Imperial Fists- Horus Heresy!

Here is my new army for 2023, Imperial Fists, originally my first choice for 30k, as I'd collected Crimson Fists since 1987, and had a sizable Black Templars army in 4th edition 40k, it made sense to go back 10,000 years and visit the Imperial Fists legion that spawned both those iconic chapters! My Legio Victorum Titans dictated otherwise however with the Dark Angels and Night Lords getting chosen for some narrative Thramas Crusade lore reasons and to tie the collections together. I was also worried that painting an army yellow without an air brush would be a total nightmare. I wanted to document my Imperial Fists journey here!

I started off with a Leviathan Dreadnought I'd originally bought for my Crimson Fists from Forge World back in 2018, it was built and primed but never painted and sat in my cabinet for 5 long years! I had it for sale with no bites on it so I at least got some practice in on it. I'm so glad fate kept it with me as its turned into one of my personal favourite models!

It was primed black (!) so it took a few layers working from a soild brown basecoat up to yellow!

It was time consuming blocking in yellow this way but very rewarding, yes you have total control of highlight and shade but the downside is the work load. To paint an army this way would send me insane, and take me years!

I have to say the Leviathan is now one of my favourite models and was worth the wait in getting paint on it.

Next up was a Predator support tank! Painted the same way over a black (!) basecoat because I'm a maniac.

Once again, loved the build and paint but I'm realising that painting a full army this way would be way too time consuming for me. If it was a pure display army sure, but I want to enjoy using them on the tabletop (this edition preferably!) I have to find a compromise of getting vibrant yellow FASTER with a brush.

with Infantry I decided to do it in a slightly different way, painting them pink over a white primer and then re zenithal white over the pink before a layer of Imperial Fists contrast paint which truly does all the heavy lifting here, it's already talent in a bottle, the pink gives the nice subtle orange undertones once the yellow goes over it. I treat it as a basecoat though and continued to highlight and shade over it the same as I always have, it still feels like "proper painting" to me, though its fairly painless compared to 30,000 layers of watery yellow over black!!!!

Line Sgt in mk6 power armour.

Weathering over yellow is fun for me and was part of the attraction to this army, adding that battle worn look to them. Listening to the Siege Of Terra on Audible while I paint and hearing how relentless the campaign was, I knew how I wanted my force to look. Battle worn.

A squad of Mk6 Tacticals is ready to defend the walls!

Mk3 box set enters the chat, revealed at Warhammer Fest, I had to grab one! I haven't fully decided how to assemble them all yet. I have 30 Mk6 still available to me filling the Tactical line role already. I have enough Tacticals for my 3k list, so some Mk3s might be finding their ways to my other different Legions, I'm looking at what support I can give to my Night Lords and Dark Angels. No rush deciding, still plenty to work on!

My buddy Joe built the Deredeo Dreadnought for me he offers a commision service over on instagram @esoteric_path_commissions feel free to go check him out! Did an amazing job on the build and Magnetised the arms to be able to swap out the load outs. Joe also made me a custom HQ model for my Fists which I can't wait to paint!

Standing on a resin Unreal Wargaming Base offers him a bit more size, he looks less squat, he's is a chonky boy in his own right comparable to my other chonky boy the Leviathan Dreadnought.

Defending these ruins is so thematic of the Fists

Spartan Work In Progress. Still trying different methods of yellow this was primed black with a zenithal white with the pink and yellow contrast. It was my least favourite of the experiments and I won't be going that way again.

Another thing I remembered, that I had a model stashed away in the loft, it was only our Primarch himself Rogal Dorn! I had plans to convert him for use elsewhere and he's been stashed away for years! He resurfaced when i was doing the Dark Angels last year! Its a sign!!!

Things are really falling so into place with the Imperial Fists and it feels like im on the right hobby path, hard to explain but things just feel right!! Sadly I had already chopped up and used his scenic display base for 2 of my Dark Angels Dreadnoughts back when I still didn't really have any use for Dorn!

He might not ever see game use but I will include him in a completed army photo one day! Standing proud over his Legion!

Staying on the Forge World theme...

I picked up the Forge World Fire Raptor from a friend of mine @the miniature Apothecary who had done a fair chunk of the build, I've always fancied a Fire raptor but they have a NASTY reputation of being a real swine to assemble which always put me off getting one. When the opportunity came up to purchase this one from Mr Apothecary who had definitely done the hardest parts, I only had to finish the build off, it was a no brainer but i was left with a big dialema on my hands, it was honestly bought with the intention to go to my Night Lords, with them in mind I had made plans for exactly how it would look in my head. However I had a conversation with Mr Apothecary about bucket list models while I was round their place playing Heresy. I'm in a real lucky position where i've ticked off the majority of my bucket list kits with the Titans, but there are two remaing bucket list kits left (that are still in production) The mighty Sokar Pattern Stormbird and Thunderhawk Gunship both are fairly big titanic models themselves. I've never really had a use for either and the Stormbird was the Heresy era Thunderhawk predecessor and would have looked way out of place in my 40k Crimson Fists colours IMO. I wouldn't want to paint it black for my Dark Angels it just doesnt appeal to me personally, ive seen Dark Angels Stormbirds looking absolutely mazing but i hate painting black models so much it wouldn't be how I'd want a bucket list model to go down, it would feel like such a slog instead of working on something i'd enjoy every minute of. I seriously need a break from painting big blue models with all the Knights and Titans I've done, so i felt like the Night Lords was out of the equation too! I am seriously loving my time working on the Imperial Fists and they fit the bill perfectly for a massive flying fortress right!? After that conversation I couldn't shake the idea from my head. The Stormbird or T-hawk was back on the table... Maybe!! It would have the sentimental attachment to the Fists too

That decided then the Fire Raptor would be the ultimate test model to see if I could do it justice without an airbrush! Best case scenario I end up with an awesome Fire Raptor that I'm pleased with, worst case scenario I really love it so much and have to give up things like food to save up for a Titanic flyer! Haha

Mr Apothecary had done a fair chunk of the work as already mentioned, so the core part of the build belongs to him. He had removed the Aquilas off from the wing thrusters, which suited my Night Lords perfectly, I followed suit and removed the remaining one from the nose. Still thinking at that point it was going to go to my Spooky boys! It sat unpainted for a few weeks before my mind was finally made up which way to go! I was so torn on it a decision had to be made.

Imperial Fists fly boys are coming!

My favourite of the Stormraven based kits! Although The Storm Eagle Assault Gunship would be nice to own too. Please do it in plastic GW!!

I decided to leave the pilot out as he was from the plastic Stormraven kit, mk7 or 8? I think armour, definitely the wrong era for the Horus Heresy and it would have messed with my OCD lol so the canopy was painted red.

it was at this point where I took stock of what I had done and got some group pics going. I'd been working on a few models and couldn't picture how it would possibly look as an army! I often find if the hobby mojo starts to dip these are good cheat days to feel proud about what you've done so far! Evaluate what still needs doing once the bigger picture has been seen. It helps me lots when the negativity creeps in.

I wanted to get some core vehicles done before the infantry slog! I think painting the chaff is the hardest part of doing any army. I can allow myself to not care as much about them, as great as the new Heresy infantry models are they die so fast!!!!

Really loving how they are turning out.

I wish I had waited a bit longer until I had decals done on the vehicles but I had the time and space to do it and the sun on my side, as we head into winter these nice sunny days aren't guaranteed! It might have been my last chance before spring to have a quick look at the collection.

Proteus from the battlegroup set WIP

Possibly my favourite model, the old Forgeworld resin Leviathan, I haven't done the newer plastic one yet! My other Heresy armies have their own legion specific resin dreads.

Used to be the only Dreadnought missing from my collection, the compensator class Deredeo, there was something that never clicked with me with the design, possibly its little legs I don't think the Forgeworld static pose really sold him either. Joe did an awesome job of making me actually love this model!! I'm proud to have it in the army and it will see the battlefield!

The Predator is going to be one of 3! Though I doubt I'll use the same paint scheme or method.

Love 30k, it scratches that itch of seeing lots of armour on the battlefield lots of models! I've always liked to see epic looking armies over small skirmish games.

I was a bit worried about the consistency of my yellows, I've tried out two or three different ways to paint them so far, so they aren't a totally dead on uniform look. I'm also happy that an entire legion wouldn't be painted in one day and they would have had different deployments and are all different ages so it makes sense to me that where they have been would weather and age them differently ss they all have their own stories. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

I never thought I'd EVER do this, I used the now sadly Out Of Production Forge World legion specific Contemptor Dreadnought as an old relic in my beloved Crimson Fists force, I'd gamed with him in 8th edition and he was on my Armies On Parade tile, if Forge World kept making them I'd have kept buying them, but they made the silly IMO decision to remove them from sale to offer a worse solution of a more expensive and frankly DOWNGRADED version, but now is not the time to rant. I decided it was time to send this proud ancient brother back in time and the blue had to go!

Contemptor Dreadnought work in progress!

An old friend returns in new clothes!

The 3 amigos of my Imperial Fists Dreadnoughts, I have two more Contemptors still to build! Joe still has another Deredeo Dreadnought to build for me too! I do love my dreads!

Two Proteus Land Raiders, really loving this new plastic kit from GW, I still have a Rogue Trader era one in my Crimson Fists collection so it really feels great to build an updated version of an old friend! I had a fair few of the original Land Raiders back in the late 80s! Having two kits I decided to build both differently for variation while both counts as the carrier version on the table. The right one with black on has been used to carry the Templar Breathren into combat and carries their iconography!

A bit more work on the Land Raiders and Raptor

Fire Raptor Gunship really coming together now, I'm really smitten with it!

Added decals and black flash to the wings of the Fire Raptor to break up the yellow, though I prefer more yellow on Imperial Fists if I'm honest.

It really is a great model and I feel lucky to finally have one! It was on my wants list for years! As much as I know it would have looked amazing in Night Lords livery I think the correct choice was made even with irresponsible financial decisions attached to it

Yellow panels offer up so much opportunity to pick out all the details!

Some chipping and decal work on all the Land Raiders in the Titan cabinet for now while I sort out logistics of where to keep a new unplanned army!

I like that no two are the same. I did the same thing with my Titans and Knights!

Templar Breathren have entered the conversation Work In Progress.

Okay so yeah, true to my word, happy with how the Fire Raptor turned out. A Stormbird lands! It will have its own blog entry though!

WIP of the Praetor Joe made me

Love the back of the model, I really wanted a cloak for him, and Joe went to a lot of effort to make that a reality, that said I was happy with the back of this model though it will all eventually be mostly hidden.

Really love this storm shield

My HQ choice is done decals added! With Axe and shield he cut down the Traitors and purge the heretics.

Joe sculpted the fur on my cloak, he's done so many Space Wolves and had the practice. I love this model has a touch of space Viking about him!

Massive thanks to Joe for the model. I'll treasure it!

Up next was another Imperial Fists Contemptor Dreadnought of the melty smashy variety! This is made up of 3 Dreadnoughts, old Forge World resin legs, the new Forge World resin torso 'upgrade' and the plastic Contemptor arms.

Theres another Contemptor built and primed and waiting in the wings for a rainy day. I'm probably going to end up with far more Dreadnoughts than I need but they are my favourite models in the game so I don't see a problem with that!!

This humble little Rhino has given me so much grief its been quite funny, I had to modify / adapt it for airlift reasons! It reminds me of the old Land Rovers the Paras used to use!! I've chopped so much plastic off it! All will be explained later on!

I wanted to keep it playable so it doesn't look out of place on the table top I don't think?

Happy to get the first of two Rhinos down, the next one will be a straight built it out of the box chill build and won't cause me as much stress as this one has!