Imperial Fists Space Marine command

In a previous post I showed off my old Imperial Fists marines and I think I included a WIP of a lieutenant I'd started with more than a ten year gap between the two. I'd had other command and specialists prepped and ready to go for years so I pushed on and got all five figures done. 

Lieutenant

 

Chaplain

 

Librarian

Medic

Techmarine

There we go. Just a quick post this time as the last one had too much waffle in it.

Revisiting my Imperial Fists Space Marines

 I think it was back in 2005 I painted up my first Imperial Fists space marine, a plasma gunner. I'd been collecting these old marines for a couple of years and had finally settled on Imperial Fists for the colour scheme. It was more a case of having a yellow ochre colour in mind somewhat influenced by some marines I'd seen painted in either White Dwarf or possibly GM magazine from that '89/'90 era and Imperial Fists kind of fitted well enough. Over the course of a few years, I forget how many exactly but certainly by 2009 I'd painted up a full 10 man tactical squad.

 

 

I had plans to expand the force to include a dreadnought and five 'command' models including an officer, medic, chaplain, librarian and tech marine. These models were all selected, prepped and undercoated before being promptly left to gather dust. All these years later I wasn't sure what exactly to do with the squad. I recalled the painting of the armour was a little laborious and possibly over worked in comparison to how I paint now and there are some things I'd do differently if I were doing this all over again. The option of selling them and re-collecting the figures was considered. 

Recently though I dug out one of the command models I'd prepped and decided to see if I could replicate the paint work. I remembered the colours I'd used so no problems there. I've been asked a lot over the years what those colours were so here they are:

Base coat VGC Leather Brown (used to be Cobra Leather)

Main highlight VGC Scrofulous Brown

Next highlight VGC Gold Yellow

Final edge highlight VGC Bonewhite

I finished up with some ink glazes. I'll mention that in a bit. I'm not sure a glaze is currently considered the same as what I always understood a glaze to be but for me it's a very dilute wash of ink that barely tints the finished paint work.

This is the start of the Lieutenant, a model released in 1989. 

Here's a quick snap of the finished armour.

I'm quite happy with the armour colour and it's a close match. It turned out to not be as much hassle as I recalled as well. I couldn't get an exact colour match for potentially a number of reasons but I think the most likely one is the VGC Gold Yellow. I finally had to replace my original pot last year after 17 years or so and I think it's slightly different. I relied on the glazes to try and tint the paint work in the right direction. Originally I used Citadel brown ink as my finishing glaze but that's long gone now. Instead I used Winsor & Newton Nut Brown ink but the colour was still a bit off. Tried W&N Sunshine Yellow but that did nothing. Ended up using a glaze of GW Reikland Fleshshade. When the whole model is done I might add some extra sharp highlights if needed.

Not a great deal to do on this now but there are a couple of things that will slow down my finishing the model. I need to add the shoulder insignia but my old transfers seemed rather brittle last time I tried to use them. Not great when the only way to fit decals on these very convex shoulder pads is to slice them and then use decal softener to avoid creasing (followed by a certain amount of repainting). The other issue is the power sword. I'd like to paint it as a power weapon rather than just in metals but I never really got to grips with that whole thing so that could be a frustrating learning curve.

Whilst I'm not promising anything I am thinking I might get a few more of my command section done. Two more models would make a nice addition, all five would be fantastic, plus the dread' maybe to round it all out for now. Check back in 15 years to see if that comes to fruition. ;)

Genestealer coven

This was a small commission that I couldn't resist posting about because I really like all things genestealer. My own history with these chitinous, egg laying, hybrid making nasties goes all the way back to the release of the 1st edition of Space Hulk. Loved the idea of covens and cults as shown in the army lists in White Dwarf at the time as well. I had a couple of the metal hybrids and the running patriarch but that was it outside of the numerous plastics. Much later on I picked up the seated patriarch somewhere online for a real bargain by todays standards and then some years back I went on a little collecting spree and grabbed a handful of hybrids and more metal purestrains than I really should have. Of course my genestealers are sitting unpainted and gathering dust like most of my 'projects'. Adding to that are the new generation of models acquired through 3rd edition Space Hulk and Deathwatch Overkill.

For this commission I was asked to follow the original studio paint jobs. I tweaked a few things as the original colour schemes are a little garish in retrospect but I think these are pretty true to those classic paint jobs. The last time I painted a genestealer I was a teenager and it was the early 90's. Very few of my old paint jobs exist but there are a couple of plastic genestealers kicking around from those early days and I took a quick snap of three generations of painting.

On the left is one of my earliest attempts. Base coats, ink washes and drybrushing as prescribed in the pages of White Dwarf at the time. This could be from 1989, I forget when exactly I started painting these models. It would have originally been based on a metal gauze topped slotta for Space Hulk.

The middle model is from anywhere between 1990 and 1993 I reckon. This is where I discovered layering thanks to picking up a copy of Heroes for Wargames whilst on holiday. A much more sophisticated finish although still showing my lack of experience. This may have been a repaint of one of the wash and drybrush models.

Of course the one on the right is modern day with a fair bit more experience and ability behind it.

Anyway, enough rambling and rose tinted nonsense, onto the pics:

The big guy, the patriarch and magus advisor. A lot of work went into this as might be expected. A little daunting at first, especially the throne but once the base coats were on it really wasn't as scary as first thought.

A trio of magus's, magi, mag... whatever. I have to two Jes Goodwin models but not the Bob Olley sculpt. Always though there were three Bob Olley sculpts but it seems there are only two (the other having a staff)!

The classic hybrids.

And finally the purestrains, the worlds most awkward models to photograph (bloody arms in the way!).

That's it, next post should be on something I've painted for myself all being well.

Ultramarine - RTB01 Sergeant

I managed to paint up another of my old plastic space marines. Not bad seeing as I only posted pics of the last one a month ago. I had a few different models prepped and ready to choose from and decided to go with the squad sergeant. Main reason was an excuse to have a stab at painting one of the bare heads. It's not the best bit of sculpting and even back in 1989 when I bought the RTB01 boxed set I thought the bare heads were a bit shit. That said, I do rather enjoy trying to do something with the less impressive models of old.

So, generally it's the same deal as the first model I painted although the head needed quite a bit of time to get right. The hair has no texture at all so I had to paint that all on. The bionic eye still looks a bit soft but there's not much I can do about that. The lens was tricky as it's just a hole and I wish I'd filled it before painting. Even after varnishing the model I went back to it and tweaked it and I think it looks alright now. I have seen some people improve these heads with putty or replace them entirely with better looking parts but I wanted to keep this real old school and not fuck about with things.

I'm not keen on the knife on the leg as it's not got a scabbard and looks a little odd just floating there but it was glued on with floods of liquid poly 25+ years ago and is utterly fused to the leg. I guess it's a reminder of my younger days. It's not the worst aesthetic choice I've seen though (look on Ebay for marines with arms up in the air and shit glued in all sorts of weird places). I was surprisingly sensible with my assembly of these originally.

I did briefly wonder about adding a back banner but with these intended for Space Hulk I decided that most marines would surely avoid something so cumbersome. 

Insignia on the shoulder was done the same way as the other marine. A couple of decals as a base and then over painted to look painted on. I decided to go with the sergeants cuff insignia from the 1989 space marine painting guide (the tactical arrow marking is from that same period). This was 'proper' freehand and took a couple of attempts to get right. 

I really liked the idea of adding kill markings to the bolter, either yellow stripes or a skull or something, but with the cuff insignia I thought it might look a bit much. I'll save that idea for another model.

Should I get any more models done I got a few more bases put together and painted. Just plastic sheet, strip and metal gauze. 

"It's alright Brother Marine, the xenos haven't been painted yet"