For No Particular Reason, Epic Tyranids!

 

Cover Gallery - White Dwarf #118 Back Cover

The 41st Millennium And The Old World 

Another month in 1990 and another excellent back cover diorama from the 'Eavy Metal crew.  On the top we have an awesome image mixing 40K and Epic size miniatures to create a picture of a recon force observing the movement of a massive body of Chaos forces.  The lower picture depicts Skaven breaching the walls of a High Elf fortress, it's cool to see the old High Elf Miniatures make an appearance here before the WFB 4th edition box set would make the appearance of High Elves far more uniform.  Stay safe and tune in again next Friday for another classic cover.

Reaver Titan!

 

Following on the heels of last week's Titan Banners, I can't wait to try my hand at mimicking the banner placement and paint schemes of these classic Titans.  Now if only I could find some Reavers and Warhounds for sale that cost less than a used car...

Titan Banners

 War Griffons, Stormlords, Morning Stars, And Flaming Skulls

I love these vintage banners from Codex Titanicus so much I might paint one of my two Epic scale Warlord Titans as a Morning Star or War Griffon just so I can use these banners.  That original Jes Goodwin art of the Titans with their kill banners hanging from their weapon arms has always been a big part of my love of Epic so I'm excited at the chance to finally try and model my own interpretation.  Please feel free to avail yourself of the above image if you would like to print out and paint some Titan banners of your own and enjoy the vintage Adeptus Titanicus fiction that is printed alongside.

Cover Gallery - White Dwarf #117 Back Cover

White Dwarf #117 Back Cover 

This amazing diorama was definitely one of the hooks that drew me into a love of the WH40K universe.  The use of 28mm figures on the top and 6mm figures one the bottom gave the impression you were seeing a blow-up of the same scene (even though no Space Wolves are in the lower photo).  Throw in that one of the figures in the upper illustration is the first primarch to be made as a mini, Leman Russ, and this diorama scores 5 out of 5 on the coolness scale.  Feel free to stare into the wonder for as long as you need to, my 13 year old self is still gazing and imaging all the things I could do if I owned all these models ;-)
 

Drill Baby, Drill!

 Imperial Moles

One of my compatriots in the second season of the 2nd Edition Army challenge is painting a Mole to carry around his Squats in Exo-Armor so I thought I would dig up this gem from Codex Titanicus to post.   A fantastic drawing plus some fun fiction to go with it, from the first Games Workshop ruleset to bring us the terrific fun of the troop carrying termite drill.  

Check out Jonas's great blog which features more about his 40K2ndAC II entry and lots more:

http://deathworldadventures.blogspot.com/2021/02/warhammer-40k-2nd-edition-challenge.html

Check out all the participants of the challenge (there are 24 of us this time out) over at Dr TV's excellent C0wabunga blog:

https://c0wabunga.com/2021/02/26/40k-2nd-armychallenge-season-2-launched/

Before The Craftworlds...

Tween Dreams...

As I first started exploring the world of Warhammer 40,000, before I even received my first box of plastic Imperial Space Marines, I used my saved allowance money to buy the Epic Eldar Legion box set.  The art on the box fascinated my twelve year old imagination and my tween self confidence thought I could easily master painting these models I had seen in my first issues of White Dwarf.  The realities of twelve year old impatience and limited skills meant that other than a few shaky tries at mimicking the above patterns on some grav tanks and the models were quickly put aside in favor of the RTB01 box set that I got for Christmas that year.  A few years later I would trade the contents of this box to a friend in high school who played Eldar in Epic in return for the Space Marine units that came in the Space Marine 2nd edition box set.  However just catching some of the box art online the other day reminded my how much my first encounters with the WH40K universe can still fire my imagination.  Thanks for reading, I'm off to look for plastic guardians on Ebay now ;-)

Imperial Knights

My Warlord Titans Need Some Sidekicks 

I would love to pick up some of these models to field in my games of Epic but they are currently way to pricey on Ebay...

Imperator Titan!

 

I always wanted one of these giant Titans, I loved the idea that whole companies of tech guard infantry were ready to deploy from the legs of the Imperator Titan.

Capitol Imperialis!

 

Warhound Titan!

 Insert Dog-related Pun Title Here...

Tank Camo!

 

Epic Proportions Seventh Unit Completed

Ultramarines 4th Company Support, 2nd Land Speeder Squadron,  "The Iron Fingertips"

One of my happiest achievements with these tiny speeders was the Roman numeral transfers from one to five to denote each speeder's place in the squadron.

Progress on the Epic Proportions project seems to have slowed down for all participants, and there are rumblings from Dr TV that he may restart/reboot the challenge.  However since I have a massive amount of Epic miniatures left to paint, I have been slowly churning out at least one unit a month as a breather in between other painting projects.  These Land Speeders were a ton of fun to paint and I found myself getting sucked into the tiny details on the models wanting to bring the most out of the classic characterful sculpts.  Plus they are my only Land Speeder squadron in two huge Epic Space Marine armies so I wanted to take my time to make sure I really liked the finished models.  Follow along after the jump to see them from all angles in their tiny resplendent glory ...

Warlord Titan!

 

Epic Proportions Sixth Unit Completed

Imperial Robot Cohort 

Sadly these four robots were my only completed miniatures for the Epic Proportions challenge in August.  Between the Inquisitional Conclave and the 2nd Edition Army challenge kicking off I did not get much time to work on my Epic forces.  However enough excuses let's talk about tiny war robots...

‘Eavy Metal

Eldar Phantom Titan!

Epic Scale Awesome

 

Finished ... For Real This Time

 The Iron Gauntlet Advances... In A Rearward Direction?

 

I wanted to show off all the squadron markings plus the newly completed command tank but it does look like he ordered an advance and doesn't know the rest of the company decided otherwise.

Bonfires Of The Imagination

 

 

Pages like these in White Dwarf or rulebooks of the time fed my intense interest in the minutiae of the grimdark.  I imagined for years what I would paint on my Titan banners and now thanks to the Epic Proportions challenge I will get to try my hand at them with the two Warlords I have acquired so far for the project.

 

Next Level Diorama Skills

I wonder how long it took to shake the sand off the infantry stands after they took the photos... ?

In the days of the pre-internet I spent so much time staring at pictures like these in rulebooks and WD, imagining how the games would play or how I would like to paint my forces if I had all these models...