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My first attempt at painting some Imperial Fists, I really like how they turned out. C&C appreciated. I don't know how to do the transfer sheets, so that's why there's no logo on their shoulder pads.

So vibrant man, love it.

Wanna let me in on how you got the guns looking so clean?

Easy man, Mithril Silver and Nuln Oil wash! I don't know what the new name for Mithril Silver is.

yeah I was going to ask the same thing about the bolters… the whole squad is great!

They look very clean, nice job.

Thanks guys!

These turned really awesome, good job - yellow is such a pain in the dick to paint, but you nailed it !

Yellow looks great, well done, it's a tough one to get right. The scheme against ash waste bases reminds me of the original epic 40k scheme. I think drilling out your bolter barrels or at least painting a black dot on would be worthwhile

Dorn would be proud, great job.

I do plan on drilling out the barrels at some point, and thanks! The yellow was actually pretty easy. The new citadel yellow wash over white primer gave me the base, then I used white for the highlights and the new citadel yellow glaze. Sorry I forget the specific names for the paints, but it's a really easy and quick 3 steps to get awesome looking yellow.

They look really nice, you got a spot of red on the left power pack 'bulb' on the marine with his bolter pointed a little downward.

Oh wow I do, thanks for pointing that out. I never would have seen that.

Nice work! I am looking at using Imperial Fists as allies for my IG so this has given me motivation to start working on getting the paints for them. I believe the red shoulder guards are 3rd company? I think Im looking at going 5th co. and going with black shoulder guards.

Also to get a little more variety of color if you want and Ive seen it look good is the guys with the circle knee pads, you paint one of them red and it will give a little more that pops out on the marine. Just a helpful tip!

These are great, I play IF myself they look really bice when put on a table top.

Very nice

I think my favorite part of the models is the amount of love that obviously went into painting them.

You've got to be mighty patient to get everything that neat!

Yellow is so hard to paint. Mad props to you bro. Go smite some foes with that goodness.

As everyone else has said, these look excellent. I especially like the dynamic poses on the knife guy and reloading guy. Helps bring them to life.

You did a good job with the yellow too. It's just bright and golden enough without being overwhelming.

One suggestion though would be to either use a nuln oil wash or do some very small drybrush/highlighting on the chest eagles, as they are the only areas that seem 'flat' to me. That may just be the pics though.

Keep it up

- VardenV2

 VardenV2 wrote:
As everyone else has said, these look excellent. I especially like the dynamic poses on the knife guy and reloading guy. Helps bring them to life.

You did a good job with the yellow too. It's just bright and golden enough without being overwhelming.

One suggestion though would be to either use a nuln oil wash or do some very small drybrush/highlighting on the chest eagles, as they are the only areas that seem 'flat' to me. That may just be the pics though.

Keep it up

- VardenV2

I actually think that they look really flat as well. I might try the nuln oil wash over the red. I was also thinking about maybe trying orange or the red drybrush or something. What do you think would look better?

And thanks for all of the compliments.

I personally would edge highlight with blood red + Blazing orange or just blood red (not sure what red the chest eagle is). If it is a lighter shade than straight blood red that would be a more subtle highlight.

For my guys I tend to just use a darker basecoat and then individually go over the tips of the wings with the actual color. It takes some patience and a steady hand but looks very clean.

Example, from my deathwing. Zoom in to look at the chest. See how the wing bits are colored on the edges but left darker towards the shadowed area created by the wing above it? It's harder on a tactical marine, but still doable. I personally think it looks the best, and the most striking, but it may be a little too arduous for a normal tactical squad.


If you want to drybrush instead, I'd suggest just going in one direction. For example, start at the top of the Eagle and just go down over and over, lifting the brush each time. It will give it a more highlighted look and not color the whole chest.

Lastly, and easiest, is to just get a fine brush and give em the ol' nuln oil or gryphon sepia wash. Just be careful not to get it anywhere other than the eagle, as it's going to be extra obvious against yellow. Sepia might make a nicer effect but not sure if it will be dark enough.

Hope that helps and keep up the good work!

- VardenV2

Awesome! I collected Imperial Fists back in the day, and yours have the exact look I was going for with mine. I liked the yellow to be very warm and golden, in fact, in the old colour range, it was Golden Yellow I'd use.

I really don't like many people's interpretation of the Imperial Fists. I've seen a few that use a yellow that doesn't look right to me, and I don't like the weathered look people give, it doesn't look right on yellow, but these are great!

Those are lovely, great crisp work. Do you have any plans to expand the army? To those asking, I *think* the new mithril silver is runefang steel.

When I saw this thread on the forum I thought to myself "oh man this is gonna be more washed, dark-yellow Imperial Fists." I was wrong, but in a good way. Impressive first. If I were to pick a flaw, I'd say you were a little too impatient with the white blending on the pauldrons. I'm not even sure they need it. Anyways, you could always pry them off and replace them with those fancy embossed Imperial Fist iconograhy shoulderpads that Games Workshop sells.

 Quarterdime wrote:
When I saw this thread on the forum I thought to myself "oh man this is gonna be more washed, dark-yellow Imperial Fists." I was wrong, but in a good way. Impressive first. If I were to pick a flaw, I'd say you were a little too impatient with the white blending on the pauldrons. I'm not even sure they need it. Anyways, you could always pry them off and replace them with those fancy embossed Imperial Fist iconograhy shoulderpads that Games Workshop sells.

I've actually given that some thought, unfortunately I used plastic glue on them and it fuses the parts together, so I won't be able to pop off the shoulders. I've also given some thought to free-handing the fist icon, however I am absolutely awful at that so I will probably just go with the transfer sheets.

And for those of you asking, I already have about 1300 points of Imperial Fists put together, and am currently working of my Sternguard (6 of them anyway) I hope to have them done by Friday and will hopefully put up some pictures this weekend, no promises though as I used my girlfriends camera for these pictures and I'm not sure when I'll get to borrow it again. Thanks for the compliments though, you guys are definitely keeping me motivated to keep painting my army!

They look great, man! For the red, get some dark brown wash (whatever the new devlan mud is) and paint it into the crevice between the pad and the trim. It'll shade the red better than black and won't be nearly as stark next to the yellow. It'll also help hide any uneven lines, really cleans up the pads.

Decals are easy, just get some paint on gloss varnish and some micro-sol (or other decal setting solution). Paint the shoulder pads gloss, let it dry, dip the decal in water and wait 20 seconds or so while the water soaks through the paper. When it's loose, brush a bit of micro-sol onto the area and slide the decal off the paper and into place, then brush a little more micro sol on top.

If you're impatient you can use a q-tip to soak up the excess solution, rolling it across the decal from center to edge to push out the liquid and lock it in place. A better result is to let it air dry for the next 20 minutes. You will notice it crinkle up but that's natural, it will level out again as it dries. Either way, brush on some more gloss varnish then some matte or satin varnish to kill the shine.

The micro-sol will help the decal form around the curved pad and even into the panel lines, and the gloss varnish gives a smooth surface for the decal to adhere to which both completely hides the clear decal film and it prevents the decal from frosting or silvering, which will happen if you try and put it directly on the paint.