans made a big difference. It seems to be a feature of the Epic Armageddon system, that only real wargaming die-hards seem to play it. Which I like. You have to be committed to get involved, which requires character and experience (for example, you can’t just simply order an army online and off you go, amongst other things). Both of these qualities were abundant in all of the gamers that participated in the tournament, and let me tell you it makes such a difference. Speaking of which, I need to give a shout out to the wargaming club, Newcastle Legions. Almost half of the players were from this club (12-14) and they also brought a few tables worth of scenery. Every guy I met from this club was awesome, and I hope to make it to their flagship event, Castle Assault.

The second reason why CanCon was so good in 2016 was just the energy of the event. There just seemed to be lots of people attending. Both spectators and participants. There were lots of great vendors in attendance too. So it really made it worthwhile for me, because I could cruise around and see whats new, and how other systems do hobby. Which often is a great source of ideas and inspiration.

So, how did I go? Well, I played in six games over the two days. I didn’t have very high expectations for my performance, as prior to attending the tournament, I’d play only 1 game of Epic Armageddon 40k. Here are the match ups for the six games, I took a generic Codex Marines list (Using models from my epic 30k World Eaters army).

Game 1 – Squats, yes Squats. Those tenacious little midgets live on in Epic Armageddon. It was an interesting game because there I’d never played a Squat army before (even in 28mm 40k) and the fan rules for them is (apparently) still under development. The biggest take-away from this game for me was just how my army operates and what you can and can’t get away with using them. While I didn’t win the game, I did learn a lot. Thankfully I didn’t encounter the Squats again during the tournament, they’re tough little guys.

Game 2 – Space Marines. I managed to win this game, mostly by fluke though. It was good playing against another marine player, to see how they do business.

Game 3 – Eldar. Just like in 40k, Eldar in Epic Armageddon are tricky customers. I didn’t win, but I achieved a moral victory by killing his Phantom titan. Apparently this is quite difficult (it was!). Interestingly, my Whirlwinds did quite a bit of damage to it, which in itself is a miracle and significantly contributed to its demise. However, this was a truly fun game and I enjoyed every second of it.

Game 4 – Tyranids. I made a silly tactical error early on in the game that meant I had an uphill battle on my hands all the way. Had I not been so bellicose in my first turn, I’m confident I would have had a strong victory. I did manage to turn it around (through some exceptional luck on my behalf, and some exceptional bad luck on my opponents behalf) so it wasn’t a complete pasting, but a loss non-the-less.

Game 5 – Necrons. Again, this is one of those armies that just like in 40k 28mm, they’re tricky to deal with. I got totally hammered in this game due to not recognising that the army was a one trick pony, but oh what a trick it is. Had I deployed with more foresight and understood a little more about how these guys operate, things would have turned out differently. In the end, it was a pretty frustrating game.

Game 6 – Space Marines. This was a Salamanders army (not the one I painted) and was very similar to mine (in terms of composition). By this stage of the tournament I had a few tricks up my sleeve. I managed to get the initiative early on in the game and seriously compromised his core command unit. Win to me.

The up side was I did win best painted. To be honest, this came as somewhat of a surprise. There were several extremely well painted armies present (in my opinion), most notably an Eldar army. So I was pretty honoured to get this accolade.

Here are some photos of the tables and the armies.

Love this table, which is an homage to the Imperial Airbase “Typha-IV” as presented in Imperial Armour Model Masterclass Vol. 1. (if you don’t have it, you should. It’s a must have for all model wargaming hobby enthusiasts).

As you can see, all of the terrain was first class. Super impressed.

The old GW Warhound Titan, compared to the 6mm version of the Forge World Warhound. Interestingly, I’ve seen a similar comparison between the old Armour Cast Warhound and the 28mm Forge World Warhound. The size difference is comparable there too. Epic Armageddon - Game against Tyranids The World Eaters desperately defend the township from being overrun by the Tyranids in game 4. I did managed to turn the tide around (pardon the pun) but it was too little too late. All I can say is Land Speeders in Epic Armageddon are the bomb!
There were a few Titan Legion armies present.

Epic Armageddon - World Eaters

This is my World Eaters that ended up taking out best painted. I like the composition of the army, I doubt I’d change anything. However now I’m a little wiser I would certainly do things tactically a lot differently.

So thats it for this wash up. My holidays are rapidly coming to an end, and I have many unfinished projects on my bench. I’ll be away next week for work, so I won’t be able to get any painting done. However, when I return home next Friday, I’m going to use the following weekend to attack whats left. We’ll see how we go. I’ve also been invited as a guest on a friend of mines podcast. You’ve probably heard of it, The Eye of Horus. The shows host, Tim & Michael are two great guys, and in the unlikely event you’ve not listed to their podcast, go and download a few episodes now. They’re knowledge of the various GW gaming universes (WHFB, AoS, 40k and 30k) is encyclopedic! They recently attended ACT of Heresy, which was run in Canberra over the same weekend as CanCon. I had too much time pressure to visit it (I did lend them my new ZM board though!) and by all accounts it was a resounding success, and has set a new bench mark for wargaming tournaments in Australia. There is an impressive photo gallery of the event here and here.

Until next time, take care

John

Zone Mortalis Board

Posted: January 17, 2016 in Horus Heresy, Scenery, World Eaters

Good afternoon everyone,

Today is a great day, I’ve finally finished a project I’ve wanted to do for the longest time and it’s the second of three posts I promised you before I return to studies. A Zone Mortalis board. This blog is festooned with some pretty ambitious scenery/table making projects. Many of you probably don’t know, but I sold, yes sold, all of my boards late in 2014. Fear not, they’ve gone to a very good home, and I routinely see pictures of them being put to good use. Why did I sell them? Well, by taking terrain making to such an extreme (by that I mean a dude tooling around in his garage, not a professional design studio) I learnt some very good lessons.

The lessons boil down into striking a balance between three competing, inter-related issues. I’ll call them the dark triad. Playability, robustness & storage.

Playability. One of the main reasons I wanted to make some awesome terrain in the first place, many years ago, is because we spend so much time and energy on our armies. Then we go and play games on a piece of MDF with a few (poorly) painted pieces of styrofoam, aquarium plants and a hill here and there thrown on it (if we’re lucky). Gaming is a social, visual and intellectual pursuit. It’s a noble hobby and for me, having terrain that matches the time we put into the miniatures we game with is just as important. However gaming is an abstraction of reality. Therefore, boundaries need to be easily and identifiably established between say where a road ends, and a crater begins. What this boils down to is drawing a line between making a massive diorama to play on, versus a wargaming table. A wargaming table needs zones that can be segregated physically and visually as clearly as possible to conform to the rules system that is being used. This means making a compromise between a board that looks amazing (a massive diorama) but is difficult to establish where a road ends and a crater begins and a board that can be played on without confusion over where a piece of terrain starts and ends (a wargaming table). After making boards previously that were a little too close to the diorama side of the house, I now can see that keeping an eye on playability is an important factor when designing and constructing a wargaming table. Which leads me to my next point.

Robustness. In a sentence, the cityscape boards I made were not robust. Yes they looked good, yes there were tones of fun to play on, yes I loved making them (some of the best modelling experiences I’ve had actually). But they were very fragile (even though I tried to make them durable). This lead to breaks, and worst of all, friends were worried that when they played on them they might damage something. This lead to trepidation and a reluctance to put miniatures in certain positions because they were difficult to get access/retrieve said miniature. It also meant that packing up the board and moving it was a massive logistical exercise. Particularly because I couldn’t just place all the scenery in a storage box and leave it at that. It had to go in a certain way, which isn’t a very economical use of space, and even then, breakages were abound. So, yes a spiral stair case looks badass, was a great modelling challenge, but totally impractical because it was very fragile due to all of the hand rails and putting miniatures on it was a massive pain in the ass. So again, making a compromise between having a nice looking piece of terrain, and one that can stand up to the rigors and demands of being used during gaming, moved from one location to another for a game is critical. That balance that needs to be struck is again in favour of being first and foremost a robust piece of scenery, then a good looking one after that.

Storage. Lets face it, we all have lots of stuff these days. Just our armies alone can take up a considerable amount of space. Now imagine the storage space needed for 6, 2′ x 2′ tiles plus the terrain that goes on them. Unless you’re fortunate enough to have a permanent gaming room with a table and shelving set up, storing the board tiles and scenery is challenging. This is compounded when you want to transport it all from one location to another.

So, this has lead me to the conclusion that wargaming scenery needs to be visually appealing, but not over the top so that it compromises its robustness, playable and finally, easy to store when not in use or being transported. I intend on making one or two more boards (an epic scale 30k board, think Istvaan III, Choral City post fire storm and a ruined/abandoned/city of death style board for 30k). When designing and constructing these boards, striking a balance between the dark triad, with more weight being placed on playability, robustness and storage will be the order of the day.

Well, with that said, here is the first board I’ve produced in a long time. This scenery ticks all of the boxes. It’s very playable, no confusion where something starts and ends, plus it looks amazing. It’s robust, seriously, this stuff (whatever resin FW uses) is strong. As a side note, I suspected that the more recent castings of these tiles has more resin in it than older ones. A few weekends ago, I took a new board piece along to a tournament I was playing in with a small set of scales, knowing that it would have a Zone Mortalis table. Anyway, the old piece of the same design tile weighed in at 720g, while the new piece weighed in at 980g. Thats a significant difference. It is also apparent in FW’s larger Realm of Battle tiles. If you recall from previous posts, there were significant warpage issues with the older tiles. Well, not any more. As a part of this purchase, I also got one of the new Industrial Complex tiles because I liked the detail on them and wanted to use it as scatter terrain for the board. Anyway, it is seriously heavy (and very well packed too). So good work to FW for improving their products. These things are tough.

They’re also easy to store, I can fit the entire 4’x6′ board in two 500mm cardboard boxes. Nice. This has gotten me thinking about other board systems that use a 12″x12″ tiles, as opposed to FW’s 24″x24″ system (Secret Weapon I’m looking at you). It seems to be a lot more transportable and easier to use and manage.

So on to the pics. As you know, I really like my boards to tell a story. This is meant to be a flight deck of sorts on the Conqueror. I took inspiration from FW’s amazing display board they did a few years back on a similar theme.

All World Eater’s ships need a dueling arena don’t they? Plus it just looks cool stencilled onto a tile. I plan on making a frame for this one tile, so that it resembles a pit when not being used on a ZM board. For Primarch/named character fights that have become fashionable at clubs and tournaments recently. Two men go in, one man comes out, n’that…

I actually made those fuel pods myself. If you cast your mind back a few years, FW actually made a similar one. I tried getting hold of one from eBay, but it sold for $250AUD!!!. So I thought, just make one… it’ll be fun, and a lot less expensive. So I did. Here is what the original looked like. I think the piece of PVC pipe was the most expensive bit ($2). Moral of the story, buy FW terrain, it’s a good investment.

As I mentioned, I cut off some random bits of detail from a FW tile to have as scatter terrain (see those generator things?) I also made up some containers from old Necromunda bulkheads. Good times.

Ok, thats me for the time being. My next project is on the bench and under coated. Want to see it?

What could it be?

Zone Mortalis

So next weekend I’m off to Canberra for CanCon to play in an Epic Armageddon comp. It should be interesting. I’ll do a short post on it with some pics.

Until then, take care

John

Epic Scale Salamanders army complete

Posted: December 19, 2015 in Net Epic, Salamanders

As promised, here is the first of the next three projects I’ve got on my bench that I’ll be completing in the next few weeks. I’ll give you a hint at the end of this post what the second of the three projects is.

Onward.

So, this army isn’t mine. It was a commission that I was approached to do earlier on in the year, however due to study commitments I wasn’t able to paint it until now. The owner has been collecting it for some time (it’s epic in every sense, weighing in at almost 4kgs) and it arrived in the post the day I finished my epic scale World Eaters. Enthused by my World Eaters and getting some time to paint again, I attacked this project with gusto. Often I worked 7-9hrs a day on it straight (yes, if you do the math, I painted this in two weeks). I did take the odd morning/afternoon tea break to restore my normality however.

Assembly and preparation were very time consuming (there are over 50 tanks, walkers et al and some 300 infantry). I’ve mentioned in the past about changing paints. Well, I’ve now gone “full vallejo”. The quality of their ‘game colour’ and ‘game air’ range is second to none. For someone who uses an airbrush a lot when I paint, the game air range is magnificent. None, to little thinning required (depending on application and therefore air pressure required). Whist I’ll always have a special place in my heart for Citadel paints, I’ve now moved on (Citadel, it’s not you, it’s me). I was vallejo curious a few years ago when I started using their weathering pigments. I never really considered their paints however. This was until mid-2015 when I purchased Space Hulk. I was in Sydney at the time and dropped into The Combat Company. In Brisbane, where I’m from, there isn’t (disappointingly) any real independent games stores anymore (aside from more broader “hobby” stores). So I was excited to venture in and see what they had. Suffice to say, I was impressed with their on-hand range and saw both the full Vallejo game air, and game colour range. So I picked up a few paints for Space Hulk and my World Eaters. After painting the World Eaters (the white was such a pleasure to use, as was the black undercoat) I decided to convert (Space Hulk remains unpainted…). Everything about the range impresses me. Coverage, consistency, application, storage, colour selection. You name it, it ticks all the boxes.

Enough with the unsolicited plug for Vallejo, and onto what you came here for, painted minis!

MkII Assault Marines with Jump Packs

Caestus Assault Ram – These models are amazing. I’d like to get my hands on some for my World Eaters. There is something very satisfying about having solid metal minis again.

Cerberus Heavy Tank Destroyer

Contemptor Dreadnoughts and Deredeo Dreadnoughts

Deimos Pattern Whirlwind Scorpius

Demios Vindicator Laser Destroyer

Drop Pods – On round bases to improve game mechanics

Falchion – Very impressive model. Who am I kidding, they all are…

Fellblade – The Astartes super heavy workhorse

Fire Raptors, The Astartes answer to the A-10, or is it the other way around…?

Glaive

Javelin Attack Speeder Squadron

Salamander Land Raider Armoured Proteus with Terminators

Land Raider Armoured Proteus Squadron with Terminators – When it absolutely, positively has to be destroyed

Land Raider Proteus and Firedrakes

Landspeeder Squadron

Objective Markers – My customer saw the ones I did for the World Eaters and asked me if I could make him some, who am I not to oblige?

Predator Squadron, note the different variants

Primarch Vulcan

Rapier Laser Destroyer

Spartan and Pyroclasts

Storm Eagles

Tactical Detachment 1

Tactical Detachment 2

Salamander Tarantula with Anti Air armament

Tarantula anti-air battery

Tarantula with Lascannons

Vindicator Squadron

Xiphon Pattern Interceptor Squadron

Believe it or not, the army is actually bigger than this, I only photographed single units. Some of them are in multiples. My customer liked the bases I did on my World Eaters, hence the resemblance. He isn’t quite so strict with his flying stands or conformity to basing sizes and standards as I am (for tactical purposes I believe) I have no idea how many points this army is, but it would have to be in the vicinity of 20,000 points. I thoroughly enjoyed painting it, and hope to see it across from me on the battlefield one day (no doubt my World Eaters would totally smoke them though, just say’n)

Onto other news. I’ll be attending CanCon in 2016 playing in the Epic Armageddon tournament. Some of you who’ve been following this blog for some time may remember that I went back in 2013 and played in the 40k comp. I don’t want to dwell on my last experience and let it colour my perceptions of other events run over during CanCon. I am really looking forward to attending this year, I know the organiser of the Epic Armageddon competition and know he takes epic scale wargaming VERY seriously. I am confident that every aspect of the competition will exceed my expectations. Expect a full wash up post following the competition. For those interested, I’m using my World Eaters as a generic proxy for a 40k Epic Armageddon Space Marine army.

Anyway, my family and I are heading off for our Christmas holiday tomorrow, so no more painting until early January 2016. Until then, thanks for dropping in, take care and have a safe and Merry Christmas for you and yours.

John

PS. Here is the sneak peek I mentioned of what I’ll be working on next…

Epic Scale World Eaters 5,500pt army complete

Posted: December 6, 2015 in Net Epic, World Eaters

I finally finished study for the year, which means that I now have time to do some painting and gaming. To kick things off, I attacked this Epic Scale World Eaters army I’ve been nursing for the past seven months.

A few years ago I was at a 40k tournament and noticed that there was an Epic Armageddon tournament also happening on the other side of the hall. Always intrigued by Epic Scale, I went and had a look. To my surprise, I noticed that fans were now producing their own miniatures, in spite of Games Workshop abandoning the system almost a decade ago. Since that point in time, I’ve been hooked. I have to say, these fan made miniatures are superb. If you look at the post just before this one, where I painted an Epic Armageddon Renegade Milita army, you’ll see what I mean. The fans that make these models appear to design them using CAD, then 3D print them out. The quality and attention to detail is truly astonishing. A real testament to the dedication and commitment that members of the gaming community have to the hobby.

So after much researching, I discovered there is a hardcore, dedicated community that still play using the Epic Armageddon rules set. To bring the system to modern standards, the community has created their own supplements to contemporarise the army offerings in Epic Scale that have since been made available in 28mm scale that were not around when GW abandoned the Epic format. These rules (not surprisingly) are balanced and comprehensive.

There are a few very positive aspects of this ‘garage’ version of Epic Armageddon when compared to its 28mm counterpart. The first is cost. The army that you see below, which is about 5,500pts worth (most 30k Epic scale games are 4,000pts) only cost me around $400AUD. (interestingly, 40k Epic Scale games are around 3,000pts) The other point is storage. If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you’ll know that I (used to) have a vast collection of armies, Titans and scenery. These armies and scenery are very difficult to store. A 5,500 point Epic army fits very comfortably into a shoe box. Finally, the actual game itself. This is a real tacticians game that is very interactive and dynamic. It’s not a strict “you go, then I’ll go” style of play such as that found in 28mm scale 40k. This means that rates of advance, synchronising the effects of supporting units (so called force multipliers), weapons ranges, weapon effects, terrain and close air support are all critical considerations (far beyond that of 28mm 40k). I’ve only had a handful of games, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed each game, and learnt more and more each time. As well as deepening my appreciation of the subtleties and nuances of the gaming architecture of the system too.

If you’d like to download a copy of the core rulebook, it’s available here. You’ll also find there many of the army lists for the various 40k races. If you’re interested in using this system for games of 30k (as far as I’m concerned, Epic Scale is the scale that 30k should be played in, and will be my hobby/gaming focus for the foreseeable future), you can find an excellent fan site with the various Legion rules here. This last site is very good, as it has, amongst other things, an excellent outline of how to build an army list, along with army lists summaries and quick reference sheets. If you think of this site as a supplement for the core rules, similar to how a Codex works in 40k, that will help put it into perspective. I doubt I’ll get into Epic Scale 40k in any meaningful way, for the same reason I’ve more or less abandoned 28mm scale 40k (its become a caricature/parody of itself).

Ok, let me give you a quick breakdown of what I’ve put together here.

Traitor World Eaters
Unit	Qty	Uprade	Pts
			5400
Legion Detachments

Tactical Detachment	1	8 x Tacticals	275
	1	Drop Pods	25
	4	Tactical Spt Squad	200
	1	Lieutenant Commander	50

Tactical Detachment	1	8 x Tacticals	275
	4	Heavy Spt Squad	200
	1	Centurion	50


Tactical Detachment	1	8 x Tacticals & Rhinos	275
	4	Heavy Spt Squad	200
	1	Centurion	50


Legion Support Detachments
Rampager Squad	1	6 RP & Centurion	350
Rampager Squad	1	6 RP & Centurion	350
Thunder Hawk	1		200
Thunder Hawk	1		200
Strike Cruiser	1		200
Contemptor Dreadnought	4	Drop Pods	265
Landraider Battle Squadron	6		480
Storm Eagle	3		375

Legion Lords of War

Angron	1	Teleport	475

Fire Raptor Wing	2		300
Fellblade	1		250
Glaive	1		250

Here is the army in full…

Ok, so now some details shots

Angron, Primarch of the XII Legion, The Red Angel

A quick scale comparison.

The first Tactical Detachment. Note the Tactical Support squad at the rear

The second Tactical Support Detachment

The second Tactical detachment, with a closeup of the heavy weapons

The Rhinos for the third Tactical Detachment

One of the two drop pods, utilised for the first Tactical Detachment and the Contemptor Dreadnoughts

Contemptor Dreadnoughts

Objectives play an important role in Epic Armageddon. Each side requires three. I decided to make destroyed/crashed vehicles with injured/wounded/survivors to rescue.

The Landraider Battle Squad

One of the two Thunderhawks. To be thorough, I created both a flying and a landed base. You’ll notice the ‘cleared landing zone’ on the landed base. I really can’t stand Astarte’s flyers with their landing gear permanently down.

Fellglaive

Fellblade

Storm Eagles

Fire Raptor

There you go. I’ve had one game with them (I got hammered, thanks Alan). I plan on adding some Spartan’s, Rampagers (there are now some fan made ones, I used assault marines in this incarnation), Predators, Vindicators, plus a few other random bits and pieces.

A quick note on the the bases. A few people who’ve seen this army already have asked me where I got the flying stands from, and the tank bases. I’m a real stickler for consistency. The bases for the infantry are the rectangle ones that GW produced back in the day, so I wanted everything else to be rectangular too. The various sized bases for the tanks etc are generic Flames of War bases produced by a British company called Plastic Soldier. It’s there “15mm Mixed Base Set”. The flight stands are from Hawk Wargames. I just take the clear rod part and attachment and fix it to a plastic soldier base. I did consider the GW flying bases, but this would mean they’d be round and also, I wanted the flyers to have a little bit of height on the table too. GW stems are quite short.

One final thing. I’ve not posted for well over 10 months. However I wanted to say thank you for everyone that keep on visiting this blog while I was away. It’s astonishing how many people visit this blog on a daily basis, even when I’ve not produced any new content for such a long time. So thanks for you’re continued interest and support.

I’ve already got my next three projects on the bench, so stay tuned.

Thanks for dropping in.

John

The Painting Bunkerc y