Imperial Fists army with tactics

Hello all!

Since i'm a slow painter and there are times at work in which i can do other stuff I wanted to add some thougths about tactics on different games that i play like Warhammer 40k, Age of sigmar and Gorkamorka.

This post though, is about the Imperial Fists army for 40k that i'm collecting.

So far I have about 60% of the actual armylist but most of what i'm missing is on the mail, so i already have thought the army composition and i wanted to share it with you all.

I am going with a Batallion detachment as i've seen that the stratagems make this army more effective than what it appears to be at first.

HQ:

I have 3 miniatures as hq's but they occupy only 2 slots.

My captain with Relic Blade and a master crafted boltgun that sometimes sees play as The Primarch's Wrath. I quite like that loadout as he is there to give the units near to him buffs like re-rolls to hit and the Storm of fire warlord trait.

The there are the two Lieutenants.

One has a Master crafted Boltgun and a chainsword to keep the theme of bolter and chainsord in the army and to give re-rolls to wound to the units near to him.

The other has a plasma pistol and a power sword. He is a more close combat character because I want to use him as a means to countercharge some theats and still making him have some punch in close range shooting via his plasma pistol.

TROOPS:

I run 4 10-man scout squads with different loadouts. 3 of them have all camo cloaks, bolters, a heavy bolter and a sergeant with bolter and chainsword and they are the ones that are supposed to hold the objectives and mop up the enemy units that the rest of the army may leave on the table.

The fourth scout squad has camo cloaks, shotguns and a sergeant with a chainsword, combi-melta and meltabombs. This is an experiment to see if their close range buff actually helps or if i should change their weapons to bolt pistols and chainswords. What do you guys think?

ELITES:

Here is where things get interesting.

I have a 9 man Sternguard Veterans squad loaded with special issue boltguns, a heavy bolter and a sergeant with Special Issue Boltgun and a chainsword. The idea is to run those as the core shooty unit of the army, accompanied by the captain and the shooty lieutenant. All those buffs and the profile of the Special Issue Boltgun make this unit quite nasty. The only problem might be the range, as 30" overall may be too short sometimes.

The second Elite choice is a squad of 5 Company Veterans equipped with 4 plasmaguns and chainswords, and a sergeant with a combi-plasma and a chainsword. This is looks like an odd unit, i know. The idea behind this unit is to provide high strenght, high ap shooting attacks that could help to eliminate heavy infantry and low wound vehicles but that could also work as a countercharge unit if there was any need of it. Of course the second lieutenant was created to go with this squad.

The third Elite choice is a 5-man squad of standard terminators. They are armed with their stock equipment except for an assault cannon. The idea is for them to deep strike in a place in which the enemy most deadly anti infantry guns might lie.

I have an Apothecary as a fouth Elite choice but I haven't fielded it yet, i just built it and painted it for fluff reasons and just in case i ever want to try it out. He might help to defend the sternguard unit but i'm still kinda hesitant because i don't know if it's worth the investment of a command point to use it.

I also have an objective which is a wounded marine with a plasma pistol, it looks cool and might add a nice narrative to the games in which i can use it, and i made 10 command point markers with 20mm discs and the imperial/crimson fists symbol that comes in the drop pod kits.

Those are the miniatures I already have but the rest of the army is composed of a 5-man devastator squad eqquiped with 4 lascannons, a Space Marine rapier with Quad Launcher, a Thunderfire Cannon and a Contemptor mortis dreadnought with 2 Kheres assault cannons.

I've been looking to add something form the fast attack section but I feel those units are too unfluffy to use alongside the rest of this siege force. Still I would really appreciate any suggestions you guys could have.

Here are some pics of the minis i have to work with if you want to see them:

Painting a little more on my Imperial Fists Characters

Hi everyone.

I have been kinda sick lately so I haven't been able to advance that much on my miniatures to be honest. But yesterday i was able to paint for quite a while and advances were made.
Basically I finished highlighting the yellows with a mix of bright yellow and cream, painted the blacks with a mix of purple, black and cream, painted the shadows of the reds with a blue glaze and highlighted with mixtures of red and orange, did lights on the whites with a very light gray and white on the sharpest edges and painted the golds with mixes of gold and silver. This process was the same for all the minis.

My captain first, as is his privilege because of his rank. I also did a little freehanding on his tabbard. Just a fist and the VII on each side and a white line to decorate. Nice and simple.
I also painted the skin with a mid tone peach and did highlights of that base color plus some cream.
I still have to paint the shadows of the flesh, finish the silvers. and start to paint the chapter and rank symbols and decorations.

Now the First Lieutenant.
I ended up changing the casing on his weapons because of contrast. This way they pop a bit more, it seems. I'm still thinking if I should add checkers on the weapons or just different insignia.
The flesh tone was the same recipee as the captain and I also changed his re-breather to white because that way it's easier to mark him as a veteran.

The lieutenant #2 is looking really cool because of that gorget.
I painted his hair in grays but with a little of yellow shade painted on top as a glaze, to make it look different of just an old man.
Also i'm looking for symbols to freehand on his gorget, back pack and greaves.

And now the Apothecary.
I was thinking that a leopard like detail in the fur might look awesome on him but I'd like to read your suggestions. Also on the symbols for him, if you guys would like.

Many many thanks for reading these posts and I hope you guys like them :)

Drawings

Hi everyone.
We are playing the Age of Sigmar Firestorm Campaign with some friends and when we publish battle reports we write some short stories about what happened in the battles from the point of view of our warlords.
So, a friend had this idea of using the portraits of the battling generals when they were fighting and he asked to me if I could draw those portraits.
I have done only two of them and we are four, so there are two more i have in my hobby schedule to do. (the nice thing is that I can do them on the job when i have some free time)

The first one I did yesterday is this vampire covenants necromancer. I tried to keep it muted as best as I could, hopefully it turned out ok.

Today I drew this Aelf Fire mage. I tried to make the shadows of each color with a color pencil of the direct opposite in the chromatic circle just to make it pop more. I hope you guys can see the effect i tried to do on this.

The next ones in the line are the Skaven Warlord and then my Night Goblin Warlord.

Did you guys like them?
What would you suggest me to draw next?

The Questing Knight

Hi all!

Last night I finished the Knight-Questor from my Silver Tower boardgame.
I still have to paint it's base in black but it is pretty much ready to be used in game.

Here are some pics:

Maybe I'll add some freehands on its armour and on the cape in the future but still I don't know what to paint on them. Should I wait for some story to develop on the game table and so decorate this knight based on what happens in the game or should I write something right now in order to have a clear narrative from the start?

What do you guys think?

Sometimes I work on my minis...

Hello everyone!

Last weekend I managed to find some time to paint a bit more but still I'm far behind schedule...

Here are some pics of the characters as they are right now, as well as the Knight-Questor.

The Knight first. I highlighted the gold a bit and repainted the base color and shadows of the scrolls. There are quite many things to be finished like the reds and retouch the silvers but It may be a night's worth of work to call it done. (besides the base, of course)

Now the Captain. He is the only one with an actual winged skull on the chest, and I think it looks quite cool with that blueish gray as it contrasts nicely with the yellow. I still have to highlight the armour, but i don´t really want to paint full beige on it so i will have to mix a bit of both, see what color ratio looks nice and works as a highlight...

Shooty Lieutenant. I am having issues with this miniature because of its bolter. I want to paint the boltguns in yellow as per some artwork but the problem is that the bolters depicted on said artwork are Goodwyn pattern boltguns (like the one on the Captain) and not this phobos pattern...
I don't know which color to paint the casing of it and still make it look nice. Or if I should just paint some checkers on it to make it look different...
I quite like how the white shoulderpad looks on this mini, as it reminds me of the templars and it brings nice memories of an old friend now gone that used to play with templars.

Melee Lieutenant. This guy looks even more awesome than I expected with that gorget. I don't know what it has or what is it but it looks so good!

And the Apothecary. The same issue of the shooty lieutenant but with a bolt pistol. That yellow looks kinda odd.
I do like the fur pelt from the ice lions of Inwit though. It makes it look different and gives him a bit of personality, though i might paint some purplish stripes on it just to make it a bit different.


Anyway, lots of work to be done to these models and the problem is that those are only 5 of them with some actual paint, and the rest of the army and the silver tower are still on white primer...

Do you guys have the same issue? falling behind on your painting schedule and then lamenting that problem?

How do you guys solve it?

Imperial Fists Characters

Hello everyone!

I have advanced a bit on my Imperial Fists characters when I get to my house at night.

So far I have nearly completed the basecoats+shades on them but still I wanted to share them with you.

First of all my captain. I went with red robes just to make him a bit different to the other minis.

This is a converted Lieutenant. I don´t know why but that gorget makes him look kinda cool :p

The second Lieutenat. Most of the bits I have used on my Imperial Fists are from the Grey Knights as I think those letters would look quite cool on their armour without having to freehand them.

An Apothecary conversion I did with space wolves legs. On the fluff of my army some veterans will have fur pelts from the Ice Beasts of Inwit, hunted to demonstrate they are worthy to enter into the veteran ranks. As this is the chief apothecary of Inwit it seem appropiate to have him have a fur pelt.

I am basing my army on a time right after the Horus Heresy, so I'm trying to stick to conversions for customised armours and mk 3 power armour. The rest of the minis will be scouts and things from the Horus Heresy range to show the age of this army.

What do you guys think?
Do you use conversions on your army or do you base it on something from the lore?

Imperial Fists

Hi all!
I spent most of my sunday painting some of my Imperial Fists.
I needed to fix some of their equipment (change a plasma pistol for a combi plasma, add some pouches and convert a random marine with a bolt pistol and auspex to be an apothecary) in order to make them work properly in my new marine army.

I just basecoated them with Averland Sunset and painted a quick coat of a brighter yellow on top.

Later on I washed them with a sepia wash and went to sleep.

Through out the years i've been kinda hesitant to paint a pure yellow army by brush but when I got into it and threw away that loathsome idea of "Yellow it's a hard color to paint" things started to flow nicely.
Sure, they might not be the miniatures with the hardest techniques to prove my technical prowess but they will look nice on the table and that is what matters to me on this ocasion.

This notion of "technical perfection" on miniature painting creates some nice questions:
¿is it completely necessary for a would be painter to paint superb miniatures all the time?

¿Is it necessary to always show the skills one has when working on stuff of their own?

And the most complicated question of them all (at least for me):
¿Why is the miniature painting community obsessed with technical prowess and super cleanliness on the models?

What do you guys think?

The Knight

Hi all.

I made some advances on my Knight-Questor from the Warhammer Quest Silver Tower game and i wanted to show them to you all.

Right now i have it on base coats except for the silver, which is a bit highlighted.

As i mentioned on my first post, i want it to have a sort of classic knight feel, so i went for simple silver armour with some golden details. I also choose red for the cape, shield and shoulderpad because that color represents aggresion but also because it was used by nobles too.

Since that cape is gorgeous it makes me want to add some freehands to it, but i have yet to decide if i should do it with white or with yellow. I also painted the sword with a blue tint because it's meant to be a magic weapon in my story.

I kinda like the narrative behind this model because as soon as i got the game we managed to build the models and play the first quest with some friends over a weekend. It was awesome! The knight managed to kill the Gaunt Summoner when the game was in a point in which the party was barely eliminating the pink horrors the sorcerer invoked. It was a tough game but the Knight-Questor was even tougher in the end.

It is funny how the colors can tell a story if used with purpose.

Have you guys made stories of your own and told them via colors too?

Orange and Green

Hi again.
Two entries in a day but i guess that its because I am starting and my fingers itch to write.

I work with an animal food products business taking photography and so I have to travel everyday outside the city to the farms and production sites. Since I live in a part of my country that is known as a door to all the farmlands and wildlife I get to see some really cool stuff like animals and plants, like these birds for example (i have no idea how are they called, to be honest)

They make a really weird noise when they call each other, like one of a car horn but with a very high pitch. They are easily scared though and I din't had a Tele lens in order to take a better picture so please pardon that pic.

I also took this one of a bonfire the workers were doing to get rid of some tree branches and i managed to take a nice one.

Again, i miss the lack of a Tele lens. If i went closer i would have been burnt by the sparks (actually one of them managed to leap onto my t-shirt and made a nice circle on it...)

You guys must be wondering why am I posting all of this.
I wanted to share these pics with you because of the contrast in colors that can be found on nature. from the subtle tones of those birds that almost made them melt with the ground to the high contrast of the fire and the trees and grass behind and around it.

What do you guys think of those? when painting stuff (canvas, miniatures, etc), which one do you preffer?

Entries come and go

Hello and welcome to my blog.

I've always liked the colors, to look at them, to feel them when i paint things and i'm always surprised of how do they work. The light and the way we percieve it is a subject that fascinates me.

Of course, i am not a light scientist. Just a random guy that likes to do things with colors in different mediums and i wanted to share with you all whatever i find as i walk this path.

I do have some geek hobbies though, the first of them is miniature painting, so i might go that way when writing stuff in this blog but always having colors in mind.

As my first entry I want to share with you this Knight-Questor from the Warhammer Quest Silver Tower boardgame. It is primed in white and ready to put some paint on it.

I really like this miniature because of how heroic it looks, like a classic sword and shield warrior but with a sinister touch. But i have to say that I changed its head with an old Bretonnia helmet because i dislike the way the original one looks like. That is what i like about this hobby: you can always change stuff you dont like to the models and in that way create something somehow unique.
I'm still thinking about how to paint it, but maybe with dark silver, beaten up gold and red.

I hope you like my blog and stay for a while.
Cheers.