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. ;)

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"

Ultramarine - RTB01 Beaky Marine

Last year I was on one of my periodic Space Hulk fads. These usually go nowhere but I'd always been keen on the idea of using regular marines in the game after seeing the rules for powered armour in White Dwarf 120. I think I played a couple of games using them back in the day with my plastic marines.

Anyway, I still have most of my original plastic beakies, albeit stripped and mostly in bits, and not having any real idea what to do with them (apart from a a few specially earmarked squads) I realised I had enough to use in Space Hulk. Now most of my plans go nowhere but I did end up fixing up a squad of models before stalling at the question of colour schemes.

Various ideas came to mind but I ended up deciding I wanted to revisit a colour scheme I'd used on a few marines back in the 90's. It must have been around '97 that I painted up some Ultramarines, two or three terminators and a couple of plastic beakies. All stripped years ago but I remembered the blue was nicely muted and would fit well with my current penchant for toned down colours. I tried a few things out on a spare model to get the colours down but wasn't happy and that was that. Models went back in the box and I moved onto something else.

A few weeks back I had one of those eureka moments right out of nowhere, so tried some slightly different colours and ended up with exactly what I wanted for my Ultramarines! Sometimes it pays to not think too hard about things I guess.

A base coat of VMC Luftwaffe Uniform WWII highlighted up with VGC Ultramarine Blue and then some VGC Cold Grey and finally VMC Silvergrey for the edge lining. I used VGC Heavy Charcoal to dark line between the armour plates and put a thin glaze of GW Nuln Oil over it all when done. I added a little rust on the seams of the lower legs and around the studs on the shoulder pad (to try and disguise how badly sculpted they are).

The shoulder insignia is an over painted decal. These are old decals and I realised they've become brittle with age. A bit of decal film helped a little but they still proved tricky to use, not helped by trying to apply them to such a convex surface. I had to use my old techniques from when I painted my Imperial Fists marines which involved cutting into the decal to allow it to conform to the surface. Then it took a few cotes of decal softener (Micro Scale Micro Sol) to even out all the creases. The arrows are part of an assault decal that I cut up and added. With all the cutting, the distortion of the surface and the crumbly nature of old decals it didn't look great but it was just a guide so I could paint over it. A bit of hassle perhaps but easier than having several attempts and freehand that I'll never be able to reproduce on the rest of the unit (if I do them).

I made my own base top too. Just plastic sheet and a bit of inspiration from the original Space Hulk tile set. I made a few more just in case I do get more models painted. I did wonder about looking into getting some moulded and cast up to save on time but that's another thing entirely.  Didn't go for an exact colour match as I wanted something a bit more muted, but it's similar enough.