Erebus gathered his withinlookmen and scryers about him, and channeled the mem-crystals through his consciousness. His vision swam, and a shape coalesced before him – golden-hued and terrible.

Stretching before the giant in serried ranks were power-armoured Astartes –Huscarls – bodyguards and holy warriors.


The golden-armoured Astarte spoke:
'The galaxy has turned. Even now, our brothers turn against us. The crusade we have prosecuted has turned within. For now, it is time to consolidate, to strike back against these traitors. For now, forget the promise of progress and understanding. There will be no peace amongst the stars, only a time of carnage and slaughter.'

A hush fell. Archamus looked down, then raised his helmet and clamped it onto his armour. The vocalisers blared, in a chant that was taken up by the companies of assembled Imperial Fist veterans:

'Victory! Victory! All all times victory! Victory! Victory!'

This'll be a blog charting the progress of an army I've wanted to make for a long time. I built an Imperial Fist army a long time ago, and being able to recreate the Fists was too great a temptation!

I hope you like how they're looking so far – these are WIP.

I was having a horrible day
until you posted this
ace work man and as always your true scale student and fan

Well I'm glad to see you having a crack at another Legion! (although did it have to be another loyalist one? :) )

These guys are exemplary so far, do you have any idea how much you are going to do, and what sort of force composition you are going for? I presume that the movement forward in time from your Ultramarines is to give a bit more room to manouver as far as armour types are concerned?

simply outstanding dude! thats all there is to say

i just hope my 'fists look this good for the compliance campaign in oct

awsome job ;)

Pokemon balls everywhere!!

Yum stuff mate.

You may carry on :D

Looking really good. Well done for choosing the pokeball scheme - it's very striking.

The NMM gold looks really good as well, though I'm not too sure about the cherub...

Glad I could help! :)

+++

Ha ha! Don't tempt me... Come the scouring, some Black Legion might rear their ugly heads. A true-scale Abaddon is too good an opportunity to pass up...

Cheers. Due to the utter fail of an earlier spraycan (which resulted in the first ones I'd done being covered in a coating of fur :( ), these have had to be relegated to supporting a Mechanicum force in the upcoming Tempus Fugitive campaign weekend. The force will include:

Sigismund, Archamus and three Huscarl Primarch Honour Guard; plus a five-man command squad and a five-man Sternguard squad (the fellas you can see above).

Sigismund is also completed, but no piccies at the moment. Very pleased with how he came out – a nice combo of Black Templar and Imperial Fist (though he's lugging around the 'Black Mace' at the moment!)

Sort of. One of the things I didn't like about the Ultramarines I did was the variation, so these guys will be much more uniform. PLus I love the mark IV heads (cheers Shroud!) :)

+++

Cheers. I wasn't really sure how to approach these guys paintscheme-wise, but I think the red and white looks good and can be explained away as these guys being the legion's veterans

Thanks – there's a few purple and green washes in there to lift it a bit. I think the cherub's pretty important to the overall composition – he completes the four points of the Templar cross around him (banner symbol, bird, helmet and cherub), and provides a thematic counterpoint to the hawk.

I will agree that the symbolism's pretty heavy-handed – both the Hawk and Dove are blindfolded to the Truth, and the dove (cherub) is being pressed into service. It's supposed to represent the desperation of the Heresy. :unsure:

Of course, in addition to that, it ties it into the baroque stylings of my Mechanicus army (as do the red and white helms). :)

P'raps I ought to take the cherub off?

I has a happy! :D

These are looking splendid-tasty, just as I expected. Can't wait to see them at AOTE2!

very nice - I would love to have the patience to paint a yellow army!

Completely awesome. :)

Awesome, will be good to see these guys in the flesh at AoTE!

Excellent work again! Impressive stuff... really looking forward to seeing Sigismund!!!

Dont take the cherub off! I really like it... (although thats possibly due to the cherub that i've included on my Sigismund!)

Looking forward to seeing them for real at AOTE.

Truly awesome!!! Can't wait to see more amazing true-scale Astartes out of your new blog!

Seeing these guys makes me want to get back to my IH's... :(

Again, great to see you making more minis!! They're looking fantastic so far. And don't remove the cherub, it looks really good as is.

lovley jubly!!! :D :rolleyes: :D

Bubbling under in the plasmaforges...

Your occulobe should be able to pick out Sigismund about halfway through painting.(Before he went a lot blacker!)

I spy 7 to-be-amazing Imperial Fists on the way!

Can't wait to see then done in all their yellow splendor!

Thanks for all the feedback, cats; most appreciated! :)
With all the Iron Warriors popping up on the forum, the Imperial Fists needed some reinforcements...

First Captain Sigismund
My interpretation of this character has him bearing the black and white heraldry of the Huscarl Templars (Dorn's bodyguards), and bearing the Black Sword(ish). After all, if the Fist of Dorn is a hammer and the Spear of Dorn is a stormbolter, it amused me for the Black Sword to be a mace.



Come the Siege of the Emperor's Palace itself, Sigismund will receive a repaint, to give him proper black armour – and a weapon swap, to give him the proper Black Sword. I need to follow canon sometimes!

I've added quite a few personal touches to his armour – he is First Captain, after all – including reversed shoulder pads (black on yellow):

The Templar Cross on his shoulder...

...and torso:


To further emphasise the Teutonic feel, I gave him blue eye-lenses:

...which contrast with the softer but more alien purple of the rest:

Note also the Captain badge on his helmet, which I poached from Rogue Trader.

The creepy cherubs are a great favourite of mine, and being able to stick 'em in this army helps to tie the Fists to the Mechanicum, as well as making them suitably Baroque. You'll note that I've painted the parchments black, with white writing. This contrasts far better with the white, and I think it presages the Black Templars nicely.


This antique feel is heightened by the use of turquoise around the metallics. Note also that the cherub's wings helps to create the impression that Sigismund himself is an avenging angel – very suited to the chap!


Hope you like him – he was a lot of fun to make and paint. :)

very nice indeed! ;)

only thing i'll say though is sigismund had his black armour befor the siege of the palace:

Black and white heraldry does not constitute black and white armour... There's another quote (mentioned in a Background thread, I believe) that has him in yellow/gold. It is specifically stated that he paints his armour all black for the Siege of Terra.

He looks great, Apo. You're right about the cherub, they do help with the baroque feeling and seems an important connection to your other army.

I love the mace, it looks very cool. I think the blood leaking out of his breastplate could do with darkening a bit, maybe a brown wash?

Tamiya Clear Red for blood. Honestly, it's amazing! I'm 100% converted to that!

He speaks the truth. ^^

Also, add a bit of midnight blue or black for extra, visceral, realism!