My first pass on Epic Warpath

[Kelly]

Since I will not be getting my physical pledge until the end of the month, I thought I would post my progress and comments as I work through the Vault STL rewards…

**NAMELESS**

First off, the Nameless pack includes a large group of stls, and the file sizes are giant, even when compressed due to their complex organic shapes. I was not planning on printing many Nameless models, probably just one or two for use as objectives or scenery, but after opening up several of the files I will definitely be waiting for some pictures from Mantic, as I cannot tell how these are meant to be assembled, and almost all are new sculpts with no larger examples from the existing Deadzone or Firefight ranges.

No rating on this set yet.

**MARAUDERS – Part 1**

Next up are the Marauders, the reason why my physical pledge has been held up, but from what I have printed so far, the plastics should definitely be worth the wait…

The Skyscrapers only come in 2 poses, but are very characterful models and there were no substantial issues in printing them. The presupported versions were overly optimistic and these failed printing until I went back into the file and doubled the amount of supports. After that, they were fine, 4 out of 5 stars, the only mark against them being their limited poses and no real way to easily convert them.

The Ripper Warlord is only a single pose, but looks more imposing and solid than the larger Deadzone version given his hunched stance. Again he needed additional supports from the provided presupport file, but this one definitely gets 5 out of 5 stars. I am looking forward to seeing how he compares to the plastic core Rippers.

[Kelly]

**MARAUDERS – Part 2**

There are two versions of Goblin weapon teams available as stl rewards, and the HEW version is my favorite, with good definition on the cabling, and the glare goggles are a good touch for the gunners, all of the details are perfect for printing…

The Goblin spotters are a different story however, this is only Goblin spotter 2, as the file for Goblin spotter 1 has some issue that I cannot determine but its file size is 10 times larger than any of the other Marauder infantry and I have been unable to successfully print it so far. Given that, the weapons teams group of models is only getting 3 out of 5 stars.

The Rippermech on the other hand is a definite 5 star model…

This design has two socketed arms with one ending in an energy weapon and the other with a larger version of the ripper saw, as well as two small auxiliary guns. The careful observer will note that this model has both energy weapon arms, which was an easy x-axis flip within the slicer to get the left arm to match the right to have a ranged version, and on the next set of these I will be mirroring the legs to get a different stance. I left off the two small upper guns on this one, but will be including them on the melee version with both saw arms. The ease of mirroring the model components is the main reason this one gets a perfect score.

@mattl

Good looking photos!

Thank you Mattl, this is one few times my painting looks better in person, I have definitely hit the limit on my current camera’s zoom abilities.

[Kelly]

**GCPS – Part 1**
The GCPS stls include two infantry groups that I expect will be the most printed out of all of the options from the reinforcements… but again with the same story of requiring a healthy amount of resupporting as these models all have the ankle strength of the average octogenarian and needed some help with superglue as support.

The Tank Hunters come in 4 poses with each carrying at least one demolition charge, but those varied poses made their printing very difficult. Tank Hunter 1 also has a significant model issue with his charge barely attached to his throwing hand, which requires careful rebuilding of that connection point. Despite their visual appeal, these will be getting 3 out of 5 stars due to their technical issues.

The Veterans also have 4 poses, and weak ankles, but were significantly easier to print with half the failure rate of the Tank Hunters so far. The main issue is the level of detail, as there are plate markings on the elbow and knee pads that are barely visible off the printers, and totally obscured after priming. I would rather have seen a simpler design on them, but the Veterans are getting 4 of 5 stars, and I will probably be mixing one or two into the plastic GCPS core infantry once they arrive.

[Kelly]

**GCPS – Part 2**
The GCPS reinforcement stls also include a Strider that is 25mm tall and with ball and socket joints for the arms, is very poseable. The shield is very well detailed but the lance arm is very long, so long in fact, that I had to cut off the last 4mm of the end to allow a more vertical pose that would not hit the base. Finally, the torso and legs piece include nothing that is not reversible, so mirroring that piece in the slicer allows the stance to be changed up… overall this gets 4 out of 5 stars.

The next test stl was a GCPS major, a great pose even despite the tactical rock included. The fabric of the great coat was very well modeled to enable more shading than the zoom of my camera allows to be pictured, and the sleeves are outsized enough that an enterprising converter has enough room to pin replacement weapons. Absolutely zero issues with this print compared to the other infantry, 5 out of 5 stars.

**Intermission**
I have only been spending about a quarter of my hobby time on printing out test stls of Epic Warpath so far, because I have been concerned about the scaling of the stls to the actual plastics, and with the arrival of my pledge today, it looks like those concerns were totally unfounded. All of the plastics are right in line with the prints with GCPS humans all 12mm tall, and the Marauders between 17 – 18mm tall allowing for their basing. The only real difference I see so far is that the core plastics have slightly thinner legs, but the plastic is very good quality so there should be no issues with breakage, not at all like the resin prints.

[Kelly]

**Veermyn – Part 1**
The Veermyn is part of the Vault stls I will not be getting very much use out of, since I will be focusing mainly on their plastics, but the Brood Guard are very striking models. Their hunched posture is not the easiest to paint, but they are imposing compared to regular line GCPS humans, and even Marauders, so much so that I have not decided if I will be splitting up their bases for singles only. Just 2 poses, but they get 4 out of 5 stars.

The Creepers are regular sized Veermyn infantry, and come in 4 different poses, however, the constant refrain of support issues came up again with these… only 1 stand is shown because I had a 50% failure rate of printing / cleaning breaks even after reworking the entirety of these stl supports. They have a good silhouette and are very distinguishable from the plastic Veermyn, but the nature of their poses and hunched stance really leads to their support issues being intractable. Given that, these get 2 out of 5 stars, and I am not sure if I will be working through a full unit of these.

[Kelly]

**MARAUDERS – Part 3**
As impressive as the stls are from Epic Warpath, the plastics are even more so… several sprues of Marauder hard plastic later, and there is no doubt that each of the commando troops are excellent.

The regular rifle armed Marauder commandoes come in 4 basic poses* with two basic head variants, and 3 different arm positions. The detailing on the rifles are good, and the armor plates are different, but not so varied that they could not fit together as a coherent salvage scheme. The only change I would make on the models, and have made, is cutting out a small notch to differentiate the back of the skull from the raised collar… 4 out of 5 stars.

Two heavy weapon options are also available for basic Marauder troops choices, and the HMG is the clear front runner. The detailing on the belted ammunition is perfectly cast, and shows up great when painted. I did need to cut the upper head / collar on these as well, but otherwise faultless, 5 out of 5 stars.

Missile launchers are the other heavy option for troops. The scaling of the missiles does match exactly the Goblin teams, but their poses are limited. 3 out of 5 stars.

* more on that in the next post

[Kelly]

**MARAUDERS – Part 4**
The other infantry options from the plastic sprues are just as highly detailed as the regular rifle armed commando troops, but the poses on the Marauder Brawlers are limited by their positions in the mold and their identical arms. In order to break up those silhouettes, I used a space heater* to soften the arms 30 seconds at a time and then twist them slightly to a new position… each of these is the same Brawler with the unpainted one as a contrast straight off of the frame.

I think these turned out well, and their initial two dimensional poses have been broken up pretty nicely, and twisting the arms horizontally should make it easier to attach to the base.

The two power armored options for the Marauders are the Rippers, and given the nature of their weapons, reposing was a different challenge. The Ripper Maulers are the close combat specialists, and I was afraid of losing the detail on their circular saws so hot air was out. Despite how soft the plastic is, it still took several minutes of boiling water dips, again 30 seconds at a time, to get 20 to 30 degrees of turn on their arms. Again, the two unpainted Ripper Maulers are unposed as a control.

The Ripper Rainmakers also needed boiling water baths, and since their barrels are large enough to be bored out, I would highly recommend doing that before reposing. These were the most difficult so far as they have shoulder mounted guns that need to remain pointed forward regardless of where their arms end up.

Overall, the Rainmakers were my favorite results from these reposing tests even though they had the smallest final change in position, but that was due mainly to the intrinsic design of those sculpts. All in all, I think these parts of the plastic sprue are a solid 4 of out 5 stars from the box, leaning towards 4.5 with some heatwork.

*Now with the Marauders being so small, I could not use a heat gun on them as the temperature rose too quickly, and even with the slower nature of the space heater, I still had to wrap everything but the target arm of the Brawler with multiple layers of paper towels as insulation to keep the rest of the model from melting. And still I would highly recommend anyone following that method to start with their least favorite models, or even the narrowest parts of the sprue, as practice.

[screamingaddabs]

Your painting is really good! I’m working through marauders myself and it’s difficult for me to get the right balance of detail painted and time taken

[Kelly]

@screamingaddabs

…it’s difficult for me to get the right balance of detail painted and time taken

Wait a minute, are we supposed to be paying attention to the time taken? AAHH, I’ve been doing it all wrong!

Seriously though, I think each of the Epic armies all need different approaches to painting. The Marauders I am only filling in block colors on their armor plates and jackets, but am doing highlights on their skin… it does not show up that well in the photos so far, but in person the light green skin color does give the models depth.

I have been doing the opposite on GCPS, just blocking their skin and uniform, and blended highlights only on their shoulder pads, and Strider plates. Again, they are not showing up that well on the photos except for the Striders, but they are a lot better in person.

They all have a lot a detail, and the best advice I can give is to pick a simple, bright palette, and as you keep going with small models, you will speed up. I’ve gotten a lot faster the more that I’ve painted, and especially since I went through almost two thousand Epic Battles 12mm miniatures from Warlord last year.

[screamingaddabs]

My first lot I’m happy with but they do take a while. Not quite finished the first sprue yet!