Because I view it as throwaway "fun" but intelligent "fun" and model-craft "fun". It is just "fun". In short it breaks the "Am I really doing this right?" painting block that can descend on me from time to time. Is that the right shade of WW2 French 1940 camouflage? Blah, for things that don't yet exist .. how can anything be wrong". The upshot is that I just 'bundle' into stuff and 'progress' is made on a great heap of otherwise dorment plastics. In this case it was preparation for my next "beer and pretzel" venerable GW Space Crusade game. It was also a great excuse to test out the Humbrol DecalFix, my least liked part of modelling, fixing "decals". So the Imperial Fists got some cute Space Marine decals (see below, left shoulder pad and very nice those 'fists' look too!):
Application of the magic DecalFix was to the "target" area on the model (in this case the Space Marine's shoulder pad) and the actual decal itself instead of water. This had the effect of creating a friendly landing spot and making the decal much more flexible and bendy to conform to the curved surfaces (see below, right shoulder pad: decal on decal, white arrow followed by a tactical Roman Numeral "I"):
One wash of the magical potion was not enough. The DecalFix dries shiny and the first application left bumps and ridges because the shoulder pads are in fact quite curvy. Another wash made the decal more pliable still (Note: Tip, watch you do not tear it) and the decal was simply pressed onto itself with good effect (see below, an ID mark placed on the Space Marine's boot, "skull" meaning "grunt" in my Science Fiction world, heavy weapon dudes got a "lightning strike" .. not as GW have it in but so what, please refer to the reason why I am doing this in the first place ):
I left them overnight to dry and then used Humbrol Matte Varnish to dull down the glossy shine and give a protective coating (see below, a half squad of Imperial Fists that simply cannot wait for their next Space Crusade mission):
A close-up shot for the Space Marines version of Signal (see below):
All-in-all a nice next step up from the basic paint job I had without decals. I may revisit these chaps at a later date with a view to doing something with those heavy weapons, a colour scheme revamp and perhaps drilling out the barrels of the guns. Pipe dreams at the moment.
They are certainly "combat ready" for the "beer and pretzels" outing number four in the Space Crusade campaign series! Watch this space for the AAR.
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