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Done



Lots of shots, lots of silver, probably a Vampire hunter.

Congrats on your beautiful large resin son, including a very quick paint job!

A while back I did a Sicaran Battle Tank. Now it was time for a Sicaran Punisher. The hull is the same, so turret and main weapon were the only parts to be designed anew.

My CSM models follow the Chaos Gods for some time, and thought it would be time for the gods to show some appreciation for their self-sacrificing effort.
So they asked for some mutations, doesn't have to be a daemon prince, not even a Spawn, probably some tentacles and some super human strength or toughness. Hulk like oder Mutant Ninja Turtles like powers probably.

The Gods listened and gave them some mutation. I do not know how to describe this, so I show you:




I use the CSM (Chaos SMurfs) for OPR. I wanted to test a Vindicator in OPR that's why it is the tank in the room.

Oh my.

That is so cute ^^

well those are adorable.

Yep - gotta love the Smurf Marines!

As you have seen I design and print my own miniatures often strongly inspired by GW designs.

You might cry out that's heresy. And yes, I agree, my latest models are for heresy.

Wehen the new rules came out I decided to start a new army. As I had already done some MKIII Marinesses with Heresy in mind, I was ready to go when the new rules were released.

But life is never easy so I had to play some games using my old models, before I could start with the new army.

The old army were EC, but I wanted something "bright", something which I would not oversee. Finally I settled with Imperial Fists.

Bright yellow miniatures, it will not get much brighter than that.

Having done some games with the EC, I knew I would want my troopers equipped wit chain bayonets.
Having to touch the files anyway, I decided to make some other changes. When I first did them I wanted to get finished and so there were some places where armour plates collided and other such nuisances. I also made separate parts from the heads. So I would be able to make centurions the easy way and turning the head is an easy way to create the appearance of model variety.

In the meantime printing works reliably. Nonetheless a build table full of miniatures is always a welcome and pleasant sight.



Here are som Heavies, which I have redone in the meantime, because the weapons are too realistically sized. Normally I wouldn't have cared, but when doing the Javelin, I realised that the hand held version didn't even come close the vehicle mounted ones in size.

Washing stations.



First IPA, than water heated to 48.5 degrees. Which makes the resin soft enough for gentle removal of supports. 48.5 degrees that's just below scalding - for me. My wife would probably call it just right.

After having printed the first set of models, it was time to find a quick way to paint them. The color scheme I settled on.



As always the photograph looks worse than the miniature.

The ladies were annoyed about being drenched by rain and scorched by the sun and harassed by bullets and asked for some protection. If it would spare them walking that would be a boon.
No problem I did a Rhino Deimos at the beginning of the year. Of course I was in a hurry than (I'm always in a hurry) and so had some things on my list in case I would ever have to print another one.
Mainly I wanted to print all parts that would be painted in a metallic corner separately. so I could prime and paint them easier.

That's what the design look like.



Of course I messed up and didn't check the model before printing and so the first one printed had no gap between door leaves.

I painted them like the Marines. Because of the large flat areas ist looks a bit spotty. I tried to mitigate that, but it's not perfect. I also tested different techniques which shows through at one spot or another.



Anyway I call it a progress.

While I was preparing the IF, I was doing some test games with their EC brethren. My opponents favoured Terminators and Vehicles, so I felt a bit like the guy going to a gunfight with knife.
It was time to get a gun. Both Lascannons and Multimelter have their place, so I did some models with each. It's always nice and somehow satisfying to see a build plate full of miniatures.



Jump in time. A week after I had them painted I noticed that the hand held weapons were much much smaller than their vehicle mounted kin. And also much smaller than those used by GW Marines. So I redid them. Here you can see both variants side by side.



When playing IF it might be a good idea to do some models with a Heavy Bolter. I'll come back to them at a later date.

Do you know those mornings when you feel so heavy that you can't get out of bed. or those where you feel so light that you could float ?
They say that's all a trick of the mind. I say you might feel the collateral of a graviton shot.

At some point it was time to start testing some template weapon. I decided on a graviton equipped Rapier. Mainly because vehicles were just all the rage. And I must say it performed satisfactory against vehicles, but against infantry it was real bad. Combined with the lack of reactions that made me not use them again. Anyway the model is done:



Still trying to ease the pain (ting). I tried to do the track as a separate part. But it is a complete loop and I didn't want to have an opening. The sides consists of two mirrored parts which get than stuff added dependent on whether it's the one on the in- or outside. The track has fins that will be between the two part. When printing all as one piece this is no problem, because they are fused together regardless how the fit or overlap. But how to get a separate track "over the side" when the fins are in the way ?
What Bob Ross calls a "happy accident" brought the solution.

I had moved the parts of the side a bit apart to make the side wider and when doing a test print they printed as separate parts. And that was the solution. Print the "side" as two halves and glue them "inside" the track from both sides. A picture and words and ...

What could be better than coming home from a fulfilling day at work, putting on the slippers, sitting in front of an open fire and letting go of the day - peacefully.

Being on a battlefield that ideal is hard to reach, but we're working on it.
First measure is get a Javelin. Here is an image of a Javelin in it's early stages.



The weapons are magetized, but right now I only have Lascannons and Multmelters.
The Lascannons can literally light up everything and turn a Rhino, Land Raider or Dreadnought into a warm and welcoming open fire.
The Multimelter when used correctly will not only melt her heart, but everything that threatens to ruin your peace when you're going to call it a day.

And the slipper ? Do you really have to ask ? The Javelin will fill that slot nicely, slip in and relax.

Like always in that stage I only applied a simple paint scheme no frills. The base is cut from 5mm acrylic glas, but I will have to redo it. For one it ist not really round but segmented. And secondly the edges have cuts. Most likely reasons the laser was too hot or the acrylic glas came in contact with IPA; probably both.



I think I nailed the shape well, just as well as the Javelin pilot the Spartan in her first game. She came under fire from a Spartan, returned fire as a reaction (HH) and killed the Spartan by explosion.
If I should ever have ranted about the stupidity of this rule, so I want to renounce that immediately and completely - 'til it happens to me, that is.

The ladies discovered Amazon and Zalando.
They ordered and ordered until they realised that as Marines they do not get any salary and that size 34 does not stand for "size for 34mm" miniatures.
Anyway the stuff has to be sent back. Guess who spent all of Saturday morning at the post office.
While I stood in the queue I thought that it would be nice to have a cannon or a rock lobber and fire the stuff right back to the sender.
That's how I got the idea what to add next. A Whirlwind. But Heresy does not know about Whirlwinds, they call them Scorpius without a stinger but with quite a sting.
When there is one, you can bet there is an other one.



Basically there could not be an other one without one other. I think I get side tracked. Which reminds me, sides and tracks are taken from the Rhino. The hull is taken from the Predator and the turret, the turret is new.





And while they are notoriously bad at sending parcels back to senders, they are quite good at sending Marines back to the holding area. Which proved the one I used in my last game in quite an impressive manner.

The Scorpius was a mixed blessing depending on what you wanted to send where.
But having done one Rhino variant lead to starting on the next one.

I updated the sides for the Predator i.e. separate tracks, magnets for optional equipment. The hull was not changed at all and the turret is alos still the same. But with hindsight I should have modified the receptacle for the cannon. It is as tight fitting as the ball gown of the step sister in a fairy tale.



The hatches are probably hatching somewhere, so they are missing in the picture.

Imperial Fists have access to a special Predator variant equipped with Ilias-Assaultcannons.
I'm not sure they are worth the hassle and when firing as part of a reaction, the Predator might kill itself. Basically the only one worth firing at is Standard Bolter infantry anyway. Everything else will kill it when returning fire. It should be called Pretender and not Predator.
That might be a reason not to field one, but it is no reason not to make one.
I reused the Iliastus Cannon from the Castellan model which may make it look too puny.

Predators need two print runs. One for hull, tracks and hatches. Sides, turret ans weapons form the second run. Both runs contain exhausts and tubes, because I keep losing the small parts. Needles to say that I haven't lost a single one, since I print more than I need.



When printed the models look like that



On it's own the Iliastus variant looks ok. Side by side to the ordinary Predator the weapons are a bit ... puny looking.

You might be tempted to call me messy on behalf of that image.
But nothing could be more from the truth. Ok, I admit I'm a bit messy, but that image doesn't show it. The spots on that image are neither fleas nor mouse droppings nor lego bricks for ants, they are Augury Scanners.

As you can see I fell for the "real size will be ok" sham, and the parts got small, very small.

I planned to do a backpack variant including the scanners, but decided to realise them as add ons for existing models to be able to add them to spare models I already printed.



Ok, they are small, but you are not likely to break them off, because you always miss them

They are part of "wiping up the IF" stage. This consists of adding models and parts I need for WYSIWIG purposes. Not things every model has, but options like scanner and banner.

I had a nice idea for the Emperor's Children banners, but didn't have one for the IF, so I stayed with the bear. A bit boring, but they are done as clip ons, so I can switch them without hassle once I have a better idea.

Part of this is also artificer armour. Instead of doing the GW and add 100 little details, I just added a bear to the breast and some purity seals to the right shoulder. It's quickly done and simple enough to take the pain out of painting the armour.



The one to the right is the Sergeant in Servo armour.

Not 3D Printing only, but related to the project.

The miniature have to be transported. First I used a case from a DIY store, which was roomy and light weight, because it was made from plastics completely.  Even the pint inside the hinges.
I used a laser cutter to cut trays from some kind of battle foam. Two fitted side by side an 3 to 5 on top of each other depending on height.
My miniatures are all placed on small movement trays that usually hold 5 miniatures. The trays were cut so I could place the movement trays with miniatures in the openings.

 

As I said even the hinges were made from plastics and so the kept breaking. The case also looke like I bought it in a DIY store, which I had admittedly.

So I switched to a case designed to carry records, the large ones. Luckily the old tray fitted inside. Only one per layer, but that's ok.
That was fine for a while, but than my battle-foam-suplier decided to stop selling blank battle foam. So I tried to find a replacement.
Foam has some disadvantages, like you need relative large minimum wall width or it will rip (see below), it comes only in certain heights, heights above 2cm get more and more difficult to cut by laser. Laser cutting leaves some residue that is tedious to remove and it's hard to come by any documentation to find out whether the material is safe to laser cut.
 

 
So I decided to replace it with some kind of classic tray. I decided to make them half as wide as the case to have more flexibility. The tray itself is cut from acrylic glas and has magnets positioned like the magnets in the movement trays or spaced out like the tracks of a tank.
I started with aluminum profiles as distance pieces, but replaced them eventually with 3D printed U-form handles. The are screwed on to the acrylic glas tray using screws with hexagon heads. The heads are relatively long and fit into the holes of the handle of the tray below.
There are only 2 kinds of model trays and one kind of accessory tray.
I fitted magnets into the tracks of the vehicles, so the can cling to the magnets on the tray. Most trays for the infantry have only 3 magnets per movement tray or it would be hard to take the movement trays out. But there is also one which hass all magnets, for models that do not use movement trays.
The Javelins will not fit onto a tray directly, so I printed small holders fro them. The holders have magnets to be fastened to the tray. The holders are printed from TPU which is a soft plastic.
 

 
The accessory trays are meant to hold dices, templates, rulers etc., but can hold a Rhino if needs be.
The handles can be any height, because they are printed. So there is not much vertical space wasted.
Horizontally the trays are a little smaller than they could be, because I wanted the option to use them for a different case as well. 
It's advantageous to make them a little smaller, because the inside of the case is covered in some rubbery material, which makes taking out the trays difficult when they touch the insides while doing so.



The case can nearly be filled to the top. It holds 2.5 to 3k points (Horus Heresy) depending on army list.
 


Next time it will be 3D printing only again.

That's a pretty awesome case, congrats!

@Albertorius
Thank you very much.

The case had its first test run. I went to a campaign weekend 800km (in total) by car and it passed with flying colours.

Just in case that there were some injuries I added some Apothecarions.



What they can't heal with whatever is in those syringes, they will cut off with the chain blade.
They are not too concerned about hygiene.

One is basically washed with the new Nuln Oil the other one with Apothecarion White. In the photograph the white one looks better, but on the table the Nuln Oil one looks better because of the higher contrast.

I'll have to reprint them to get rid of the layer lines.

It's time to see the doctor - I have Phalangites.

They tried to shield themself, so I would not be affected - to no avail.

Like most models they are based on the MKIII model.

Just a new Pose, Poweraxe and Bolter and a Backpack with whatever weapon the model isn't holding in its hand.
All things I already have or a just clicked together from existing stuff. I decided to do the Bolter, should the model have one in its hand, will be an extra part. If this works out well, I will do it for all weapons that are mostly metal. The Poweraxe isn't.



And a shield, a large shield
The shield is an extra part, so it's body, head, Bolter (if in hand), backpack and shield. Head and shield to ease painting which would otherwise be obscured, backpack and Bolter, so I can spray paint them.



I did a new movement tray, so the bases touch. But the first rank is spaced identically to the other movement trays, so I can use the standard infantry trays in the transport case.

There is a rite of war, which allows them to re-roll their invulnerable save - if not charging or running. So they have a 4+ re-rollable and with an Apothecarion they get an 5+ FnP on top of it. You can get that to a 4+ when within (I think) 6" of an objective.
The 4+ re-rollable and 5+ FnP are just like a 2+ save, but against anything with AP they still have an 2+ except against anything that kills instantly than it's only a 3 in 4 chance to save.

But they are really expensive and their offensive value is not that great. The point is you want to be charged, because if you charge you loose your invul-re-roll. Also when being charged the unit will get WS 5. But you only have one attack and strike last. And shooting is Bolter only.
In my last game I was attacked by some Veterans and a Praetor. Lost a single wound to the Praetor and saved the million attacks of the Veterans. With 10 Attacks back, I didn't do a single wound. Only one hit on 4+ and that rolled the 1 to wound. But I rolled a double 5 for the Morale check and a 1 for the Initiative-CanYouFleeTest roll. It fitted right in with the rest of the game.

Friday afternoon, rush-hour.
Wouldn't it be nice to leave all that traffic behind and just fly over it with your jet bike. Except if it's raining, or if you have to carry a heavy load or you wouldn't want to mess up your hair style.

Anyway here is a jet bike and the last issue can be covered (or at least hidden) by the helmet.

That's what it looks on the drawing board


and on the build plate


and painted



The model was only meant for checking size and fit. The only issues were created by using auto-support. I didn't care for proper supports, because I anticipated some problems. There weren't any, and if I had invested the time to set supports carefully, I would have had a usable model, hindsight, sigh.

Slow running.
Project-wise it's going slow but model-wise it's going fast.

Do you remember "paint by numbers" ?

That's basically what I did with the model. I cut it in parts that would benefit from priming in a different colour - or because it will guide printing.

There is yellow primer for driver, rear and front main body. There is silver for weapons and the chassis. And there is white for emblem and engine assembly.



While it cost time ripping up the model, it saves a good amount of painting. It's like replacing work time (painting) with quality time (3D work).

I painted up another 4 models. Which went really, really fast because of the simple colour scheme.



I also did another tray for the case which can hold 7 scimitars and some infantry models, nobody wants to have on his tray.

I painted only 6, so there is a slot vacant. I've got some "left overs", probably I paint another one.

Let's see.

I really have enough Sicarans - as many as fingers on the average hand or is it the averag number on fingers on a hand ? Anyways none of it is yellow. So paint over or make new ?
I decided to do something old in a new way. It's old, because my version of the Sicaran is old, but I spliced it by colour groups and added Volkites as weapon option.
The hull and sides (will be yellow in future), freed from the tracks (which will be silver in future).



Last time I printed hull and sides a a single piece and that worked well. But this time with not so new anymore printer it wouldn't work no matter what I tried. So I ended up printing hull and sides separately. All's good that ends good. The hull fresh out of the IPA bath.



Everything else printed like a charm. Just like following a recipe and at the end the parts could be served.



Tanks are a bit lack luster in Horus Heresy, I like the Sicaran anyways. My ladies find it "tres chic", so I renamed it Chicran, not Chickaran which would be pc, because it is commanded by a women.

Up to painting, no surprises there. Probably one. I used a silver from the DIY store instead of Leadbelcher for priming metal parts. Because I wanted something lighter. After the act I'm not sure whether I like it better.

Otherwise same procedure as every year. Glueing, painting, glueing, varnishing and .... finished.
When I did the Scimitars I thought I found a way to reduce the spottiness, but it was just a thought.



Of course the Chicaran is 2 mm too long to fit on the tray at a a right angle. So I have to turn him and a lot of space is wasted, beacuse what is left left and right is just not enough for nothing. I wanted to use the little left over space there is to store the alternative sponsons and realise I magnetided the sponson using polarity opposite to that used with any other model.

Now I have to Chicarans in yellow, with options for Lascannons and Volkites. I'll put them to the test in the afternoon.

Time for a résumé
I started the Imperial Fist army at the beginning of August. That's what I got so far.

Since the Sicarans I added a Recon Squad plus Rhino, an other 10 Tacticals, turrets with Melta Blaster and Sponson Volkites for the Predators and some pintle-mounted Multi-Melter.

There are still a lot of models I would like to add, but most of them I would have to design from ground up.
Also I started to add some dirt to shoes, shields and tracks. It adds a bit of life and makes more difference than the effort needed to do so suggests.

I've got probably a dozen games in, and won two thirds. I've been to a campaign weekend in September and will go to an other one end of month.

So no end in sight for the IF army and no rest for the wicked.

brumbaer wrote:
I started the Imperial Fist army at the beginning of August.

I could have sworn you've been at it longer, but you've got a truly impressive turn around time from 3D sculpt to painted mini, having followed your progress throughout. Good luck on whatever you're working on next!

Nice to know that there is somebody following the thread.

In fact the IF project started in August. But most of the models are revised versions of older models, you will have seen in this thread before.

That is pretty impressive, even moreso because you're designing most/all your stuff.

WIP



Very slow going. It's not a technical problem, I only ran out of enthusiasm for the project. But it progressed too far to stop.

Her we are Q&d paint job:





It looks a bit top heavy and a bit short. I wonder whether this is the perspective or ... best to get the measure tape out.

While I waited for the Falchion to print, and it printed often, I didn't want the FDM printer to be idle.
The rule for FDM printers is "If in doubt print some terrain".
So I printed some simple L shape ruins. The can stand alone or be used in pairs. The printer ran out of filament during a print run and restarting didn't work. I kept the misprints, added a balcony and put some other Ls on top. That's how the big Ls came to pass.
I like those buildings, because they are quickly painted. 8 Ls (4 or if need b 8 buildings) in less than 3 hours and no bad conscience, because of some unpainted detail.

I've done models I can use as Castellan or Armistos. They've got autocannons or Illiastus. The other Konsul I like to use is the Master of Signals, but the othe models don't fit the role and have heavy weapons. I do have a character with sword, but the pose is lame and it is also missing equipment, so I did a new model.


A chainsword to keep it cheap, a tablet and some tactical baubles on the backpack to make it more "technical".
There is some stain on the boot, but it will be hidden later under some mud. And a coat of varnish will remove the glossy shine.

I played some 40k against better knowledge an got trounced. One of the reasons ist that I played with my 30k models, so no Primaris, hadn't looked into weapon option, stratagems, relicts etc.. In short I hadn't bee prepared. So I looked through the codex and found the Gravcannon to seem interesting.
But there is no hand held gravcannon in 30k.

Humans are lazy, it is said that the har working ones are only too lazy to hide from work. Anyway, I'm human and so I'm lazy.
I have already models for a hand-held multi melta and for a rapier mounted gravcannon.



I just resized the barrel of the gravcannon and mounted it on the multi melta. A cut here and there and a new weapon is born.



As model they look like that



Of course I printed and painted more than three. 12 in fact, because that is how many models fit on the build plate.