Imperial Fists WIP

[CaptainForge]

There are so many techniques I am attempting to learn that even I get confused as to which one I'm using. I normally paint maybe one or two hours a day, with big gaps in between. Now combine learning techniques like blending, washes, inks, and Highlighting along with not having very steady hands and you get this:

Uggh!! As you can see I have still have a lot to learn. Some times I manage to get some things close to what I think is better quality like with my chaplain:

But I still not satisfied with him. Especially the two skulls on his legs and the tassle on his Crozius.

Here's what I've learned from this site and from practical application; Make sure you have small brushes. Now if you are young and have the eyes of an eagle more power to you. I am not and do not. So small and smaller brushes I've found work better for me.

Thin your paint. Yeah, easier said than done. Either I dont get it thin enough or it's like water and runs everywhere.

Have a steady hand. Ok, working on that one.

Prepare your model before applying paints. Boring, but very very important. Now if I could just make myself do that.

Anyway, I'm striving to improve.

[ItSeWiNg]

I personally Think...

You Shud Thin Down Your Paints ( I KNOW ITS DIFFICULT )

Also Dont Brush So Heavily As By The Look Of Your Marines The Yellow Is To Thick

and tbh for armour i use a standard drybush yet paint lightly

Best Of Luck With Painting

 

- IE

[nurglephill]

ok so you dont want to put in that much effort and still get good results...well then

 

paint them all black with a spray can. two or three light coats takes 5 min of work at any one time. then use silver or gold to do armour trim. that would at least be neat. you can even use gloss varnish to make it 'look' like the balck has been highlighted.

 

or pain them all silver and use washes all over and then dry brush them. both will give you much better results

 

although you wont learn to pain properly

 

phill

[Commander Sha'son]

OK. I am not sure if you have been given much help on your painting. Allow me to leave you with what works for me in painting Imperial Fist yellow. Not Lamenters yellow.

 

White primer base. As you do not possess the patience required to paint over black primer, this is your best option.

 

Use Scorfolous Brown from Vallejo Game Color. I forget what the GW equivalent is. Although the word "brown" is in the color's name, it is more along yellow. Especially once diluted, which is the next step. I am going to assume you have basic tools like and eyedropper and empty vallejo or reaper bottles and such. So when I say things like 1:3, I am also going to assume you understand I mean 1 part/drop of one thing with 3 parts/drops of something else.

Dilute 2 drops Scorfolous Brown with 10 drops of water. This is to assist you in an assembly line process across 10 models.

 

On your white primed model, use your paint in a wash fashion. Allow each layer to dry completely. If you are short on time, use a hair dryer on the low setting for the first minute, then on high afterwards. Repeat this step 5 times. This should give you a nice solid base to start.

 

Next is to take 2 drops yellow ink, 2 drops flesh wash, 2 drops orange ink (mix them) then dilute them 5:1 with water. Wash the models again.

 

This basically allows you to base coat, shade and highlight in one shot.

 

Once I get batteries for camera...I will post a pic.

 

Happy hunting.

[maxfergus]

Well in all honesty dont try to paint imperial fists as in my opinion yellow is one of the hardest colours to paint, as with yellow it makes it very hard to tidy the darker colours (reds) to make the eyes look neater.

[Lucifer Fellblade]

Well in all honesty dont try to paint imperial fists as in my opinion yellow is one of the hardest colours to paint, as with yellow it makes it very hard to tidy the darker colours (reds) to make the eyes look neater.

 

This is the one and only reason I didn't choose the Fists.

[Commander Sha'son]

No one gets better by avoiding the hard stuff...

[Lucifer Fellblade]

No one gets better by avoiding the hard stuff...

 

And people who jump in at the deep end without knowing how to swim, generally drown. B)

 

As for actual advise, for now I'd concentrate on watering down the paints a bit and taking your time to make sure you're being neat rather than fast or anything else, it's like learning to colour when you're a kid, just need to stay between the lines.

[Merkava]

I know someone here did great IF's by using the foundation yellow and some washes, quick and dirty (read fast and easy) pretty sure it's in the tutorial section

[Master Toddius]

http://www.chaosbunnystudios.co.uk/#/tutor...rial/4525393843

[CaptainForge]

The only way to learn is to make mistakes.

The only way to improve is to learn from those mistakes.

When I got the AoBR set I had not painted in a year. The last painting I had done was a 2000 pts Storm Lords chapter. I was tired of painting half red and half white. I wanted to paint a solid color. I also wanted to challenge myself so that I could improve my painting. I chose Imperial Fists because I like the way they stand out in the photos. I knew going in that yellow would be a challenge. I also wanted to experiment with washes and inks. Anyway here is the result:

I also wanted to try black lining. It always baffles me how painters can get those perfect black lines in such small places.

I have difficulty with eyes and faces so I wanted to work on those also.

I only had two yellows. Golden and Sunburst. I even started out painting one marine firey orange.

For the Captain I didn't want to have a bright colored cloak. But I wanted it to blend in with the shoulder trim, not the yellow. Blood Red would have stood out too much. So I used Scarab Red on the cloak and left the undercoat for shadowing effect.

The lightning claw dude was a model I had sitting around and never put together. So I decided to paint him up as a fist instead of Captain Sicarus. I intentionally having put flesh on his face yet. But normally I just add a light coat of elf flesh on. Still afraid to attempt work on the eyes. That's dark Flesh he has now.

I made a mistake with the termies. I based them on small bases, then realized I had the extra large bases left over, so I went back and glued them on those. I still need to flock those bases. I'm thinking of using sand.

Mistakes made and Lessons learned:

I think I put two many coats on. Less is more. If I had it to do over I would undercoat with black, one coat of golden yellow and sunburst as highlight. With the FO marine I added a coat of FO then 2/1 FO and GY, then 1/1 GY, then GY, then Sunburst. After awhile I realized I was just painting over what I had previously painted.

Black lining looks great and I envy those who can pull it off. I'm not one of those.

Washes and Inks. I still cannot get the type of results that others seem to get with these techniques. Either I'm not doing it right or I just can't see where it makes a difference. Ignorance is not bliss.

The Chaplain and the Tacticals in the first photos are add ons. I am making a 1500 pt. Imperial Fist Strike Force. I'm just about to finish up with the Tacticals and Devastators.

I still have an Assault Squad, a Tactical Squad, and a Rhino to do. I've learned it best not to attempt to paint to many models at once. While painting the AoBR marines I also painted Orks. Way too much at one time.

I'll post more as my project advances.

[petesamd]

hey! as you said practice makes prefect, my only word of advice it to keep trying different painting skills and such. now i'm not an amazing painter but I like to use drybrushing, never really tried it with yellow but I say give it a shot. Also remember even great painters sometimes have trouble painting with yellow, being that yellow is a hard color to master. thats all I can think of for now except can we have some close ups on your black reach set?

 

Thanks,

Petesamd

[CaptainForge]

hey! as you said practice makes prefect, my only word of advice it to keep trying different painting skills and such. now i'm not an amazing painter but I like to use drybrushing, never really tried it with yellow but I say give it a shot. Also remember even great painters sometimes have trouble painting with yellow, being that yellow is a hard color to master. thats all I can think of for now except can we have some close ups on your black reach set?

 

Thanks,

Petesamd

 

If you click on the photo and then reclick it, it should give you a close up shot.

[Marshal Rohr]

the trick to black lining is that it isnt perfect, you have to go back with your main color to clean up after yourself.

[Inquisitor Engel]

Greetings! Brother, fellow son of Dorn!

 

I have some tips for you, but I'd like to address a couple of points made by other first.

 

I like to use drybrushing, never really tried it with yellow but I say give it a shot.

 

Do not drybrush yellow. I'm generally a huge fan of it, my Ultramarines and Eldar (as well as some of my Tau) are heavily drybrushed and it works excellently for dark models but on bright figures such as Fists, it ends up looking uneven and chalky.

 

I strongly recommend against it.

 

Also remember even great painters sometimes have trouble painting with yellow, being that yellow is a hard color to master. thats all I can think of for now except can we have some close ups on your black reach set?

 

Yellow is, honestly, best done in a spray and then details and then shaded from there. Check out my blog here for my methods, which might not work for you.

 

The best Fists I've seen use Foundation paints (specifically Iyanden Darksun) and then use a few mixes of Golden Yellow from there. Imperial Fists certainly are a challenge for any painter, even more so for someone who appears to be on their first army (no offense if you're not)

 

Patience is a virtue. Mix some water in ALL of your paints, never paint straight from the pot (use a palette such as a spare tile) and always use the appropriate brush (I use between 4 and 5 different brushes on any given model, not counting the drybrush).

 

As for blacklining - this is kind of cheating, but I use a 0.05mm ink-pen before sealing my models with matte varnish from Wal-Mart. Perfect control, fits in all the groves nicely and works like a charm!

 

Good luck!

[CaptainForge]

I've been thinking on some methods to use on the Assault Marines when I get around to painting them. Since this entire project seems to be turning into a big experiment I figured why not try some other methods on the next round. One major problem I seem to be having is obtaining the right colors and various tools that everyone recommends. At my only GW store they were all out of Boltgun metal. And only had Golden Yellow. I did get some foundation Irayden Sun and some badab black and Geptia Brown.

 

Now one method I think I might attempt will be chaosbunny's method. Another is that eldar sample in the Painting Citadel minitures book where they start painting orange and then drybrush white and then ink in yellow.

 

I want to play around with washings some more also. And glazes.

 

This is not my first army. I've had a ultramarine chapter, a storm lords chapter, a witch hunter army, and now IF. I just don't paint regularly enough. I might go years in between paintings and you need to paint regularly if you are going to be any good.

 

I believe that basing with Iryraden Sun may have caused some of the thickness issues. I noticed right off when I began to apply other coats of yellow on it. I probably didnt need to put that on over a white undercoat. It's best used for Black Undercoating.

 

I agree I am a bit heavy handed when painting. I'm still working on that.

[CaptainForge]

I've pretty much completed a Tactical Squad and a Devastator Squad. Have begun work on an Assault Squad.

On the Tact Squad and the Devastators I free handed the squad icons. I used the Fist decals on the other shoulder.

I've decided that Fists do not look good with bright yellow. I regret putting the Sunburst Yellow on them. I think a more mustard color is nicer look. But since I had already started that on this guys I stuck with it.

I didnt spend much time on details with the Devastators. Another drawback to attempting to paint too many models at once. The decals and freehand are shiney looking because I put 'ardcoat on them for protection. Again, my GW store did not have matt gloss finish or Purity seal.

For the Assault Squad I set out with a different color approach. Undercoat white. Then apply one thin layer of Golden Yellow. Then Dry brush Sunburst yellow. Then apply Geptia Brown Wash. One I started out firey orange, but decided that did not give me the yellow I wanted so I went back to the above description.

A little less bright than the Tacts and Devs. But still not quite the yellow I am looking for. I might try mixing Sunburst and golden to see how that looks, to use on the remaining Tact Squad. I'm still saving the Rhino for last to give me time to perfect the techniques more.

[Spacefrisian]

If you have trouble with yellow try the following.

 

Chaos black undercoat.

Iyanden Dark sun

2 thin layers of golden yellow.

Final layer with Golden yellow mixed with a little bit of Iyanden Dark sun.

 

I used that for mine and they seem to have the right colour.

 

(As for the red colour try red gore as base, with a little bit of Blood red drybrushed over it, its simple but it makes it look pretty good.)

[Mal]

Ok, heres a little tip on painting yellow easily....

 

Spray the model skull white, don't spray too thickly, a couple of thin coat will do.

 

Undercoat in elf flesh, weird huh? worry not, there is method to my madness.

 

Paint sunburst yellow, this will give you a nice solid yellow that is neither too bright nor too orange.

 

Now take the ogryn flesh wash and a new-ish brush (one that hasn't frayed at all), do not load the brush with a lot of the wash, you only want a little at a time, and only on teh tip of the brush.

Carefully go around the edges of the armour and any details, ogryn flesh works really well with this shade of yellow and you can even get away without highlights if your careful. If you make a mistake, apply a tissue to soak up the wash and move on to a different part, come back in a couple of hours when its fully dried and paint a thin layer of yellow over the mistake, let that dry and do it again.

 

Now the trick to getting the black in the joints (you will not need black lining as the ogryn flesh does that job with less contrast), once you have the white primer on, paint the black bits, this means if you mess it up and go over you can cover it when you do the elf flesh.

Also don't worry about being too perfect when doing the flesh/yellow coats, if you get a little on the black don't worry, its a lot easier to fix a small slip up at the end than to do the whole thing. Once again, when fixing, paint ONLY with the tip of a non-frayed brush.

 

*EDIT* Here is a link to my Imperial Fists WIP, pics can be found there. Clicky

[CaptainForge]

In many threads about painting Imperial Fists I saw a link to Chaos Bunny's method so I decided to try that method on a test marine before diving into painting one tact squad and a rhino. I had all the colors except yellow ink.

Chaos Bunny's Method:

Of course start with a non undercoat marine:

Then undercoat chaos black:

Next apply vomit brown. Chaos Bunny used five coats. I used three because I'm heavy handed:

Next Brown ink, I used chestnut ink, closet I had to brown ink:

Then apply 70/30 vomit brown and skull white to highlight:

Then a 50/50 vb sw mix to highlight, seemed redundant to me:

Then apply yellow ink, I did not have yellow ink and made a golden yellow/sunburst yellow/dish soap mix, I then added two thin coats attempting to achieve a yellow look:

I have completed him almost except for decals and basing. I will take a photo to show what he looks like completed. But the thing is I still don't think it achieved the yellow I was looking for. It looks yellowish in the photos, but in person he looks more of a desert tan, dark color. I think I prefer the yellow I got with the assault squad previously posted. Plus I question the application of the 50/50 mix. Seemed redundant to me. I didnt want to keep adding the yellow ink wash I made as I wasn't sure if that would make it more yellow or just make it look thick. Anyway, I'll let you decide on which of the techniques - yellow scheme looks best.

More photos later.

[CaptainForge]

I think this WIP has turned into a lesson on how NOT to paint space marines and in particular IF marines. But since I started it I would like to finish it up. At this time I have 9 tactical marines and one Rhino left to do.

For now let's go back to the Chaos Bunny Marine. As stated previously I have pretty much finished him up. There are some big goofs on my part, however. On his leg I had put a 3 in chaos black and also free handed the tactical squad symbol on his shoulder pad. I don't know what I was thinking, but I then coated over those too soon, before they had time to dry and it caused them to smear. Anyway, here's what I ended up with (although I will most likely tinker around with a touch up later on):

The backpack is just painted yellow with black lining and then boltgun metal, deliberately didnt attempt anything fancy on it.

Standard IF decal. Sometimes I get good results with decals and sometimes not. I think this is not one of those times. Also note the black smudge on his leg where I put ardcoat on it before it dried and smudged it....ugh.

I missed a few spots when blacklining and will go back and fix those. That's what's good about photos...you can see where you missed things.

And finally the terrible mess up on the tactical symbol. The intention was to protect it from smudging...lol...and I ended up smudging it anyway. Call me Hamfist. In fact I think I will call this army the Imperial Fist Strike Force Hamfist.

Now onto those pesky assault squad from a few post above. For some reason I had the devil of a time getting these buggers to stay glued to their bases. Even after holding them in place for several long minutes they still insisted on slipping off the bases or just plain not sticking at all. Weirdest thing I have experienced while gluing models together.

So meet Assault Squad Pesky of the Imperial Strike Force Hamfist:

My Drunken Space Marine Fu is unstoppable!!

I did not attempt to free hand the assault symbol on their shoulders as I lack the confidence in my ability in that department. I did use the IF decals. On the jet packs, again nothing fancy, but I do need to learn to use GS I think. Also I did not use washes or inks on the jet packs and just some basic yellow. I attempted the striping on the chainswords just to break up the boltgun metal and chaos black. The flash from the camera whites out the metal color and makes you think I missed spots, but that's not the case here. I also wanted to paint Sgt. Pesky's helmet red for veteran status, but realized that the red of the helmet and the red of the eyes would not go and so attempted to leave some yellow on his face mask.

Lessons learned : I believe I have finally acheived thinning down my paints. I still have not learned the proper application of inks and washes. For those who can get good results out of these techniques I would love any advice you might have.

Thanks for reading and I will post more photos later as I develop the final Tacticals and Rhino. I think I am just going back to basic techniques on those models.

[Notlage]

Dip them.

Dip them.

 

So, paint them yellow (I even spray paint mine yellow), just make sure the base yellow coat is thin. Paint the eyes, bolter, etc...anything that isn't armor that you want another color. I usually paint my bolters with boltgun metal and then wash all metal parts on the marine with fleshwash (lightly). Also, for definition fleshwash can be applied where metal parts meet yellow.

 

now, get some minwax polyshade 'pecan' I believe (can isn't in front of me right now). Submerge the model for 5 seconds, take out and shake for 30 seconds, or until the excess has been removed to your liking.

 

All the washing is now done, and the details are picked out nicely. The yellow won't be super-bright, and they will have a worn look to them, but it is an option for the IF.

 

I usually go back, after dipping, and touch up the purity seals with white.

 

Apply decals and you have a quick, easy way of painting yellow. This leads to 'tabletop quality' marines, but for some of us that's good enough....especially when it lets us roll a bunch of yellow onto the field.

[CaptainForge]

Thanks for the dipping advice. Because I'm still re - learning how to paint I decided not to take that route on my final models. I most say that I am blown away every day that I visit the forums when I see the level of talent here in modeling and painting. It's truly and inspiration.

 

Now as you may have discerned I have been working on building a 1500 Imperial Fist strike Force around the core AoBR units. I had won a chaplain in a small 40K tournament and wanted to put him in since I had never painted a chaplain before. I had also included an older version of Sicarius just for kicks.

 

Then after reading on the forums about the new rules and Captain Lysander, I wanted to get a Lysander for my strike force. I like to have options when I go to games, and I enjoy the variety. I think I like just collecting the models also.

 

So it was off to the GW store for Lysander. But, as usual no Lysander. I also have been wanting to put a jump pack on Chaplain Zacharius so he could go with Sgt. Pesky's Assault Squad to add some extra punch and maybe lecture them on the sins of drinking. When the GW store didnt have Lysander I began a hunt for a mini with a jump pack and found an assault marine. So I got him, and on a whim I picked up some GS, never used it before.

 

In the meanwhile I was also wanting a Sternguard Squad. The idea of being able to select all those cool ammo rounds captured my imagination. But again, no joy at the GW store. So I decided to take five of my models from the last tactical squad I had started work on and make them into Sternguard. Breaking open the bit box I picked out some items and began putting together Sternguard Squad Beaker. I call it beaker because I used all beaky helmets to represent Sternguard.

 

I also began work on a Captain Lysander -conversion and scratch model based on the extra metal Assault marine I got just for the jump pack.

 

No photos today, but should have some soon. Thanks for reading.

[CaptainForge]

Meet Sternguard Squad Beaker of the Imperial Fists Strike Force Hammer Fist, Death from a Distance:

Now the Assault Marine Conversion to Captain Lysander. My first ever attempt at using green stuff:

C & C welcomed.

[CaptainForge]

The Final four space marines:

I have a Rhino to paint and my 1500 pts of Imperial fists will be battle ready.