Kyle's Imperial Fists Paint Guide — Heavy Intercessors Build Feature
Kyle's Lemon Imperial Fists — Heavy Intercessors Paint Guide
Warhammer 40,000 · Imperial Fists · Full Paint Guide
Kyle's take on the Imperial Fists in a clean, saturated yellow - Moon Yellow over white primer, desaturated with a Corax White mix on the edge highlights, and washed down with Tamiya black enamel panel liner. Red trim, freehand chapter symbol on the backpack, and Horus Heresy decals sourced from a previous build round out a sharp, classic scheme.
The commander gets a red helmet with a white stripe down the centre. Blue ink over the yellow base for the eye lenses gives a clean glow effect without any additional highlighting work.
Kyle's Imperial Fists Heavy Intercessors.
Front/side profile
Side profile - heavy bolter
Three-quarter view
The squad with the essential paints
The full paint lineup for this project.
How Kyle Painted Them
Full step-by-step breakdown. All products in stock at Wheels & Wings.
White Base
White primer throughout - essential for yellow to read clean and saturated rather than muted. Yellow over black or grey primer requires many more coats and never achieves the same brightness.
Moon Yellow, Desaturated Edge Highlights & Enamel Wash
Moon Yellow as the base coat across all armour. Edge highlights are Moon Yellow mixed with Corax White - the white desaturates the yellow slightly for a more scale-appropriate, worn look rather than a uniform bright highlight. The whole model is then washed with Tamiya Black Panel Liner enamel, which settles into the recesses and panel lines without flooding the flat surfaces.
Standard Yellow / Commander Red with White Stripe
Standard marines receive the yellow armour helmet. The commander's helmet is painted Bloody Red with a freehand stripe of Corax White down the centre - a clean visual separator that marks rank without any additional transfers or conversion work.
Blue Ink Glow Over Yellow Base
Blue Ink applied directly over the yellow base gives a clean, glassy glow effect - the yellow showing through the transparent ink creates a warm blue-green that reads as lit lenses without any additional work.
Iron Warriors, Brassy Brass & Nuln Oil
Iron Warriors for all metal parts - power cables, backpack exhausts, belt buckles - washed with Nuln Oil throughout. Brassy Brass for weapon skulls and ammo shells, also washed with Nuln Oil.
Power cables, backpack exhausts - Iron Warriors washed with Nuln Oil.
Red Casings, Chest Aquila & Brass Shells
Weapon casings and the chest Aquila share the same red recipe - Gory Red base highlighted with Bloody Red. Ammo shells and weapon skulls in Brassy Brass washed with Nuln Oil.
Red casings and chest Aquila
Heavy bolter - red casing, brass shells
Leather & Metal Buckles
Charred Brown base highlighted with Vallejo Earth. Metal buckles in Iron Warriors washed with Nuln Oil.
Black Green Ink Over Yellow
Black Green Ink applied over the yellow base gives the grenade a dark, olive-green tone - the same transparent ink technique used on the eye lenses but with a very different result on the larger surface. Metal parts treated the same as the rest of the model: Iron Warriors washed with Nuln Oil.
Grenade detail - Black Green Ink over the yellow base.
Freehand Symbol
Same yellow as the rest of the armour. The chapter symbol is freehanded in Abaddon Black. Exhausts in Iron Warriors washed with Nuln Oil.
Freehand chapter symbol on the backpack.
Desert Soil
AK Desert Soil texture paste applied directly to the base - a single-product solution that gives a convincing arid ground texture and complements the warm yellow of the armour.
The Finished Squad
Imperial Fists Heavy Intercessors, complete.
Full squad
Front/side profile
Side view
Three-quarter view
The Heavy Intercessors kit and all paints used in this guide are in stock at Wheels & Wings Hobbies in Toronto, available online with Canada-wide shipping.
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