# How to Paint Imperial Fists?



## Words_of_Truth

I'm considering an Imperial Fist army, since for ages i've wanted one but the idea of painting yellow really put me off after seeing how badly it can go wrong (damn you GW sunday with all the small children with the spray painted white marines and blotchy painting )

I usually under coat with black, but i can't see that working for yellow models, and i don't like white spray since the models come out to bright in the end. I was thinking of Bleached bones then alot of inking and thin layers of yellow.

But do any of you have any good ways of painting yellow so it don't look to bright?


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## Viscount Vash

You could try the new foundation colours, I black undercoat and have used the Malachite Red as a base coat and it works a treat.


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## torealis

my iyanden eldar are undercoated white, i give them a yellow then chestnut ink. just be sure to be careful with the chestnut, very watered down.


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## Words_of_Truth

Viscount Vash said:


> You could try the new foundation colours, I black undercoat and have used the Malachite Red as a base coat and it works a treat.


For Imperial Fists?


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## Viscount Vash

No mate, but it was not very clear what I was saying though.

I have only tested the Red which worked very well.

The colour yo want for yellow would be Idayen Darksun I think but Tausept Ochre might be worth a look as a lowlight.


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## torealis

after raving about it initially, im not that big a fan of iyanden darksun. its a very dull colour, which means its really hard to bring it up to sunburst. i'd say go up from vermin brown - golden yellow - sunburst yellow, if you're set on using black undercoat.

if you take the white undercoat/inkwash method, be aware that correcting mistakes is tough.


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## asianavatar

I would think some sort of brown or tan colour would be good for a basecoat than build up to a bright yellow


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## The Son of Horus

The foundation paints are excellent for red and yellow. 

For the Imperial Fists, I'd try a basecoat of Tausept Ochre, a layer of Iyanden Darksun, and then a layer of whatever yellow you use as a final highlight. Alternatively, you could mix up about a 60/40 mix of bleached bone and iyanden darksun as a final highlight.


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## The Wraithlord

I would agree with Son here with the addition of maybe even a 4th coat beyond what he suggests, one that would have just a tad of white added to the 3rd colour and used on extreme edges.


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## Words_of_Truth

I'm trying to figure out how to paint their rims, i want them to be 2nd company but by going by the codex this means they are gold, and i ain't sure if that will work. Also as Sons has said the eagle is the same as the company colour to.

I am going to be using the metal shoulder pads for both the squad and chapter markings, so can any of you give me your opinions on the gold and what you think may be better.

I'm considering making them 5th company whose company colour is black and then just leaving chest eagle white.


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## FrozenOrb

I undercoat with Skull White then use a few coats of Golden Yellow making sure the paint is nice and thin. I then line everything with Chestnut Ink.


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## yamato

*Painting Imperial Fists*

I haven't tried the foundation paints yet, but I'm planning on stopping by the store with a black primed model to try it.

Up to this point I have primed with white, water down golden yellow to a wash (the yellow wash is just not the right yellow to me) and wash all of the areas that will be yellow. I then paint any areas that need to be black (bolters belts, joints, etc.) and then dry brush with boltgun metal or other appropriate colors). I then wash the entire model with a 1-4 flesh wash / water mix (tiny bit of dish soap lets it flow into the gaps and eliminates pooling on a surface). Then I go back to the yellow areas; dry brush with straight golden yellow, and then highlight up from there with at least two different mixes of golden yellow and white. I then go back with a fine brush with straight flesh wash, and make sure that the deep crevases all pop out.

The stuff that needs to be black is the only real pain about doing it this way.


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## FrozenOrb

Words_of_Truth said:


> I'm trying to figure out how to paint their rims, i want them to be 2nd company but by going by the codex this means they are gold, and i ain't sure if that will work. Also as Sons has said the eagle is the same as the company colour to.
> 
> I am going to be using the metal shoulder pads for both the squad and chapter markings, so can any of you give me your opinions on the gold and what you think may be better.
> 
> I'm considering making them 5th company whose company colour is black and then just leaving chest eagle white.


My army is primarily 3rd Company with red trim but my Master has gold trim and gold Imperial eagle, and it works.

Actually just to mess with your head, the eagle being the same colour as the trim is almost always true except for sometimes, with Imperial Fists. Look at the back of the Terminator box, that Imperial Fists eagle is red not white. Elsewhere I've seen it in red also. Whilst on the subject, the Ultramarine Terminators have white helmets whilst Imperial Fists are usually yellow.

P.S. Amusingly yamato's avatar directly above my post shows a terminator with red eagle. :grin:


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## yamato

yeah, I posted in the other thread that the Insignium Astartes show that IF have red eagles, and that the shoulderpad trim does indeed change with the company colors just as the Ultramarines.

I've seen an entire army painted up as 2nd company with gold trim. It looked pretty good actually.


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## Damned Fist

For my Imperial Fist army I used the Chaos Black primer with the foundation paints applied after. The Idayen Darksun covers pretty well in the fist coat. However, you need to add white to it to do the highlights. By the way, I like the toned down yellow that the Daksun gives the models. I wasn't a fan of the "Banana" marines that you usually saw with the regular GW paint. -Good Luck!


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## Renegades_Of_Funk

Well to keep it darkish heres an idea.

Heres the story, i wanted to paint this
http://us.games-workshop.com/news/e...5_SM_Chapter_Comp/images/michael_perry_lg.gif

But i did one to many coats making this (im not he best best painter around ), but i think its alright.

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/1939away/125_2557.jpg
http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k196/1939away/125_2553.jpg
Ive got to add all the details etc...

But i think a coat of golden yellow after this minus the bubonic brown highlights might be what your after?

Well heres how i did it. 

Scorced
Graveyard
Snakebite
Highlight bubonic.

So basically you could try that minus bubbonic highlight, plus golden yellow then highlight sunburst.

Hope it helps.


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## Ordo Xeno Commander

this is going to be useful for my Angels of Fire scheme. thanks guys, even though it wasnt originally my thread :wink:


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## Forge

torealis said:


> after raving about it initially, im not that big a fan of iyanden darksun. its a very dull colour, which means its really hard to bring it up to sunburst. i'd say go up from vermin brown - golden yellow - sunburst yellow, if you're set on using black undercoat.
> 
> if you take the white undercoat/inkwash method, be aware that correcting mistakes is tough.


I've been carefully and slowly painting Space Marines and Tyranids for the past 6 months, learning the game and the painting but I still don't understand why should we work colors from a darker tone to the lighter one we want. Obviously I haven't made experiments for that but why can't I simply apply layers of the yellow tone I want until I have a smooth cover?


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## tu_shan82

Here's a video tute by a chap of the name Les Bursley dealing with Imperial Fists. I like his work, and his tutorials are easy to follow. They're worth checking out. He's actually in the middle of a massive project doing tutorials for what seems like hundreds of marine chapters, that he's started with the help of members from another forum. His Youtube page can be found here. Anyway I hope you find it useful.


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## Cellestine

I am in the middle of painting my Imperial Fist army, I tried the white base coat but too much work in fixing mistakes. Black undercoat with a coat of burnt orange. Dry brushed with an equal mix of burnt orange and yellow sunburst. Dry brush with yellow sunburst. Finally made a mix of yellow sunburst and bone white (watered down) for highlights. Those are the steps I have taken and it looks pretty good. As for the gold areas I painted the Aquila dwarf bronze then dry brushed a mix of gold and mithral silver over it. That brought out the detail great. I hope this helped you out!:victory:


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## Ragnar

White, IMO, is par for the course here as an undercoat, regardless of shade of yellow you're looking for. I've painted up a number of Imperial Fists, the majority of them very very recently (30 seconds ago when I put the last one down to dry, in fact) and there are a few different colours in the arsenal to choose from. 










the top one I painted with a base of Scorched Brown (P3 Umbral Umber will work just fine too) over black (I know I know, this was the first one I had ever done; it was just to test out weathering). I'd recommend white instead. Anyhow, blend it up with Bubonic Brown and add in Bleached Bone (weather with scorched brown/umbral umber)

the bottom one I painted with a base of Umbral Umber and blended up to P3's Iridian Flesh and eventually to P3's Cygnus Yellow (and then all the way to white) using a few glazes of Umbral and Iridian and Gryphonne Sepie along the way. Weathered with Umbral.


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## Achilles09

I hear human feces works great as a base primer.


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## Maidel

Ignoring the rather unsavoury post above, I personally subscribe to the white undercoat with yellow ink (or simply watered down bad moon yellow) and then brown ink and work it back up.

Although I dont think I can compete with Ragnars models above, I susspect mine too less time to achieve:

This one I highlighted all the way up:









And this one is done without highlights to see if I could get an acceptable paint job quickly. I gave up and went with crimson fists instead


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## Words_of_Truth

This thread still going? heh Anyway I did try and my paint scheme ended up looking like the model before. I tried black undercoat, then layed it up to bleached bone before inking it, didn't turn out to bad, but it didn't convince me to make an army of them.

Edit - The stuff the guy did in those videos is awesome, I barely use half the instruments he uses to paint models and the outcome is awesome.


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