Warmaster

UPDATE: the fellas over at the very cool gaming site TheMiniaturesPage.com pointed out a slight bit of confusion in this post concerning the "scale" of Warmaster. I referred to Warmaster as "epic-scale Warhammer". This is in terms of the type of large-scale formation/battalion warfare that Epic 40K rules depict, not the exact same scale of miniature size as epic 40K (although i did point this out in the 2nd paragraph of the original post, expecting a potential misunderstanding). But hey, i'll blame that on GW since none of their figs are actually the size of the scale they're supposed to be!
:endUpdate

These are two armies from the release of the Warmaster game, back around 2000. Warmaster was epic-scale Warhammer using the basic rules of Epic 40K. High Elves and Undead were the armies that came with the boxed set.

After my not-so-satisfying speed-painting of the Space Marine and Ork armies that came with the Epic 40K boxed set, I was determined to do a better job with Warmaster. These figs were not quite 6mm; they're probably closer to 10mm (which is typically the case with GW figs: just a little bigger than the scale they're supposed to be).



This meant there was a higher-level of detail and I needed to come up with a better method to paint two entire armies in under 3 weeks, but with enough detail to do the model some justice.

I undercoated everything with black spray paint and for the High Elves, I let that do most of the work. I picked out the major details with color, being careful to leave black as a trim-line. This was much easier with the Warmaster figs than with Epic40K figs (although I got much better at it with practice, and when I returned to Epic figs was able to use the technique successfully).



The Warmaster demo release was much more time compressed than Epic 40K (and that was no picnic). I really only had time for one level of detail, which was why I tried the black trim-line approach. Paint the main colors, pick out the small details, move onto the next stand. There wasn't enough time to apply any further shading for the Elves. But looking back at the figs, and the pics, it really wasn't necessary. Looking at small-scale figs bunched very close together on stands allllll the way down on a gaming table, the black/major-color technique works just fine. And it's definitely "good enough to play".



As usual, The Undead were another matter altogether. Skeletons are the easiest figures to paint. Period. And for Warmaster scale, easy is the name of the game. Again, I spray painted the fig with a black undercoat. Then I rapidly dry-brushed some sort of bone-color right over the entire fig.



After the first dry-brush, I repeated it again with white, trying to focus on the edges of the model. I don't even remember the specific colors used on the bones for these figs, I just remember cranking 'em out in about 2 days.



I picked out the other details when the bones were finished. The Warmaster armies were also the first figs that I employed the sandy-dirt color and green flock basing technique. I was very pleased with how it turned out.



Below is a zoom in on the skeleton archers.



After I took these pictures I found the two "leader" models for the High Elves and Undead in the back of my miniature display case. I was never really happy with how they turned out, so I'll spare The Internets from their bandwidth.

Bommerz!

UPDATED:
re-cropped the pix below.

Bommerz Over Da Sulpher River was a small Games Workshop game that allowed you to play Imperial Guard fighters vs Ork Bommerz. The game scenario based around a river with vital bridges and gun emplacements. The Ork Bommerz would streak down the river and attempt to take them out, while the Imperial Guard player had to defend. The game was fast-paced, wouldn't take more than 30 mins, and was great fun. They were epic-scale fighter planes that you could eventually use in Epic Armageddon (I think you could use them in Epic 40k, but I don't remember for sure).

Here's the Ork Bommerz that I got about 90% complete.




I painted the IG Thunderboltz, but they're only about half-finished.

Space Wolves

UPDATED:
re-cropped the pix below.

While rummaging around my basement I found some of my other Epic 40K figs that I had painted up a number of years ago.



This was back when I had to paint two full armies of Space Marines and Orks for the early demonstration games I ran at various conventions for the Epic 40K release. We typically received the boxed set about a month before it was released (sometimes only two weeks), and had to paint both armies in the box and master the rules within this time-frame.



As you can imagine, speed was the name of the game, not quality painting. After that, run lots of demos at various stores and answer everyone's questions about the new ruleset.



Originally, I tried painting a mostly white and very light-blue custom Chapter, but I just didn't like it. I switched to Space Wolves about halfway through, which was much easier to paint quickly. They have just enough detail to show off the models, and I was pretty pleased considering the short window I had to paint two armies. Pleased enough to put them on the Internet, I guess.

Great?

Hardly.

Good-enough?

Yep.



The Librarian was the only figure I spent any actual time picking out detail. The model was very detailed for 6mm epic scale, and I figured it was worth a little effort to make him stand out.

Having played a number of games using Epic 40K rules, I'm anxious to try out the Epic Armageddon rules.

My rummaging also uncovered some Warmaster armies that I had painted up when I was running demos for that game's release. High Elves and Undead. I'll include pics of those in a later post.

Cadian Infantry

UPDATED:
re-cropped the pix below.

Had a chance to take some additional pics. Hopefully better lighting this time. Completed first half of a Cadian Infantry Company. These figs are old, out of production Imperial Guard Epic Space Marine line, circa 1990. They might actually be Cadians which would be great luck for me. My plan is to field a Cadian IG army painted in the same color scheme as my current 40K Cadian IG army. We'll be playing using the most recent Epic Armageddon rules, including errata and updates.

Again, these are fairly high resolution pics, so you can click on the pic for a close up. These figs aren't painted up to my normal standards, but since that "standard" usually equals "never finished", I opted for "good enough" just to get 'em on the battlefield.



Had some trouble selecting a suitable color for the bases. The 40K army has light "Desert Yellow" bases, but at the epic scale the color is too similar to the khaki camos; not enough contrast.



After some consultation with Le Coq Fou, I experimented to different shades of gray and light drybrushing. I settled on the combination in the pics.

Once I finish the other 6 infantry stands, I'll have a complete infantry formation (minus the command stand). Then I'll move onto some Leman Russ tanks.

epic imperial guard

a few early pics of new epic armageddon army: imperial guard.



still learning how to take better pics.


the resolution is actually pretty good, so if you click it, you can zoom in for a close up.

more pics to come.