My Imperial Fists

[Brakkart]

After seeing some of the threads here I thought I'd share some pics of my army that I'm working on. This is the first Warhammer 40,000 army I've ever tried, and I decided on the Imperial Fists as I always loved playing as them from way back as a kid when many many happy hours were lost playing Space Crusade! I'll try to post the pics in the order I finished the figures, so my slight progression as a painter can be seen.

Emperor's Champion (will be one of my Chapter Master's Honour Guard squad)
http://loot.guildportal.com/GuildFiles/436975/IMAG0254.jpg

Terminator Squad (from the Black Reach box)
http://loot.guildportal.com/GuildFiles/436975/IMAG0261.jpg

1st Tactical Squad
http://loot.guildportal.com/GuildFiles/436975/IMAG0256.jpg

2nd Tactical Squad (and a lot of WiP in the background!)
http://loot.guildportal.com/GuildFiles/436975/100_1630.jpg

I've gone for the moulded Fist & squad shoulderpads from GW Mail Order as I truly hate transfers. Try as I might I have no luck with them at all (you can see how poor the ones on the Terminator shoulder pads came out). I can with a lot of patioence and luck sometimes get a passable result with them, on a flat surface, but I have nothing but grief with them on curved surfaces.

[L192837465]

You could use 1) smaller pictured that show more detail, and 2) more shading on that yellow and red. It looks very two-dimensional right now.

[Brakkart]

Some more that I've finished.

Razorback Tank (choice of Assault Cannon or Lascannon turrets)
http://loot.guildportal.com/GuildFiles/436975/100_1629.jpg

Contemptor Dreadnought (arms are magnetised to allow for future weapon swaps, when I get more arms that is)
http://loot.guildportal.com/GuildFiles/436975/100_1627.jpg

The Razorback is going to be the transport for my Chapter Master (using Pedro Kantor's model for Vladimir Pugh) and his honour guard retinue.

I'm currently working on a Predator, Whirlwind, Lysander, Chapter Master, 2 Honour Guards, 5 Scouts and 5 Assault Marines with jumppacks, ohh and a Techmarine with servo harness.

[Brakkart]

Yeah I'll get those over large photos resized ASAP, had no idea they were so big!

EDIT: There done, much better!

[DrLove42]

Nice models! Yellow is so hard to do right.

My one comment is maybe a watered down Devlan Mud/Gryphon Sepia into the crevices to add some depth and really help them pop.

And Devlan Mud on Red looks fantastic

[Brakkart]

Nice models! Yellow is so hard to do right.

My one comment is maybe a watered down Devlan Mud/Gryphon Sepia into the crevices to add some depth and really help them pop.

And Devlan Mud on Red looks fantastic

Hmm cheers. I used some Devlan Mud on the Dreadnought and the Razorback which turned out well, so I'll have a go at expanding my use of it. I'll get some Gryphonne Sepia too as heard it's great for flesh and I have some Scouts on the go that could use a bit extra.

I'm using Daemonic Yellow spray from Army Painter over a Skull White sprayed undercoat for a nice smooth yellow coat overall. I'm also using Army Painters soft tone Quickshade dip for the troops.

[MaltonNecromancer]

The yellow is quite beautiful, but it really needs shading and highlighting.

If it was me, I'd go with:

1.) basecoat yellow.
2.) Gryphonne Sepia wash over whole model.
3.) Heavily drybrush with a slightly lighter shade of yellow than the basecoat.
4.) Devlan Mud wash delicately applied with fine detail brush to cracks in armour.
5.) Lightly drybrush with lightest shade of yellow.
6.) Other colours!

I'd also recommend paying slightly more care to removing mould lines in the future. Most of these look fine, but on a couple of models they're standing out quite visibly, and drybrushing will only make them look worse.

[HarlekissofDeath]

I would water down your paints alittle too, they look thick, and also like somebody already said, make sure you clean up all the mold lines, and highlighting can make a huge difference too with the finished product.

[fuzzbuket]

WOW that very yelloW ;)

[L192837465]

Hmm cheers. I used some Devlan Mud on the Dreadnought and the Razorback which turned out well, so I'll have a go at expanding my use of it. I'll get some Gryphonne Sepia too as heard it's great for flesh and I have some Scouts on the go that could use a bit extra.

I'm using Daemonic Yellow spray from Army Painter over a Skull White sprayed undercoat for a nice smooth yellow coat overall. I'm also using Army Painters soft tone Quickshade dip for the troops.

My advice: When your yellow is on, make a black/very dark brown wash (4 parts water: either 1 part ink or 1/2 part paint) and wash the whole model after your red is on. The thin-ness of the ink will drift to exactly shade for a real lighting effect, and tone down the yellow, while at the same time making the color more believable.


Just my $.02

[grumabeth]

loving that contemptor dreadnought. i really want one but dont know what id arm it with

[Brakkart]

loving that contemptor dreadnought. i really want one but dont know what id arm it with

Yeah having bought and painted one of them now, I doubt I'll ever buy another of the regular dread's as the Contemptor is so nice to paint. The assault cannon was a swine to put together though.

[Brakkart]

The yellow is quite beautiful, but it really needs shading and highlighting.

If it was me, I'd go with:

1.) basecoat yellow.
2.) Gryphonne Sepia wash over whole model.
3.) Heavily drybrush with a slightly lighter shade of yellow than the basecoat.
4.) Devlan Mud wash delicately applied with fine detail brush to cracks in armour.
5.) Lightly drybrush with lightest shade of yellow.
6.) Other colours!

I'd also recommend paying slightly more care to removing mould lines in the future. Most of these look fine, but on a couple of models they're standing out quite visibly, and drybrushing will only make them look worse.

Thank you (and everyone that's given advice thus far) for the suggestions. I'll have a go at trying that method and see how it comes out. and yeah I hate mould lines, seems no matter how long I spend cleaning the darn things up, I somehow always miss a couple. It's infuriating!

[Brakkart]

Been a few months since I last posted anything to this thread, but finished only a few figures in that time. This is largely due to experimenting with a variety of other ways to paint them and getting less than pleasing results. I have given up on doing that now and frankly just want to have a fully painted army. I'm not going to win any awards for painting with it.

http://imaginechat.com/memberpages/Brakkart/Images/scouts.jpg

Scout Squad from the 1 of the 2 Battalion boxes I got. I ended up binning the other 5 scouts I had after testing numerous painting ideas on them.

http://imaginechat.com/memberpages/Brakkart/Images/lsstormwip.jpg

Their ride, which isn't quite finished yet. I'm going to leave the back part open without the figures cluttering it up. The pilot and co-pilot are being painted at the moment and the vehicle has a few little bits still to do on it.

http://imaginechat.com/memberpages/Brakkart/Images/pugh.jpg

Chapter Master Vladimir Pugh. I love this figure (Pedro Kantor) such a dynamic pose and I use the rules for Pedro when I field my CM. Thus far he's excelled in every game I've fielded him in.

http://imaginechat.com/memberpages/Brakkart/Images/tech.jpg

Techmarine in full Servo-Harness. My first Finecast mini and wow was this figure a nightmare. He took forever to clean up and was so fiddly to paint, even with painting him and his backpack seperate from one another.

[Brakkart]

A friend donated me a bunch of bits in order to make myself a Librarian, so I spent a bit longer painting this guy, though it is still pretty basic really.

http://imaginechat.com/memberpages/Brakkart/Images/lib1.jpg

http://imaginechat.com/memberpages/Brakkart/Images/lib2.jpg

Apologies for the picture quality in these, they were taken by my housemate with something like a 6 mb pixel camera phone (best camera I could get use of). My own camera skills are nonexistant, and try as he might this is the best he could get the darn thing to focus.

[SotonShades]

Nice work, keep it up! Yellow is the hardest colour to shade well, other than pure white. My experience with inks and washes is that they end up making a smooth, clean yellow like you've got look blotchy and rushed. Only way I've found to get by this is to start at a reasonably dark base colour (something like a dark skin tone, not black) and layer up to your nice bright yellow. A green wash and quick highlight on your reds could really make them pop though.

[lattd]

Im with SotonShades and a bit of shading would add a lot to the models, when i did yellow i used thin layers and a brown wash every two layers.