Warhammer 40,000 – Imperial Fists Call to Arms Pt 9

This article covers the very last days before the event. Every evening, I painted for at least three to four hours, once the kids were in bed.

Tension was high, and there was no room for errors. I was trying to lock in the finishing line, but of course all the things you do not need suddenly come into play. For example, the Sergeant falling off the little pot from a height of only three or four centimetres, with everything breaking off instantly. That is something that would happen with some of the other multi-part miniatures as well, especially the Devastators.

To get the weapons done quickly, I glued the bolters and bolt pistols onto a coffee stirrer and gave them a black primer. Then I touched up the metal parts with AP Gun Metal and True Copper, followed by a quick wash of Nuln Oil.

But seriously, building Space Marines armed with bolters in both hands is nerve-wracking. They cannot really hold them in front of their bodies. The shoulder pads collide with the bolter’s stock, and you have to be careful not to glue your fingers to the miniature or break any other parts while handling it.

One of the biggest challenges at this stage was painting the heavy weapons. Once again, the question was how to adapt the colours without losing the vibe of 2nd edition.

Ultramarines had those bright red weapons, with flames and lots of decals. The Blood Angels did something similar and would probably be the best reference, if I toned the yellow down a bit. Looking at the Supremacy Force was not much help, as it only covered the Missile Launcher, and compared to the red-era of the edition, it was toned down to black and metal.

But first, the base colours. I also had to make a decision regarding the plasma coils, and I went with green. I used AP Warpaints Data Glow over white primer. And to keep the weapons from looking too flat, I gave them a quick edge highlight in Citadel Dawnstone. These still need more love — I will add some lenses and a finer edge highlight later, as well as decals.

That was what I worked on during the penultimate day: touching up mistakes, adding Dawnstone to black as a highlight, especially on the sculpted icons.

On Friday night, the day before the event, I finished the characters. The Captain got a lot of attention, and I was made aware that I had not been especially unlucky — a lot of the Imperial Fists Captain sculpts were bad casts, with missing feathers on the chest and mould slip. Unfortunate, yes, but generally manageable. He was the first to receive the Flash Gitz and Ice Yellow highlights on the yellow, and I will come back to him later to add a banner pole and some other time-consuming details.

The Techmarine was ready as well — at least battle-ready. I gave him the untrimmed shoulder pad, as it fitted his custom Mk VI power armour.

And there they were: the battle-ready troops for the next day’s event. I had to skip the decals for another day, simply because I still needed to add some minor details and I wanted the decals to be the final step, especially with the final varnish coat in mind.

Remember the Librarian and Whirlwind? I would not be able to get those done in time, and while looking through my display case of painted miniatures, I remembered that I had an Eversor Assassin I had painted for the 2009 Games Day challenge. A quick look in NewRecruit showed me: oh, that is 250 points! Exactly what I needed to be done, and it helped my sanity, so I took the quicker route.

I had been working on banner ideas for a while, and they were on the nice-to-have part of the project schedule. But as everyone else started doing theirs on Friday night, I put some on the printer — which betrayed me on the morning of the event. So I quickly touched them up with some acrylics, made the paper look wavy, and added them to the miniatures. These are an interim solution and will be replaced with better ones.

And as an Easter egg, I printed a few 40k starter boxes in small scale as mission objectives. They look funny, and I really like the idea. They will probably come in handy in Necromunda as well.

Guess what I forgot to pack for Chaosbunker Classics? Yes, exactly — the mission markers. Well, there is always another chance.

I was very happy, but exhausted as well, to get the project to this level in the time available. If I had not been ill so much in Q1, I would likely have had more time, for example for the Whirlwind and some more terrain. Nevertheless, it was a very interesting experience: handling and painting the miniatures, and working on a group project together with the others.

You can read about our event here: CHAOSBUNKER CLASSICS 2026, and also see a nice army shot of the Imperial Fists in their current state here: Imperial Fists Retribution Force.

With this article, you are now up to date on the current state of the army, and I have documented everything I did up to the event. I just did not have the time to edit the pictures and write the text, because I was completely focused on painting the miniatures. So any updates beyond part 9 of the Call to Arms are new progress. Looking forward to that.