+ Army showcase: Stuntwedge's Team Fisto +
+ Team Fisto is a group project that has been slowly bumping along since 2009. The idea of a large group project was dreamt up when we used to attend the Tempus Fugitives' fantastic campaign weekends. We wanted to take up an entire taskforce of the same army to one of their Age of the Emperor Heresy-era events. +
+ Of course, this being the glory days of the group, where we were all blessed with loads of free time, we took on a very ambitious task – after much discussion the PCRC finally decided that 'true-scale' Imperial Fists were the army to do. +
+ As with all such plans, there were various levels of enthusiasm in the gang, and gradually the idea got whittled down to four of us: Omricon, Bob Hunk, myself and Stuntwedge; and finally just two complete armies. You can read the whole history here [+noospheric inloadlink embedded+] +
+ Stuntwedge +
+ Regular readers of the blog will be familiar with Bob Hunk's awesome Imperial Fists, who have seen various iterations; but you may not have seen Stuntwedge's wonderful work, as he's more usually a Tau player – having been bumping along with Shas'O Shas'ka Nan of the Starblade Cadre [+noospheric inloadlink embedded+] since 3rd edition. +
+ As you'll have seen in the recent battle report, Down Amongst the Dead Men [+noospheric inloadlink embedded+], the glorious VIIth came out to fight off the advancing Iron Warriors; and I took the opportunity to get some shots of this lovely army for you. This isn't the whole army – there are a number of vehicles and other bits and bob; all equally beautifully converted and finished in Stuntwedge's cleanly-blended and smoothly-finished style. +
+ Veterans +
+ The Veterans here are a good example of the sort of Horus Heresy-era marines we were making before Games Workshop and Forge World started producing Heresy miniatures. As a result, there's a wonderful baroque quality to them, as Stuntwedge used parts from all over the place. Note the similarity of the altered Chaos backpacks – now referred to as Anvilus pattern – to the current Mark III plastics and resin packs. +
+ Stuntwedge took a slightly different approach to truescaling his marines; combining Terminator legs with altered power-armoured uppers – though there are spacers to increase the height and depth of the chest, to ensure the proportions held up. This gave the advantage of being able to retain more torso detail and greater variety of parts for arms. +
+ Cataphractii Terminators +
+ Another advantage of using the power-armoured marines as the basis was that Stuntwedge was able to make his Terminators distinct from their power-armoured brethren. Never one to take the easy way out, however, he ended up adding considerable bulk to the legs and torsos, and carving down the helms of many – note the similarity of his helmet conversions (right, in the above image) to the Grey Knight Terminators, released just after he'd finished. +
+ The conversion work is subtle and show the maker's eye for detail – and ability to pick out a good bit. I love the Dreadnought sarcophagus used here on the sergeant (centre). +
+ Tactical Marines +
+ The army, themed around the Siege of Terra, includes two ten-man Tactical Squads – they'd work nicely as Veteran Tacticals in the new rules – which are themed around combat squads. One (above) is equipped with shiny new Mark VI 'Corvus' armour. Note the marine reloading on the right. It's easy to gloss over details like this as they're now available in standard kits; but at the time, required careful conversion and sculpting work. +
+ Each of the squads is bolstered by the presence of a squad leader (front row, centre) marked out by the mini-banner – a fond reference to Rogue Trader/2nd ed. organisation. These had no in-game effect, but make for great details. The personal heraldry tiltplate used here is cool, too. +
+ The other half of the squad is decked out in Mark V 'Heresy' armour. I think this is my personal favourite part of the army – the sculpting's great, and the contrast between clean yellow and strong metal is eye-catching and impressive. The heads were gathered from the missile launcher from the then current 40k boxed set – Battle for Black Reach(?); then the only source of plastic Mark V helms. +
+ Stuntwedge picked out this chap as one of his favourite parts of the army – the posing and detail that show the character of the piece are hallmarks of his work. +
+ The second Tactical squad used Forge World's Red Scorpions pack for the heads and torsos. +
+ He enjoyed the challenge of matching the canonical details as precisely as possible – an old hand at 40k, Stuntwedge based a lot of the detail on the formative armour mark models and articles from the Second Edition era. +
+ The missile launcher's another favourite model of his. The occasional bare-headed model (here with sculpted hair) helps to inject some humanity into the army. +
+ Again, a nice balance of dynamic and supporting poses in the squads helps to give them a great balanced feel. Note the crenellated shoulder pads – a nod to the Imperial Fists' Index Astartes article from White Dwarf. +
+ Occasional characterful poses, like this marine pulling a pin from a grenade with his teeth, are scattered through the army, and make for rewarding close observation. +
+ Captain +
+ Based on the Battle for Black Reach Captain, the figure is largely recognisable; it almost appears unconverted. I think I'm right in saying that Stuntwedge isn't overly fond of this model, but I think it demonstrates a great deal of skill to get your conversion work and sculpting so clean. +
+ As a group +
+ It takes skill to make a great model; and it takes a different set of skills to make for a great looking and cohesive army. Attention to detail and a disciplined, coherent paint scheme and basing style result in a beautiful army. +
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