Hi all, iv been researching Epic quite a bit and I find the smaller scale much more appealing in some ways as it allows one to actually build "real" armies, rather than large skirmish forces like 40k/apocalypse. I also love the sight of the well painted armies, and the game rules for Armageddon look like lots of fun on top of that.

My prob however is finding a race/miniatures to play. I unfortuantly seem to have more of a niche taste, and all of my normal 40k armies are minor-races iv converted ect. So I am assuming itll be the same if not more problematic for Epic so I'm in the "ill have to convert it cos it doesnt exist" boat, but for such a small scale im finding it harder to find the bits and pieces needed!

I thought long and hard about the kind of army id like to play/model/paint ect and I narrowed it down to three options :

1) Necrons : no interest in these in 40k, but the idea of a huge tombworld army is quite appealing for Epic. The problem is they have no official models and im really not a fan of any of the alternatives iv seen - the war games factory ones dont look very good/not skeletal enough, chaos androids are far/few and way too expensive for me on ebay, andrayadas arent skeletal enough either ect. Only ones iv seen were the greens someone posted on here which look amazing btw, but inless someone knows where to get 6mm skeletons I can add rifles too im not sure if this is an option.

2) Enslavers : I'd totally do these in epic since I have them in 40k, and would allow me to do an entire enslaver-plague! this sounds like it could be really fun for epic games based in the war in heaven too! no idea how id convert them though..for 40k I used Mietic Spores with green-stuff tentacles/eyes for the most part, and the normal spore mines arent cool enough for epic versions of the large ones. I'm keeping this as an option though, as there is most likely stuff out there I have no idea about!

3) Another minor xeno race : Preferably something non-humanoid as I mostly hate things with legs. The Baccus Worms look good and could be used as Drughs I guess, but sounds a bit too limiting. No idea if there are any 6mm swamp-monsters or weird 6mm evil sphere things somewhere I could use for Hrud and/or Umbra. I'm definitly keeping this as an option, probably the best as it covers a wider area than the previous three. I am a huge fan of the minor-races too.

so yeah, im pretty stumped and unsure what to do so far, any help would be GREATLY appreciated

Wow, well if you want conversions to do, there are plenty of options available.

Follow my sig link for the Raiders book.  It seems like you are rather particular when it comes to the Necrons (that isn't a critism, by the way) so I agree that unless the 6mm skeletal robot market explodes you are out of luck.  There was some attempt to get another company to make good proxies but I don't know what came of it (try PM'ing Dave and he can get you more info on the topic).  Personally I refused to use anything other than Chaos Androids on my army when I made it a few years ago.

Dark Eldar are a conversion heavy army that fits your 'minor xeno' category.  Cost wise you can make it for about the same as a regular new army because of the plentiful bits available to you.  And since the Raiders book has a modeling section you should have a considerably easier go of it.

I'll think about some other options for you as well.

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author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.

Ah, not really too keen on the Dark Eldar to be honest, I tend to like more weirder aliens..allthough saying that maybe when they get an update it might inspire be but they arent something im really into at current (a matter of taste of course!). That Epic Raiders thing is damn awesome though.

I've been told by some on other forums that there are more ranges of "non-humanoid" aliens in 6mm than in 28mm though. Are they are just bug variants or are there more weirder things out there ? im pretty much just a lovecraft geek that also loves huge armies really

Aside from GW some other 6mm sci-fi manufactures are:

Exodus Wars
Adler Dark Star
Dark Realm Miniatures
Baccus
Old Crow Models
Ground Zero Games
Iron Wind Metals

There's some more out there but I've found these to be the best quality.

For non-humanoid the previous mentioned Baccus Worms and Centaurs is there, along with the Skyth from DRM.

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Dave

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Another option im considering is scratchbuilt stuff. I have pretty limited sculpting and casting skills, but have tried to do 6mm stuff in the past with limited success..allthough the things I was trying to do were beyond my skill.

The idea I thought I could do was to get an epic-base and sculpt the models into the round holes then make a 1-piece mold from it using allumilite mold putty.

I'm not sure if Epic players would be ok with that though, I only play "friendly" games but 40k players tended to often dislike me using entirely scratchbuilt armies in the past. Are epic players more open-minded ? If so I may have a go at this anyway to see how it comes out...

The Barghesi are quite appealing to me, and I have an idea of them being like a mix between Lovecraft's Shoggoths and Carnage/Venom from spiderman visually. So if you can imagine small blobs with ridges, a single mouth at the top and a cannon intergrated within the chest thats what I would do. For rules, the Feral Ork list sounds perfectly suitable for the "ultra violent" aspect of them.

I'd be totally cool with an army like that.  The only thing that I see most players being annoyed with are weird rules, not weird looking armies.  My recommendation is definitely get a standard Epic army (or two) so that you can become intimate with the game mechanics.  That will also help you in developing any other sort of odd list that features things not normally seen in the 40K universe.  I think Eisenhorn fought against these weird spider like creatures in Xenos  but I can't remember what they were called.  Good book though and the creatures were strange extra-dimensional bugs with stalks.

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author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.

Oh yeah! I loved the Saruthi, they were the reason I always thought there should be a Chaos Aliens codex.

You may have an easier time fashioning the Saruthi as well since they are much larger than humans and described as never looking the same.  One can only imagine what such a race would have in terms of vehicles but they are supposed to be totally alien.  While the Eldar have some asymmetry built into their structures, the Saruthi were asymmetrical to an extreme.  Their structures were five (or six?) sided polygons that were never the same shape or size but always managed to fit together.  While that would be impossible to model, it gives you some flavor.

Unit ideas:
Two or more types of Saruthi infantry.  Perhaps a close combat and a heavy weapon type?

An obviously oblong semi-opaque spheroid with a Saruthi enclosed within it.  Or possibly legs and/or weapons jutting from within.  Larger ones could be War Engines, smaller ones Armored Vehicles.

Immobile War Engine structures that act as gates (like larger, bizarre looking Monoliths).

Ultra-flat looking troop transports.

Robotic sea urchin type infantry pieces.

I think your biggest challenge would be to make the units similar enough to be identified as the same units, but different enough to have that Saruthi character.  That and working with all those legs!  

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author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.

The main feature I remember is that they have no eyes or mouths, but instead tehy have things like Slits and walk on metal Stilts. I guess stilts could be done easily with cut-up paper-clips, and the creatures themselves made out of green-stuff with some chaos/nid bits.

Love the spheroid idea, but it sounds more like the Umbra, and a very good idea for an Umbra unit at that! (not sure if your familiar with them but like the Eldar Avatars, slaanesh kicked the Hrud's god Qah's ass and he turned into black spheres called Umbra which can create stuff with shadows, its in Xenology)...

EDIT :

come to think of it, umbra would be pretty easy to scratchbuild.. a thin piece of wire holding a tiny ball of putty on it painted black. For larger ones, I could just stick epic chaos/tyranid limbs into the balls of putty. Perhaps I could do both them and Saruthi!

I was not familiar with them but if they are Chaos-ish and the Saruthi are Chaos tainted, it seems to be a match made in heaven! I mean, uh, the other place.

Another thought is to make several molds of egg shaped spheroids, pour them with clear resin and drop any Saruthi models that you hated into the resin.  The distortion of looking through the resin would most certainly obscure any small defects and you would have something that was totally unique looking.

This would also be REALLY fast to make.  It might make for a bit of a break for your eyes after attaching 5 legs to a hundred Saruthi abdomens.

_________________
author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.

they are TOTALLY chaotic their whole civilization was corrupted by it, because of the book known as the Necroteuch (I assume its like the equivilent of a Necromoncion).

I think you have the makings of an army, bud.  If you did it, the thing would be the first of its kind ANYWHERE.  If you decide to embark on this quest, it is my strongest recommendation to take Work-in-progress pictures as you go.  I'll help you whenever I can.

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author of Syncing Forward and other stories...

It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I've got my Milkbone underwear on.

This sounds really interesting. Don't let the 6mm scale worry you scratch building / sculpting wise, i actually find it easier working at this scale than 28mm: mistakes are far less obviousness and as long as you get more or less the correct shape/proportions and silhouette to the models theyll look great.

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AFK with real life, still checking PMs

oh, im pretty sure I AM gonna do it, well ill try at least. I think ill do the Umbra first cos they'll be easy to sculpt/assemble and it will be quite a fast process as well..itll get me something. I want to do those Saruthi as well! but they sound more challenging so perhaps itll be best to do them after the Umbra or as a side-project...im pretty much sold though, the epic community seems way more positive/supportive and open minded too

p.s. do you have any links/threads here of your necrons/dark eldar ?