Friday 26 February 2016

From SamuliS: Salamanders Tactical Company (66 points)

Yet another change in subject from me. This time to an even smaller scale with some old school Epic miniatures from the evil empire.

For me Epic Armageddon always seemed to be what Warhammer 40k should be. Large battles with massed armor and infantry on both sides battling it out over deserts, city scapes you name it. The ton of vehicles, monsters, flyers etc. that you nowadays see on the table top in 40k just doesn't seem right even if they might look cool. As a kid I never really got into Epic however as there wasn't much interest in the game in my circles and the limited hobby budget of a teenager couldn't stretch in too many directions. I still bought some stuff, but never really enough to build an army.


With a slightly more stable financial situation in my hands and a looming midlife crisis ahead I've been buying stuff that I was drooling over 10-20 years ago. And not surprisingly Epic is one of those subjects that I've indulged on. Over the last year or two I've bought (and ashamedly not painted) four Epic armies. Originally I set out to buy an Imperial Guard and an Ork army. Somewhere along the way I spotted a good deal on plastic Space Marines which would already yield me roughly a 3000 point force so I couldn't resist it. And on top of that last summer I went ahead and bought a painted Eldar army as well... Some might say I have a sickness, I'm just calling it excellent hobby taste.



The Guard and Orks have been waiting for inspiration as I need to pry most of the minis of their bases to get them on round washers that I'd rather use. But luckily all the space marines have been unassembled so I ended up starting the whole Epic project with them. I wanted to pick a force that was reasonably active in the Armageddon campaign and would have a different colour than the other forces. As I want the Orks to be comprised of Speed Freakz and Goffs and the Guard to be Steel Legion red, black and sand colours were already taken. I hate painting yellow and those blue smurfs are just frankly boring as hell, so it didn't really leave too many good choices. Luckily cleansing things with fire is always fun so going green with Salamanders was quite an easy choice.
 

The first part of the army are the 3 tactical marine units which is roughly the strength of a Space Marine Company. There's also the stands for a librarian, a chaplain and the supreme commander of the force with the relevant transports, bringing the entry to 95 infantry and 9 vehicles. These are roughly half of the army models wise, with a few Terminator squads and some heavy weapons and a titan left to bring the points up to 4000. Not sure if I'm going to paint any more of them during the challenge though as there isn't really no immediate need for them and they take quite a while to paint compared to the points they yield :)


I haven't painted any 6mm stuff for a while so there was a little learning curve again. Luckily a base colour with a heavy black wash worked out quite nicely. I wanted to add a little something to make them stand out so painted some flames on the shoulder pads. Pretty tricky on such a small scale and as the missus pointed out they do seem more like German flags than flames... Oh well, I'm not going to paint them over again.

Back to the brushes then. I really need to write down some painting plan instead of switching subjects all the time :) Way too many projects going on at the same time and none are really going ahead all that fast as I'm painting a unit or two per project at a time...

Yes! I salute your excellent "hobby selection" Samuli! Epic is indeed a wonderful game, and its disappearance from store shelves is a testament to the distance which the corp-tards running GW are able to insert their heads into their own rectums.  I do believe those ass clowns, without a hint of irony, are claiming they will "bring Epic back", but as always with GW, I will believe what they do, not what they say...

But enough of that blather! These look excellent. You've selected a fine Chapter for your troops, and the colours look excellent. While round bases are not my personal preference in Epic, your basing is fantastic and they certainly look much better than the little strips in use at the time of the game's disappearance. That is a well-earned 66 points for you - keep the old-time goodness coming. And let the enemies of the Emperor burn...

One final editorial note: painting plans, like spreadsheets, are for sheep and fools...keep up the variety!  In the end it's all one big "project", once you zoom out enough...

26 comments:

  1. Great work on the Salamander Marines! The green is very nice and deep and the yellow, red, and orange really punches them up. I like the basework on them too.
    Plans? Spreadsheets?! I just follow the animal spirits in my hobby time, but I'm pretty sure the magpie is the one that is leading the way! ;)

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    1. I'm sometimes starting to feel my spirit animal is a squirrel. At least in hobby related matters! Collect everything and forget where you buried it :)

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  2. Brilliant force you've painted there. You have the green spot on!

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  3. Very nice work Samuli. Personally, I really like the flames and 'got it' immediately, 'Hey, cool, these are Salamanders!'

    Remember: When you acquire unpainted metal, it's just that - It's not an 'army' until its painted and in the cabinet. Now, back to the bench with you, so you can wow us with another fine force. ;)

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    1. I came to the same conclusion a while back and have lately been going through my unpainted stuff and random projects and selling of those that I don't feel like doing anytime soon. Now the only thing to do is avoid getting into any new projects then :)

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    2. I also love the 'inspirational' poster. Nothing like conducting a 'Lean Initiative' by incineration. ;)

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    3. Well what can you expect from an engineer who has been taught to implement Lean principles everywhere :) There can be no heresy if there's nobody left to commit heresy. Efficient

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  4. Greg: Yeah I guess taking some distance might be a good idea :) All the minis look the same when viewing from 20 meters or so :P So your point about all of them being a large project seems pretty legit!

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    1. Your submission inspired to go and paint a pair of rhinos for my Epic 30k stuff, just for kicks :)

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  5. Cool small scale goodness! Truly Epic effort, Samuli, well done that man!

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  6. Wonderful to see some more epic! Check out the extras at Vanguard, HLS models etc if you're looking for some more stuff to expand with.

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    1. Thanks! Yeah I'm more or less fully kitted out with GW models. Missing one Vindicator, maybe some drop pods and AA vehicles. But I guess I'm gonna leave getting those until all the rest are painted up as well.

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  7. Neat looking models! They're so small, yet your colours really make the pop and show the detail.

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  8. Well that's epic ;-) great work

    Ian

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  9. Fantastic stuff, perhaps unsurprisingly I'm always pleased when salamanders are painted in any "scale" (see what I did there!) and these are a great rendition of the flame loving marines. Vulkan Lives!

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  10. I have never played "Epic!" But I will be going to a show on Sunday and will hit the Bring and buy. You just never know what I may find. These are brilliant I can see myself getting converted to the cause with ease.

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    1. It would just happen that I have a massive Eldar army (could probably field it as 3-4 armies actually) that I might just be willing to part with :P

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  11. For small models they really jump out, nicely done

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  12. Really, really like these... Epic is about the only GW game that would really get me interested (I think they are re-releasing it, are they not) and these look like a fine force for the game. Especially like the vibrant green and the flames on those tiny tanks!

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    1. Yeah the rumors are there that they are rereleasing it. Though more akin to the original Adeptus Titanicus with emphasis on Titan vs. Titan fights. Rumors have it that they are also planning to increase the scale from 6mm to 10mm...

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  13. Gorgeous work! Epic has had a bit of a resurgence locally which has been great to watch.

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  14. Fab stuff Samuli! That's definitely some excellent hobby taste.

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