From IannickM: An Epic finale, Heresy style (29 points)

"That which causes us trials shall yield us triumph, and that which makes our hearts ache shall fill us with gladness. For the only true happiness is to learn, to advance and to improve. None of this could happen without rejecting error, ignorance and imperfection. We must pass out of the darkness to reach the light!"

— Primarch Fulgrim, Attainment of Perfection

I'm keeping up with my long tradition of submitting a final entry on the last few hours of the challenge, with some more Epic goodness! 

The last week as been, for me and many others, absolutely insane due to that viral bombing, i.e. the despicable Covid-19. I work for the Ministry of Health here in Québec, and to say I've been very busy would be an understatement of massive proportion! The last nine days have been without a doubt the most challenging of my professional life. I basically work from 7 to 11 non-stop, one emergency after another. But Its no time to whine, as I get the luxury of isolating myself and work from home, and I tip my hat off to all those front line workers in health institutions across the world, the real heroes of this crisis. 

Anyways...I wasn't able to paint anything this week, but I did managed to paint a bunch of small stuff before the apocalypse started. And so I'm taking some time off while eating dinner to post what I did, as it would a real waste to miss the deadline.

First we have a tuple of Predator Destructors, the classic tank of the Adeptus Astartes (Space marines, for us old timers). My favourite, design wise. I always have fun painting them.

Next up a tuple of Vindicators, the Imperial siege tank based on the Rhino chassis used by many Space Marine Chapters. This one boasts the most powerful weapon of its type in the Adeptus Astartes' standard armoury, the Demolisher Cannon. Though short-ranged, the Vindicator's Demolisher Cannon is capable of destroying enemy armour and fortifications in a single shot. I was missing artillery...

My very first try at weathering. Looks cool, no?

Then a duo of Land Raider Achilles. This one is a heavily armoured variant of the standard Land Raider we all know and love. It's badass looking.

And then the "Piece de resistance", my man, Fulgrim. Fulgrim, also known in the time before the Horus Heresy as The Phoenician, is the Primarch of the Emperor's Children "Traitor" Legion. He possessed silvery-white hair and was quite vainglorious, as his entire life was dedicated to the pursuit of perfection in all things; physical, mental and spiritual.

Amazing little figure, full of details.

Here he is accompanied with a quatuor of Contemptor Dreadnoughts. My initial plan was to show him off with a regiment of his Phoenix Guards but yeah, fuck you COVID-19.

All these were supposed to see action in our first game of Epic with John on Sunday, but alas borders between us are now closed, and the fight will have to wait. Even the Horus Heresy has to pause for the virus. 

So...

• 12 6mm vehicles : 24 points
• 4 Dreadnoughts : 4 pts 
• 1 Fulgrim (I'd suggest at least 1 points, as you can see he's no mere 6mm figure)

Total : 29 points (the sad fate of the 6mm painter).

I managed to keep my focus on Epic pretty much all challenge. Sure, less points, but my force is getting impressive and that's what the challenge is for!

Once again, thanks to all the minions, a big thanks to Curt for all his hard work, a shout-out to Greg for corrupting me to Epic, and a congratulation to all challengers!

And remember, stay inside, wash your hands, and take care of each other.



That's a great looking finale Iannick! I do like the purple and gold scheme, and that Fulgrim is clearly big enough to warrant a point.

TamsinP

From IannickM : Emperor's Children at Burch's Bluff (70 Points)

My next stop on the island was an easy choice, and so I make camp in Burch's Bluff. Two years ago I started an Emperor Children's force for Epic, and it's about damn time I get back to that project. Obviously Burch's Bluff helped a little, but of even more incentive is the fact JohnM and I are planning our first game of Epic for Mid-March in Montreal. And there's nothing that will motivate you as much as a game coming! While my force has a good choice of armour and support detachments, I was sorely missing in the infantry department. Because while I really enjoy painting the little guys, basing them is a bit of a chore so I've been procrastinating. But no more, It was more than time to address that shortcoming!

I really enjoy the Horus Heresy, and, like so often in my case, my love is rooted in nostalgia. Long before I learned about 40K, me and my brother bought Space Marines, the original game, and we played quite a few games using the original (unpainted, the shame) plastic figures. My brother played the loyalist, I was the traitor. To this day painting brightly coloured mini-tanks is a load of fun! 

And so my Emperor's Children force grows in the anticipation of the can of whoop ass the marines of the 3rd legion are about to open on their Blood Angels brothers. May Horus have mercy on their souls. 

First up, a Line Detachment of Assault Marines equipped with jump packs, in mark III armours. The Horus Heresy Legion Astartes (i.e. Space Marines) army lists require rather large, 8 bases detachments. Bit more work to get your infantry units ready but it does look good.

Then a command base, which includes all your favourites like chaplains, champions, etc. Its a useful figure to represent the "centurion" upgrade one may purchase for his infantry detachments.

And the "piece de résistance", the all-important elites of the Marine infantry, the Cataphractii Terminators. With their ability to teleport all over the battlefield, they can make for a nasty surprise! Great figures (fan made) with loads of details for such tiny figures! I went the extra mile and painted a rather fat detachment, with the maximum allowed units of 6. 

I'm back on the Epic train (choo choo), so expect more Epic Heresy before the challenge is over, and even a first peek at the loyalist side of my project, with THE loyalists amongst all loyalists, you guessed it, the boys clad in blue, the Ultramarines. 

So...

• 45 Epic space marines : 22.5 points
• 30 Epic terminators : (are they still only worth 0.5 points? I guess so. I feel they should be worth more ;-) ) : 15 points
• Plus the points for Burch's Bluff : 30pts

Total : 67.5 points

Next up, probably a balloon ride, and then more Heresy.

***

Fantastic work Iannick! These figures look outstanding, you have done some tremendous work here.  You also remind me of my own shameful neglect of my assorted ongoing Horus Heresy and, more specifically, Epic 30k projects. I've just been so focused on other areas...the Challenge still has some time, perhaps there is still time to get more 30k stuff finished?

These will help with inspiration! And I hope you guys really enjoy your game - "Epic" is a fantastic set of rules.  We look forward to seeing more as you proceed! 

Your scoring is accurate, but given the favour of the Warmaster, we shall round up the points to 70.  After all, only the weakling "Emperor" has the need for decimal points...

GregB

From IannickM : A touch of Epic, a touch of Pulp (the last post of the year) (12 Points)

It was not in my plans to paint anything else than the Curtgeld this week-end; I'm really burned out by the challenge! But Curt did last week challenge me to a last second sprint to the end, and I felt I had to give it my best!

So I managed to paint two more pieces, as my last stand in the 7th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge!

How I react when Curt challenges me with one week left to the challenge...

So the first piece is a Legion Glaive Tank for my Emperor's Children force. The Glaive is a super-heavy tank pattern related to the Fellblade, but beyond the obvious surface similarities the two tanks are very different. The reason for this divergence lies with the Glaive's primary weapon system, the fearsome and arcane Volkite Carronade, a massive Volkite Weapon that is capable of destroying enemy vehicles in a single shot. Volkite Weapons produce a deflagrating attack, in which subsonic combustion caused by a beam of thermal energy is propagated through the target by thermodynamic heat transfer, so that hot burning material heats the next layer of cold material and ignites it. The Volkite Carronade used by the Glaive was able to make short work of all but the most heavily armoured enemy vehicles and structures.

In short, it's a massively dangerous metal beast! I followed of course the painting scheme of my Emperor's Children force, but gave the glaive white details on the turret instead of the gold I used on the Fellblades to make the model stand apart from my other super heavies. I'm not entirely happy with my work on the Volkite cannon, but it will do.

The second piece I painted is Destro, the well known founder of M.A.R.S. Industries, a weapons manufacturer and supplier for the Cobra Terrorist organization. The figure is obviously part of my GI Joe Pulp project, and is the first of a cadre of Cobra characters and officers which will be added to my Cobra force. Destro was a fan favourite of the 80s cartoon, usually seen as somewhat of a number two to Cobra Commander. 

Destro's key characteristics are his sense of honor, a calm demeanor, and love for Cobra's second-in-command, the Baroness. He wears a mask forged from beryllium steel, a tradition dating back to the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, when an ancestor of his was caught by Cromwell's men in the act of selling weapons to both sides. He respects the G.I. Joe Team for their combat skills, but detests them for wasting their skills to maintain peace. Destro and Cobra Commander despise each other but maintain an alliance of convenience. Although twice the tactician and three times the soldier of Cobra Commander, Destro's sense of honor works to his disadvantage in the face of Cobra Commander's ruthlessness.

Laird James McCullen Destro XXIV, usually referred to simply as Destro

The figure is once again a sculpt from the private range of a good friend. Painting a figure dressed in black is always a challenge; I gave him a base coat of black, then went with a second coat of a really dark grey mix, and highlighted with Foundry's Slate Grey A, also a dark grey. 

So that gives me a small 9 pts to add to my total. I believe I will either fall short of Curt number by merely two or three points or beat him by the same amount! And in my case, with my extremely slow painting speed, almost 700 pts is a massive number, and by very far my best score (my previous best was 510 I believe). 

Thanks to Curt for a great but exhausting challenge, you pushed me to the very end! And thanks to our Wednesday minion Byron. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a nice cold drink.

_________________________________

Oh, that Glaive is very nice Iannick. I dunno what you're saying, that energy effect you did on the cannon is excellent.  I also really like your use of white for the hatches and highlights.

Unfortunately, I missed out on the whole GI Joe period, so I'm not familiar with the heroes or villains. Nonetheless, this guy looks like he's bad news. I especially like his white skin and Studio 54 getup. If I looked like that I'd want to beat up handsome heroes too.

As this is your last post I'm going to kick you up to 12 points as I think those super heavy tanks should be worth a bit more (I know, a bit late for that, eh.) and hey, its rockin' the purple which has to be worth something.

I hope we can organize a Canadian Epic smackdown, but if that doesn't come to pass we'll always have Paris the Challenge. :)  Thanks for joining us Iannick - it was a blast. 

From IannickM : Epic Wednesday (22 Points)

Yes, another entry (second week in a row with two entry, I'm on fire people!), and we keep it small this week albeit a very different and nastier type of small. Yes, more Emperor's Children for my Epic Horus Heresy project. I've been painting these in between Halflings and Napoleonics. One of the things I enjoy about painting Epic is that it's a nice change of pace; sometimes I'm just really tired of working on 28mm figures and I just switch in the middle of a session to painting little tanks and it gives me renewed energy and motivation.

Also, I figured good ol' Greg is probably tired of my painting fantasy figures and would be happy to know I haven't forgotten our little 30K duel. In all fairness, I don't think I can catch up to him by working only on my Epic project, but dang it I shall do my best!

So this week we have three support detachment sporting the Purple & Gold of your favourite Legions of depraved (but happy) sociopaths. 

First up, a detachment of 4 Predators. These are the Annihilator variants, equipped with turret-mounted Twin-linked "Stormbringer" Lascannons as opposed to the basic turret-mounted Autocannon on the Predator Destructor. I always had a soft spot for the Predators' look, as I find it looks good without being over the top.

Up next, we move one size up to a quatuor of Sicaran Battle Tanks, one of the most advanced armoured vehicles used by the Space Marine Legions during the Horus Heresy. These powerful vehicles were exclusive to the armouries of the Legiones Astartes and were just in the process of being introduced as a standard vehicle of the Legions when the Horus Heresy broke out. This allowed the Warmaster Horus to ensure that many examples of the new tank found their way only into the armouries of the "traitor" Legions that would side with him before the outbreak of his rebellion against the Emperor. Yes, Horus is the kind of leader you can count on!

Not very point effective for the duel though, as they are rather big for a measly 2 pts! But that drawback is more than offset by their badassery and their awesome look!  These guys are big and mean, and style wise fit perfectly with my philosophically agressive Emperor's Children.

And last for this week is a Legion Outrider Squad. I needed more speed for my Legion, and these guys look the part. These mechanized Space Marine reconnaissance squads are mounted on all-terrain Assault Bikes and are responsible for performing scouting missions and conducting guerrilla attacks behind enemy lines.  I quite like the models, although in hindsight I'm wondering if I should've put two bikes per bases. Of course, that would've required twice as many bikes and twice the cost! Anyways, the detachment still looks good to me, even if pictures are a bit hard to get right because they are so very small!

And a family picture, just to give some perspective on the size of each models.

Next up for this project; more infantry for my Emperor's Children, another Super Heavy Tank and then time permits I might just start the work on the loyalist side, the Ultramarines. Although I might get to face Blood Angels first, as I may have corrupted another Analogue Challenger to join in the Heresy! My mentor Greg will be proud...

So that's 8 tanks (16 pts) and 6 bikers (6 points) for 22 more points.

ByronM: Very nice entry Iannick, I really love all this 30k badassery in Epic scale.  I am with you on the sicarans, they are one of the best looking and playing tank in 30k or 40k.  They are low, long, sleek, and aggressive looking, amazing tank.  Better your your purple paint job shows them of very nicely, especially with the accent colours.  

You're correct, overall not very many points in the challenge, but they are very nice looking points, so it is well worth it!  Keep it coming!  

From GregB - 30K Space Marines (60 points)

We reject the false Emperor!

Continuing a similar theme from my last entry, here are some more GW figures from the Horus Heresy - known informally as "Warhammer 30k" among GW afficionados.  These are Space Marines, 28mm resin figures from Forge World.  There are 11 models from the Sons of Horus Legion, and a single model from the Emperor's Children Legion - both Legions which turned against the Emperor in the civil war.

Bad-ass commander from the 16th Legion - wearing extra heavy armour

If the Legion is called "Sons of Horus", then it can't be a big surprise that particular Legion sided with Horus the Warmaster - their own Primarch and leader - during the wars of the Horus Heresy.

"Volkite" energy weapon

I like the old-school segmented look to the armour on the Horus Heresy era figures

Some nice cutlery - I just wish I could learn the right technique to make these futuristic power swords look more spooky

The really big figure is a "Praetor", intended to represent a senior commander within the Legion.  He will be the overall commander of any force on the table during a game.  He is wearing old-school Terminator armour - "cataphract pattern", and carrying a scary sword and a small-ish energy weapon known as a "volkite charger" that actually hits much more heavily than it looks like it would.

This fellow saw his first action on our gaming table last week - see here for a break down.

Crowd control, Sons of Horus style

Up next is a "devastator" squad - five troops carrying heavy bolters, rapid fire support weapons of the Warhammer 40k universe.  Putting five of these weapons into a single squad is bonkers, but it reflects the heavy excess of the Warhammer 30k setting and the Space Marine Legion force listings.  This little group of troops can put down a serious curtain of fire at a decent range to boot.

The logos on those shoulder pads look a little soft...

A close examination of the embossed shoulder plates on the devastator troops will reveal them to look quite sloppy - the reason is my laziness, and a mishap with an airbrush. I believe life is too short to go around washing off model kits and figures before you paint them (give me a break) so I generally don't bother with that, despite all of the suggestions, positive intentions and tips from pro-painters.  Part of me just thinks "oh, good lord, what a waste of damn time" and part of me also thinks that washing figure kits in the sink may just be the straw that breaks the camel's back in the marriage, so to speak...

Extra ammo clipped to the back - I'm sure that makes it even easier to get around...not...

Anyway, I was priming these figures using a airbrush (something that challenge participant Byron has been patiently assisting me with - the guy has patience). The primer stuck perfectly to the models, but melted right off the logo-embossed shoulder pads. Rather than evaluating carefully, I instead opted for a Verdun-style war of attrition against the f*!@$!ing resin, piling on the primer until the stupid particles of f!@#!@# mold release fluid or whatever were buried under black to wither and die. Die!

You get a little targerter-type device to add to one of the troops - a nice feature, although not totally clear in this photo

Uh...so, anyway, that is not a recommend approach overall, as it dulls the detail a bit...but hey, they are in with Horus - these guys will be growing tails in no time, so I doubt they would notice soft armour bits anyway!

It's a plasma gun party!

Ahem - moving along with this submission, up next "tactical support" squad - five troops carrying plasma guns, rapid firing energy weapons of significant firepower but relatively short range.  Again, one might typically see one of these weapons within a squad of 10 troops, but in the Space Marine Legion force listings, there is a lot of just about any equipment to go around, so these special weapons are put into their own units! These weapons have some silly special rules attached to them ("gets hot" - soooo stupid) which would make most of their own users casualties through the course of a single game, but whatever - I like how they look :)

Time for a BBQ!

Finally the solitary marine who's armour does not match the others is a test model - a Legion Marine in Mark IV armour from the Emperor's Children, the Third Legion.  Quick side note - how bummed out was the Emperor when he found out the Legion named "Emperor's Children" had lined up with the traitors? Ouch!

Test figure for the Third Legion

Anyway this fellow was just to test some colour combos for a few units of Emperor's Children Marines that are still in the pending painting queue. The purple turned out a little darker than I hoped, but overall I was still pretty pleased.

I love the bonkers chainsaw-type combat accessory - really fits the setting

So this submission includes 12 different 28mm scale models for 60 points.  Up next should be even more Horus Heresy stuff...but after seeing DavidL's awesome submission, I might have to switch scales.  We'll see!


From Curt:

It always warms the cockles of my heart when I read Greg describing how he snapped his crayons during some otherwise inconsequential hobby task. It somehow, perversely, balances the books with my own infantile temper when my toy solders dare to defy my omniscient will.  It's what having friends is all about.

Seriously, great work Greg and a fun post! I love the look of the entire 30K range from Forgeworld, especially their approach to the traitor Marines. Refreshingly they've chosen not to bugger them up with the ridiculous, over-the-top, 'let's put a spike, pustule and tentacle on every square millimeter' trope of the GW designers. It's such a breath of fresh air.

I really like the green and copper scheme you've done on the Sons of Horus, especially the work on the wonderfully baroque armour of the Praetor. As you say, he looks suitably bad ass with his scary power sword and heretical blow dryer. This all being said I have to say I'm in love with the look of a whole squad of Heavy Bolters.  One can almost see the muzzle flashes and brass flying when you look at these guys. Wonderful stuff.

They're a bad bunch Mr. Burch!