Omnissiah's Skunkworks

Back when I first started collecting and playing epic, Land Raiders were a chunky white metal kit. I still have a handful in the bits box somewhere, but sadly being woefully out of scale with the new game I shan't be adding any soon to the Imperial Fists. The new plastic kit however is another matter. An absolute gem of a kit that is literally the full scale kit personified at one quarter of the size. At transport(2), same as a Rhino they can only be taken as either dedicated transports, or as an optional transport pool slot. The main benefit over a Rhino being they can transport 'bulky' units, albeit just one. This makes them an expensive transport choice. But, they are Land Raiders, and nothing is more iconic in epic than the Land Raider. So, here we are with an initial four Raiders to draw from during army selection. I've painted these ones for the Imperial Fists as they fit in with the narrative I'm working to, which is Fafnir Rann's Assault Cadre. But could...

 I feel most of the Astartes Vanguard detachments need to be upgraded from their base two units to look effective. The Proteus pattern Land Speeders I painted for the Imperial Fists have been reinforced with the maximum four additional speeders to take the detachment to six. It feels much more like something you would see on the battlefield at this scale. Whereas talons of Dreadnoughts still feels a little weird (hey, it's just me), squadrons of recon speeders, especially the Javelins and Sky Hunters feels right for epic. Basing The main feature of this detachment is the basing. To create some visual interest in the detachment, I included some of the scatter terrain parts from the Civitas Imperialis kit(s). The Speeders were then in turn pinned onto the terrain piece to create the illusion of them skimming across and around battlefield obstacles. Not sure I need to add more to the Imperial Fists, however I don't think these will be the last Land Speeders I do in this scale. I q...

The Predator squadron is a 'detachment' I can use either as part of a larger armoured company, or as an optional detachment in a legion demi-company. Like other detachments, that actually makes it quite a flexible detachment to have in my list. The kit comes with both turret options in full, which is fantastic! They don't need to be magnetised to swap out options, the turrets sit snugly within the turret ring using just compression fitting. I did however add a magnet into the base of each turret purely for storage so I can also magnetise the spare turrets to the transport plate for going to club games and events. I did the same to the Leman Russ, even though those don't come with both turret options in 'full'. Thinking about future possibilities for turret swaps. These were my favourite tank unit I've painted to date for Legions Imperialis. Maybe because I also did this exact same scheme in regular heresy scale, but possibly because they just look incredible...

The core legion demi-company on its own is a fragile formation with a low break point. Filling the optional detachment slots with reinforcements is by far the best way to give the formation resiliency under fire. My initial add-ons include a Rapier battery and Tarantula sentries. They are an often overlooked selection, but have some really nasty tricks up their sleeve. The Hyperios launchers are infantry (1) and not bulky. This means they can be deployed by Drop Pod or transported in Rhinos. Yes, you heard that right. Deep Striking a battery of automated sentry anti-air can give your opponents flyers an unexpected headache. Even in Rhino's they can be deployed in reserve then 'disembark' at the end of an 18" march order placing the battery well forward of your deployment line. They won't be able to move without the assistance of the transports, but that's not really the point. The Rapiers 'are' bulky, but that still means you could sneakily drop a coupl...

The Legion Tactical Detachment is the only 'Core' detachment currently listed in Legions Imperialis (at the time of writing). So it's a safe bet I'm going to need a few given at least one is mandatory in the demi-company, garrison and aerial formations, two in the case of the former. This should not be a surprise as tactical marines make up the bulk of Astartes forces in the legions. As I already have two detachments in my Blood Angels demi-company, I felt it was time to branch out and start creating them for the Imperial Fists; the second loyalist legion on Terra during the siege of the Emperor's Palace. A legion Tactical Detachment consists of four bases of tactical marines. That's all you need. It's basically the equivalent of a full twenty man tactical blob in 28mm Horus Heresy: Age of Darkness. Led by a command HQ, two of these, plus a single support detachment are required to form into a demi-company. The good news is, all of that is included in the ...

Finally got some games in, added the Predators and dusted off the Knights. It's been a pretty good hobby week all told. The Imperial Fists Legion forces have swelled with a squadron of six new Predators (epic scale), I've settled on my list for the next Horus Heresy event, and I even got some games of Legions Imperialis in! The highlight though was getting to roll some dice for a change at Incom Gaming with my Blood Angels. It was a laid back introduction to Legion Imperialis kind of day, which was super chill. I caught up with some heresy mates and despite none of the three games probably got past turns two or three, it was as much about familiarisation of the rules, and to be honest talking hobby with mates. First game was a blinder pitching my  ninth legion against Alex Riddick's awesome Sons of Horus. This was the kind of game you really wanted to get out of the gate. Alex is a fantastic and generous player who I have played against in Titanicus, so it was nice to get ...

It's been a highs and lows hobby week. The highs being I'm getting at least some hobby in every day, even if just an hour. This means my Legions 'Siege of Terra' themed forces really are coming along at quite a nice clip. I can add another legion demi-company to the growing 'done' pile. Even got a few support detachments done as well so not just the bare bones core units. Oh no, it's support weapons, terminators and air-taxi's all the way for my boys in Imperial yellow. All of these are already in the gallery with details on the painting etc. Just follow the 'Imperial Fists' link from the Legions tags on the left (or up above someplace if you are on a mobile device you cool kid you) The shelf in the workshop cabinet is starting to fill up a bit quick, I think I may need to put one of the heresy armies back in storage to make some space. Not complaining, it's a nice problem to have. On the subject of heresy armies, I plan to give the Word Bear...

New year, new army? I know it's a bit of a cliche, but hear me out. A few years ago, I had a habit of doing this a lot. It was as if there was some subliminal Gregorian calendar hobby reset button that I mentally pressed on January 1st. The start of a new year meant abandoning all my partially completed projects and immediately starting another. While it always gave me that much-needed boost of hobby serotonin, it also meant trying to juggle far too many army projects simultaneously. As usual! I'm going to try not to do that this month and keep building out my Legions Imperialis forces, one detachment at a time. Having gotten that first playable formation ready to go, I can begin adding more options for larger games. Terrain is also on my mind, but that is for another day, probably in the not too distant so I can alternate between units and terrain to keep thing interesting. So not a new army then, that title was pure click-bait? Not quite. I am switching legions for the next f...

Today's heresy update is the Imperial Fists Predator I've been steadily painting on and off the past couple of weeks. I enjoyed painting the Damocles Command Rhino that much, I decided to paint an Imperial Fists Predator as well. When I indicated this was 'not' intended to be the start of another legion for Horus Heresy gaming, I may have been mistaken in that belief and underestimating the draw of the seventh legion. Imperial Fists scheme Similar to the Damocles, I have opted to do a split yellow/black scheme with the turret picked out in the black. The difference in shapes between the boxy hull and rounded turret gives a really nice contrast, so I thought this would look better than symmetrical markings. To emphasis I also painted the yellow stripe only on one side creating an asymmetric appearance, which personally I think works really well with Heresy era tanks. Stripes always visually look more interesting if they are only on one side, especially on the Deimos patt...

A quick palette test for Legions Imperialis on an Imperial Fists Xiphon flight with escorted Storm Eagle. I had almost forgotten just how much I enjoyment I get from painting epic scale miniatures. Brings me right back to what got me into the hobby in the first place. You may have seen in my social media posts the White Scars versions, I will show more of those in the gallery at a later date once I've had a chance to take some proper photos of them. These I have done specifically for the launch of Legions Imperials, primarily to test out the palette, but mostly to start laying down some units I feel can translate across to the new game immediately. Imperial Fists yellow The go-to colour for these was Games Workshop Imperial Fists Yellow contrast, the same as I have been using for my regular Horus Heresy Fists. One thing I learned from painting epic scale over the years is you have to exaggerate the contrast and the saturation a 'lot' to read well. I have a natural inclinati...