Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi there,
this is my first post. I have been painting random minis for years, but never had the patience to finish an actual army. This time I think I can do it.
I came up with this super easy Imperial Fists scheme.

This is what I did:

- Some passes with AP Daemonic Yellow spray. This gives a surprisingly good base for the Averland Sunset.
- Complete the base, except for the last drybrush step
- Basecoat entire model with GW Averland Sunset
- Basecoat other colors
- Dip in AP Strong Tone (watch the process of drying in the first minutes, remove pools)
- AP Matt Varnish spray
- Finish the base with dry brushing (we do this last, because the dipping darkens the base a lot)

I hope you like it a bit, and have some ideas or critics.

I have to say, having used Army Painter dips a lot, especially Strong Tone, these guys have turned out excellently. I know that you've stated that you waited a bit to remove any unwanted pooling, but it's certainly worked out very well. I wouldn't have guessed that you'd dipped them without a second glance. All-in-all, fantastic work!

How long did it take you to paint them up? I'm especially interested about your choosing of the yellow spray, and then proceeding to basecoat them with Averland Sunset. This is no criticism, but I would have thought that it would have been better to use the Daemonic Yellow as is, or perhaps a lighter shade of yellow? (I'm currently using Averland Sunset myself, and I would venture that it is naturally ochre in hue - yellow, but quite dark.) I say this because I've used Army Painter's Daemonic Yellow spray before, and have found its coverage to be challenging - certainly more efficient than alternate methods, but a few coats were required. Did you experience any difficulty yourself? I'd just imagine that a plain old white undercoat would suffice.

Again, really great stuff. Nice to see a fellow "dipper" here on Dakka. I see absolutely no problem in putting these renditions of Rogal's finest on the table - well done!

----------

If you want some ideas to use with Army Painter's Quickshades, try out their Soft Tone. If you want to keep your creams, yellows, whites, etc. clean, it's very useful. Paint and highlight your blacks, metals, etc. as you normally would. Skin can be painted cream/bone in colour then washed with your favourite flesh wash. When you're all done, use the Soft Tone to tie everything together - works like magic!

Edit: its, not it's.

Thank you for your reply and your interest.

I didn't keep time while painting, but I have some other squads to paint so I can do it next time.

The thing with the AP Demonic Yellow spray just "happened". I tried out many things, and found this to work for me.
I painted for example a vehicle, which I primed AP White and then applied Averland Sunset. It took 4 to 5 coats, so I didn't consider that to be an option for company scale armies.
Then I tried to prime AP Daemonic Yellow, and as you said it's very challenging to get a solid coat. On the grey plastic it rather looks like lime green. So I stopped considering using this color at all (maybe that was a rushed decision).
Having these lime yellow marines (just a few passes, let the grey shine through rather than trying to get a solid coat) I went straight for the Averland Sunset. And it came on very solid in the first coat. That surprised me a lot.

I agree that the result, especially after dipping, is not really yellow, it's more like ochre and you won't find a GW publication with such an Imperial Fists schema. But once I saw a squad completely painted, it made sense to me. Especially in the heresy fluff, it looks a little bit archaic, dirty and torn.
And the main reasons is that it's really quick and very forgiving. I am not afraid of painting any formation now, and thats the first time I have this confidence.

If I could start all over again, I would give Daemonic Yellow a chance as a basecoat, maybe followed by AP Soft Tone, but now I stick to my schema.

I never bought Soft Tone, but I will try it for sure.

Nice pee yellow tint. They do look good though.

Very interesting, thank you for the response! Yes, I totally agree about the appearance that it gives them. I can also relate to how you described using the yellow spray. I'm wondering whether a white undercoat might work better prior to using the Daemonic Yellow. Hmmm...

I completely agree about the confidence that it gives to painting lots of stuff. Although spending time on a lavish paint job is nice, in the time that it takes to paint a single squad this way, one could have painted an entire army. Not only this, but it's nice to dabble in and out of painting, and make reasonable progress whilst doing so.

In regards to the Quickshade, although it probably would be faster to slap on an acrylic wash all over, nothing comes close to the level of shading that using a dip provides to the amount of effort input.

Yes, I'm quite the fan

Anyhow, keep up the awesome work, Dr.Stewart! Will be nice to see more of the Marines when you get them done

As a fellow dipper, well done! After dipping some marines I was toying around with I thought "man you could do any of the basic chapters extremely easy with this...".

Nicely done.

Very Clean looking work, I prefer the wear and tear 30k armies, but these are definitely painted neatly and look great. I hope to see some forgeworld goodies in there soon, maybe some IF specific Squads. Good job!

It's looks great, if a tad brown. I think drilling out the barrels would really improve the army even further. Great work!

I think your paint work is good, solid look overall, however I have to point out a few things (as I always do)

Overall I think you need to take a look at how Fists were marked during the heresy, definitely not enough black in here but there are also some inconsistencies with marking (this was a little different for fists because of how they were constantly split apart, so squads were marked by their commander's order rather than by Dorn's) Some of their heraldry stuff is spread across a couple of the books but I think it could be a benefit to read up on it.

Marking Example : I do not know if it was different for Fists, but the laurel and skull for pre heresy Ultramarines was a mark of Command, so unless that squad is a command squad, they would not all have the skull and laurel.

I personally think the yellow is a little too pale, but that is preference.