+ inload: Salamanders and Epic bases +

+ Epic-scale adventures +

+ Work progresses on the Epic-scale Salamanders, who prove rather tricky to photograph. Above you can see the batch of infantry and vehicles I'm working on. They appear an almost emerald green, but that's an effect of the light. +

+ Having sprayed the sprue brown in preparation for an angled spray of green (to create instant shading), I was feeling very pleased with the idea of doing this on the whippy-stick rulers included in the big box:

+ While this worked well for the spraying itself, the figures fell off under the smallest pressure when I started to paint – and in hindsight, the bendy plastic should have been a clue it's not compatible with polystyrene cement. If you use this approach, I suggest using PVA or superglue. +

+ Having re-mounted the figures on the edges of the leftover sprue frame I'd used last time, I got stuck in, and worked up around two-thirds of the sprue – favouring Tactical, Devastator and Assault Marines. +

+ Painting was a process-driven affair, colour by colour. It's time-consuming but quite rewarding as each model is done so quickly. I popped on some music and the time skimmed by pleasantly. +

+ Mark VI marines have studded left shoulders where the Legion/Chapter symbol should go. On the previous batch I'd moved the Legion/Chapter symbol to the right shoulder (as in the plasma marine at the front left of the image above), but thought it was a shame that the Salamanders' flame iconography didn't appear at all. For a bit of variety, I threw in some flame icons on some of them, as you can see on the other marines above. +

+ Once dry, these were pinged off the sprue and the resulting are now lurking in a spray can lid [+Ref: imagecapture above+] for their brethren. Once all are finished, I'll start adding them to the bases, which are also worked up. The reason for this is partly practical: I glued them to the sprue intentionally breaking up stands (so it'd annoy me into polishing off the rest of the sprue), and partly because I'd prefer to have the entire formation done in one go. +

+ The other part is superstitious. Part of me is tempted to hold off gluing these on, in case we see the upcoming release of a different armour mark – if one's coming, I'd prefer mixed bases. This way, however, lies madness. Even supposing a Mark III or II (or whatever) sprue is coming, it'll be months away. +

+ While waiting for a possibly mythical variant sprue is probably not on the cards, the inclusion of the flame icons in this batch goes to show how things develop as you go. The previous batch will thus have none of these flame icons (unless I go back to repaint shoulder pads), but I've caught it in time that the finished stands can mix and match with this and future stands for a bit of variety. +

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+ And talking of bases +

+ At the top left of this image you'll see one of GW's new bases (I've added my own texture, as I didn't want cityfight bases). Immediately below that you can see another, upside-down. Both are resting on a Warlord Games 25mm base sprue, which – as you can see – are an ideal option for blank bases. +

+ These bases are ~£7 for 25, so the budget option remains 2p pieces (or equivalent local currency). However, these are identical in size, have a similar height and bevel to the GW ones, and are slightly recessed. This last part means they'll partially hide the integrated bases so common to third party 6mm figures. +

+ While I'm still grumpy with Warlord Games for dropping Gates of Antares, (an absolutely stellar game that has happily been made freely available on the Antares Nexus), these bases are a good option if you're looking for a plastic alternative to GW's offering. They're available in 25mm, 40mm and 60mm, so a decent starter range. [+noopsphericexloadlink embedded+]. +

+ I'm planning to use these for my orks and eldar, so when I get to them, I'll pop up images of these bases in use in a future inload. + 

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+ Raiders of the Lost Cupboard of Opportunity +

+ I've an irrational dislike of using Knights in Adeptus Titanicus, but they seem quite fitting for Epic: Legions, so I had a dig through my cupboard to find the sprues for the Knights that had come with the Grandmaster box set way back in – gosh – 2018. +

+ I also had a rummage through other boxes and turned up some Epic-scale bikes and a Dreadnought – which seem a bit more suited to the 40k-era theme I'm doing than the Contemptors. _

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