New Project... Imperial Fists

So here we are again, it has been a long time, maybe a year, and a lot has happened. I have not had a lot of time to get on here or to work on anything. A running theme for me seems to be starting a project and not finishing it, as witnessed with the Dark Vengeance Chaos army I started, it is still sitting in a box, collecting dust, I have not worked on it since I posted about it here. With that in mind I started a new project. I currently run 3 armies in 40k and 1 in fantasy, I don't play any other miniatures games, but I guess I am willing to learn. I seldom even play 40k these days, I have found I do not enjoy competitive play, or rules lawyers, I don't care to research what my friends are running and build my army accordingly, I like to build an army, bring it to the field and let the chips fall where they may, I have always had great success with this strategy, and gotten much more enjoyment out of the game. I don't play in tournaments because if this.

Any way, the three armies I run are The Black Templars, the Grayknights and the Imperial Guard. I used to have a sizable Ork army as well, but times got tough and I ended up selling them. No Regrets... Not may anyway... So, my Templar and Knight forces are where I want them points wise, I can run a pretty good game with a sizable force, and I have enough options with both to make the game interesting. My Guard army is another matter... I used to think I had a pretty good army, but with the newest version of the guard codex, I need at least 3 times as much stuff as I have, and to be honest, that is just to much time and money at this point. I do have a simple answer though, Space Marine allies.

I thought about what I could do to bulk up my Guard force on a budget and there really wasn't a lot I could do, other than proxy existing stuff for guard stuff or add to the force. I had a bunch of marine stuff laying around that I was planning to add to my Templar army, but decided instead to start a new smaller force to back up my guard, some thing different than what I already knew. I talked it over with Shiloh Phoenix, one of the other bloggers from the wings of truth, and decided on the Imperial Fists as my choice for my new force. Shiloh told me they were coming out with a new codex and that he was going to run them, and I thought I could make a few squads of marines and if I like how they run I could build a full battle force later.

The plan for my allies force is this, pending the new codex of course.

1 Stern Guard Veteran squad as an HQ
2 tactical squads
1 Landraider
1 Rhino
1 Dreadnaught
1 Landspeeder
1 Terminator squad

So far I have the Landraider, 1 tactical squad, the speeder, and most of a dreadnaught. I have the sternguard on order using store credit with Big Robot Games. I still need to come up with the second tac squad, the rhino and the terminators. I only have the Landraider and first tactical squad painted. My plan is to build and paint each element of the force as a separate project,so tac squad 1 and their transport is the first, it is  done, and I can say I finally finished something. Of Course Fate had other plans and I had to strip and am in the process of repainting the Captain of the first squad.

I had a bit of trouble, as veteran painters will tell you, yellow is a hard color to paint. I started as I always do, with a basecoat of flat black. I quickly learned that this was a big mistake, and stripped everything down and started over with a basecoat of light gray. This worked out a lot better, and I think the over all effect is good.

Keep your eye out for more updates on this as I get the other elements of the force finished.