Battlegroup Cestus; based upon the 3rd Company of Imperial fists. I like the red heraldic trim of the Codex Third Battle Company but want other specialised units in my Space Marine battleforce. I'll include some veteran units; Terminators and Sternguard veterans to bolster my army as well as at least one Scout squad.

To date we have the following ready to be assembled and painted:

2 Tactical Squads

1 Assault Squad

1 Devastator Squad

1 Terminator Squad

1 Command Squad

1 Captain/Commander

1 Chaplain

1 Techmarine plus servitors

1 Sternguard Veteran Squad

1 Librarian

2 Razorbacks

1 Landraider Crusader.

1 Venerable Dreadnaught

1 Ironclad Dreadnaught

That's a lot of yellow paint I'll be going through.

The Fists

So when starting out I got the Black Reach set and a few other boxes of Marines. I picked up the latest edition of the rules for a tenner on eBay, mint condition. Paints, glue, sprays, brushes. The costs mounted up.

I needed to relearn how to paint minis. Not too difficult but there are loads of helpful tutorials on YouTube as well as articles on Games Workshops own site. The various "How to Paint.." books by GW are ok too. I wasn't looking for a Golden Demon, just a nicely painted army.

I chose Imperial Fists as a Chapter for my Space Marines purely on the basis of the nice bright colour. At this point I didn't know that they are one of the hardest chapters to paint.

And in we dive.

Back to the Battle.

Way back in the dawn of time I bought the very first edition of Warhammer on its release. I collected and played with Citadel minis for a good 8 years. I really just used Warhammer as a skirmish game not having the time or inclination to play full pitched battles. I desperately awaited the fabled Rogue Trader game and was a little disappointed when it turned out to be another minis game and not an RPG as was initially promised.

Still I enjoyed it all but eventually I packed it all away and forgot about it till now...

My little boy Tommy expressed an interest after seeing some plastic Warhammer and Warhammer 40k sets in Hobbycraft. So I took the plunge, getting Space Marines for me and Orks for Tommy.

This will be the story of my attempt to rediscover the hobby I used to love.