Epic Valhallans-a first attempt at a project log!

[Moronguhl]

Greetings fellow Warseer users!

I've got into Warseer in a big way recently, I might even have been checking it more than Facebook over the last few weeks! There are some awesome plogs on here and I've been inspired to start one of my own.

Following from excellent logs like Chaos and Evil's Epic Cadian log and dancingmonkey's Vostroyans I've decided to chronicle my own Epic force from beginning to wherever it ends up!

I've been trawling eBay and been keeping ForgeWorld in walking around money and I've managed to end up with quite the bagged and boxed up forces.

Here are all my plastic guys, mostly from eBay:



Forge World swag. Far more than I need. Had some casting probs with FW and so I've quite a few damaged in transit and badly moulded Chimeras. I'm using those for test minis and probably objective markers in the near future:



My Leman Russ'. I've ended up buying the FW Conqueror's and converting them into standard Russ', using the metal SG turrets and scratchbuilding the sponsons. Took a while but now I'm just waiting for the rest of the Conquerors:



Now to make a force out of it! I need to get some more Sentinels and placcy foot troopers but other than that I think I've more than enough to get a 3000 point force. I'm going to scratchbuild Hellhounds and Griffons (shamelessly ripping off C&E's models!) but the main thing now is to paint paint paint!

Speaking of which, painted models in the next post...

-Moronguhl out

[Moronguhl]

I've got to work on a few models so far.

My Supreme Command unit. Pretty happy with these chaps, especially on such a small scale. Any advice for the standard? It's just plain black atm. Although that's the SG Yarrick model, it's not supposed to be him, but it was so badass I had to put it in my Supreme Command!

I wanted the army to be a bit battleworn, so all the greatcoats are a bit muddy and snow speckled. Once I've worked out how to do it I'm going to do all the infantry bases with snow clumps on them, but that's for when I've done a few more models!

Arrr, the flash be a harsh mistress:



I've done a demo Chimera too, using one of the damaged FW molds. I used a 40K technique: Scorched Brown undercoat and a Skull White stipple. I think it's ok for a first attempt, hopefully I'll get better at it as I go along.

Check it one time:



Here's an infantry squad too, pretty happy with these guys too:



And altogether!



I've also assembled 8 stormtrooper units with a Commissar, but they will be for a later post once they're painted.

Hope you like them guys!

-Moronguhl

[edit: taken the pictures again, bit more flattering this time!]

[jdp]

Things are off to a strong start. I like your HQ, plenty of character, although you have chosen too blow your guys up mercilessly. Just remember kiddies he's working in 6mm scale and still cramming the detail in. Now get cracking on the rest! And don't forget to have Caiphus Caine in a cameo with the artillery.

[Chaos and Evil]

Looks fantastic already... I want to see the Titans!

[del-patch]

I wasn't sure until I saw them from a more gaming distance. Great work! I guess thats how epic works, best from a gaming distance, well being 6mm thats fair!

[Moronguhl]

Cheers guys, glad you like them so far!

I might redo [edit: have redone them!] the photos in a bit with smaller pics and less harsh lighting. My first time at photographing Epic guys so it's a bit hit and miss.

This is the photo that inspired the colour scheme, it's from coolminiornot and it's by vorfeed. Lovely stuff:



-Moronguhl

[Fredmans]

Love your guards, I think it will look stunning as an army. The chimera looks great from a distance, although I think it is just the camera flash that plays tricks on your close-up shot. I'm building a Steel Legion force myself and I will follow your log with interest. Trawling ebay is fun, especially the old guard stuff.

/Fredmans

[levinas]

Good stuff (those real close-ups are very harsh - that Chimera looks great small and pretty awful big!). I'll be watching with interest but for now a quick tip about the FW chimeras. I'm assuming that the miscast ones came with snaped off lasguns (Mine did, many many times). I managed to cut lasguns off the damaged models with a very very sharp scalpel, leaving a small disc at the base (i.e. a bit of the Chimera hull). I then repaired a few of the other broken hulls by shaving off a small amount of the lasgun mountings and supergluing the tiny-weeney lasguns on... Fiddly but it did work!

Oh, and on a slightly-related note, if you've got a spare LR hull and metal vanquisher turret following your conversions let me know, I'd happily take it off your hands!

I look forward to seeing more.

[Moronguhl]

Love your guards, I think it will look stunning as an army. The chimera looks great from a distance, although I think it is just the camera flash that plays tricks on your close-up shot. I'm building a Steel Legion force myself and I will follow your log with interest. Trawling ebay is fun, especially the old guard stuff.

/Fredmans

Thank you kindly good sir! It's amazing how inspiring it is when people say kind things, makes me wanna crack out the brush again and get on with it! Well the rest of the Conquerors came today (no moulding mistakes this time! oh no!) so I've got no excuse but my own fear of screwing up to get me cleaning up and sponson-ing the Leman Russ unit. The girlfriend's here this weekend but once she's gone I'll be back on it.

eBay is awesome for old epic stuff. I got lucky (I say lucky, I did still have to pay for it) and got about 13 sprues of varying degrees of fullness and so i have an embarrasment of heavy weapon guys, comms guys and so on. And about 90 Catachans if anyone wants them!

Good luck with the Steel Legion dude, I can heartily reccomend the SG character pack. I can't use the majority of them as they have SL masks and rebreathers, but I've managed to squeeze a good few in already. They're also good for a bit of conversion, the odd weapon and arm swap here and there.

I'm hoping my camera skills will improve. Next step-as much light as possible and turn the flash off!

-Moronguhl

[Moronguhl]

Good stuff (those real close-ups are very harsh - that Chimera looks great small and pretty awful big!). I'll be watching with interest but for now a quick tip about the FW chimeras. I'm assuming that the miscast ones came with snaped off lasguns (Mine did, many many times). I managed to cut lasguns off the damaged models with a very very sharp scalpel, leaving a small disc at the base (i.e. a bit of the Chimera hull). I then repaired a few of the other broken hulls by shaving off a small amount of the lasgun mountings and supergluing the tiny-weeney lasguns on... Fiddly but it did work!

Oh, and on a slightly-related note, if you've got a spare LR hull and metal vanquisher turret following your conversions let me know, I'd happily take it off your hands!

I look forward to seeing more.

Now that is an intriguing idea. A slightly sneaky way of getting more for your money so to speak as well! I may well try out that idea. I have a load of Catachans I don't want. I'm assuming you do mean the weeny lasguns from troopers?

The other option is not having lasguns on a few for some reason. I'm hoping to make some variety amongst my tanks with track guards, stowage and such, so no lasguns would be another way of doing it.

And I'm afraid the only spares I'll have will be the SG metal Leman Russ hulls and the Conqueror turrets. Sorry!

Btw, any experienced picture posters know a way to have a physically small image (as in space on the monitor) but keep the actual image at a certain size? For example, those letterbox style infantry pics are much smaller on my screen but Warseer seems to blow them up. Would reducing the image size on Photoshop work or would Warseer simply blow them up again? I want the models to be that size within the picture, but a smaller overall picture, if you see what I mean.

-Moronguhl

[Ludwig von Rictoven]

Looking good so far, can't wait to see what you do with your objective markers

[levinas]

Actually I meant the lasguns on the chimeras (mine came with about four complete and a couple broken off per chimera meaning I could fix about half of them by completing the destruction of the rest. You can't tell they're 'fixed' once they're painted. I've kept the spares for the inevitable breakages in-game.

Oh, and those catachans - want to trade/sell them? (assuming they're unpainted and unbased/based on long bases). I've got paypal or some IG characters or nice epic building sprue bits and bobs... PM me if that's a go!

[Moronguhl]

Bit of an update. Though I'm cursing the day I ever started them, my FW Leman Russ' are starting to take shape. Using the FW Russ bodies and the GW turrets, I'm scratchbuilding (wait for it...)

* sponsons including sponson heavy bolters
* hull lascannons (the originals are very flimsy)
* track guards
* dozer blades
* jerry cans
* oil drums
* and due to a conversation with gaming friends, I may have been convinced to make an open hatch on the command Vanquisher with an officer poking his head out

Has anyone seen an epic scale jerry can? I ask you. Tiny. Properly tiny.

Thankfully I've done the sponsons (though they need attaching), dozer blades (they need mounting), jerry cans and the oil drums, but the end is far from site. Also all the GW turrets are identical so I've been carving detail off some of them to create some variety. All the above conversions are to create variety on the hulls.

Lets hope it's worth it. I should be posting some pics some time next week, if I manage to hang on to my sanity.

-Moronguhl

[Mr Feral]

Yeah another Epic log!

Good job on the infantry and the Chimera as well, I like the dirty white look.

[Chaos and Evil]

Looking forwards to seeing that Leman Russ Company!

[Galdur Hrafnsson]

More pics! Blast your eyes!

But yeah, I've had a quick flick through the rulebook, and maybe I'll get some epic orks. Are they any good though? I've already got a bit of a headstart by having my air waaagh, I suppose.

[Moronguhl]

More pics! Blast your eyes!

But yeah, I've had a quick flick through the rulebook, and maybe I'll get some epic orks. Are they any good though? I've already got a bit of a headstart by having my air waaagh, I suppose.

Well one of the best parts of epic is the cheapness. As you've already got some fliers you could probably get 2000 points for about £60, and assuming you don't do a crap-ton of converted Leman Russ (grumble) then quick to put together too! Ork players are less common but there are still quite a few.

Any Epic Ork players wanna comment here?

-Moronguhl

[Galdur Hrafnsson]

I really quite want to do some looted vehicles and whatnot, and if I use the old plastic battlewagons they'd need some serious converting doing. Fancy sending me a couple of them busted old sg leman russes? They might be useless for you, but for orks... bonza!

I've just sprayed up my 40k looted wagon (based on a leman russ), I'll try and get some pics on the 338 group once it's painted a bit more.

[EDIT] Looking at the FW epic stuff, if I had time before I left to guarantee I could do it, I'd order a salamander and convert a Ciaphas Cain model standing in the back for you. It would be super sweet.

[Moronguhl]

Looking at the FW epic stuff, if I had time before I left to guarantee I could do it, I'd order a salamander and convert a Ciaphas Cain model standing in the back for you. It would be super sweet.

You could always post it! I bet FW post to Dubai, you're not the first person to mention that particular Commissar.

-Moronguhl

[Galdur Hrafnsson]

Hmmmmmm, I'll look into it. I don't know what I'm taking over yet, it'll probably be quite minimal. I know there's a shop to buy GW stuff in Dubai, but I don't know where or what stock they'd have.