Heresy Era Imperial Fists – Army complete!

Made the big push over the past week to finish up the Xiphon and Sicaran Venators, with the weather being nice enough to be able to get the transfers, weathering and sealant in place. First up the pair of Venators:


Since they already had big Fist symbols on the sponson covers, I kept things fairly simple with some vehicle identifier symbols, and the legion number on the front glacis. I also went back in and brightened up the lightning on the barrels so it stands out a little better. I loved building and painting these tanks, and they will definitely find their way into future armies!


The Xiphon also got a bit more decorative trim, carrying the gold/bronze theme from the other models. Still of two minds about this model - it was a joy to build and paint, but something about it just doesn't resonate with me in the way the new Lightning model does. It just feels a little too 'modern era' 40k to me design-wise. For future projects I'll definitely be going back to the Lightning.


The resin base company I'd ordered from had a neat flying stand that matched the rest of the army, but rather than the standard clear stand it utilizes a ruined column to hold the flyer aloft. Sort of a neat idea, I thought!

Once they were finished I can call the army complete! A good thing too with GenCon coming up and an inevitable paroxysm of spending at the Forge World booth means it's time to get 'em up on the auction block to help pay for it. First things first, pulling out all the models for a final family photo:


That's a lot of yellow! I think it's fair to say that I've gotten pretty weary of it, but am quite happy with the recipe - will definitely be using that method on yellows in the future. Snapped a few new closeups to detail what the army contains as well:


A bunch of characters of course, from left to right: Legion Champion, Sigismund, Forge Lord, Alexis Polux, Master of Signals, Cataphractii Praetor, Apothecary and another Praetor in Artificer armour.


The veteran squad and their transport rhino - the heavy bolters coupled with the Imperial Fists bolter discipline means they lay down a surprising amount of highly accurate fire!


Gotta have a whole mess of tactical marines, and I've set them up such that they can either be run as one big 20-man squad or as two 10-man squads with rhino transports.


I'm a huge fan of the Mk.IV assault marine models, so they were a must-add for the army. ...20 of 'em may have been overkill, but there's no denying they hit like an avalanche.


You can't have an Imperial Fists army without a mess of Terminators in my opinion. I'd intended to just do a single10-man squad, but I had enough leftover bodies to create a couple extra sergeants and heavy weapons to allow for running a pair of 5-6 man squads, or swap out the heavy weapons loadout to suit the mission at hand.


A pair of Contemptor dreadnoughts, the two Venators and the Xiphon round things out nicely, and give the army some much needed anti-air and anti-vehicle punch.


Like all of my armies, the models are all secured in Battlefoam trays for storage and transport, and have some room for future expansion. The army will be going up on eBay shortly - unfortunately due to the size and weight of the two boxes they'll be packed into, it would be ruinously expensive to ship them overseas (well over $250+) so I'm afraid it's going to be US only again. I wish that it wasn't the case, but to get any sort of delivery confirmation and tracking for overseas packages the prices are just ridiculous these days.

LINK TO AUCTION

Now to ponder the next project! I have more modern-era Adeptus Mechanicus to work on, but with  the recent arrival of the Horus Heresy Book V, it might just be time to turn my eyes back to the Prosperine Spireguard and look at updating that army a bit - tons of new options, and I have a decided urge to build and paint a Stormhammer...