40kGamers EPIC modeling thread

[40kGamer]

Hi Everybody!

With all the uncertainty surrounding the new Age of Sigmar and the 7th Edition of 40k being the only current GW offerings I've done what any self respecting fanatical player would do, shelved both of the current games and circled back to the simpler times of yesteryear... it's the perfect time to modernize my armies for EPIC 40k! Quick run down for anyone who didn't grow up in the EPIC era... there are 4 editions of the game and personally I find all of them fun for different reasons.

1st - Adeptus Titanicus/Codex Titanicus (Super detailed system that is great for Titan only battles)
2nd - Space Marine (Streamlined from 1st - Great for Large battles involving Titans, tanks and infantry)
3rd - Epic 40k (Super streamlined to the point that the existing playerbase mostly hated it and it failed to bring in significant new players - Still the rules are solid and you can play massive games)
4th - Epic Armageddon (An effort to revitalize the game by blending 3rd into 2nd... arguably the best overall edition of the game but lacked the breath of earlier versions as it was canceled before all races were brought up to date)

So onto the painting part. I decided to start by modernizing my titan legions... First up is WIP for the Eldar Titan Clan Fir Iolarion (The Eagles Born of Fire) This is a modernized vision of the original scheme from Codex Titanicus as it replaces the Metallic Brass trim with a more Eldar like Yellowish bone Colour. I still need to add the banners and take pictures of these guys with their feet painted (I updated the feet to the Yellowish bone colour too...)

But for starters here's a 80% complete WIP of the first Phantom Titan Group:



And the first Pair of Revenants



And the most time consuming model of the bunch the Warlock Titan







Next round of pictures will include the Eldar Knights which offer up 9 different sculpts of awesomely weird models. Cheers.

[Insert_nickname_here]

Very nice. I've got a small ork warhorde that I really should get to at some point. This thread might just give me the momentum to get back to them.

[40kGamer]

Very nice. I've got a small ork warhorde that I really should get to at some point. This thread might just give me the momentum to get back to them.

Any excuse to break out the old stuff, right mate?

Well I finally got around to basing up the original Eldar Knights. They were upgraded to the new 32mm round bases as they look infinitely better than the smaller ones. I also stayed with the same colour scheme as the larger titans and after looking at the pics think I may need to do some extreme highlights to really pop the minis in photos.

Let's start off with the Fire Gales:





Move into the Towering Destroyers



And wrap with the Bright Stallions



God how I miss the experimental weirdness of the early days.

[40kGamer]

Serious WIP time... I still love most of the original EPIC models but the Tyranids have changed to the point that I wanted to have a go at modernizing the sculpts as well as the paint schemes. The goal of this little side project is simple. Find the easiest way to modernize the Tyranid titan/gargantuan/monstrous creatures. So with that in mind I started mining the 40k Nid kits for parts. These are very early WIP shots so a lot of imagination is still required.

First up is the Hierodule. Really this one has been time consuming but super simple so far. Kits used are as follows:

Termagant: Body and rear legs
Hormagaunt: Both sets of Scything Talons
Forgeworld Rippers: Medium Sized Ripper head (Nid Warrior Head would also work)

The legs and scything talons have to be cut in several places and shortened to get the look. the gun started life as a piece of paperclip and has a couple stages of GS work completed. Still have to finish the GS work on the tail and back to get the full look.





Even earlier in it's WIP stages is a prototype Hierophant. This fella requires a lot more sculpting and will therefore take a lot longer to nail down.

For parts it uses heavily modified parts from the following:

Tyranid Warrior Kit: Front and Mid-Torso as well as the basis for the head
Gargoyle Kit: Rear Torso/Tail
Carnifex: Front Legs taken from smaller set of Scything Talons
Ravenor: Basis for Rear Legs is Largest Set of Scything Talons
Forgeworld Ripper: Ripper Legs = Mandibles.... might as well since I'm going to scavenge all the heads from the kit anyhow. :P

Still need to:
Flesh out all the details on the rear legs (Yuck)
Find something to use as the weapons
Figure out how to attach the flesh hooks/lash whips underneath. Probably going to use parts from the Harpy kit for these:

So here we have Front, Back and Side Views







A comparative shot vs the original Hierophant (never mind the retro colours)



And a family photo with the Hierodule.



Any thoughts or suggestions would be most welcome. need some motivation to keep these fellas moving.

[Insert_nickname_here]

Wow! That hierodule is fantastic! Really nice work, my friend. I switched off round about Epic 40k, did they have a Epic 4ok/Armageddon era tyranid rules or are they home brew rules?

[40kGamer]

Wow! That hierodule is fantastic! Really nice work, my friend. I switched off round about Epic 40k, did they have a Epic 4ok/Armageddon era tyranid rules or are they home brew rules?

Thanks mate! He's about 80% done... The Hierophant is more around the 40% complete mark!

Nids never got the Epic Armageddon modernization that a lot of the other armies did. As a total EPIC fanatic I can no longer resist the urge to modernize them myself... although it's going to hurt... a lot. Thank the maker for the 40k bitz!

[40kGamer]

They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery... well I hope Mr. Simon Egan finds this scaled down Scythed Hierodule flattering vs a hot mess.

So I managed to focus my limited attention on this little beastie and finish putting together my first prototype. I always start any batch with a single model so I can learn what techniques to use and which areas are particularly tricky. Hopefully he paints up to look like a serviceable version of his gigantic cousin.

For the carapace fins I got some advice from a fellow fan sculpting enthusiast and started with locator pins to provide the base structure.

Once you Swiss cheese the model with 10 of these you've hit the point of no return. It's move forward or let the project die.





After 5 separate sculpting sessions where I had to let things dry in between he ended up looking like this:










The modernized Hierodule ends up being more the size of a Knight Titan

[Gotthammer]

Totes impressive work!

[40kGamer]

Totes impressive work!

Thanks! I'm a bit rusty but hope to find my groove again.

[Kirsten]

they look amazing, great job.