Imperial Fist Contemptor - Part IV (Showcase)

 

12 barrels of Imperial Fi..repower

The Imperial Fist Contemptor rolls off the painting desk and into the photo area, as I'm now labelling it as finished. I'm sure some kind of markings on the front facing surfaces of the "shoulders" would be appropriate, but I actually don't know what to put there, so I'm leaving it alone. I can't continue to spend the rest of the year on this model.

Starting with the trim, that's ultimately:

• Warplock Bronze
• Balthasar Gold (mixed with Warplock Bronze, see the previous post for more details)
• Castellax Bronze glazed in areas, highlighted on more prominent edges. The glazing was simply to give back some shine after the matt varnish.
• Sycorax Bronze as a final edge highlight.

I'm of the opinion that the colour worked well for the trim. It's basically a darker brown, but it doesn't clash with the yellow; the trim frames and outlines the panels, helping give shape to the dreadnought.

The metallics elsewhere are also dark. Light silvers would again only clash with the yellow, so keeping them closer to black seemed appropriate. Looking at real gun barrels (or at least photos of them) gave inspiration for this, and I didn't highlight them after the matt varnish - I kind of liked the more functional aesthetic it gives, which suits the Imperial Fist character.

I tried some writing with a very fine brush tip and a good deal of patience. The VII (7th Legion) was first, and quite easy - just some straight lines. I don't recall which colours I mixed for the lettering, but black would have been too stark, so a kind of lighter brown was used. If I really wanted to go for it I might have added highlights to create a kind of engraved 3d look, but I was concerned about ruining the look and so left it as is.

The other writing was Terra across the scroll. My first attempt was actually far too small and looked out of place, so I went with a more stylised look that spread across the centre. It's not perfect, but I'm quite happy with the result. The semi-cheating secret on the second attempt was also to use a sharp pencil point to sketch the locations first, painting over it later. The was certainly advantageous because I did need to correct it a couple of times.

The base I'm not entirely happy with, but think I managed to rescue something out of it. The original intention was to a show the dreadnought walking across a road, up to a curb and onto some walkway pavement. It doesn't really work that way, but I basically just didn't want to spend time doing more. I wanted to try get something out of a basic base. The etched brass designs are supposed to be drain covers, and it's these that help the most - I painted some rust on them, added dirty looking colours around, generally made it look like dirty water was running through on a regular basis. This really helped to break up the lines and colour monotony without me having to give more attention to the "road" (which was painted the same as on the Titanicus models).

I'm not sure what I would do for future Imperial Fists model bases. I'm not really that good at urban bases unless it's just rubble everywhere - and that gets a little boring.

Otherwise I think it's an acceptable model for one of the mono-pose Contemptors. The battle damage works exceptionally well against the yellow, the helmet colours make that the centre of attention, and there's plenty of room to do a lot more if I wanted.

The count is now at 8.5, with the other dreadnoughts not far behind.

-- silly painter.