From NoelW: Epic Marines sighted at Burch's Bluff (116 points)

We’re heading downhill now, at some speed. Which is a shame, really, because it’s completely the wrong direction. We’re also beginning to get a little hungry. Consulting our rather tattered map, we see no sign of Edgar’s Emporium or Gregg’s Grocery. Do the people of this island subsist solely on paint and glue?

Suddenly we come across a pair of slim silver saplings bent to the ground like yoga contortionists,  yoked to the earth with vines. Tied between them on the ground lies a huge basket of coconuts, glistening in the sun. Given that by now we’re ready to suck our own shoe leather, this unexpected bounty seems very tempting. But wait! With so many madmen running around this island, surely we need to exercise caution – it is about the only exercise we’re capable of, after all. This basket case could be a gift or it could be a trap. Hard to tell.

Tentatively we circumnavigate the arboreal enticement, taking care to give it a wide berth. So wide, in fact, we find ourselves tumbling elbow over patella down an unexpected cliff. As we plummet we realise the bent birches were simply a bluff. And we fell for it. Or rather – over it.

There’s the roar of water and a blur of violent blue below us. Luckily it’s a deep pool which we plummet splashingly into, breaking almost no legs in the process.

Once we’ve remembered how to swim and stopped gulping pondweed, we emerge wet and miserable to find ourselves surrounded by another army. As the last, this is equipped with weird carriages, with their pouting chimney-cannons and magical mechanisms grumbling like flatulent dinosaurs. But these wear an armour of bright blue, not gold, and almost all are masked. Clearly they find the tropical sun a tad on the chill side.

When questioned, they seem particularly interested in the golden troops we recently encountered. But they can’t help us with our quest. Their scouts say there’s no way back up that steep Bluff, so our only choice is to follow the shiny brick road once again to the coast in the hope that there we may spot a sail to ferry us round the island to a more salubrious locale.

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For my Horus Heresy entry, I’ve another Epic force. Space Marines have never really been my thing, but whilst was on the look out for Imperial Guard, I happened instead to come across a motley collection of epic marines and orks at a flea market (at an unresistable price). You know how it as – they are precisely not what you are looking for, but they’re an absolute bargain, so what can you do? The orks have been under way for months, so they won’t appear here, but the Challenge has given me the excuse to polish off the Marines. So here they are.

I wanted a blue force, but not the ubiquitously boring Ultramarines, so I aimed for something closer to sky blue. What I’ve produced is not really as light as I’d intended, and still rather ultramarinish, but at least it’s consistent across the force. I chose a deep purple and gold for contrast highlights, and named them the Sky Chasers. They exist to track down and gently re-educate recidivist imperial forces, so are tasked with returning the Starwasps to the realm of reason and light. However, when faced with a common enemy of the Imperium – whether chaos, tyranid, eldar, ork or any more exotic alien – the two forces may well band together to properly make light of such dark matter.

There’s the inevitable flock of rhinos and their bolter fodder:

supported by whirlwinds and Land Raiders :

bikes, scouts and assault troops (two figures unfortunately broken when I bought them)

terminators, a smattering of devastators and command 

and here's the whole army skulking under Burch's Bluff.

Pointswise, that’s 98 foot figures (49 points), 3 bikes (3 points), and 17 vehicles (34 points), plus 30 points of Bluffery: total 116 pts.

A fine submission of little uns we have here.