WIP Imperial Fists Army

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Finally broke out some paint and had a stab at a test IF paint job on my old IF Captain that I managed to find a few days back! My photography skills are still not where I'm wanting them to be, but I think these new pics are better than the previous ones:

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/IFTestColor1.jpg

 

 

As you can see, I'm already breaking tradition with the chest eagle color, and I wanted to go with a muted yellow, more of a dark mustard, than the bright canary yellow normally seen on the IFs. It's a bit sloppy, but I was trying out a few different things.

 

 

On to new BCK pics!

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/BCK-NewColor1.jpghttp://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/BCK-NewColor2.jpg

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/BCK-NewColor3.jpg

 

 

Just blocking in the base colors of things right now to get a feel for the look and balance, and also to find any errors I didn't notice before the primer coat. Oh, and you can't really tell in this pic, but his armor isn't painted black, it's a 50/50 mix of Black and Coal Black from the P3 line, so it's a dark blue-green color. I wanted to stay away from a true "black" color on this version of BCK because of how the original was just a black silhouette with a silver helmet from more than a few feet away.

 

 

And a bit more progress on the jump pack!

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/JP2.jpghttp://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/JP1.jpg

 

 

A fist icon for the left thruster and I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of these purity seals.

 

Oh, I also had some questions about the white plastic on both the jump pack and rear half of BCK's torso. So, some time ago when I was going to strip my figures from their CF paint, I was wanting to try out the suggestion of someone about brake fluid as a paint stripper. He showed me some figures he had stripped with the stuff before I tried it, and trusting him, I went out a bought me some as well as a container to soak them in. The following week, I had the opportunity to move much closer to my job(I was living with my older brother at the time), and jumped at the reduction of a commute time... and subsequently forgot about my test group of marines soaking in the container in his garage.

 

About a year later, I get a call from my brother saying he found something of mine while cleaning up his garage - "some figures or something in a red fluid". I drove over, completely expecting my marines to be a melted pool of plastic in the bottom of the container, and to my pleasant surprise, they were completely unharmed and stripped of paint - but they were bleached white. I found out if I scraped down a bit with a hobby knife, they weren't white all the way through, but it's not just a thin surface covering, either.

 

So, if you ever thought about brake fluid as a paint stripper for plastics... it works, and didn't harm them after a year of soaking. :P

[Olis]

Nice to see some paint on that chappy. That's an interesting yellow you're using... ;)

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Nice to see some paint on that chappy. That's an interesting yellow you're using... ;)

 

Not quite sure what you're getting at there.

[Iron_Adam]

I actually really like that yellow! Could you share the formula and how you did it?

 

It reminds me of mustard too, with kraft dinner a bit as well. Lovely effect

[Olis]

Nice to see some paint on that chappy. That's an interesting yellow you're using... :P

 

Not quite sure what you're getting at there.

 

Ah. I was being obtuse. What I meant was; what yellow is that?

 

(Maybe I should be a little more straight forward in the future... :rolleyes: )

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

The yellow is a Reaper color called Goldenrod, and looking on their website last night, appears to be discontinued, which kinda sucks. It was in one of the squat, screw-top bottles, and really did look like I was dipping my brush into a pot of mustard.

 

Then I shaded with washes - Gryphonne Sepia first, then Baal Red, and finally a very thinned down Badab Black. The yellow was then highlighted with a mix of the Goldenrod and Cygnus Yellow from the P3 line, and then very thinned down Cygnus yellow.

[Olis]

appears to be discontinued, which kinda sucks.

 

Arse.

 

C'est la vie. Keep up the good work, brother.

 

Edit: Typo.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

So here's another test paint job using Bubonic Brown as the base, since my previous base paint might be OOP:

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/IFTestColor2.jpg

 

 

I went a little lighter on the washes this time, seeing what I could do in a relatively short time, as I really do want to get an army completed for once.

 

 

I also have a peek at a very early WIP of a dread that I want to convert the crap out of:

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/DreadWIP1.jpg

 

 

I don't really care for the GW venerable dreads, and FW doesn't have an IF dread in their line up, amazingly, considering how they LOVE their sm dreads, so I figure I'll just have to make one for myself. As you can see, I really beefed up the armor plating on the left and right torso, wanting to bring it closer in line with the level of the sarcophagus. What will go on those big, empty chunks of plastic? I haven't the faintest idea yet, but my Emperor's Magic 8-Ball points to "Something Cool". ;) I'm also considering chopping up the legs and repositioning them to give him some sense of motion.

 

Oh, and any ideas for decorations on those armor plates, I'm all ears.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

The temptation of the new Finecast figures finally got to me. Didn't take long, huh?

 

I have always admired the new Sternguard figures, but being a converting maniac, I never bought them before because of how difficult it would be to cut them up without destroying them. GW really knew how to get to my wallet, this time.

 

So, after shelling out for the box, I dashed home to have a look, and for the most part, I was pleasantly surprised. Here's how they looked still on their sprues:

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/FCSG_1.jpg

 

 

And a close up of the sarge:

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/FCSG_2.jpg

 

 

The first thing that surprised me was how smooth the figures were - gone are those wavy, bumpy, pitted areas that seemed to cover almost ever single metal figure. The detail looks crisp, but it's not the ZOMFG! kind of difference from the metals that GW is paying all of their employees to say it is. But still, my eyebrows raised several times in surprise at how sharp the detail was.

 

Something else I noticed while cleaning up the first few, is that you need very, very little pressure with an X-acto to cut this stuff. Seriously, I nearly sliced the pad of my thumb open with the first big hunk of sprue I tried to cut off because there was so little resistance to the blade. I tried very little pressure, and still, the blade would zip right through. After a few more near-accidents, I discovered that for me, the easiest way to cut the stuff was to push the blade against it just enough to get it to bite into the plastic, err... resin, and then slowly move the blade back and forth like you're sawing, but still keeping the tiny bit of pressure on it. No more near-accidents after that, and really, most of the sprues and flash I could just snap right off without damaging the figure and really only needed the blade in a few spots(mostly where the feeder sprues attached to the strapss on the bolters).

 

While these guys did look very sharp and clean for the most part, there were a few issues, primarily with the sarge:

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/FCSG_3.jpg

 

 

Looks pretty good from here, eh?

 

Well, let's turn him so we can see where the feeder sprues were attached to his head:

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/FCSG_4.jpg

 

 

Ouch. That's gonna be a pain to fix, and I might need to shave the whole mohawk-vent-thing off and rebuild it, but I'm considering calling GW to see if he can be replaced. Also note the big dent in his shoulderpad from another feeder sprue. Not very deep, and it was the only shoulderpad from the box like this.

 

I had another problem with this guy:

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/FCSG_9.jpg

 

 

Although you can't really see it very well in this pic, his bolter is very miscast - the mold halves were off center quite a bit. Another reason I might call up GW to see about replacements. Unfortunately, every attempt to get a decent picture of the deformed bolter came out blurry. *sigh*

 

And here's the rest of the gang, with multiple views on some to show of details:

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/FCSG_10-1.jpg

 

 

Man those shoulderpad bumps look nice!

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/FCSG_8.jpghttp://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/FCSG_7.jpg

 

 

Combi-bolter guy, showing off chest detail, and then posing with his pretty combi-plas, as you always see the melta version in pics.

 

And last, but certainly not least, Pointy beaky guy:

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/FCSG_5.jpghttp://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/FCSG_6.jpg

 

 

Overall, I was very pleased with the Finecast figures and their detail, but especially the reduction in weight(might be my imagination, but they felt lighter than regular plastic marines) and the conversion possibilities. I did NOT expect them to be perfect, and neither should anyone else. I've seen so many angry posts on here and other websites, bashing GW over the change, when most people haven't even seen one of the figures in person. And let's be honest - how many people ever got a metal figure without a single defect of any kind?

 

Frankly, I'm excited about the change and what the future might hold for new sculpts, where the height and weight of a figure, as well as worrying about how thin you can make something in metal is no longer a consideration(or a much smaller one, at any rate).

 

And finally, a small update on the chappy. I haven't been feeling well the past 4-5 days, and work's been kicking my butt something fierce, so I haven't gotten much work done on him:

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/BCK-NewColor4.jpg

 

 

The color I have on the mohawk vent is a little closer to what I'm wanting for the rest of his armor, and the shoulderpads and jump pack are obviously not finished and just there to check the overall balance. ;)

 

C&C welcome, as always.

 

*edit for picture fix*

[Battle Captin Torodin]

Looking good,

 

Fine cast is a bit of a cursed blessing.

 

when you get a model that isnt miss cast its great but i think that GW may have made amistake in trying to release so much in one go.

 

i was in my local on the weekend and every finecast that was bought and opened in store was misscast. some of it was simple little things that where easy to fix but some were more serious. one chap got the termi librarian and had half the hand missing. a marnius calgar had his power fists missing and i got the nurgle deamon prince and the ends of the fingers where all missing and hollow because of air pockets.

 

i im thinking of looking into getting vanguard veterans now though, as they shouldn't fall over :)

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Like I said in the previous post, I wasn't expecting them to be perfect, and anyone who does is a bit delusional. Their plastics and metals were never perfect(and sometimes far from it), but any miscasts were always replaced quickly by GW, and they would usually send an entire replacement of the kit, and not just the part that was missing. I'm sure any company making a change of this nature is going to have birthing pains, and we have to trust that they invested heavily enough in it that they will HAVE to make it work, one way or another. I remember talking to a guy years ago when I first got into the hobby who had worked at a different mini company when everyone made the switch from lead to pewter, and how there were a lot of issues with that switch, and it was just to a different kind of metal. Hell, Forgeworld stuff is often MORE trouble, and you pay twice the money for it.

 

I couldn't tell you what their corporate people are trying to do with the company, but they've always had great customer service when I needed something replaced. And if they replace my entire Sternguard box, well then... I'll get my feet wet with trying out some Finecast conversions, because I have dreamed of conversion opportunities like this.

[Olis]

Glad to see you have had some relative good luck with the majority of your sternguard Finecasts, also good to see your chappy getting ever closer to completion. Keep it up.

 

Also; going to do any cut & shuts (conversions) on your sternguard even if you get no replacements? :(

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Glad to see you have had some relative good luck with the majority of your sternguard Finecasts, also good to see your chappy getting ever closer to completion. Keep it up.

 

Also; going to do any cut & shuts (conversions) on your sternguard even if you get no replacements? :)

 

Oh, I'm sure I will, as I have a hard time building anything straight from the box. Even if I don't get a replacement for the sarge, I've been wanting to chop him up for some time now, and might even use him to rebuild my old Kantor conversion.

 

Doing a little more clean up on the new models, I have found a few more minor imperfections, mostly tiny air bubbles, but nothing worse than I ever had to correct with a metal or plastic figure before.

[Olis]

I have a hard time building anything straight from the box.

 

Haha, are you me? :)

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I'm sure there are many out there that suffer the same sickness I do, and I blame GW for it. When I was really young, I built "real models" as my older brother might say, mostly WWII tanks and planes, but I also took an interest in some of the figures I saw in the game stores, primarily those of the fantasy genre from Ral Partha and others, but there was small corner given over to some very interesting ones from "Citadel" and this game called "Rogue Trader". I remember seeing a store copy of a modeling guide with all these weird, cool figures painted in very bright and striking colors.

 

There was also a section on conversions.

 

Up to this point, I had never even imagined the possibility of chopping up a figure to repose it, or change it into something else entirely. The seed of a madness was planted in my mind that day, and though it's very frustrating sometimes when a conversion doesn't come out as I had imagined it, I've been very happy with most of them.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Just got off the phone with GW, and they will be replacing my entire Sternguard box, as I thought they might. They know there's going to be some mishaps with a change on this scale, and are prepared to replace any miscasts right away.

 

So now I get to break out the cutting knives and saws...

[Retributis]

Looks like it's a good time to start getting some finecast then! Two for one all the way :D

[Olis]

I love GW's replacement policy. :D

 

What're you going to use the extra bits for? Got any plans for those?

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I'm definitely going to make use of the extra 2 combi-weapons and the other bolters with the box ammo feeds - that'll save me from trying to convert some of my own.

 

The Sgt will probably get chopped up for a conversion into a Captain, or maybe a Chapter Master figure. The pointing beaky will definitely be converted, maybe a head swap, and probably into a tac or devastator Sgt. For the rest, I'm not sure yet, but I will definitely keep this updated with any new ideas. :rolleyes:

[BrokenGlytch]

Just stumbled across your thread tonight while poking through the WiP forum and I've gotta say great work. It's always nice to see people willing to give older models some love in new conversion and freshly painted armies. I like the more muted yellow you're working with as well. The bright canary color always seemed ridiculous to me; if you've ever seen a canary yellow car, it's only canary yellow for about 5 minutes after it rolls off the factory floor/out of the car wash.

 

Have you thought about trying any weathering/paint chipping effects on the models? It's easy to go overboard, but if you keep it minimal (just enough to get the point across) then it usually always looks amazing. It might help get some of that contrast you're looking for without throwing too many colors together in one scheme.

[Reyner]

Your finecast Sternguard look alot better than my metal ones! My walking beaky had a really bad casting on his bolter and combi weapon guy had miscast on his head/shoulders. I like the silver helmet on your Chaplain, my IF Chaplain will follow suit.

 

Here's a link to the Chaplain in the Ultramarines Movie for you:

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4nzgPbHlNo4/TPly...600/UM-0003.jpg

 

Can't really see the silver but it gets the point across lol.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Just stumbled across your thread tonight while poking through the WiP forum and I've gotta say great work. It's always nice to see people willing to give older models some love in new conversion and freshly painted armies. I like the more muted yellow you're working with as well. The bright canary color always seemed ridiculous to me; if you've ever seen a canary yellow car, it's only canary yellow for about 5 minutes after it rolls off the factory floor/out of the car wash.

 

Have you thought about trying any weathering/paint chipping effects on the models? It's easy to go overboard, but if you keep it minimal (just enough to get the point across) then it usually always looks amazing. It might help get some of that contrast you're looking for without throwing too many colors together in one scheme.

 

While some of the older models I have no problem using, like the GD '99 Captain and some of the stuff I haven't put up pics of yet(I have a whole bunch of old crap from 3rd), some of the others would just look too out of place against the rest of the army, like the IF Captain I did the test paint on at the top of this page.

 

I'm glad you agree with me on the yellow, too. My brother wants me to do the canary yellow scheme, but I wanted to go for more realism with a muted, darker tone. Consequently, vehicles will not be completely yellow, but probably black or a dark grey with some yellow highlights. I've got some FW terminator shoulder pads and vehicle doors on the way, so I'm waiting for them to show up before I start posting vehicle pics.

 

And yes, I do plan on doing weathering/chipping to go along with the realism thing. I haven't attempted the paint chipping yet, and hope to have some more pics up soon with my first tries at it.

 

 

Your finecast Sternguard look alot better than my metal ones! My walking beaky had a really bad casting on his bolter and combi weapon guy had miscast on his head/shoulders. I like the silver helmet on your Chaplain, my IF Chaplain will follow suit.

 

Here's a link to the Chaplain in the Ultramarines Movie for you:

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_4nzgPbHlNo4/TPly...600/UM-0003.jpg

 

Can't really see the silver but it gets the point across lol.

 

Yeah, a lot people are really hard on the Finecast right now, but once GW gets the wrinkles ironed out, I think those people will have a change of heart. I admit, I too was very skeptical at first, mainly fearing it would be like the plastic Privateer Press went to, which I absolutely hate. But after seeing a few figures in person out of the blister at my LGS, and then getting my own SG home, I'm sold. I know no cast figure is ever going to be perfect, and will expect to have some clean up to do like their metals and plastics, and it will be easier to do in this new material, plus, there are so many benefits that come with this, that it really does open up a huge amount of possibilities for the future of the hobby, both on the side of GW, and us crazy conversion folks.

 

Thanks for that pic of the IF chaplain! I've seen a few before, but that one's new to me. Ah, if only I could paint freehand scrollwork like what's on that helm. And I'm happy that I inspired you to follow with a silver helm for your chappy as well. ;)

 

-BCK

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I finally got around to repainting my already assembled tac squad from Salamander green to Imperial Yellow! Unfortunately, I had issues with my airbrush compressor, and THEN problems with the airbrush, so it took much longer than I intended and only had time to paint one of the two. Group shot:

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/SMTacSquad1-1.jpg

 

 

And speaking of old crap from back in 3rd Ed... anyone remember that vet sgt?

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/SMTacSquad1-1-SGT.jpg

 

 

I always imagined him screaming something like "No, over THERE, you idiots!"

 

And the plascannon guy is one of the old metals. Yes, those godawful ones that were a nightmare to put together and were then too top heavy to stand upright, so he has a US nickel glued to the bottom of his base. I really wish they'd release those old metal devastators in Finecast, 'cause I just don't like the new plastic ones that much. The plascannon is just too square and I like this version of the weapon much better. But again, total nightmare to assemble in metal.

[Leonidus]

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/SMTacSquad1-1-SGT.jpg

 

 

I always imagined him screaming something like "No, over THERE, you idiots!"

 

 

GET TO THE CHOPPER!

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

lol, nice! I never thought of that