More Imperial Fists

Using the montana gold spray for undercoat is REALLY helping me whizz through my Imperial Fist army (so much so, in fact, that I'm dreading going back to my old school approach on my Guard army). In just a couple of days since my last post, I've managed to get the basic coats on a razorback and a 5-man tactical squad:

The painting highlight for me, though, has been painting the interior of the razorback. I've always sealed them up, but I saw an article in an old White Dwarf where someone had painted the inside and not sealed the roof, so fancied giving it a go:

Gold Imperial Fist Terminators

Back when I painted my Salamanders army, my initial idea was to paint an Imperial Fist list. The test mini that i painted looked dire, though, and so I opted for the green of the Salamanders. This week I decided to have another go with them - just on an initial 500pt and then 1k list - after listening to the Dark King audiobook, thinking that it would be good practice in painting lighter-toned minis. I then had the brainwave: why not paint them in gold like they are described in the fluff? Using a combination of Montana Gold spray and GW shining gold drybrushed, I have painted up 5 termis as test models and am pretty happy with the result. They are bright but with the washes etc. they still look like I have painted them (for better or worse)

My initial list is:

HQ

Captain Lysander

Elites

5 Terminators (powerfists & powersword)

Troops

5x Scouts (missile launcher & teleport homer)

5x Tactical Squad (4 bolters; inc. Sergeant with powerfist)

Razorback (T/L lascannon)

10x Tactical Squad (flamer)

Rhino (stormbolter)

Fast Attack

Land Speeder (multi-melta & stormbolter)

I HATE metal minis :-/

On his soapbox again...

The last two days, and the last two that I have painted (namely Kharn and this Commissar), have really brought home to me how much I really hate painting metal minis. I appreciate that metal minis have more depth to them, but I really find them a pain to paint and I've yet to paint one that I dont think I could have done a better job of if it had been in plastic.

In interviews, Jack White from the White Stripes always says that one reason why he uses cheap guitars that barely stay in tune is that he likes the idea of struggling against the medium to produce his art. I feel like this about metal minis, but I don't like the struggle. at all. Leaving aside the issue of having to pin large models or that even superglue is not sufficient in some cases, the main issue for me is undercoating. With plastic minis, I can just put on a thinned black layer and then its ready to go. With metal, it's another story. If i put on thinned paint (after washing the mini in hot water and letting it dry) it just doesn't work, staying on in places but not in others. Even when i spray it, i find that the paint still doesnt stick everywhere (there are places on the Commissar where it was beginning to chip off by the second highlight). In fact if you look closely you can see bits of silver shining through on the finished one (or is it just my imagination?!)

The result of all this is that I'm constantly struggling against the mini to get paint to stick and in places paint over cracks rather than do nice detail-y things that I would do with a plastic one.

If anyone has any solutions, I'd love to hear them. I know people who say that they just put an undercoat on, that they have never had a mini chip ever etc etc. A GW employee once told me was the secret was to wash the mini in washing up liquid; that didn't work at all. Another told me to put three layers of spray paint on. I did it and ended up with a mini that looked like the michelin man, albeit black, and I had to spend a day stripping it back. Either that, or could GW pleaaaaaaase release all its minis in plastic??

1,500pts of Khorne CSM Completed

Another Saturday, another army finished off - this time my Khorne CSM army that I began back in September. It started off as just 1k, but then grew via 1.2k to bang on 1.5k, with the recent addition of Kharn the Betrayer:

HQ

Daemon Prince (wings & warptime)

Kharn the Betrayer

Troops

10x CSM (2x meltaguns; Aspiring Champion with powerfist)

Rhino (T/L Bolter)

10x CSM (2x meltaguns; Aspiring Champion with powerfist)

Rhino (T/L Bolter)

9x Khorne Berzerkers (inc. Champion with powerfist)

Rhino (T/L Bolter)

Heavy Support

Predator (T/L Lascannons & T/L Bolter)

2x Obliterators

2x Obliterators (back after internship with Nurgle)

I'm really happy with how the army has turned out, although the Daemon Prince was a REAL pain to assemble. My only real concern was how the Kharn turned out. I don't know if its my old issue of not liking minis painted too red, or because i experimented by putting a layer of varnish between the undercoat and the rest of the paint, but it just doesn't seem to look right to my eyes:

The plan next is to finish of my Guard army, taking it to 1.5k as well.

Vendetta Gunship Complete

One of the things that got me into the Guard was that I loved the look of the Valkyrie model. I didn't have much room for one in my 1k Guard list, but in my move to 1.5k I now have space for two of them as Vendetta gunships carrying Veterans:

2,000pts of Nurgle CSM Completed

I've been working on my Nurgle CSM army on and off since November, and have managed to reach the 2k level (twice the number of points that I initially envisaged). I also have the Nurgle defiler ready, but will probably flog it on the bay of e as I've never found defilers to be that useful - aside from being able to draw fire.

So, working upwards, my 1.5k list (well, 1497) is:

HQ

Daemon Prince of Nurgle (wings, Mark of Nurgle, warptime)

Troops

Squad Cytoma:

7 Plague Marines (inc. Plague Champion w personal icon, 2x meltaguns)

Rhino (T/L bolter)

Squad Babesiosis:

7 Plague Marines (inc. Plague Champion w personal icon, 2x meltaguns)

Rhino (T/L bolter)

Elites

5 Terminators (with chainfists)

Land Raider

Heavy Support (on internship from Khorne)

2x Obliterators

2x Obliterators

The 1.75k list adds an extra squad of Plague Marines (Squad Pestula), and adding Typhus (and meltabombs to each squad of Plague Marines) takes it up to just under 2k: