A few months back at a local Hobby Town tournament there was a Black Templar player there and I was completely enamored by the army. The fluff, the models, the paint job. All of it was just slick. I had a small unit of guys leftover from one of my Black Reach sets laying around so I started painting them up as Black Templars.
I made it through about three guys before that project fell by the wayside.
A while after that I saw a post at BOLS on these really slick bases from Iron Halo -
When I saw these I decided that THIS is what I was going to base my army with.
After thinking about it for a while I decided to do a Mechanicus themed Space Marine chapter. I broke out the red paint and even downloaded the custom decals from BOLS. I made it through the rest of my AOBR squad and even have a picture of one or two of them up on the blog.
I finished up this unit of troops and then started buying up the rest of my army. I wanted a drop pod heavy force (8) along with a heavy helping of Dreadnaughts and Sternguard. I was making good progress on getting everything bought but hadn't painted much of it. At the Big Waaagh something happened that would have a big impact on the future of this army.
I was walking around taking pictures and I stumbled past a table that had some really sick looking Imperial Fists on the board. I started talking to the guy who was playing them and we had a great chat. It turns out that he had scratch built most of the models in his army - Land Raiders, Assault Cannons, a Dreadnaught, weapons and more. He was really good at it. And the yellow. Oh man was it sharp.
I have been afraid of yellow forever. I don't think I have ever painted a model with any amount of yellow on it. Everytime I have tried it has turned out awful. I started asking him how he did his yellow and he let me in on the secret sauce.
For the life of me I can't remember this guys name. I would love to get back in touch with him.
After having the wisdom of the ancients passed down unto me the seed was planted. Another month and half would go by. As the seed grew my happiness with my Mechanicus troops would wane. Eventually I decided to model up and paint an Imperial Fist model as a test to see if the secret sauce really was all it was cracked up to be.
It was.
So, as of this posit I have finished up one squad of regular marines and six Sternguard Veterans. I have also finished up a Drop Pod (but that is another post all together).
Looks like I'm playing Imperial Fists!
In the next few days I will have some more posts up. Keep your eyes peeled for the secret sauce recipe!