Epic Astra Militarum

To celebrate the recent release of Legions Imperialis, - or more precisely to spite it coming out in a scale that is incompatible with the thousands of Epic miniatures previously purchased - I decided to revamp a vast swathe of my Imperial Guard 😂

This included stripping the second hand stuff bought over the last twenty years, fixing a whole lot of broken stuff, and touching up previous paint schemes. This gets them more in line with the 40,000K Armageddon lore which has become a thing in our household now that my step-son is into 40,000K.

The result is a plethora of Cadians, Elysian Drop Troops, and Valhallans.

Cadians

First up a horde of cannon fodder in the form of three companies of foot, with another company with Chimera IFVs in the works. I think these are all from 1991's Space Marine and came based and painted. But after several days in stripping agents of varying types, I couldn't get them off the square bases, so this is how they've turned out.

Next a regiment of Lemann Russ from another early edition of Epic.

Finally some broken up Shadowswords, stripped from my previous dark green and purple, with some decals from the 40,000K vehicle decal set. I've tried rescuing the two broken weapons by making them Stormshadow-ish.

Elysian Drop Troops

Some Troublemaker Games, Mk I Valkyries and Vultures. Long story short, purchased back in the day and all but one had broken rear spurs. So in a fit of recent rage at Legions Imperialis, I got down to work with some thin brass rod and superglue... many fingers were glued in the saving of these birds. I also couldn't help but buy the giant flying brick like thing, very cool now its painted up.

The drop troops are plastics and also from earlier editions of Epic.

Really liked how these turned out.

Valhallans 

Finally, I stripped almost every tank I could find painted in my pervious dull, grey, standard 'Cadian' paint scheme and dark green and purple. I went for a more somber dark blue-grey. Also figured the plastic soldiers looked more like Valhallans than anything else, so touched up the previous dark green and purple with a lighter green and red.

The Leviathans have come out well, especially the white one - the only deviation from the dark blue-grey. With more decals from my step-son's vehicle decal sheet, they finally look more 'Epicy' if that's a thing. Which leads into the raft of self-propelled artillery and tanks that got treatment.

First up a company of metal Bombards and Basilisks from way back.

Next a company of Basilisks with not so older metals in the back row and some Forgeworld resins in the front row.

Last, all Forgeworld resins with a platoon of Manticores rear-left, some Thunderer siege cannons rear-right, and Demolisher pattern Lemann Russ front row.

There's still many companies of Epic Armageddon Lemann Russ, Chimera, Hellhounds and Griffons to go. At some point I'll treat myself to Vanguard Miniature's Industrial Waste minis, if they're still about, and use them all to form a Steel Legion.

Then my Armageddon Epic IG army will be ready to play...........

Gaslands: Track and Fury Road

Finally got the Gaslands stuff out of the storage boxes and realise its been over a year since I started some cars and got the rules. Determined to actually have a game I decided to finish off the track I'd bought and get some more cars sorted.

The track is from BattleKiwi and although is under their 28mm - 32mm Alpha City line, is the perfect size for the HotWheels cars. I bought the Road Runner bundle set and some extras, and had a bit of a panic half way through finishing it as it looked terrible. Have tried rescuing it with dry-brushing and shading.

Happy with the 'dirty' look for Gaslands but you can see how pristine a finish can be done with it following the link above. The individual plates lock in to each other and allow the track to be configured for all sorts of requirements, from race track to urban/road setting.

More Cars for the Carnage

Also bit of a sucker for stereotypes and decided to go for some Fury Road style cars.

These two were a couple bucks each and are both HotWheels, '69 Copo Camaro (left) and Mod Rod (right).

The Mod Rod came up well with the addition of North Star's Implements of Carnage and figures, and nothing really needed to be done but to disassemble, carve out room for the figures, reassemble and paint.

Has a good stance on the board and looks suitably aggressive with twin machine guns, fixed forward.

The Camaro was also an easy build with the addition of a massive supercharge intake and also twin machine guns, fixed forward. Although I filed the roof away at the back to allow the guns to seem like they'd been properly fixed.

Also a big 'thumbs up' to North Star with their NSPIoC09 - Wasteland Warriors (Drivers and Passengers) and NSPIoC10 - Wasteland Warriors, I was really able to make them look like the Warboys from Fury Road.

They've got amazing detail - which my photos don't really do justice.

Now to have a game and let the carnage commence!

AWI: Lauzun's Legion

 

I still have a thing for the legions of this period, producing a brigade of horse, foot, and gun that's complete in itself. More so when it's Lauzun's Legion with their sky blue coats and yellow facings (and grey turnbacks). So I've gone for it and produced several units for Black Powder... which might be a disproportionate amount for the rest of the American allied army...

For the uniforms there were several searches on Google and a huge call out to Baccus 6mm Miniatures, Scenery, & Rules for producing their uniform guides - much used for this and many other units in this collection.

Fusiliers

There's two standard BP units of fusiliers, Volontaires-étrangers de Lauzun and Volontaires étrangers de la Marine. Its pretty hard to tell the difference at this scale as only the collar colours differ so most have either white or yellow collars per unit.

These are made up from Italeri Set 6043 French Infantry and the detail is good for 20mm. They were from the Lot 4 commission that Spiro Dotgeek completed, the final figures of that commission, and another joint effort to finish - adding shading.

The flags are the official flag from the Lauzun's reenactment group in the states, not sure if they're historically accurate though - but they look cool.

Chasseurs

I added a small BP unit of chasseurs mostly because it used the advancing figures left once all the standard fusilier units had been assigned to regiments and painted. Also from the Italeri box and Lot 4 mentioned above - but I changed my mind when shading and the original white and red Viennois chasseurs became Lauzun's 😁

Grenadiers

Probably the single biggest stretch of the imagination when using figures of a different period and nationality, to form AWI regiments from 1/72 scale figures. These are from the Revell Set 02574 

Austrian Infantry. The detail was pretty grim from the 30-year-old casting and I'm pretty sure its the wrong bearskin-covered grenadier cap. But it seems the foreign volunteers weren't covered by the 1779 uniform ordonnance so got to wear their bearskins.

Hussars

Continuing on with the craziness, a couple of units of hussars and a command element for the brigade. These are from the SYW Revell Set 02575 Prussian Hussars and are a close approximation of the uniform (pretty close except for the mirliton decoration and chaps).

First there's the 2nd Volontaires etrangers de la Marine and I'm not sure I've painted figures with so many different colours before.

Next there's 1st Volontaires etrangers de la Marine which, I'm pretty sure, only served in what was the West Indies at the time, although different pictorial sources conflict here. So, good for the collection but perhaps not once setting foot on American soil 😀

Then there's a close approximation of Lauzun himself in Hussar uniform. The mirliton is definitely incorrect as he's depicted with a giant bearskin. But a clearly identifiable command unit for a clearly identifiable BP brigade.

And of course there was this guy. This poor horse is going down. There's no other movement it can complete to recover, its front legs won't be able to take the weight of the rider and equipment, given the force of movement, and its back legs won't get underneath it in time - I've been exactly here when I missed a jump coming off another jump and tried to correct - result - eating dirt for horse and rider (and the rider goes over the top of the horse and flies - I can actually remember the wind whistling past and thinking it was going to hurt when I hit the ground, which it did)... either that or its bucking, see 'rider goes flying' comment.

So, cut the thing off the base at the grassy stump and carve a hole in the base, then insert grassy stump and cover with glue 😂, now it looks like its kicking out 👍

But that's the French completely finished. A brigade of Duc de Lauzun and a brigade of units that could feasibly be found at Yorktown. Onwards!

2nd Punic War: Late Etruscans

First lot of Newline Design figures since everything was heartlessly put into storage nearly a year ago. Some Etruscans for the Hail Caesar ruleset and massive shift from old DMA/M basing. But these are new figures straight out of the bag.

First up some Etruscan Class III and IV Advancing based together to act as Italian Hastati or light infantry. I'd forgotten just how hard it is to get pure white shields to behave.

Next up are some Etruscan Class I and II Standing based together and re-shielded with Scutums from the Roman HaT range to act as Principes.

I've probably been too literal in my interpretation of how the Italian tribes morphed into Hastati and Principes as they were Romanized. But I figure its late in the war, somewhere between Cannae and Zama, and they've been given or taken some of the huge surplus of Roman weaponry and armor left over from previous battles. There's certainly some good detail on these Newline figures.All the shield designs were a transfer commission by a local printer that I sourced off of Google and rescaled/touched up - at this scale the individual dolphins and wreathes were a little fiddly to position correctly.

  

2nd Punic War: Carthaginian Elephants and Veteran Spear

 

I know I've caved to the wargamer's bane and completed the crown units of the army before doing the masses but I couldn't resist getting these guys converted for Hail Caesar.

War Elephants

The units have been rebased from DBA/M and a general's elephant element added.

The fighting bases are from the HaT Set 8023 War Elephants and depict the smaller African Forest Elephant with howdah. Some of them were painted nearly twenty years ago and needed quite a bit of touching up.

I also added some shield transfers I'd commissioned from a local printer and most have been based two to a base to create four HC bases.

The elephant general is from the Linear-A Set 023 Hannibal Makes a Triumphal Entry in Italy and as the name indicates, is meant to depict Hannibal riding on Surus - the last remaining elephant of that epic trip. The companions are from the same set and the HaT Set 8056 Carthaginian Command and Cavalry, shield transfers are from Big Little Men Studios Carthage Punic range.

That Surus seems to be a bigger than the other elephants supports the idea that he was an Indian/Syrian elephant - a lot larger than the smaller forest elephants. I just wish, instead of going directly backwards, Hail Caesar had similar stampede rules to the old WAB ruleset, where a scatter dice was rolled to see which direction the elephants went when they stampeded 😂  

Veteran Spear 

Another crown unit, Hannibal's veteran spear from HaT Set 8020 Hannibal's Carthaginians - African Infantry and command set from the same company mentioned above. There's also a standard bearer/officer and trumpeter from Newline Design's Carthaginian Command pack and as always, they mix in well with the HaT troops. Shield designs are also from the Little Big Men Studios Carthage range.

Again, some of these figures were painted nearly twenty years ago so have received new paint on their spears and a dose of PVA glue to stop the paint from splitting off when the spears bend. Listed as Phalanx in the army lists, these guys are four ranks deep as opposed to the normal two for HC.

With the transfers applied, they make me want to have a game of HC, better rebase and transfer some more units.

AWI: 2nd Canadian, Connecticut Light Horse, Tarleton's Dragoons

Some more AWI completed over the last few months and finally ready. Bit of a mix but getting through the backlog of units.

Congress' Own - 2nd Canadian

Quite an important unit for any Black Powder AWI collection, the regiment raised by congress itself, the 2nd Canadian. These are more from the Italeri Set 6060 American Infantry and have come out well again. Although you can probably see that the regiment has pressed itself against a low hedge.

The reason for this is that the front firing figure is leaning against a rock and I just can't bring myself to model the same rock 12 times in a regiment. So I issued my 2nd Canadian guys with a BPL Mk I (Bush, Portable, Low). Now they can take it with them wherever they go. The flags are from a Google search on the regiment flag.

Connecticut Light Horse

Some more light horse for the Americans, this time from the Revell Set 02573 Austrian Dragoons, again at this scale you can't tell the differences of equipment so using some figures from the period immediately preceding works just as well.

Tarleton's Dragoons

Finally for the moment, another unit that you just can't be without in an AWI Black Powder collection, Tarleton's Dragoons. These are more from the Strelets Set 119 British Cavalry (Egypt) and are reasonable figures for the scale. Although I used a green from the Speedpaints Starter Set and was not impressed - as any highlighting I tried to put on the green just disappeared.

I've also done a small dismounted unit of skirmishers for when the need calls. These are from Strelets

Set M071 British Light Infantry in Egypt. Same can be said for the green and for using figures immediately succeeding the period being modelled.

All in all a good run for the AWI collection.