Hello blip

Love old school. And I love that old WD issue too. I went as far as painting that BA army . I got the epic bug in the WD 110 and onwards era, which I blame on spending £100s on ebay for old school SM1.

Keep your pics comming, got any army pics ?

Hi, thanks for all the comments guys. Especially nice to get comments from some people who's armies have inspired me to get back into the whole mini thing. And Ulric than includes that Cyclops -in fact i thought the whole army looks really good ! :-)

And TimNZ - you have to accept at least partial responsible for me shifting a fair few quid to "the man" this weekend for some Sp'elfs - so much for keeping this cheep ! Those Saim'hann are just too damn inspiring! Got the rudiments of a Biel'tan army coming my way, figure it'll be Ebay from now on ! Think I'm gonna take my time and do them more as a show piece army than just as a gaming army.

Anyway, on with the Gurad. It was a drizzly bank holiday weekend here, so good news for painting ! Got a bit of heavy support sorted plus some scouts to keep them safe(r). Bikes will be proxies as rough riders.

No army shots yet, waiting till i at least have some MBTs and sentinels finished. Plus i'm still struggling to get a large enough depth of field on my camera to manage to focus on even 12 minis at a time, so sorry about the slightly blury bits - must find my tripod and rig up a light or two next time.

ps @ Markconz - Thanks, i was being a muppet. Password sorted now.

Then to the Basilisks, which i'm really pleased with.

Though i must admit, i'm still narked that i didn't notice that the blister i picked up nearly 20 years ago had 2 different designs of hull in it ! Does that make me anal ? :-) Still if anyone has one mk1 and two mk2s from SM2ndEd burning a hole in their bitz box that they need to get rid of, then you may help me sleep a little better at night with matching units

I also took a picture of these guys "pre-deployment" ie. before the wash went on - for posterity.

And now the big boys. Think i got a little carried away with the wash on these, but i think it emphasis the "heavy" look which i like.

By the way - you will all have noticed the "textured" look on the figs. This has been down to using "Montana" spray paint for undercoating. On my experience, i'd say don't ! Though not sure if i've had a bad batch (?) Anyone else tried them ?

I really like using a colored spray for base coating to get a really nice fine block colour (i also like doing quick "drybrushing" on some minis/terrain using 2 different shades.) When i realised GW had discontinued their coloured range i looked around for an alternative. Montana is sold as grafiti paint, quite cheep and tough as hell - plus over 200 shades. I saw it advertised on a couple of Wargames store websites for base coating (inc. Wayland.) Plus it was available in my local art shop.

The grey is not too bad, slightly grainy. The brown is a nightmare - completely unpredictable. In one single batch of about 40 infantry stands i had some come out fine and others come out like gangs of cousin It ! :-) I guess i could paint them green and say they are wearing gilly suits :-) though my terian is desert theme

Not sure what caused it. Atmosphere, temperature, humidity etc was constant and very "temperate." Same spray distance and amount of agitation... strange. Any one got any thoughts ?

Though i'm kinda ok with the texture on the guard (and i'm going to stick with it for consistency) i certainly won't be using it again. I know i could get an airbrush, but it seems a little extravagant. Any one got any experience with "the army painter" sprays ?

Liking the Old School reincarnations going on here :-), personally I'd be more than happy to play beaky marines as marines: keep the old miniatures alive!

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Thanks MOK - again, another of those people who has provided inspiration for me to get back painting + playing - thanks !

Its not really that i have a problem with beakies - its that i have about 3 companies worth still sitting in my bits box ! :-) Combined with 3 companies of mk7s painted up as heresy era Sons of Horus (Codex Marine army with Eye of Horus markings ) plus about another couple of standby companies of mk7s still in their '90s era bright redness ready for repainting ( just in case i ever get outnumbered ) i figured i really had enough marine infantry !

Likewise, got about 40-50 land raiders in various painted states ( you can imagine the kinds of games we used to play back in the day ! ) I also loved the old mk1 raider box art with it slogging forward over trenches with infantry using it as a rolling shield ( really reinforcing the WW1 feel. ) Also, I just wanted to get it all on the table without having to always play marines v marines all the time.

Plus, IMHO the old marine armour all works better stylistically with the old IG than the new SM. I used to use the mk6s as scouts back before there were scout models (can't even remember if they had rules in SM2??) and that's where i discovered that a few dabs of paint here and there could trick the eye into seeing a bare face. Therefore this idea of a really "heavy" IG regiment took form in my mind - slogging forward in regimented rows ready to be mown down by the sleeker faster Traitor Marines - as you can guess I'm in no way a stickler for WYSIWYG, it's all about the visual theme for me (wait for what i may get round to with some old squat models ! :-)

Plus, if i'm really honest - i hate painting infantry. Love the tanks, but the thought of painting ranks of guardsmen with ammo belts, packs, faces, hands etc just put me off. Much prefer a model in nice clean body armour. (i just figure, impressive as those guardsman's armour looks, its actually a bit crap at doing useful stuff - like deflecting bullets !

ps - Am i right in saying there is a good Epic scene in Bristol ? I used to live in both bath and bristol (wish i'd known about taccoms then) but i still go up that way every few monthsr. May be able to swing by some time...

Hi,
A quick update. A few of you may have seen my pics of some stuff i got from Brigade a few months ago up on the main 2/6mm forum. Disappointingly there turned out to be a bit of a scale issue, particularly compared against the LRs i'm planning to proxy as chimeras...

I like the Marmots so much i decided to have a go at bulking them up a little using some spare plasticard tracks. I'm a happy with the effect and scale change, but disappointed with my modelling efforts (will try not blame my limited available tools atm) and i've learnt even more respect for some of the results exhibited here on the forums ! :-) I think to do significantly better would require too much time and mail ordering specialist stuff (i currently live at the end of the earth, and though we have a GW we don't even have a model railway shop in town.) Therefore (unless anyone can suggest a magic track solution) i think these guys will be proxied as demolishers and the rest of the Marmots will be reserved for a future project - and the hunt is back on for some Russ proxys...

If anyone has any thoughts please let me know. I like the design of the Leman Russ, but the SG ones always look strangely cartoony for me and i don't feel like paying top dollar for something i'm not totally happy with. Obviously the Forgeworld ones are OOP and though i like several of the offerings from DRM, Exodus, Plazma Blast etc. none quite have the clunky/quirky/WW1 inspired look i want to go along side the mk1 LRs (plus DRM all come in really annoying pack sizes ! )

I guess the other options to use something like the Exodus Phalanx or DRM Ramjack as a chimera and the LRs as Russes - but i really feel a Russ proxy should at least have a turret... :-)

Ok, quick update before i go out.

Been a while, but i've been busy... First up some support for my grunts (apologies for awful photos.)

I've never run with Ratlings so no idea if they're any good, but when i found a few hiding in the bottom of my bitz box (well trained obviously) i had to paint them up - so cute ! :-)

And now for the big guy.

14 odd years with no paint brought a lot of expectation on my head for this one (IMvHO the best epic mini ever.) Been through all sorts of elaborate schemes in my head over that time, but in the end i thought i'm so happy with the way the guard are shaping up i'd go the same way - keep it simple and let the dry brushing and washes bring out the quality of the sculpt.

Con. crit. would be especially appreciated on this guy (particularly in the next few days before i get around to varnishing him.) This army has been a bit of a warm up and transition for me from my old style to a more "realistic" modern painting style. This is the first large mini i've done since the warhounds above (1998ish) and on the whole i'm pretty pleased, though i feel perhaps a little bit of extra detail round the back might help...

Anyway, bit more armo(u)r and some AA then i have to reinvent my painting all over again - eldar await...

ps - is it possible to change the title of this thread somewhere ? If it needs to be done by an admin "Blip's PIP" or something appropriate would be great. Thanks.

Very, very well painted titan The base with the ruins and IG look awesome aswell, job well done


Regards epic

Yeah: nice and grimy!

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loveley
the weathering is great
how did you do it?

The Titan looks great wish I could get that weathered look right. I have to agree with you about it being the best epic model ever, modern day creation aside.

Beautiful job on the titan - that thing rocks. The weathering is fantastic - the only criticism I can think of is that perhaps a little less and/or a little more evenly spread on the brown wash (on the back). I think a more selective application on the exposed machinery/piping would look better. All the other weathering kicks the crap out of mine, so take that with a grain of salt.

On the thread title, I'm sure if you PM Cybershadow he could help you out.

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