First Painting Challenge Entry - Epic 30k Imperial Fists

Epic 30k Marines from the Imperial Fists, the VII Legion

Curt's Sixth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is underway - the entries are already coming in at a pretty incredible pace.  As in past years, I will be posting my entries over to our home blog here - and I hope Byron and Kevin do the same. My first painting challenge entry is Epic, in a way - in literal content, not in points - a detachment of Epic 30k Space Marines, clad in the yellow colours of the VIIth Legion, the "Imperial Fists".  

Painting yellow is a major pain in the @ss, but I sort of managed to figure out an approach that turned out well for 6mm sized painting, and these little fellows painted up pretty fast. 

Land Raiders, the go-to, all-purpose tanks of the Space Marines

In my 28mm-sized 30k painting I've been painting bad guys - the Sons of Horus, the World Eaters - so this is the first time I've turned my brush to the loyalist side. I find the backgrounds of the traitor legions to be pretty neat for the most part (even if all of the Primarchs seemed to have similarly dreary upbringings).  On the loyalist side, the pickings tend to be slimmer, but the Imperial Fists are pretty cool. You get toughness, steadfast loyalty and grim, martial determination, without the MBA-style, stuck-up nerdiness of a group such as the Ultramarines.

Tactical marines near their trusty Rhino APCs - each APC can carry 10 marines, or two stands of infantry

While today geeks like me explore the Horus Heresy setting by playing with the 28mm figures from Forge World, it was, in fact, the 6mm-sized games "Adeptus Titanicus" and "Space Marine" which truly ignited interest, and gaming, in this "period".  I fondly recall guys like Kevin H and Dave V running games of Space Marine at the long-lost local gaming store here in Winnipeg known as "Hit Points". 

Another view of the tactical troops

The Epic game and its many variations are some of the top games GW ever produced, and I still love them.  I dust off the old figures for a game from time to time with the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts - we usually get about one, sometimes two, games in per year.  Most of my collection, however, is Imperial Guard, Orks and Eldar - and I have done, comparatively, very little Horus Heresy gaming in Epic.

Steadfast loyalty to the Emperor...

Last year David Larkins' excellent Epic-themed entries in Curt's Painting Challenge really inspired me to get back into Epic.  While I didn't manage it during the last Challenge, I kept a wary eye on Ebay over the past year and lined up a few scores to be ready for this year.  Two in particular have me really fired up for some Epic-30k painting during this Challenge.

Sicaran tanks - the one in front seems a bit, shall we say, "insecure"...it's meant to be a major anti-tank weapon...right...

This year I wanted to get a first entry which would touch on a couple of my side duels (Sci Fi and 30k), and ride the Epic nostalgia wave.  This submission includes two 20-man tactical squads, four rhino APCs, three Land Raiders, two Sicaran tanks, and one Sicaran Venator (the, ahem, "insecure" vehicle, if you follow my meaning).  The figures and models are a mix of Ebay scores as well as some non-commercially available models.

Another view of the Land Raiders - in addition to being really tough tanks, they also carry troops!

These days Epic sits, as Curt eloquently described at one point, 'moldering in GW's IP graveyard'.  Word has it the corp-tards running GW these days intend to bring the game back. I'll believe it when I see it...

40 infantry and 10 vehicles is a pretty small force for a game of Epic, but enough to get started, and decent starter entry to the Challenge.  Throughout the Challenge I will be adding more Epic stuff, (good and bad guys), and I hope to have a nice little throw-down for the Fawcett lads some time in the New Year. 

This batch netted me 40 points - a decent start, but 960 points still to go...