Banelord Titan

 After my recent incursion in old school Epic titans, I was a little bit uneasy. Those were cool, yeah, but I really didn't have any opposing behemoth, nothing that could ever stand against any of them. Well, yeah, techincally speaking I currently don't have any functional army of any faction whatsoever. But that's not the point. The thing is that I had this:

And had to do something about it

It's just the body and carapace of a Warlord Titan, but I think I needed little else to start with. I had a Banelord Titan in mind, the Chaos equivalent to a Warlord (and in fact it takes the very same model as a basis).

So I threw random stuff at the body

The organic arm is from an old Tyranid Biotitan (I used to have a few Epic Tyranids back in the day too, but now they're long gone), but I thought it might work on this project. Finding a suitable head was an issue. I considered some options:

Too terryfing, had to be discarded

I can work with this one

The head is a mask from the old WH40K Decimator. I would try to mimic the classic Bloodletter head. So I repositioned the horns and made an elongated head:

The first attempt was too crude and thick

Second one looked better

This turned out mostly as expected:

Don't step on my freshly cleaned flooooooor!!!

I'd say that this is roughly my idea:

Someone should tell him that smoking is bad for health

After some priming it began to look more coherent, if that's the word:

I ran out of black spray, so I had to improvise with what I had at hand

Some classic colours later...

I tried some plasma beam effect on the organic arm

A brief recap on the weapons. It's supposed to have a single mounted 6-missile launcher on the carapace, but also to have another gun on the tail. Though I considered adding a tail (and dismissed the idea as I didn't have any suitable bits for that), I wasn't ever putting a gun on it, sorry. So I'll put two weapons on the carapace.

First one was easy, as I had some Titan stuff remaining

But I had no clue of how would I scratchbuild a missile launcher, until I remebered the light of the old Leman Russ tank:

Those spikes always looked so Chaotic to me

Loudspeaker or missile launcher? You'll only know when it's too late

As I had added those bannerpoles (just a couple of nails!) I had of course to add... well, banners:

Arguably not my best job, but they'll work

So a Banelord Titan, you say?

Banelord Titan, or a really angry guy

Imperial designation Bloodshedder

Registered incidents through M.31 until present day

The Bloodshedder (formerly Augustus Gloriosus) is a Banelord Class renegade Titan, from the rebel Legio Sanguina. It's despicable actions have been recorded all over the galaxy across the millenia, and it is said to have vanquished several equal or higher class Titans (though a Vermillion Level authorization is required to acces to such data, so very few people within the Collegia Titanica are in disposition to confirm that information). Fear precedes its appearance, and it has a fierce reputation of always engaging directly the hardest opponent on the battlefield, no matter its Class or location.

The Battle of Cormorina VII, 4255634.M37

Well, I got the itch of Epic! I don't have any real plans, so I can't tell if I'll keep on building more stuff. However, I have some broken old bits and they might be usable, but I don't think it will happen in the following weeks. I'm currently working on different stuff, I'll try to have it finished through the month.

Cheers all, enjoy!

Definitely not modern Adeptus Titanicus

 I had to conduct some serious archaeology works to find the last time I posted anything about Epic and something specific about Titans. That was 2015. Wow.

Long story short, I had some Titans and, though I planned to add more stuff, it never got it done. I bought a couple of things, gave a Titan away... you know, life.

But given that the other day one of the Titans had a struggle with gravity (which he definitely, yet not unsurprisingly, lost), I decided to call it a happy accident and declared the moment to get my hands dirty again with Titans.

I'm not going to make you look upon 2015 in the blog. Here's what I had:

Three totally unrelated monsters

I decided to keep the blue and bone white pattern, but I think there was a decision I took back in the day which now I strongly regretted, i.e., the black edges. The models, specially the Imperator Titan, need much more contrast and colour. They are calling for some ridiculous, over the top gold. So I refurbished them, added some more white, red chequers and gold. Tons of gold.

Let me introduce you the Miserere Nobis, Imperator Titan and head of the Legio Excubiae.

The same, yet not the same

I need a backdrop!

 

I think that the little touches here and there make much more a change that I had expected. I was worried about overdoing it, but I think it works this way. You may have to zoom in, but you may notice that I haven't painted all the black edges, as they have inscriptions in High Gothic. I made them back in the day, when my eyes allowed me those things.

Next, the Paeniteat, Lucius Pattern Warlord Titan. I've left it basically the same, but for a couple of tiny details and new decals:

 

I think I could add some battle banners

The one who closes my original trio is the Fulgur Hastam, Reaver Titan. The only change was highlighting the blues and, well, of course, you'll notice a lot of gold:

I'm noticing the issue with the decal as I post the pic. Ouch

Anyway, this was just an update of my old models. I could say that I more or less finished them, more than really repaint them. But here they are. But now that I was riding the wave, I painted some more stuff I had purchased years ( a lot of years!) ago.

The Credens Bello, Mars Pattern Warlord Titan:

 

A true relic of the past

This thing hardly has a golden angle

I had to complete the weapons on the carapace with a Space Crusade Dreadnought plasma cannon, as I didn't have more Epic stuff, I hope it works! The banners were kind of mandatory and, even if they aren't specially elaborated, they add gravitas to this behemoth.

Finally, the twins, the Impatiens and the Lupus Belli, both Lucius Pattern Warhound Titans:

I like these two more than I should

Here you can see the Sapphirus Maniple of the Legio Excubiae:

Gloriously incoherent war machines

The mix of Mars and Lucius patterns (I don't even know what pattern the Imperator is) is a little bit strange, but it really doesn't bother me. I can totally picture the Legio being rebuilt and reorganised with Titans from different patterns through the millennia, and the silly mix makes me smile for some reason.

Well, I don't have serious plans of painting more Epic stuff in the short term (though I should, I have tons of tiny warriors in their boxes!), but who knows. Oh, BTW, I also have like hundreds of new Titans from the modern Adeptus Titanicus game, I do have to take serious action about that...

Epic new year!

Hello everybody! After these days of celebration, I'm back, with something I promised you last year, my Epic Space Marine tanks, fully painted. You saw them half painted in the battle vs. Keyan Sark's Squats, but since then I have made some improvements...

Not that impressive, seen from here...

So for now I have a Command Rhino and six other vehicles for troops...

Should need to accomodate my infantry to this organization

A few Land Raiders...

Still need to repaint my Terminators, BTW

 And some support. Whirlwinds...

Units come three by three. So now I need other two (at least!)

Predators:

They look better at close distance!

Vindicators:

The same goes for these!

And finally, the Thunderhawk:

Should have taken the risk and added some more white

Well, this is my Ultra vehicle fleet so long. I have to repaint my Termies, Scouts, Librarians, etc. Besides, I recently got a nice batch of more minis (it should be on its way!), so the family is still growing!

So, for 2016 you can certainly expect more Epic here at the blog. Hopefully even some battles! I'd also love to get back to Battlefleet Gothic. I have some expectations about what's GW going to do with both games this year.
But of course I have not forgotten about my urban scenario for RT. In fact I already have some minis waiting for their time to come, as well as some more scenery in mind. Agh, I need a game of that!
I'm also commited to my Rogue Trader bestiary (you'll see more minis from the Space Riders KS soon) and also have plans to build up a small force of nasty Xenos that the galaxy has not seen for some time...
If only this could be the year I finally could assemble my RealScale Space Marines...
Apart from all that, on the non-Warhammer side of the hobby, the Force has awakened ;) This blog for sure is Force-sensitive. You'll see, you'll see... This year I should receive a couple of Kickstarters (Aliens and Conan, weee!) and I've also been promised some board games which look tempting, so I'll try to bring some variety here! My idea every single year is getting back to the pencils or whatever and draw a little. I'll keep spirits high for 2016.

Well, these are my New Year's Resolutions, but of course they are subject to variations (just to add more stuff, never to retrieve it! The more ambitious the better!). Let's see together how many of them are fulfilled!

Playing Epic. Ultramarines vs. Squats

I managed to play an Epic Game. Horaay! I still have my tanks half painted, but my pal KeyanSark offered me the chance to play and, due to our respective schedules, last monday was our only common window of opportunity. So let it happen!

We played NetEpic, a version of the game I am not familiar with, but Keyan is. I used my Ultramarines and a couple of Titans and Keyan used his recently painted Squats.

The battlefield, with objective points all over

Keyan's army

Each turn you roll for the initiative. Each detachment receives an order (first shoot, advance or charge), which is represented by a token, kept secret until you activate the unit. Activation is alternate, so the game is quite fluid; seriously, an IGOUGO system would totally kill a game like this. This is all about adapting youself to the adversary as they move their troops.

Secret orders!

Small blue Rhinos advancing

The clash is imminent

Onwards! To battle!

End of movement phase. Now shooting!

But first, this pic. Just because it's cool.

Keyan's giant cannon shot over me with some pretty devastating effects...

Four infantry units and two Land Raiders just evaporated

The Colossus opened fire against my Rhinos

This pic is just for the dramatic effect

End of turn 1. Let's go for round 2!

Turn 2 would be quite decisive, as we were going to fight for the center of the board.

Remember Jurassic Park, the scene with the glass of water? I think something big is coming...

Oooops, this is gonna be fun...

I made the mistake of not disembarking the troops from the Rhinos. Have a bad feeling about them...

Now for the good stuff... Titans!

Leman Russes shot on my Reaver first, then Keyan's Reaver

You wouldn't expect this game to happen without tables and charts, right?

 My Reaver got an impact on the head and another one on the hip. Fortunately the tech support guys would manage later on to repair both locations and recover all the shields.

General overview of turn 2

The Colossus, the Gyrocopter and the Warlord all opened fire against my infantry...

No comments. Having a bad day

-All of you! Hold the position! Follow me! -Ehh, Brother Captain, it's just us...

Hmm. Bad day to be a Vindicator crew...

Rhinos and Vindicators are wiped out

Seriously, guys, at this distance... you only kill two out of six bikes??

My Warlord (left) shoots the building on the right across the battlefield. Four units killed and the building itself on the edge of collapsing. I love Epic

This town ain't big enough for both of us

Keyan's Reaver managed to destroy my right arm (well, the Reaver's right arm!), so no close combat weapon. I managed to repair the rest of the damage inflicted and recover most of my shields.

End of turn 2!

So Keyan was decimating my ranks! However, at the moment we kept the same number of objetives. Turn 3 would be the decisive one then!!

On my right flank, Squat bikes had surrounded my only Rhino left. All was lost. All? No! Then we heard a 'Vooooosh' 'Vroooom' 'Hshhhhh' Reinforcements had arrived!

Of course I made all those sounds. It's essential to the game.

A little bit crowded suddenly!

This game justifies itself just by pics like this.

 

Keyan just shot me with anything he had. My Titan finally fell down when the reactor core was damaged beyond any reparation (at the end of the turn I made the required roll and at least it didn't explode causing more mayhem!)

 

Dramatic cinematic effects needed

Well, it looks like the battle was pretty much decided. Anyway, this was so much fun!

 

 

We were just for the final combats...o

The Titans and the Thunderhawk melee

Ouuuuch!

The final combat went from this...

 

...to this

So three turns and this was how it looked like in the end!

Pretty different from the first pic!

Well, so this is it. Victory for the Squats! Quite an enjoyable game, I must say, even if Keyan totally overwhelmed me in the end. As you can see, my approach here was totally wrong, I played WH40K instead of Epic, and that lead my troops to the disaster. I guess I played it like an Ork, haha, charging and facing such an artillery oriented adversary. But hey, this was my first game of Epic since... 2000? 2001? And that was with another ruleset, so this actually was my first game.

My main lesson learned is that this is not WH40K; not only about gaming, but about painting and organizing my forces. I had two Codex Astartes Companies and that doesn't work for Epic. Well, if you think that the game was conceived for the Horus Heresy, i.e., not for Chapters, but Legions with such a different organization, that makes much more sense. So I have to repaint some of my infantry to adapt my army to the game. I'm still painting my tanks, so this game helps me to know how to paint them too! (Yes, I'm ashamed of having played with half-painted minis, my bad...)

I'm really excited about games this size, specially after so much time having not played the scale. I'll show you my Space Marines army when finished and then I'll put my hands on my other armies. Hopefully I'll manage to grab some more battles!!