Showcase - Epic Scale Ultramarines

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With the Christmas season upon us, today's post is going to be a short one. Instead of a new project, I'd like to instead showcase my epic-scale NetEpic Space Marines army.

In case you were curious about NetEpic, or Epic 2nd edition, it's the ruleset that directly inspired Legions: Imperialis. It is very fun, albiet imbalanced and chaotic, in the way that all 90's Games Workshop rulesets were. It has some very modern concepts, like using cm as a unit instead of inches, as well as alternating activations.

The army was resin printed, not FDM (gasp!), aside from the official Titanicus Warhound kits. It was printed and painted between 2021-2022, while I was still on my path to FDM love. I will admit, epic-scale infantry do extremely well on resin and play to its strengths nicely. If you want epic-scale infantry, a friend with a resin printer isn't a bad idea.

The force organization of this army centers around an Adeptus Astartes Battle Company. These highly flexible companies brought a little bit of firepower, maneuverability and resilience. It consists of one detachment (30 models, aka 6 stands) of Tactical, Devastator and Assault marines, each with accompanying Rhino transports. Also in this edition, every company comes with a free Company Commander sprue with the ability to move double and attack with extra firepower.

I painted the force mainly with Ultramarines Blue and Blood Angels Red contrasts. Alatoic Blue was used on some raised flat panels, especially on titans, to make those regions look less blotchy from the contrast. I went for the bright red weapons of the 2nd edition days, although I chose to use 3rd edition style model sculpts for the army itself. Astrogranite technical paint was used along with Army Painter Battlefield Grass for basing. I personally feel technical paints shine for epic army basing and are fairly underwhelming for normal 40k-scale minis. This is because they tend to be flat and lack texture like a typical sand base. However, in my eyes, this is a bonus for Epic, as there wouldn't be massive grains of rock underneath all the soldiers feet.

After the initial Battle Company, I added a Terminator Company, with 12 total stands (60 models) of Terminators, with accompanying Land Raiders and commander. I paired them with some Thunderbolts, providing both strong close air support and anti-aircraft roles for the army. I wrapped it up with some Demolishers, Dreadnoughts, Predators, and Hunters (Rhinos with AA guns strapped on) as aircraft are absolutely deadly in NetEpic. Never leave home without anti-air.

Aircraft, when left unchecked, will destroy everything you know and love in NetEpic. They have extremely powerful loadouts for their points costs and they always receive the rear fire arc bonus since they're shooting from the top down. They also have defensive stats of either a Leman Russ or Land Raider, and to top it off all ground-based units must subtract range and deduct to hit when firing at them, making most of your weaponry unlikely to hit given it's starting at a 5+. They're one of those units that you can bring one or two of, but you really should show restraint when list building lest your opponent rage quit and vow to never play against you again.

I also included two Warhound scout titans, painted in the Ultramarines color. I didn't realize at the time that titans typically come in unique color variants, with their own names and lore. Well, in my universe, the ultramarines have Warhound titans, and when paired with close combat weaponry, they're absolutely busted. I made great efforts to magnetize and digitally-kitbash a Titan chainfist weapon for the Warhound for extra can-opening power.

I made sure to include some marines and a Dreadnought on the bases of the titans to convey scale. I also took a stab at some hazard stripes on the Demolishers and was attempting to paint all their shoulder pauldrons yellow before I eventually gave up. For now, this is the state of the army. In my mind, what it may lack in painting detail it makes up in overall appeal.

I feel an epic army is the ultimate display force, especially when done in rows like in Epic: Armageddon. I understand that stands of guys in a square or circle make more sense from a realism standpoint, but the lines of soldiers look the best when displayed, which is the most important thing to me. I'm also a die-hard vehicles on bases sort of guy. I find the basing really ties the vehicle to the cohesive look of the overall army. It helps when you're playing a fan-made ruleset, so you can use tiny wood ones instead of official space-consuming bases.

Below you can enjoy some fun action shots I took, showing the models in more dynamic situations.

Perhaps in future posts, I'll have some more Epic-scale terrain and an opposing army to line them up against.

And that's all, folks! Thank you for reading, I'll catch you in next week's post on Fighting Filament.