Imperial Fists

[Doghouse]

So I'm going to put my hand up here and admit I'm struggling to get to grips with the new plastics. I think they are great but despite being bigger they just don't do anything for me and no matter what I try old truescaling habits come to the surface slowing me down to an eventual halt.

Fortunately we live in the new era of 3D printing and modelling which although is great for this kind of thing still doesn't feel as much fun as the old days but has the massive advantage of being able to churn stuff out at phenomenal rates compared to the old days.

So originally I wanted to do Word Bearers but like I say I'm just not feeling it so decided on something I normally wouldn't do and went with the Imperial Fists with an army set in the Great Crusade sometime after 835.M30. I'm going with all Mk II armour with maybe some Mk III later down the line.

I'm not going for anything mind blowing when it comes to the Astartes., for the most part they are single piece prints to save time with arms, shoulder pads, equipment etc all printed as one lump. I also skimped on posing, there are several points of view on this as far as I am concerned. Most of the new plastics are pretty much monopose much like my guys but I also kind of head canon it by saying that they are going to be trained and conditioned in the same way so once things go combat mode they would adopt a lot of the same poses and move in a similar way like Romans forming a shield wall. I also like the idea of Astartes of the era being far more numerous and not quite as each individually heroic as their 40k counterparts. I like the idea of them being along the lines of the Clone Troopers in Star Wars, excellently trained and equipped but very little distinction between them.

So to get the ball rolling with some bad pictures (I'll take better ones later) I have the first lump of what I would like to be a full company eventually. At the moment I have 50 tacticals, ten lascannon, ten rotary cannon, ten recon/vets and a few apothecaries dotted in here and there.

 

I have also started the Praetor who is pretty bland in comparison to a lot of other leaders but I am happy with this as I wanted a soldier first and foremost who is a veteran of the howling gyre wars which makes him stand out with his black armour. Still early days but he's getting there. All models will be truescale including vehicles eventually, while it is not a real setting and everything we know about the era could be wrong I am aiming for a as historically accurate army as I can make rather than a hardcore gaming army.

 

The army won't be anything too amazing when it comes to paint work mainly because my eyesight really isn't as good as it once was when it comes to close up  work and I have to wear magnifying lenses to be able to see what I am doing so I'm not worrying too much and just painting what I enjoy but it may be a bit messier than normal. 

[sarabando]

Always a pleasure to see your work DH. 

[Doghouse]

Thanks mate 

 

So a bit more done now but not a lot, rl stuff is sucking up all my time at the moment so hobby is a bit of a luxury.

 

I've got the first squad under way that will be a 20 man unit eventually. The thing that I like most about Imperial Fists is that they have a strong visual history to their armour with various markings that will serve to make these guys a bit more individual eventually. I'll be mixing in a few Howling Gyre Wars veterans to break up the uniformity of the models and maybe sneak in a few stragglers from other companies.

 

 

I'm also toying around with truescale vehicles. This an Rogue Trader era one I printed mostly out of nostalgia and I've scaled it to fit ten Astartes. I'll probably make a Deimos pattern one to replace it as it's bit of a grey area with this pattern so I'll probably use it in a specifically Rogue Trader era army as  I have made another Rhino and a Truescale Predator to go along with it. I've not gone 100% designed to fit marines leaving it so they have to stoop a little as they disembark from the side doors. The logic behind this is this was designed to be a vehicle for colonists originally so they didn't necessarily have entities such as marines in mind when they designed it. The size is in line with what I personally see as being a spacious exploration vehicle rather than a dedicated APC for Astartes. 

 

 

Then lastly a slightly smaller version that I wanted to try scaling the bodies more in line with the plastic heads (bare head is the FW IF one). I quite like it but also want to adapt the legs that I made to fit the plastic Mk IV to bring them in line with the Mk6 plastics, the rest of the model parts are those that I have found online and kitbashed to suit my needs. Still a WIP but might be used as a later Great Crusade era force.

 

 

[sarabando]

that rhino is massive :D love it. 

[Doghouse]

Thanks mate, yeah it's basically a brick. 

 

Back in 4th edition they showed in universe actual scales of Astartes vehicles compared to an Astartes. The simple rule seemed to be that the marine can fit in the doors on the side. I'm tempted to do a land raider but it'd be a monster! 

[sarabando]

13 hours ago, Doghouse said:

Thanks mate, yeah it's basically a brick. 

 

Back in 4th edition they showed in universe actual scales of Astartes vehicles compared to an Astartes. The simple rule seemed to be that the marine can fit in the doors on the side. I'm tempted to do a land raider but it'd be a monster! 

oh yeah propper scaled 40k/30k would be unplayable at 32mm. 

The mk4 look ace. 

[Xenith]

Looking good - I think the Praetor is a little plain - maybe a sword or crest would do? Keen to see what else you produce. 

 

14 hours ago, Doghouse said:

I'm tempted to do a land raider but it'd be a monster!

 

Some of the old art is great for getting that sense of scale - I think this one is the best, along with the WE one. I recall another piece with some marine getting squashed by one? 

 

 

[Pacific81]

Wow that looks great! Will be watching with interest.

Doghouse I remember back in the day you TSing infantry, now that the new larger scale ones have come out its like "no, not big enough!"

Really like the idea of the posing too, I agree its fits the more utilitarian/faceless impression of the Great Crusade, rather than the flashy 'me show' of their 40k counterparts. Actually think it suits the early armour marks too, with them stomping forward en masse.

Have you decided what ruleset you are going to use or will it be standard HH?

 

[Xenith]

12 minutes ago, Pacific81 said:

Really like the idea of the posing too, I agree its fits the more utilitarian/faceless impression of the Great Crusade, rather than the flashy 'me show' of their 40k counterparts.

 

This was always one of the issues I had with heresy and stopped me from pulling the trigger - I'd always seen the Legions as mass military forces with lots of manpower and churn, where old armour was rapidly replaced with newer models instead of being treated like relics as in 40k. The end result was the more generic looking models that we seen in the HH artbooks and the card game - lots of old armour, pipes, battlefield jury-rigging, but also rank upon rank of similarly armoured models. The flashy FW upgrade kits to give each legion a unique visual appearance, more blinged up than their 40k counterparts didn't sit too well with me - in 30k Space Marines were practical soldiers, not the semi-godlike warrior monks they are in 40k. 

[Doghouse]

sarabando: Thanks mate, I'm planning on using them with my plastic vehicles but want to do them as late Crusade. I'll need to do a bit of reading as I'm a bit rusty on the details of the newer lore. 

 

Xenith: Thanks  For the Mk II early crusade guys the Praetor is going to be one of a few veterans of the Howling Gyres War who have been assigned to a newer company. I sort of picture a Sharpe's Rifles thing going on with him being a line soldier so he sticks to his bolter and bolt pistol.

The Mk 4 guy will be a more traditional officer hence the plasma pistol and sword, I may add a gorget as well but he will be Inwit born so much more a product of the Legion at it's peak. 100% on board with your views on the aesthetics of the era. 

 

Pacific81: Thanks mate, always nice to see you posting. Yeah I think I am not that far off from creating real Astartes now just so I can get bigger and more detailed miniatures. Genetic engineering could possibly be my next fad after I get bored with 3d printing. I have a feeling the Emperor may have started out like this and the whole Great Crusade was a by-product of truescale getting out of hand. 

 

The way I see Astartes of the time is that it is a time of discovery innovation and mass production. I think we are seeing this with the newer sculpts as an expression of a cultural renaissance that gets warped over the millennia into the existing 40k aesthetics.   

I personally view them much like the clones in star wars, tools to get a job done where there would come a time when they would be replaced or rendered obsolete. I did start posing them in all manner of positions but it made them a bit too 40k, in that they started to look like individuals.

 

I'm going to stick with the Heresy rules so potentially I can get some games in with them, probably the Mk4 will be the gaming army with the MkII guys being more of a passion project.

[batu]

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