I’m still in my Epic army update mode. The next army on the list is the Tyranids. For those of you that saw my earlier review of the new 40K Apocalypse rules from GW, know that I am now updating my models that have not seen the light of day in twenty plus years. So, next up are the hordes of Tyranid vehicles (infantry to follow).
All the models are a mix of first and second edition Epic models. I really love the last edition models for all the armies. I would be very happy if GW brought these back again, but that is probably unlikely… Fortunately for me, I already had a few armies started and bought a lot back in the day when they were on clearance, so will be in good shape in any case.
This army did not have the unit upgrades like the older Eldar, so basing was quite straight forward and I do not see any need to make changes. There are a few models that are fielded in units, but are too big to base as units, so I will leave them as singles. Some of the old vehicles do not have equivalent entries in 40k Apocalypse, so I need to figure out what I want to do in that regard. More than likely, they will just represent similar vehicles that have different weapon options allowed on the data cards.
As this batch is just the vehicles, I did not mount the models on bases. However, I see that a couple need something to stand up properly. I also need to make new flight stands for the flyers. Probably something magnetized (not an option in the 90’s). I’ll come back when I have a solution that I am happy with for all the flyers. I also have a couple of old raised GW bases. The Dominatrix and the Hive Tyrants. The Dominatrix has no rules, so I will need to decide on the use before I decide on the re-basing. The Tyrants are only temporary models. I have the newer version two models that are much smaller and will use them once they are painted. The Tyrants will then be re-based an moved to my T9A Daemon army and re-based for that. In the meantime, the will do for Apocalypse! I will most likely go with the white metal bases for the others, to still with the overall look and feel.
I went through the old models and fixed various model chips, added different GW washers to tone down or brighten various models to tie things together more and better bring out the detail. I then hit the entire group with a satin finish to give it more of a bug like effect. I have another batch of unpainted models that will follow similar schemes that I will get to at some point!
The current army has options from almost all the vehicle types that were once offered in the game (you can find most still on Ebay). When I painted these originally, the GW inspired point jobs had different schemes for the different troops. Now, GW has gone more with the universal scheme for their armies. For me, the tan chitten armor will be the primary tie in (we works wit what we gots). I think it works and helps identify small pieces on the table too!
- Manteuffel