WIP Imperial Fists Army

[Master Chaplain Astador]

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!"

 

 

Man every Imperial Fist player uses this guy! :)

When I went to the comic shop this week to try to get some cheap marines, he was one of the ones I grabbed, and of course he was painted yellow! Such a great model!

One of the few I'm keeping when I try to trade them all back to the shop today!

 

The new Sternguard look like they're off to a good start! Keep it up!

[their kin]

Looking great man. I like the predominantly black sternguard. Can't wait to see them all finished.

 

-joe

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I'll have some more pics up early next week, I hope. Been busy with work and helping a brother get ready to move out of state, but I have gotten a little work done here and there. :P

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Well, looks like I was a bit hasty in that last post. Everything kinda hit the fan - my mom had to have emergency surgery last week, and I've been doing mandatory overtime at work, but that ended today, so maybe I can finally get back to working on some figures. Hope to have some more stuff up soon!

[Redfinger]

Some more progress on the chappy:

 

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/BCK-New1-1-1.jpg

 

 

 

I'm wanting to add a skull-shaped censer to him, but I'm wondering if he might be getting a bit too cluttered?

 

Here's a better shot at the Crozius:

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/BCK-New1-2.jpg

 

 

 

I'm starting to get some figures together for a Sternguard unit, and in my box of rediscovered old treasures, I found this old guy:

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/GD99.jpg

 

 

Sadly, the fancied-up boltgun he came with was pretty badly miscast, and I'm just going to use a plastic bolter for him. But doesn't he just scream Sternguard?

 

Where did you get the "fist" bit in the chappy weapon?

 

Ashton

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

It's a copy of the fist from Lysander's hammer.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I'm back, hopefully with enough free time to get more progress done!

 

So I finished up most of my Sternguard minis, and you might notice I have abandoned the black scheme I tried previously. While it looked great in my head and even on the marine painter, it just didn't look that good in the flesh, so to speak. Back to good ol' mustard yellow for my boys, then!

 

Here's a couple of group pics:

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/SG_8-12_Group2.jpg

 

 

The middle marine is made from some Iron Hands bits, and a SG combi-plasma. The original idea for him was that he would be the unfortunate marine whose weapon always "got hot" and he'd lost two legs, an arm, and part of his face to the weapon over the years, but it's still such an honor to carry it, he kept on going. To show his devotion and fervent hope that he wouldn't lost any more body parts, I had intended to cover him in purity seals and litany papers, but it was another idea that looked great in my head, but once I had about 12 purity seals on him, it just looked too ridiculous, so I left 3 on his legs, 1 on his gun, and one on his right shoulderpad.

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/SG_8-12_Group1b.jpg

 

 

Here we have aSG beaky with a slight conversion from the addition of a sculpted tabard, a Tyrannic UM, and an old Vet beaky with a combi-melta.

 

 

And a few close-ups of some of the new comers:

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/SG_8-12_1.jpg

 

 

A little bit of a conversion on this guy, as the normal version is just holding a bolter with no sling, so with all my extra SG bits, I gave him a combi with a sling!

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/SG_8-12_2.jpg

 

 

And here's that UM Tyrannic vet, re-tasked into an IF Sternguard vet. I got rid of all the UM symbols, re-sculpted the left knee pad, and did some repair work on the right(it took a LOT of filing to get rid of those damn UM symbols), including adding the seam on the front of the greave and the shoulder guard extension on the right pad just to make it stand out a little bit more than his armor is a hodge podge of parts collected/repaired/etc over the years.

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/SG_8-12_3a.jpg

 

 

This guy we've seen before, but I made use of the large surplus of SG parts I now have, thanks to 2 replacement boxes from GW for Finecast miscastings. The arm is borrowed from the Sgt figure I chopped previously showed in the thread.

 

I'm still got a bit more work to do on him and the tenth SG, and will hopefully have all of them ready for the next painting steps soon.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

My order from the Warstore showed up today, which was surprisingly fast - I wasn't expecting it for at least another day or two.

 

 

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

 

 

Two drop pods, twenty bolters, and twenty pairs of shoulder pads. Somehow, I lost all of my old bolter/shoulder pad sprues so the ten tac marines I already painted and the next ten I'm working on can be completed.

 

Note that Coteaz wasn't from the Warstore(they don't stock Finecast), but I picked him up from my LGS for a conversion(and found my order waiting for me when I got home, woot!).

 

 

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

 

 

As you can see, I've already removed the head and the Inquisition detail on the right shoulder, and the pic on the left is just to show the figure in all his Finecast glory. I'll admit the Sternguard box I got was a nightmare, getting two replacement boxes and still never getting a Sgt figure that was 100%, but this Coteaz figure is immaculate. The only bubbles I've found are on the bottoms of his feet and cloak, where you can't see them anyway.

 

The pic on the right shows what I plan on removing for a Chapter Master conversion. I'm not sure If I can use the left arm, as the eagle's feet and tail would take a lot of work to remove and then I'd still have to rebuild some of it with putty, but the idea for the pose is the left arm out like Coteaz already has, holding the hilt of a sword that's standing point down, and the right hand will be holding a pistol or maybe his helmet.

 

Wish me luck. ;)

 

I've also finished stripping and cleaning up Captain Stomp Ass and will try to get him basecoated today. Here's a pic that I wish I had gotten years ago when I first built him, the coveted WIP shot:

 

 

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

 

 

I had to do a few spot repairs as some of the greenstuff didn't survive the paint stripping, most notably the trim on the side of the powerfist housing, which I rebuilt with greystuff. There's also a spot on the litany papers that I had to fill in, just above the knee, but it's hard to see in the photo. And somehow, I lost his right arm, so I grabbed a replacement from one of my BA sprues.

[Quannum]

Some stunning work so far, Fist-brother! I too, am starting up a siege-themed Imperial Fist army so consider me hooked.

 

Though I am not a good converter, nor am I adept with Green Stuff, I do love a good bit of painting and am keen to see how you go about yours. It'd be interesting to compare some results and share good painting practice too, since yellow is notoriously hard to do!

 

I wish you the best of luck with it all...I'll be watching and commenting.

 

Q

 

p.s. What the hell is that head for Cap'n Stomp-Ass, it's so awesome!

[HellChyld]

its a shaved and modified space wolf head. excellent work all around would love to be across the table from this army one day

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Some stunning work so far, Fist-brother! I too, am starting up a siege-themed Imperial Fist army so consider me hooked.

 

Though I am not a good converter, nor am I adept with Green Stuff, I do love a good bit of painting and am keen to see how you go about yours. It'd be interesting to compare some results and share good painting practice too, since yellow is notoriously hard to do!

 

I wish you the best of luck with it all...I'll be watching and commenting.

 

Q

 

p.s. What the hell is that head for Cap'n Stomp-Ass, it's so awesome!

 

 

its a shaved and modified space wolf head. excellent work all around would love to be across the table from this army one day

 

 

Indeed it is a Space Wolf head! :( It originally had a top knot, which I removed, and used the edge of my X-acto to scrape down the hair some so it wasn't as tall. I just looked at the sprues of the current Space Wolf Pack on the GW site, and that head might not be in production anymore.

 

But thanks for the kinds words, Quannum. Yellow is notoriously hard to paint, and even with the foundation paint(which makes it MUCH easier), it was still a chore to do with a brush, which is why I'm now basecoating everything with an airbrush - a coat of Iyanden Darksun and then a second coat with the Goldenrod Reaper color I mentioned earlier in the thread. Right now, everything is still basecoated while I'm trying out test paint schemes, and once I finally make up my mind, I'm gonna assembly-line everything. I've got another ten man tac squad nearly ready to paint, and then a whole TON of stuff - terminators, scouts, devastators, assault squads(yes, plural), land speeders, land raiders, dreads... I can't wait to get me a full-on yellow army.

 

As far as not being good at converting or using greenstuff, it's just a matter of jumping in and trying it. I'm no expert with greenstuff, and really, there are much easier materials to work with which I will be trying out once I use up my current supply. I mean, you can see my first attempt at converting, and looking back on it with my experience now and being terribly self-critical, I think it's it awful. That's the subjective view. If I look at it objectively, given my inexperience with the hobby, the materials I was using, and the scope of it - it was something of an advanced conversion - at the time, it really wasn't that bad, and it helped fuel my appetite for more and bigger conversions. And most people will tell you, myself included, that the simpler conversions are usually the ones that turn out the best.

 

Looking at my Captain figure, there's not that much difficulty to him. I cut the lower legs off of a tac marine and a terminator, then pinned the termie legs on and used a little greenstuff to smooth the join. The new kneepads were a pretty simple shape, and the only real difficulty with them was keeping a uniform thickness. The belt was a circle of greenstuff with a skull I shaved off of something - might have been a backpack - planted in the middle. The litany papers, being paper and not cloth, I didn't have to worry much about getting creases and folds correct like I would if it had been a tabard, and the straps for the holster are simple strips of greentstuff that I let cure for about 30-40 minutes before putting them on(makes it easier to position the greenstuff without accidentally mashing it flat and ruining the shape). The powerfist housing is just a big rectangular block with a press-molded Aquila glued on, and then a little trim done in the same fashion as the holster straps.

 

Once you learn same basic techniques, you can really break down a conversion into some simple steps and it's much less intimidating after that. Though I still get butterflies sometimes when I start chopping up a pricey figure and hope the conversion comes out looking good. :)

 

And speaking of the good captain, here he is in his new livery! The head is pinned to a piece of brass rod to paint separately, so that's why it's absent.

 

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

 

 

Nephren-ka, I had to look up Hooks, Tx(seems like I come across the name of Texas town that I've never heard of on a daily basis), and man, you're way up there in the NE corner! If I ever get something finished and you happen to be in the Austin area, I wouldn't mind a game. I'd probably get my ass handed to me since it's been about 10 years since I actually played the game, but sure!

[Terminatorinhell]

That yellow is gorgeous :)

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Thanks! I need to get better with my photos, though. I have the next 2 days off, and I might see what I can do about a better set up for that.

[Brother Valerius]

That yellow really is gorgeous. What are you using? You said the Reaper paint you started with was no longer available, are you still using that until it runs out?

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Yeah, still using that Reaper color. It was called Goldenrod, and I could only find it in the squat screw-top bottles, and not their usual dropper kind. I managed to find 3 pots total, and the airbrush uses very little of it.

 

By itself, over a white primer, it's too bright, and of course, over black primer, it looks like crap. So I prime black, do a light coat of Iyanden Darksun foundation paint, because it's so opaque, and then a coat of Goldenrod over it. With the black primer darkening the Darksun color, and it being darker than Goldenrod, it too is darkened somewhat, and it comes out to a nice, dark mustard shade which I like a lot better than the normal retina-searing yellow you see these guys painted in.

[Dark Scipio]

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!"

 

 

Man every Imperial Fist player uses this guy! :)

When I went to the comic shop this week to try to get some cheap marines, he was one of the ones I grabbed, and of course he was painted yellow! Such a great model!

One of the few I'm keeping when I try to trade them all back to the shop today!

 

The new Sternguard look like they're off to a good start! Keep it up!

 

Now I curse myself for selling it years ago.

 

I wonder how a head swap or helmet would look like.

[Kizzdougs]

Wow! incredible yellow. I like how you've used a variety of different veterans for the Stern Guard. I'm looking forward to seeing some progress on the chapter master and Captain 'Stomp Ass' :huh:

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Well, I broke out the Dremel with its cutting disc, the razor saw, the hobby knife, and set to work on the Coteaz figure. Without further ado: Pics!

 

 

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

 

I started cutting on his legs with the Dremel and forgot I had no test shot of him with a marine head, so I snapped this one real quick before he got completely chopped up - I tried about 9 different ones and I think I like this one best. If you look to the left and right of the tabard, you can see the grooves where I started in with the cutting disc.

 

Note that the hourglass, purity seal, and book(well, the end of it anyway... I slipped with the hobby blade) have been removed and stored away in the bits box.

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/Coteaz_WIP-2.jpg

 

Here you can see where I cut in from three sides, and might notice that I cut off the arm at the elbow. I was already thinking about doing it because I probably won't be using his left arm, but once I realized I would have to remove it to get in there with the Dremel anyway, off it came. The disc wouldn't cut deep enough to completely go through on all sides, so I used the razor saw and hobby knife to finish the cuts.

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/Coteaz_WIP-3.jpg

 

The right leg removed, mostly intact. On our right, you can see the deep channel where I cut in to remove his left leg(the dark grey area in shadow). Because of the way the cloak flows around his left side, it was much, much trickier to get in there without damaging the cloak, which I wanted to keep intact.

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/Coteaz_WIP-4.jpg

 

 

The left leg removed along with the remainder of the holster and other detritus on his right side as well. Now, up until this point, I had intended to leave the tabard where it was, and repair the spots where I had to cut pieces away, but once both legs were removed, it was like this giant wall of resin right in the middle of the figure(look at the previous pic to see what I mean) and trying to work around it in the future might be... trying. So I decided I would cut away the entire lower section, but save the tabard if at all possible. Out came the razor saw, and I lined it up just beneath the crossbars on the big "I for Inquisition" symbol on his belt, and sawed through all the way to the cloak.

 

Note that there are two small gouges on the left pec, removing the decorative nipple - I was pushing the Dremel a bit too fast when cutting in on the far side of the left leg(next to the cloak) and it bounced twice in the blink of an eye, gouging the chest. ;)

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/Coteaz_WIP-5.jpg

 

And finally, the complete lower section removed along with the Inquisition symbol, and the belt area smoothed out with a file. No sense in having a one-nipple suit of armor, so off came the other one.

 

Total time: about 70 minutes.

 

Say what you will about Finecast figures, but I love the conversion possibilities. I could maybe have done this with the metal version(and that's a very big maybe), but if I could, it would have taken me hours and hours over several days or a week to get this done. I probably would have ruined my Dremel cutting disc and about 5 X-Acto blades, and almost certainly cut myself at least once or twice in the process. Instead, just over an hour, and no wounds. :P

 

Looking at the figure as it is now(I'm done chopping for the night), I'm flip-flopping about whether or not to save the rosarius around his neck, or cut it away - I'd like to make this conversion as different from the original figure as much as possible, ya know? If you have an opinion on keeping it in place or not, lemme know. ;)

 

Either way, I'm making a press mold of it so it might live again on another figure.

[Vairocanum]

whoa, that looks really promising, cant wait to see more work done on the coteaz figure.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I got some greystuff curing on him now, repairing some of the damage to the cloak and the armor, so hopefully I can go straight into working on rebuilding the lower half of him tomorrow.

[Mr Yellow]

Say what you will about Finecast figures, but I love the conversion possibilities. I could maybe have done this with the metal version(and that's a very big maybe), but if I could, it would have taken me hours and hours over several days or a week to get this done. I probably would have ruined my Dremel cutting disc and about 5 X-Acto blades, and almost certainly cut myself at least once or twice in the process. Instead, just over an hour, and no wounds. :cuss

Did you never buy the metal saw that GW sold back in the day? It was the one tool they sold that was good and not overpriced (seriously!). I'm not saying that finecast ain't good for chopping but metal isn't that hard to chop either with the right tool. Ironically it is more forgiving to slips, like with the nipple, but you can always do battle damage.

[augustmanifesto]

you're doing wonders to the converted Chapter Master. Are you modelling him to be a specific master or just generic?

[Khiros]

Amazing work. And just my opinion, but I'd leave the rosarius on the chapter master conversion. Just looks cool.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Did you never buy the metal saw that GW sold back in the day? It was the one tool they sold that was good and not overpriced (seriously!). I'm not saying that finecast ain't good for chopping but metal isn't that hard to chop either with the right tool. Ironically it is more forgiving to slips, like with the nipple, but you can always do battle damage.

 

If you mean a jeweler's saw, like this:

 

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/31nWZEOjhnL.jpg

 

I have two of them, actually, with different frame sizes. And because I wanted to keep the cloak intact, it wouldn't be of much use on this project if I was doing this on the metal figure. Believe me, I've been chopping up miniatures for 15 years, and this would have been a major PITA in metal. In fact, I may not have even considered such a thing.

 

 

you're doing wonders to the converted Chapter Master. Are you modelling him to be a specific master or just generic?

 

Thanks!

 

The only Chapter Master I know of is Vladimir Pugh, and I couldn't find much info at all on his appearance. I've read that he was a swordsman and I was planning on modeling this guy with a relic blade, so maybe it could be him, but I was really just going for something generic and hopefully cool.

 

Something I strive to do with my figures is to impart some small amount of life into them, either with the appearance of movement or the careful positioning of the pieces in a static pose. Usually, I'm all about the motion, but I want this guy to look calm and collected, unafraid of the chaos swirling around him while he guides his marines to victory.

 

Amazing work. And just my opinion, but I'd leave the rosarius on the chapter master conversion. Just looks cool.

 

Thank you. :)

 

You know, I was looking at the codex last night after my post, and I completely forgot that chapter masters and captains automatically get an iron halo, so I might leave it on to represent that.

 

And a bit of an update:

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/Coteaz_WIP-5.jpghttp://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/Coteaz_WIP-6.jpg

 

Rebuilding some of the unavoidable damage from the surgery last night.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I got some more work done on the Coteaz conversion today, but I spent far too much time trying to decide what to do about the legs. At first, I thought I might want to try to make them resemble the original legs I cut away, or at the least, the feet. In the end, I stuck with trying to distance myself from the original figure's appearance, so I started hunting for legs to chop off from some hapless marine.

 

I just happened to have two of my surplus Sternguard marines laying nearby:

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/Coteaz_WIP-7.jpg

 

The beaky is obviously offering up his friend, but in the end, his pleas fell on deaf ears. Out came the blades, and off came the right leg from the beaky and the left leg from the other guy. Now, since I wanted this guy to be standing straight up, the position of the legs would need to be altered a tad, but the feet really needed to be changed.

 

And yet another demonstration of why I love Finecast:

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/Coteaz_WIP-8.jpg

 

Altering the position of feet with pewter is AWFUL. This took five minutes to cleanly cut away the feet.

 

A tip for anyone trying something to remove whole sections of a figure like this in Finecast: to remove the feet, I took an old X-Acto blade that I had broken the tip off of, which now resembled a chisel, and put the tip of that between the top of the foot and the bell-shaped curve on the bottom edge of the leg armor, then took something moderately heavy and tapped on the knife handle gently, pushing the blade all the way through one little tap at a time. I had to do this a couple of times in different places on each leg, and with enough material cut through, you can just snap the foot out of there.

 

Next, I found a hip section from another SG figure I had chopped up:

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/Coteaz_WIP-9.jpg

 

I pinned that hip section to the Coteaz torso and then pinned the legs to the hips without glue - right now, everything is just blue-tacked into place. It's close to what I'm wanting, but will need a bit more fine tuning.

 

So for the next little while, I did more scraping and filing on the legs, and also started working on a left arm, which I got from a bolter marine sprue, chopping it at the elbow, then cut off the hand and changed the position. I also went hunting for a suitable weapon to represent a relic blade:

 

 

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/Coteaz_WIP-10a.jpghttp://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x5/Kageboshi/Coteaz_WIP-10b.jpg

 

I wanted the thighs to be longer, so I sectioned the right leg behind the knee and pinned it to alter the position of it and make the leg straighter. For the left leg, I can simply add more length to the thigh from the top end, as the rest of the leg is in a position I liked, so no cutting required on that one.

 

Now... the sword. I had already spent some time chopping, pinning and gluing to make this sword, and while I did think it looked a bit long, I never actually compared it to the figure at any point during its construction.

 

Yeah.

 

It's about a two scale feet too long. :P

 

I could make his legs and abdomen a little longer, but still, unless I build some huge scenic base, which I don't want to do, I'll have to chop that sword down. /sigh