FINISHED – Imperial Fists Legion Praetor & Tactical
Support Squad No.1
I’m currently using up some holiday at work, which has given
me some more time to work on getting the Unpainted Legion under control. I
finished the Legion Praetor from the ‘Betrayal at Calth’ set. I’m really
pleased with how he turned out.
I posted some pictures on the ‘Imperial Truth’ podcast
Facebook page, and they were pretty well received. Although a lot of people,
including my friend Andy, suggested painting the base rims black. I did give
this some thought and I do think it would look good, but I have decided to
stick with brown. I quite like the way it blends with the ‘Martian Ironearth’
on the bases.
I always name my army commanders after myself, and I am
really keen on giving my Heresy Era Imperial Fists a strong narrative theme. So
I have named my Legion Praetor Captain Paulus Novus.
You can see more pictures of my Legion Praetor on my Flickr
account here:
I have also finished the first troops choice/infantry unit
of my Heresy Era Imperial Fists army, a Tactical Support Squad. I bought two ‘Betrayal
at Calth’ sets, and using both with just the duplicate Chaplain and Praetor
left over I wrote a 2000 point army list. The ‘Betrayal at Calth’ set is such
incredible value for the number of models it includes and also for the sheer
number of bits and spare parts.
Two sets allows me to make three ten-man bolter-armed
Tactical Squads, three six-man Tactical Support Squads, with six Plasma Guns,
Melta Guns and Flamers in each respectively, and two six-man Heavy Support Squads,
one with Heavy Bolters and one with Missile Launchers.
So here is, Sergeant Matthias, named after my friend Matty,
and his Plasma Gun armed Tactical Support Squad.
I’m very pleased with how they turned out, they’re probably
the best painted infantry unit I’ve finished so far. I did have some issues
with the assembly though. I painted them in four sub-assemblies. Body, weapon,
left arm and right arm. Gluing four pieces together with two hands was a bit
tricky. But I have learned from my mistakes, for all subsequent infantry models
I am now using three sub-assemblies, body, right arm with weapon attached, and
left arm.
You can see more pictures of my Plasma Gun armed Tactical
Support Squad on my Flickr account here:
My Tactical Support Squad took me longer to paint that I
expected it to, but still a lot less time than it usually takes me to finish
infantry models. I’m going to try and leverage the momentum I’ve built up to
paint as many infantry squads as I can before I burn out. So now I’m working on
a six-man Heavy Support Squad armed with missile launchers.
I am going to try a few shortcuts to hopefully save myself painting
time while still achieving a similar finish quality to the Tactical Support Squad
I just completed. For instance once the weathering powders are applied to the
legs it’s not obvious that the pipes and soles around the feet were painted and
highlighted a different colour (metallic) than the armour itself. So I may skip
this step entirely.
I paint the armour of my Imperial Fists by priming them with
Citadel ‘Skull White’ spray, and then again with Army Painter ‘Daemonic Yellow’.
I then apply two coats of Citadel ‘Averland Sunset’ by brush (it takes two
coats to get a smooth, opaque finish). Then I drown the models in ‘Seraphim
Sepia’ shade and once that’s dry, repaint the raised and flat areas of the
armour with ‘Averland Sunset’. It was this last step that I found the most time
consuming on the Tactical Support Squad. So I’m going to try just applying the
shade to the recesses, hopefully making it unnecessary to repaint the raised
and flat areas afterwards.
Organising the Backlog
A couple of months ago I bought some plastic tubs to keep
unpainted units and all of their bits and pieces together safely and tidily. I’ve
been going back to the local store I bought them from every now and then for
months and they never have any more. They don’t seem to have restocked them
since I bought the ones they had.
This kind of annoyed me a bit, I was desperate to buy more
so I can tidy up my unpainted models and start to organise my collection. I
asked the staff and they said they had to wait until they could make a big
enough order. But it had already been three months and no one seemed to know
when they would be placing their next order, and I am impatient.
So I looked around to see if I could get more of the same
brand. I found a few places on eBay and Amazon that sold them, but only at
three or more times the amount of money I paid in my local store, and that’s
not including postage either.
So I contacted the manufacturers directly, but they refused
to sell me any, saying that they don’t sell to the public, only direct to
trade. But they did recommend a website that sells their products. The prices
were ok, so I thought I’d place an order, and then I saw the shipping costs, so
I didn’t place an order with them.
I was getting pretty frustrated by now, but then I had a
flash of inspiration. I tried ‘The Range’ and bingo they had them in stock and
their postage was pretty reasonable. So I ordered fifteen!
They arrived the other day and I spent an afternoon organising
my unfinished model kits. I could still use a few more tubs, but it’s a great
start.
Display Cabinet
Having some time off of work has also allowed me to get
other things done that I wouldn’t normally have time to do. I took all of the
models out of my display cabinet and cleaned the glass. I also bought some blue
paper from ‘The Range’ and taped the sheets to the back of the cabinet. The
light blue colour is a lot brighter than the dark wood and makes it a lot
easier to see my finished models.
Win a Titan!
Forge World are running a competition to win a Titan model
at the moment. To enter you have to make a qualifying order of £100 or more by
the 31st of March and then e-mail Forge World with i) The name you
would choose for your Titan and ii) A short story about how it earned its name
in 400 words or less.
I wouldn’t have made such a large order just to enter this
competition, but I was planning on buying a Legion Fellblade Tank at Salute
next month anyway and that order would be enough to qualify. So I placed my
order for a Fellblade and a few other bits and pieces and I have arranged to
collect it Salute.
When the competition is closed I’ll post the full text of my
entry, but for now here are the first few lines:
“I have had many
names. In the beginning I was called #0004077H/E a short while later, when they
lit my reactor they called me ‘Sentinel of Unity’. But none now live who
remember those names. For ten thousand years I have walked below a thousand
alien skies upon worlds uncounted or slumbered through the stars and void
between.”
I have a secret ambition to be a fiction author and I really
took my time over my entry, it’s even 400 words long exactly. The other day I
got an e-mail from ‘Black Library’, Games Workshop’s publishing arm. They’re
looking for submissions for short story ideas and you could even get published
and become a Black Library author. I might have a go at submitting something.
My Birthday!
It was my birthday last Sunday and my parents surprised me
with an unexpected present of some Games Workshop gift vouchers. I’m not sure
what I want to spend them on yet. I’d like to buy and paint up an Aegis Defence
Line for my Imperial Fists. But I’m also wanting to hold on until April 16th
when Games Workshop are apparently releasing a special miniature to celebrate
the 30th anniversary of the Space Marine range. But then again, I
also want one of the ‘Start Collecting!’ Skitarii boxes so I can start a Dark
Mechanicus army to oppose my Imperial Fists!
I’m spoiled for choice!
Current Size of the Unpainted Legion: 300 models.
Currently Reading: (Non-Black Library) ‘Armada’ by Ernest
Cline.
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