The missing piece – Imperial Fists Captain

Finally! I was able to get my hands on one of the miniatures that I've been searching for, for such a long time - the Imperial Fist Captain (the cloak backpack is simply an addition by me).

As a counter part to my Black Legion, I went for a 2nd edition Space Marine army of the Imperial Fists chapter. The bits were releasy in the second half of 1998 and available via Mail Order and as part of the supremacy force. You might think, well wasn't that 3rd edition? No, but very close. They were released in August 1998 (White Dwarf 224) and 3rd edition came around in October 1998, so it is still legit 2nd edition.

So, what was the problem with this sculpt? There is a "vanilla" variant of the Space Marine captain in that pose, so many people won't know that they have the Imperial Fists one or mistake them for one another (I had multiple false alarms of people getting in touch with me, thinking they had the IF one but it was just the regular one painted yellow). The pose was quite popular and as such repurposed for other chapters as well, modified to fit in with the Blood Angels and Space Wolves as well, as you can see from the picture below.

It was quite the hunt, bring & buys weren't an option, the option to get lucky at Bitbox was dearly missed, and eBay didn't provide any options beside one beaten up sculpt for way to much money - until one day, and I went for it - at 8 GBP, which is reasonable.

By that the project scope is currently set at those models, yet, I'm thinking about adding a second tactical squad (I already have the miniatures, just undecided weither these will be added to the stock or sold off).

I went through multiple tutorials on painting yellow, I gave it try with the old blazes along Contrast colours, but will most certainly go - at least for the vehicles - with the paint spray by Ammo Mig, for the basecoat. But this will have to wait until I setup the studio again at the new place, as it is now time for me to pack things up for the move.