From IannickM : Ultramarines at Millsy's Millpond (60 points)

When I first saw the different locations on the map, Millsy's Millpond was high on my list. I'm a nostalgia junkie, and so the idea of painting some old school figure seemed like an obvious stop for me! My first idea was to paint up some classic Oldhammer chaos champions or Ral Partha, but like it happens so often in this challenge my path got diverted. I've been furiously painting some Epic lately and I didn't want to divert my momentum. Luckily, Games Workshop has been at it for a long time and so was Epic, before its untimely demise.

The first wargame *battle* I played was the original Space Marine. Me and my brother got the boxset I believe for Christmas. We already had Warhammer but other than a few skirmishes (we were poor and building armies took forever when you could afford two blisters a month!) never played a big game. This bothered my father and he went to the game store and asked the guys for something "we could play straight out of the box". What we got was Space Marine, a massive box with LOTS of figures and terrain.

The game was great value, and to this day the figures hold up very well. So why not paint some for Millsy's pond? And I know the man is a big fan of Epic, so I'm sure he approves.

As I mentioned in my last post I've been working on an Emperor's Children force to face John's Blood Angels, but I've also been collecting a second force to paint a loyalist side to my traitors. The goal is to have two playable forces, as I'd like to surprise my brother with a classic game when he comes back from Japan, where he's been living for the last few years.

And so here's my first stab at the Emperor's finest, and my brother's favourite, the good ol' Ultramarines.

We start with a classic, with 4 Rhino armoured transport.

These are the original plastic tanks from the 1989 boxset. And when I say original, I mean original, i.e. the plastic tanks I got when I was 10! One of them was already painted an horrible yellow and since stripping these plastics is a real pain I just undercoated over the original paint job. The details were a bit softer but now its not noticeable.

Then 5 Contemptor Dreadnoughts, once again the classic plastic sculpts from way back. To be honest I'm not sure when these guys were released. Early 90s I would assume. They aged gracefully, and were an absolute joy to paint, with crisp details.

And here's the tiny gang together. These are more of a test run if you will, as I intend to go back to my traitors in anticipation of my upcoming game. But I'm happy I found my blue recipe and my colour scheme for the upcoming project.

 So...

• 4 Epic Rhinos : 8 pts
• 5 Epic Dreadnoughts : 5 pts
• Millsy's pond : 30 pts
• Bonus point for figures pre-1990 (1989, thats cutting it close!) : 10pts

Total : 53 points

--------
By Paul

The Blessed God Emperor of Terra approves both your game choice and your army selection. Your faith is strong and with these excellent warriors of humanity you can purge Xenos and Heretic alike!

Ahem. Sorry about that. I 'kinda' like Epic too. I still have my original Dark Angels force from 1992. It now takes up an entire moving carton actually.

I also love the background story behind it - I'm awarding bonus points for Gamer dad awesomeness. Please pass them on with a big thumbs up!  60 points