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hey guys -- I'm working on an Imperial Fists force. I'm getting ready to make some changes to how I'm painting them, and wanted some feedback from dakka dakka to prevent some silly decisions. C&C&Malice welcome!















and a WIP of some custom decals:

They look good, August. I like my IFs all beat up and weathered.

The weathering is awesome, haven't often seen IF done this beat up actually. Suits them well.

Only thing I see as a something to look out for is the googly eyes on the sergeant. When you look at a real face, you'll see that the eyes are shaded by the brow and never have pure white in them. Tone them down or just do the sockets as pure shadow. Your guys have such stark contrast that I think that would work best.

Nice weathering. I like my marines like they have lots of servitors tending the armor.

Marvelous simply marvelous.

I like the overall paintjob but they are perhaps excessively weathered so if it was me i would perhaps tone down the battle damage.

Awesome mate

Why are their bases all black? Are they supposed to be in space?

Those Marines are fantastic; I love the shading and battle damage. However, the blank bases are breaking my heart! Just a little drybrushed gravel would be fantastic.

Those are some of the best Imperial Fists I have ever seen. I love the weathering and battle damage. Very impressive work, keep it up and I can't wait to see more.

Why aren't they based?

Very good job dude!

The yellow is well done, and the weathering looks awesome. Good work sir.

Ooh, very nice! Personally, I wouldn't change a thing.

Could you run us through how they're painted?

These are awesome!, did you airbrush them at all? those hazard stripes are just so straight!!

If these were normal Imperial Fists I'd say the damage was a little over the top,however the custom decal say Palace Guard and if these are Seige of Terra Fists then the damage is perfect.
Hell I'd be surprised if there was any paint left at all on the armor after that battle.

I'd have to say these are some of the best marines I've seen painted.

May I make two observations?

Imho, toning down the battle damage just a hair would make these little guys far more 'realistic' looking. Right now, they look a little busy to my eye.

and, speaking of eyes, your marines look like they have Thyroid issues (well, they're marines so they probably do...lol). I personally don't use white for eyes, but rather keep them the color of the base flesh. It's very difficult to see the 'whites of their eyes' from any distance. Orbs that large really take away from your otherwise beautiful paint job.

Ok, I feel bad even typing this, but you did ask for CC.

Looking great! I'm an Imperial Fists fanatic and these are some of the best I've seen.

I really like the battle damage/wear and tear, I think that marines should never really be pristine unless they are between campaigns.

I'd like to see more.

Awesome! Best weathering I've seen in a long time. I'd like to know how you painted the yellow armor, it looks perfect.

amazing.. i hope you don't paint months on these mini so you can make an entire army of this quality.. that would be so AWESOME !!!!

They look fantastic and I have to diagree with others, I think the amount of weathering is great. They really look like they've been through a tough campaign with little rest up time!

Amazing how did you do the scratches on the armour?

if I had to nit pick i'd say the battle damage is a little ott for my personal taste. But i'm far from an expert. They are painted superb and I am looking forward to more. A dread painted like that would be awesome!

Great work, keep it coming!

P.s what basing scheme you planning on? An urban theme would look great but prehaps a tad obvious. Maybe some sort of alien plant life?

thanks for the replies. To address a few comments...

happygolucky wrote: Amazing how did you do the scratches on the armour?

I applied Scorched Brown with a sponge, cleaned up the results where necessary, and added some scratches and other shapes with a detail brush. Then highlight the chips and scratches with my extreme highlight color, in this case a mix of Sunburst Yellow and Skull White.

The other weathering is just waterred down Bestial Brown applied to areas where mud would build up or drip.

FifthChaosGod wrote: Awesome! Best weathering I've seen in a long time. I'd like to know how you painted the yellow armor, it looks perfect.

Thanks, man. The recipe was very, very simple: prime white, airbrush on 3-4 light layers of golden yellow, apply Scorched Brown in the recesses, highlight Sunburst Yellow followed by an extreme highlight of Sunburst Yellow and Skull White. The trick is really the airbrushing of the base coat -- a very, very fast way to achieve consistent, smooth yellow.

Njal the Weatherman wrote:These are awesome!, did you airbrush them at all? those hazard stripes are just so straight!!

The "hazard stripes" on the Bolter (eep! comes off to Iron-Warriory when you put it that way) was applied with a brush, masking tape for airbrushing such a small line on a bolter struck me as a bit too much of a bother

Emperor's_Champion wrote:if I had to nit pick i'd say the battle damage is a little ott for my personal taste. But i'm far from an expert. They are painted superb and I am looking forward to more. A dread painted like that would be awesome!

Great work, keep it coming!

P.s what basing scheme you planning on? An urban theme would look great but prehaps a tad obvious. Maybe some sort of alien plant life?

As far as the OTT battle-damage (a lot of you guys seem to have this impression), three things:

(1) aesthetically, the effect appears much more subdued on the table-top, i.e. less "busy," the large size of the pictures exaggerates the result just a bit;

(2) Also from an aesthetic point of view, the chipping and highlights really helps to simulate the impression of depth and break up otherwise uninteresting patches of solid Golden Yellow, this effect really comes accross on the table-top, but admittedly is exaggerated a little to give preference to a more distant point of view where more is required to really come accross strongly than would otherwise be needed on a close-up inspection.

(3) The battle-damage is intended to help render how hard-fighting and "stubborn" the Imperial Fists are, so I think it makes a fluffy aesthetic contribution in this regard -- and as I post more pics, you'll see that really capturing the fluff is an obsessive concern of this project Also, one of you pointed out the damage seems to be a reference to the defense of the Imperial Palace -- this is intentional, the excessive battle-damage is supposed to bring to mind events like the Iron Cage, defense of Terra, etc. I would also add that I think battle-damage is generally underdone in how the 40k universe is depicted on the table-top, especially with space marines. Given that each Space Marine would almost certainly weigh well over 1,000lbs with armor, is about 8 feet tall, is deployed in extremely heavy non-stop fighting, is constantly hitting things, etc., I wager that after even a week or so on a combat deployment would damage the paintjob on a suit of armor fairly extensively.

Basing: I'm currently planning to use Secret Weapon Miniatures mud and trench set, along with some barbed wire to create a muddy trenchworks situation. This will not only be fluffy, but, I think, help to make the battle-damage make more sense and "flow" better -- a rough, hard-fighting environment will imply gritty combat conditions which, when combined with the battle damage, I hope will give a sense of narrative. Also, this will tie the brown streaking weathering in nicely, I hope.

I wouldn't change a thing, they look awesome. I really like the weathered look you've achieved on them. Also can't wait to see them based.