Epic Knights and Epic box art

 During our game of Adeptus Titanicus the other week, I also dug out my Epic Knights and admired once again the fantastic box art and model photography of these big box games.

AT88 box art.

Number 1 son had fun playing with all the various weapons I have.  I won an eBay lot of 16 Warlords many years ago and have lots to use!  I have a couple of metal Reaver Titans there too.

 I started using some of the bits to build some alternate weapon heads for my Titans, inspired by the Colin Dixon-designed metal ones that GW released around 1990-91.  I constructed a carapace landing pad too, though it's only a square of plasticard with a magnet mounting underneath, more work needed!

 The Imperial Knights (presumably the "one man titans" mentioned in an earlier White Dwarf as something that would have been in the never-released Codex Titanicus II) were a bit of an oddity.  I really loved the models, and got a set of each, but never really got to use them.

My Knights Paladin are accompanied by a couple of plastic Knights from the Titan Legions box.  I never had Titan Legions, but did pick up a second hand set of the Knights to bolster my forces.  The plastic Knights were obviously based on the metal knight on the left, with chainsword and battlecannon.  I was slightly disappointed in the rules, I had hoped for more weapon variety, the same as larger Titans, but they all counted as a battle cannon and generic close combat weapon.  That Paladin with a power fist and multi-melta would have been great!

Knights Paladin

I have a couple of Warhound Titans, one of which is seen here leading my Knight Lancers.  I picked up an extra Lancer from somewhere, handy because the rules in WD gave minimum unit sizes of 4 and the Knights were sold in packs of 3.  These all had a las-cannon and 2 multi-lasers.  2 of the 3 designs clearly had las-cannon, but the lead Lancer weapon looks more like a battle cannon.

Warhound & Knights Lancer

Wardens were slow-moving, heavily armoured units, with a battle cannon and 2 multi-lasers.  That fits the centre & right models, but the left one obviously has a multi-launcher instead (would presumably count as a grade 2 weapon for AT88/SM).

Wardens

 The model photography for Adeptus Titanicus and Space Marine was comparable to that which appeared in White Dwarf at the time.  These were obviously much more involved photo shoots than those which appeared from 1990-91 onwards.  Time was taken to disguise the bases with flock, "smoke" was blown across the battlefield to give a greater sense of atmosphere.  Most of the scenery was scratch built or modified model railway or 1/300 WWII resin scenery.  The AT88 pictures exclusively feature the prototype metal Warlord Titans.  Within a year or two, photography focussed more on the individual paint jobs, with models simply grouped on a gaming board with some scenery arrayed around them.  They would still "tell a story", but not with the same atmosphere that you got from these older images.  A lot of the artistry was gone.  Make sure you click on the images to view them at a larger size so you can appreciate the amount of detail in them!

AT88 model photography.

The same city walls can be seen in the box art for Space Marine, but here the Titans are plastic Warlords, along with the metal Reavers, Warhounds and Eldar Phantom.  The Space Marines, Land Raiders and Rhinos are the metal ones released for Adeptus Titanicus, not the plastic ones included in the Space Marine box.

Space Marine model photography.

The Warp Runners "Sunburst Group" task force picture from White Dwarf made a big impact on me when I originally saw it.

"Sunburst Group" Warp Runners Titans.

It's interesting to see where much of the scenery in the original AT88 photo-shoots originated.  The towering scenery, tiny Space Marines and smoke all come together to make a great battle scene.

Original battle scene.

"Legions of Power" toys have been used for the block structure atop the tower on the left of the photo, augmented with some lattice steelwork to help give a sense of scale.  A hemispherical Legions of Power connector sticks up from one corner, with a Blue Zoid gun and dish antenna on top.  Incidentally, a Legions of Power cockpit made its way into a 40K scale Scout Titan that appeared in a later issue of White Dwarf, along with parts from the Red Scavenger Zoid.  Guns from the Dark Future plastic kits appear in various guises.  Some were also used in White Dwarf to convert Rhino APCs into what looked like an early form of proto-Predator tank.  There looks to be an electric motor used as the base of a tower.  The warehouses in the foreground are from a resin WWII/modern scenery range sold by a long-closed company, I think it was TableTopGames ("TTG").  I ordered a lot of their scenery (from a photocopied paper mail-order catalogue - no internet then!) to use for BattleTech and recognised the warehouse when my order arrived.  There are obviously bits from various railway model kits in there, probably N gauge.  Those fuel silos on the left - maybe started life as ping-pong balls?  I'm not sure, but the storage tank, back right, might have been 25mm scenery from Ainsty Castings.

Annotated battle scene.

I hope you've found these ramblings of interest!

Adeptus Titanicus 1988

 I tried a game of the original Adeptus Titanicus from 1988 with Number 1 son.  AT88 included 6 Warlord Titans with interchangeable weapons, 8 expanded polystyrene buildings, 2 range rulers, dice and rules.  20 or so years ago, I magnetised my Titan weapons and started painting my loyalists in Warp Runners colours and traitors in Death's Heads' colours.  One day I might summon the courage to try painting the flames on the Warp Runner legs and carapace!

We played a simple game, 2 Nemesis class Warlords on each side.

Death's Heads.

Warp Runners.

We faced each other across a city using my card/plastic Space Marine buildings.  I only used the tall ones, so that they would block LOS completely.

The battlefield.

On the right, both sides gave Advance orders.  As the titans came into range, void shields flared as plasma fire, autocannon and multi-launcher missiles flickered back and forth.

Exchanging fire as they close.

On the left, the Titans moved more slowly and exchanged fairly ineffectual long-range fire.

Long range duel.

Turn 2 resulted in Charge orders for the Death's Head on the left flank, closing the gap quickly.  Both sides managed to repair a couple of void shields.

Closing the distance.

On the right, void shields winked out under sustained las-cannon, autocannon and heavy plasma gun fire, followed by a powerful plasma cannon blast.  The traitor staggered back as both close combat arms crashed to the ground.  The close combat titan was left without power fist or chainfist!

Goodbye close combat weapons!

Continuous fire pummelled the Titan, striking deep into the hull.  Plasma, lasers and explosive shells wreaked havoc, damaging first the plasma reactor, then the MIU (Mind Impulse Units - how the crew control the Titan via neural links), legs and a carapace weapon mount.

Leg, reactor, MIU damage...

 On the left flank, Charge orders bring the loyalist into contact with the traitor.  Weapons fire flickers back and forth as the Titans close, the Warp Runner losing a multi-launcher while the Death's Head's Defence Laser is blown off.  The Warp Runner's chainfist scores a single close combat hit before being disabled by return fire in the next turn.  Both Titans have lost their void shield generators, though at this close range the shields would have merged anyway, offering no protection from each other.

Damage mounts on both sides...

Finally, the inevitable happens. As the Death's Head on the right stands immobile, desperately trying to repair the reactor, the Warp Runner pounds it with every weapon.  Peppered by autocannon shells, las-cannon and maximal plasma gun/cannon fire, after 5 or 6 "no further damage" rolls, luck finally runs out for the traitor as the reactor loses containment and the Titan is engulfed in a plasma reactor breach.

First traitor Titan suffers reactor meltdown.

On the left flank, the Warp Runner is lucky enough to fire first.  Multi-launcher missiles spray armour fragments across the battlefield and a Defence Laser shot pierces the traitor plasma reactor.  Standing close to the traitor, the Warp Runner's MIUs are fried by the plasma explosion and the crew are left stunned.

Fortunately for them, the Imperial forces have triumphed.  All that remains of the traitor forces are 2 craters filled with radioactive lava.  The Emperor Protects!

Projects on the go...

I have several projects edging towards completion at the moment.  This box contains a lot of my new Epic scale 40K armour, printed during October on my resin printed.  Down the left side we have a load of Leman Russ with various different hulls and turrets.  The white ones in the first 3 compartments will end up red as part of my traitor forces.  The others are in varying stages of completion for my loyalist Imperial Guards.  The 4 compartments bottom right are all Basilisk artillery, all now finished, nearby are some Trojan transport vehicles and 3 munitions trailers.  The Valkyrie VTOL transport is an older model but it's only recently that I've had enough space to put it with the rest of my vehicles.

Epic armour.

Almost ready for assembly is my Rocker Bug vehicle from Dragon's Rest.  This is all FDM printing from the last couple of weeks.  Once I have the internal detail painted, I can fit the last bits together.  I need to sand the inside of the wheel hubs to get them to rotate more freely.  This was a useful learning experience.  When I print another vehicle, I will probably print some of the internal details in resin for crisper detail, such as seats and stowage.

Rocker Bug.

 

Epic Centaurs

These teeny tiny tanks are Epic scale Centaurs.  The Centaur is a tracked utility vehicle used by the Imperial Guard for scouting, supply and towing light artillery pieces.

These versions are modified as weapons carriers in the style of WWII Bren Carrier variants.  They come from designer Morteforte (Michael Withers).  I chose to use the multi-melta armed variant.

After cleaning up the resin prints, I undercoated them with Wilko grey spray primer.  The Humbrol 75 Bronze Green base coat was highlighted with Humbrol 86 light olive.  Camo stripes were painted on with a mix of 1/3 black, 1/3 matt varnish, 1/3 water.  Silver tracks and weapons received a wash of black ink and matt varnish.  A very light drybrush of dusty khaki/grey mix finished them off.

These really are tiny! I'm not sure whether to rescale them to 110% or 120% if I print some more or just leave them this size.

Even this small, they print with amazing detail.  I'm still really impressed at what such a cheap 3D printer can produce.

Epic Valkyrie

 My Epic Imperial Guards have received some air transport in the form of this Valkyrie from Stroganoff on Thingiverse. This was printed in one piece using AnyCubic Eco-Resin.

Being a clumsy oaf, as I was preparing to undercoat it I dropped it on the garage floor and it shattered.  Fortunately I managed to find all the bits and repair it.  Gel supergue works very well on this resin and the repairs are practically invisible now that it has been painted.

As with my other Epic Imperial Guard vehicles, this has a Humbrol 75 bronze green base coat, Humbrol 86 olive drybrush.  The camo stripes are Vallejo black diluted with matt varnish to give a contrast paint effect.

I tried a new technique with the windows on this model, blue with extra highlights instead of the usual gloss black.  It has worked better than I expected, so I shall definitely try this again on some other models.

I painted the underside a paler colour for aerial camouflage, GW Corax white with Vallejo stoneall gray patches.

This is a lovely model and I'd like to print another 3 or 4 to give me the capability to transport a whole infantry detachment.  I'll just need to be more careful not to drop them...

Epic Dominus siege artillery

 The Dominus siege artillery is a variant of the Crassus superheavy troop transport.

The troop transport area is replaced with 3 massive Bombard siege mortars, giving my 2 vehicles more firepower than the 5 Bombards.

The mortars are so large that as with the Bombards, the Dominus requires a logistical tail of amunition and support vehicles, though at least there is space for the gun crews within the vehicle this time.

MKHAND_INDUSTRIES once again provides this excellent model, there are also alternate weapons for the front hardpoints (heavy flamers) and 2 different elevations of siege mortar.

Epic Bombard siege mortars

My traitor forces have a well equipped gun line specialising in siege warfare.  A large part of the artillery force includes Bombards.

The Bombard comes in 2 different flavours, one based on the Chimera chassis and the other on the Leman Russ.  I prefer the Leman Russ variant, the heavier chassis seems to suit the massive siege gun much better.

MKHAND_INDUSTRIES again, I chose the option with a separate loading arm to make clean up and painting easier.

Given the size of the shells these things will fire, some Trojan ammunition transports and trailers will definitely be needed soon.  There is no room for the crew other than a driver, some additional Chimeras or Centaurs will also need to be printed.

Epic Thunderer siege tanks

The Thunderer siege tank is a variant of the Leman Russ-based Destroyer tank hunter.

The Thunderer replaces the laser destroyer of the tank hunter with a short-ranged demolisher cannon, creating a vehicle suitable for battlefiels demolition or siege warfare.

The lack of a turret or secondary weapons means that it isn't ideal for urban combat unless well supported by infantry and other armoured vehicles.

This model is another from MKHAND_INDUSTRIES, I've chosen to print the version with track guards but it also comes with exposed tracks.

Epic Valdor tank hunters

 The Valdor tank hunter is an ancient design based on the Malcador heavy tank chassis.

A Neutron Laser Projector forms the main armament of the Valdor. This powerful weapon is comparable to the defence laser/turbo laser mounted on the Shadowsword superheavy tank and makes the Valdor an efficient superheavy tank hunter.

The Valdor has an unusual asymmetric design, with a sponson mounted las-cannon on one side but part of the power systems for the neutron laser on the other.

Another of MKHAND_INDUSTRIES designs, this printed neatly with no problems flat on the build plate of my printer.  I made sure that it was well-supported under the hull, main gun and las-cannon.

The Valdor is a sort of budget Shadowsword and this group of 4 operating with my traitor forces will certainly give any loyalist Titans something to worry about...

Ambush position!