For the Emporer and Dorn

So I have decided to expand my experience as a player and write a series of articles about building an army from scratch and trying out a paint scheme I've never done before. By scratch I mean I'm trading for 90% of the army and trying to build the rest for less than $150. Realizing that most of the models wouldn't be new out of the box I thought for a while about what to do. I finally reached the conclusion that I wanted to paint something challenging, but the army would need to look battle torn, scarred, and dirty. I researched a while, read through lots of fluff and finally decided to build an Imperial Fist army that is in the middle of a siege war. This will be reflected in the army list as well as the models. Hopefully by doing this I will be able to test my painting skills by doing a yellow paint palate army and using the battle damage to cover up any flaws in the models I'll be trading for. So it's off to the painting table to test my colors and see what happens. I'll try and update and post pics when and where I can, so keep looking for more to come soon.

Its too bad your going for imperial fist, i have some really kewl battle damaged IG stuff (2 chimera's and 3 sentinels) that i could foist ya...

Simple green is your friend!

That's pretty epic man on both coolness and challenge as its not easy to get yellow right my shoulder pads are still not right ... Maybe by the end of it all you can give me some good pointers

This is the base coat I've come up with. I think it's a good looking dirty yet solid yellow. I'm thinking they have been on a world and fighting through the snow, which has dug up a bunch of mud. Anyone that has spent anytime working in the snow doing landscaping will completely understand where I'm coming from.

Looks very good!

Yellow and red are the hardest colors to work with. You really need to prime them white first.

The parts I painted were primed black. I don't like using white for the yellow as it gives it a bright clean color which is not what I'm going for. Too many fists players make shiny yellow armies and overlook the fact that they do a lot of trench work which doesn't keep armor clean and shiney

OK so I have come up with a 2100 and 2000 pt list. I wanted something that had a solid core that could be easily adjusted to fit the points needed. So here is my "goal" lists that I want to build. I think the are fluffy for an IF army that is in a siege battle and should be able to hold their own against other armies. I'm currently working on the fluff behind the squads, which in itself, has been pretty entertaining

2100

Lysander

2x MM dread with HF inside a DP
10 sternguard in DP, 1 combi-melta

5 scouts, ML and 4 sniper rifles
10 Tac, flamer, ML, PF on sgt in a rhino
10 Tac, flamer, ML, PF on sgt in rhino
10 Tac, meltagun, MM, combi-melta and PF on sgt in a rhino

Typhoon LS
Typhoon LS

Vindicator
Vindicator
Vindicator

And the 2000pt list

Lysander

2x MM dread with HF in DP
9 sternguard with 2 CM in a DP

5 scouts, ML and 4 sniper rifles
10 Tac, flamer, ML, PF on sgt in a rhino
10 Tac, flamer, ML, PF on sgt in rhino
10 Tac, meltagun, MM, combi-melta and PF on sgt in a rhino

MM attack bike
MM attack bike

Vindicator
Vindicator
Vindicator

Both lists play close to the same tactics. Basically (very basically) either the dread or a dread and sternguard drop in first turn to take out high value targets. Lysander bolster defense's for the scout to camp on objective and take shots at vehicles. First turn all three rhinos and typhoons/bikes go forward. This puts most of the army in the face and spreads target priority (thanks for the tac tip Glenn). The vindicators pretty much point at things and unload. The tactics are pretty easy and I'm thinking that will be the beauty of the list. Simple to use but versatile

And here is the fluff behind Strike Force Hammer

Strike Force Hammer is led by Captain Lysander, and comprises squads from the 1st, 5th, and 10th company of the Imperial Fists. It's main goal is to track down and eliminate the Traitor Iron Warrior Warsmith know as Forrix. Warsmith Forrix is the captain of the Iron Warriors first company. During the battle of Malodrax Lysander and Forrix became bitter enemies, Lysander constantly breaking Forrix's defenses and Forrix springing multiple traps that killed many Imperial Fists. Even though the Imperial Fists eventually won Malodrax, Forrix was able to escape with a handful of his chosen. Strike Force Hammer was assembled a number of years later with the mission of eliminating Warsmith Forrix once and for all after it became apparent that he was operating at full strength again and had caused significant problems for the Imperium. Currently there have been three major engagements where Lysander and Forrix have come close to destroying each other, but every time one gains the upper hand it seems fate intervenes and neither is able to deal the killing blow, so the grudge match continues until one day one side will be the victor.

PS: Warsmith Forrix is the general of Patrick's Iron Warriors.

A little of the artwork that keeps me inspired with the IF!!



And if you look close you can see Lysander, 5th company, and first company

I think that's the look of Imperial Fists your going for right?

Yep ready to kill and smash in Dorn's name.

So your not going with imperial fists? I overheard you saying you didn't enjoy painting them after painting greyknights or something like that last tournament.

Basically. I've been painting space marines for about 8 years now and have played every major chapter since 3rd ed. Basically I'm just sick of painting marines, with the exception of my grey knights. I'm having a lot of fun with the models and I love the fluff. Cold hearted bastards that believe the end always justifies the means appeals to me. I gave it an honest go though, I just can't see investing a few hundred dollars for a mediocre experience.

If you don't mind me asking what color did you use to get the yellow. I heard Iyanden blacksun so some sort of citadel paint that sounds like that. I'd play imperial fists because they are one of my two favorite legions from the horus heresy other being wolves. Just wish they where kinda more represented to stand out in the bland vanilla marine codex. Just seems their more like ultramarines with a different color scheme. Sure take Lysander to make all stubborn and he's one tough SoB, but still....

Two coats of iyden sun over a black undercoat, gryphonne sepia wash, then liberally dry brush sunburst yellow. Pretty easy actually.