Dakka dakka

so, in an effort to get more involved with the online community i signed up with dakkadakka.com today and posted a couple of pics about my guys.

let me just say, so far the people there have been awesome. only a couple of hours and folks have already taken the time to post kind comments.

i highly encourage all newbies to join.

www.dakkadakka.com

Victory!!

A couple of days ago saw the second (and third) battles between the Fists and the Blood Angels.

I am proud to say that despite losing their previous fight, the Fists were victorious in both battles!

Thanks to the deadliness of a Captain with a force weapon (who needs to be painted next), the sheer tenacity of my terminator squad and the outrageous behavior of my scouts (who actually wiped out a whole squad of Blood Angel Assault Marines) the Fists were able to destroy more of the enemy (which was the objective) by the time the game was over.

next time we try something a bit more complicated than just head to head combat but for now, victory!!

Terminator Sergeant

On one of my recent (and frequent) trips to the local GW store i picked up a squad of assault terminators. not so much that i needed them as, well, the models look awesome.

anyways, i have built and painted the sergeant. obviously, the base isnt done yet but i think the rest of him looks ok.

I think thunder hammers can be tricky; its hard to make them look like anything other than, well, large lumps of metal. the problem is that of course they are more than just metal. so, i decided to go with a green motiff to match the terminators eyes.

Sternguard squad!

well, the first sternguard squad is finished. all in all im pretty happy with them :)

Sternguard

This weekend I had my first round of 40k; sadly, my Imperial Fists were crushed ruthlessly by a Blood Angels contingent - a pox on those assault troops.

still, it was fun to see the game in action. it was also nice to deploy what painted troops i have.

So far in my yellow saga i have completed 10 models - four tactical troops plus a tactical sergeant, one terminator and most excitingly four stern guard. in my opinion, the new finecast stern guard models look fantastic and are a lot of fun to paint.

Below are some pics of my stern guard. as you can see ive gone for a more subdued yellow rather than super bright. The guys aren't strictly speaking codex because i wasnt in love with a red Aquila. instead, i figure given the Fists love of scrimshaw its not too far out the box to do their trims in bone.

Stern guard with bolter

first stern guard i painted. I painted the back pack separately .

three back packs

Stern Guard with multi-melta 

Stern guard with melta - pretty happy with the sooty barrel effect

finished this one on sunday. 

three of the four together

Getting started

I think one of the great things about the 40k hobby is the way everyone has their own way to get to where they are going. Ironically, in building our armies of genetically engineered, military conformists we can actually show a lot of individual creativity!

some folks alter the models themselves, some folks create their own paint schemes and even though GW (and other great firms) make a wide range of useful colours, some folks create their own through blends and layering.

i came across this last aspect when trying to get started on my IF. even a quick Google search of "how to paint yellow in 40k" will show you dozens of forums of poor souls trying to get past the messy, washed out yellow that plagues us all.

i was lucky. i came across a bunch of tutorials from kind yellow painters out there, and while they were all different in their recipes they taught me: firstly, layer your paint young man! and secondly, there is no "one way".

which is cool.

for anyone that is interested, http://www.wiltrichs.com/tutorials/painting-imperial-fists/ is a link to how to paint yellow by Golden Demon winner, William Davies.

It all starts with a book....

So, a few months ago - in one of those innocent conversations that end up changing your life - a good friend of mine puts me on the Horus Heresy novels . I had a long flight coming up so I grabbed the first couple from the Black Library, loaded up my Kindle and headed off.

I was hooked by the first meal service.

Devoured Horus rising on the first flight; false gods 24 hours later. yes, this geek had found a new home.

It seemed perfectly reasonable then, that when I returned home my friend said to me "want to try the table top game?". where's the harm right? I like games, I like the universe, what could go wrong?

So, I agree to give it a go. we both set about building our armies. He is playing blood angels and I find myself facing that terrible decision - which army to build? Chaos isn't my speed, I've long lost touch with my inner Ork  and the models on the others didn't grab me. it had to be marines, but who? The cool red guys are taken by my friend; I looked at the Ultras but lacked the confidence to face the streams of hate the player base on the forums seem to have for  them.

Once again my friend (this time armed with a suspicious smirk) steps up to help:

"how about the Imperial Fists?".

Looked up some lore - the IF seem awesome. Turns out, they are. They are righteous, ass kicking, dramatic.....and yellow. So. Very. Yellow. Now, you got to respect someone who has the stones to wear yellow on the battlefield, so I signed up. went out, got myself the Assault on Black Reach kit, some paints and gave myself over to my new addiction.

I'm a couple of weeks in now and I have discovered that while the fists are awesome, yellow is...well...a pain. so, I thought I would try and keep this journal - an account of one nerds struggles to paint yellow.

So...


Much...


Yellow.....