Epic Space Marines

6 mm Citadel Miniatures 0748

Epic Space Marines, 6 mm Citadel Miniatures 0748.

The Epic Space Marines box contains Space Marines and Marine Bikers, supported by Robots, and Landspeeder anti-gravity craft.

Contents

340 Miniatures in 9 Poses

  • Marine Commander (10)
  • Marine Captain (10)
  • Marine in Terminator Armour (20)
  • Marine with Heavy Weapon (20)
  • Marine with Jump Pack (40)
  • Marine in Mk.7 Armour (200)
  • Robot (10)
  • Marine Biker (20)
  • Landspeeder anti-gravity craft (10)
  • 19 × 19 mm Infantry Stand (80)

Evaluation

Excellent choice of subject, the Epic Space Marines box offers a nice variety of troop types and support weapons for Adeptus Titanicus, Space Marine Epic Battles or any other science fiction wargame for that matter. Unlike the Eldar Legion box, which contains only one infantry pose, the Space Marines are properly led and supported by Space Marine Commanders, Captains, Heavy Weapons teams, Marines with Jump Packs, Marine Bikers and Robots. Using these specialist types, command and heavy weapons stands are much easier to identify without having to use oversized banners on telephone poles at the back of a stand.

There are no painting instructions on this expansion set, since twelve Space Marine chapters have already been covered on the side of the original Space Marine Epic Battles game box. Painting the typical Space Marine chapter markings on pauldrons and knee pads of 6 mm figures can be quite a challenging task. Acrylic paint marker pens may be used to draw markings more accurately than is possible with a paintbrush.

The ¾ inch square infantry stands are slotted for five Space Marines each, which conveniently makes the round figure bases disappear flush with the ground level. Using these stands, there is very little basing work required later. Unfortunately, with five figures on the stand, the perfectly choreographed checkerboard formation looks so un-military that we have decided against it. Instead, we mount only three Space Marines on each stand, in a proper wedge (Ger. Keil) or two up (Breitkeil) formation, and fill the unused slots with terrain. This works, because individual figures do not matter in Space Marine Epic Battles. The smallest tactical unit is the infantry stand, and the actual number of figures on a stand is irrelevant to the game.

The plastic infantry stands are 1 mm thick and they have bevelled edges, making it nearly impossible to pick them up without actually taking hold of the figures on the stand. While this may work for relatively sturdy Space Marines in power armour, we‘ve decided to mount all of our epic scale miniatures on 1.5 mm cardstock or MDF bases instead.

The Landspeeder anti-gravity craft is shown skimming the battlefield, but the cast-on plastic flight base can be difficult to disguise by painting, especially when viewed from the sides. The flight stand may be cleverly disguised by painting it a light stone dust colour to suggest that the Landspeeder is just lifting off and dragging a curtain of dust off the ground with it, or it might be painted in leafy greens as if the craft was skimming over vegetation. Perhaps the quickest and easiest solution may be to cut the flight stand off, mount the Landspeeder on a short length of 0.6 mm piano wire and insert that into a plywood, plastic or cardboard base.

The Epic Space Marines plastic miniatures box offers a nice selection of Space Marines and support vehicles to supplement the troops in the original Space Marine Epic Battles game. The contents of this box may be stretched by adopting properly dispersed battlefield formations with fewer figures on each stand.

Sci-Fi Miniatures