When I started playing Epic: Armageddon in late 2006, my first army was a Tzeentchian Chaos Space Marine army, using the Black Legion list. Back when I played Epic 40,000, I had used an Imperial army of mostly Space Marines, but my soul had been lost to Chaos in the years since then, and so I reorganised my existing models and bought a few new ones to supplement them. Unfortunately, although I got quite a bit painted up, I never really finished the army before I ran out of steam and put it aside.

But I decided this week that it was time I got my Chaos army out and finished it off. Having found posting pictures of my Eldar army here to be a useful motivator to keep going and get stuff painted, I thought I'd do the same with these guys.

So I've got a retinue based and primed, which I will hopefully paint up tomorrow. In the meantime, though, here's the army so far. I've posted pics of a few of these units here before, but others are new, and hopefully these are better photos, too.

I think the first models I painted for this army were these Raptors. They're just Imperial assault marines, painted in the livery of my Chaos army to reflect their allegiance. The formation only consists of six stands rather than eight because that was all I had, and buying a whole box of Space Marines just to get two stands of Raptors was more than I could afford. I've identified the Lord by giving him a fancier colour scheme than his underlings.


Another early infantry formation I painted was this bike company. They are based two to a stand mostly because I had only twelve bike models. Three to a base, that would only be enough for four stands, but I could make six stands if I did them in twos, and a friend had enough spare to make another three. They're mounted on small WFB bases because that's what I had spare. I'm considering trying to take them off these bases and re-mount them on either circular Wh40K bases or BotFA bases. That might prove to be more trouble than it's worth, though, so I'll have to see.

The Lord is, again, marked with a fancy paint job. The Icon Bearer's banner is made from green stuff attached to one of the banner poles that used to come with the old square Epic bases. With nine stands, the Icon bearer can be included or left behind as I choose.


This Armoured Company is, like the Raptors, only six-strong because I only ever had six Land Raiders. Not having another two hasn't proved to be that great a loss, though.


Next up, some Defilers. I had puzzled over what to do about these for a while. Eventually I concluded that my conversion skills were not up to the job of producing a model that actually looked like a Defiler, so if I was going to take any I'd have to use some kind of proxy. Eventually, I came upon the idea of converting my old Knights Paladin into Daemon Knights. As Walkers of not too far off the right size, it wasn't ridiculous that they could use the Defiler profile, and it wasn't too difficult to convert them to have a roughly appropriate weapons fit (the turret on the top is the twin lascannon and I assumed they would breathe fire for the heavy flamer). They're fairly simple conversions, but I think they came out fairly well. These days, of course, I could just have got some Otterman's splendid Petit Crabes de Fer en Colère (and I still might do that, possibly to convert into Desecrators), but I quite like this option, too.


One unit I was able to convert, though, was some Obliterators. These are closely based on Wraiththu's conversions, as described here. Unfortunately, I was only able to scrape together enough Colossus robots to make two stands, but these have mostly proved to be enough. I did also try making a couple of stands out of some Castellan robots, but I've never been very happy with them, and they remain unpainted and have never been used.


I'd already had the idea of using Imperial Stormswords as the basis for Decimators before I came across Wraiththu's website, but I did borrow the odd idea for how to go about it from there. I've only painted two; a third remains unpainted.


When it came to regular CSM infantry, I had at one stage been planning to get two boxes of the Chaos plastics and then put together stands that combined the Chaos models with the Imperial ones I already had for a more 'chaotic' feel. When these new Chaos models arrived, however, I quickly had to abandon that plan. The Chaos Marines are huge; way too big to combine on a stand with Imperial Marines. I could get away with putting Chaos characters on stands of Imperial Marines, but otherwise the two would have to remain separate. I therefore had the models for two CSM Retinues, one made up of Imperial models and one of Chaos (I also had numerous character options and Havocs for either retinue). Since some of the Imperial marines were already painted (not very well) in Ultramarines colours, I painted up that retinue first. I have since bought some more boxes of Chaos infantry so that I have enough models for two retinues of Chaos models, but these guys are still the only ones I've actually painted.


The one stand I have painted that consists of actual Chaos models is this Warlord stand. The banner comes from a W40K Space Marine back banner.


Finally, the Titan. This Ravager titan was converted from a Forge World Reaver that I had bought shortly after it was released. This, the Obliterators, and my Eldar Revenant Titans are probably my favourites of all my Epic models.


And here it is from the rear:


I also have a variety of Rhinos painted up, with differing paint jobs to represent the different passengers they could be carrying. I'll add photos of those when I've painted the models to ride in them.

So that's the story so far. Hopefully in a day or two I'll have another retinue painted up, this time made up of actual Chaos models. After that I'll probably try and do some Chosen/Chaos Terminators.

I've also just started an AMTL army which I'll be painting at the same time as this. So far, all I've got painted is an Imperator. I'll probably start a different thread for those, unless anyone thinks I should keep it all in this one. Since I'll be painting the models as I get them, that army will probably go quite slowly.

EDIT: AHA! I've just figured out why making images into links wasn't working before. All the images should now be links to larger versions.

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"Good ale, the true and proper drink of Englishmen. He is not deserving of the name of Englishman who speaketh against ale, that is good ale."
- George Borrow

Looks like a good start! Have you thought about painting the front of those bikes to look like headlights?

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-Vaaish

This is a great army, really like em  

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"We are the sword of fire with which the Traitors shall be cut down."

Great looking army Axel. Good to see another Tzeentchian soul on his way to daemonhood.

Keep up the work. Loving the reaver titan. My own efforts are on the boards somewhere.

D.

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Epic:Armageddon... Like Apocalypse but for grown-ups.

[b]Bearded Dice[/b]: [url]http://bearded-dice.co.uk[/url]

Awesome titans

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AFK with real life, still checking PMs

How do you mean? Painting the triangular-ish raised bit at the front to resemble a headlight, or something else?


Indeed, and very nice they are, too.

Thanks for the kind words, guys. I have now painted up a retinue, with Sorcerer Lord:


As I mentioned in the previous post, the rhinos were already done. It's interesting to see how big the scale difference is. The idea of more than three of those guys fitting into one of those rhinos is fairly silly, let alone ten. Getting ten of the smaller Imperial Space Marines inside would be quite a feat, but with these guys being that much bigger it's even worse. Ah, well. As long as you don't think about it too hard, it doesn't matter that much.

Since my previous post, it has occurred to me that thanks to my (also half-painted) BFG fleet, I have another painted unit in the army in the form of a Devastation Class Cruiser:

The battleship, however, is not painted.

I have now transferred the bikes onto W40K bases and am waiting for the glue to try on the sand. Once those are done, I'll be ready to start on some Terminators.

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"Good ale, the true and proper drink of Englishmen. He is not deserving of the name of Englishman who speaketh against ale, that is good ale."
- George Borrow

yes, the triangular bit there.

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-Vaaish

Great looking bunch, Axel. I am starting up a Lost and the Damned force, and I gather inspiration from chaos worshippers like you.

/Fredmans

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Follow my Epic painting projects: Tyranids vs Steel Legion and Inquisition vs Lost and the Damned @
http://www.tacticalwargames.net/taccmd/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=14636

Well, I'm glad I bothered re-basing the bikes; they look much better on their new bases.

Having done that, I gave the headlights a go on on one stand. At first I wasn't sure I liked them, so I asked my brother, who preferred them without. After about half an hour, though, the headlights had grown on me, so I decided to do them on the whole formation after all.

I think this was the right move, but I'm still not certain. Anyway, here they are:


Should have some Terminators done in another day or two, then I'll probably do another retinue.

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"Good ale, the true and proper drink of Englishmen. He is not deserving of the name of Englishman who speaketh against ale, that is good ale."
- George Borrow

I think it works alright, I'd thought they might have more of the lens effect painted on them and maybeeven a different color than yellow.

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-Vaaish

How do you mean? Like the gemstone, paint-black-then-highlight-backwards-with-a-speck-of-white-near-the-top style? Or are you thinking of something else?

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"Good ale, the true and proper drink of Englishmen. He is not deserving of the name of Englishman who speaketh against ale, that is good ale."
- George Borrow

yes, the gemstone look.
EDIT: like in the hatch periscopes on the rhino here: http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_C....627.jpg

or alternativly darker yellow on the edges and moving into a more white yellow at the center.

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-Vaaish

Hmm. I'm experimenting with both of the above, and they both look better than the rubbish I tried before. Once I've decided which I prefer, I'll re-do the formation.

Thanks for the advice. I really should have thought more carefully before diving in and doing the first thing that came to mind.

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"Good ale, the true and proper drink of Englishmen. He is not deserving of the name of Englishman who speaketh against ale, that is good ale."
- George Borrow

Couldn't get the darker-at-the-edges-getting-lighter-in-the-middle approach to work properly.

However, the gemstone-ish approach worked out just fine, and the models look much better for it:


Of course, they'd look even better if I were better at blending, but I think this is as good as they're going to get.

Thanks again for your suggestions, Vaaish. Now I can at last put them away and get on and paint something else.

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"Good ale, the true and proper drink of Englishmen. He is not deserving of the name of Englishman who speaketh against ale, that is good ale."
- George Borrow

NP, I think that works pretty good and you'll get better as you practice.

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-Vaaish