# Iron Warriors - The Disgruntled Marines



## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

I've never done a project log before, so bear with me....

Since reading Angels Exterminatus I've been smitten with the Lord of Iron and his embittered legion; the backbiting, distrust of one another, the emperor and the Chaos Gods struck me as a legion who are 'aligned' to chaos merely because no one else accepted their mathematical approach to war. _Victory is not an abstract concept, it is the equation that sits at the heart of strategy. Victory is the will to expend lives and munitions in attack, overmatching the defenders' reserves of manpower and ordnance, _Purturabo once said; for me nothing sums up the grimdark better! 
While the legion was winning wars and expanding the Imperium - cos daddy said so - the others gained the glory. 

I often commute by train to work, which gave me a fair while to read all the BL books that had caught my eye; so I started reading McNeil's Ultramarines/Iron Warriors crossover series; you know, the one with Honsou - 40k's biggest asshole with no shits to give! 


My aim is to create a few smaller armies, generally geared towards 40k, but I would like to move into 30k eventually so I'm building VERY fluffy lists with very little 'chaos' symbology; 'cos who needs gods when you have super heavies! 

*I have updated this post on 16/01/17 to rework the project list to align with the 2016 Traitor Legion Codex Supplement (which is friggin' aces faces).*

I try and keep track on how I'm getting on with a simple colour code system:
Red = Don't have, need to buy
Orange = Got, but in a box/needs making
Green = Primed and ready to paint
Black/White = Complete

It’s a total of 7050 points (excluding the fortifications, but they will probably end up being over 1000 points anyway), and I'm pretty impressed with how much chaos I actually have given that I only started this about a year ago. (Ebay FTW!)

My current lists are as follows:

*Iron Warriors Combined Arms Detachment*

*IW; RELICS OF OLYMPIA - 2000pts*
_(1xHQ, 2xTp, 3xEL, 1xFA, 1xHvy, 1xLOW)_
Warpsmith; _The Forgemaster (HH Forgelord)_
Breacher Marines (20)
Cultists (10)
Ferrum Infernus (plastic ven dread conversion) _(HH)_
Contemptor _(HH)_
Contemptor _(HH)_
Storm Eagle _(HH)_
Fire Raptor _(HH)_

Typhon Siege Tank (Veteran of the Scouring)

_This lot are the ancients of the legion, the Heresy era Relics of the armoury still maintained by the Forgemaster (who will also be my 30k Forgelord). I have tried to build them so the majority can be used in either 30k or 40k with breacher marines being standard CSM in 40k, and the cultists being potentially used as human axillary in 30k._
_I recently got the Death Masque box and will be using the dread in there as the Ferrum dread, using an LR Crusader flamestorm cannon. I'll be bulking him out with lots of extra plasticard armour and ablative plating to make him a viable siege dread. _
_I have made a fair bit of progress on the building of this detachment, with only the breachers and ferrum dread still to make, and (only) the flyers still to purchase. _
_I have got to do a bit of work on the bases for everyone, as they're pretty rough at the moment._

*Iron Warriors Grand Battalion Detachment*

*IW; HOUNSOU's WARBAND - 1250pts*
Warsmith Honsou; _The Halfbreed_
Chosen + The Newborn (9) + Rhino
Bolter Marines (10, 2xMelta, 1xCombi) + Rhino
Bolter Marines (5)
Raptors (5, 1x LC, 2xFlamer)
Bikes (5)
Autocannon Havocs (5, 4x Autocannon)
Defence line + ammo dump (fort 3)

_This is where I plan to make Honsou and the main characters from the BL books; Vaanes has made it into the Raptors squad, The Newborn is the champion of the Chosen squad and Grendel appears in there as well. I toyed with the idea of making Grendel a champion, but he just isn't - he barely bothered to turn up, let alone lead people! _
_I have also included an ADL in this list because to use the 'Grand Battalion' Detachment requires minimum 1no Warband and 1no Aux; which in this case is the fortification slot. It makes an easy 12500 point base for me to add on formations or other detachments without having to worry about which unit/formation forms the 'core'. _

*Lords of the Legion*

*CSM; HQs - 750pts*
Terminator Lord; _The Siegebreaker (HH Warsmith)_
Sorcerer
Dark Apostle;_ The Burning Brand_
Daemon Prince

_The Lord will be a conversion of the Iron Hands 'Iron Father' model, and will double as my HH Praetor/Warsmith. I plan to sculpt a mace for him to wield which will be a two handed affair as close to the codex description as possible; a large sphere of gloss black. I'm also toying with the idea of putting the combi bolter on a servo arm rather than hand held, as this would be more in keeping with the rest o the model; servo arms, bionics and MIU's. _
_I will be using the DV lord for the Sorcerer as he seems to be the best model for this proxy, and want to create an Apostle that embodies the Iron Warriors version of chaos allegiance (I'm thinking more advisor to the Commander, than an actual apostle of the gods). I'm planning on giving the apostle the 'Burning Brand' from Codex CSM and keeping him as a front line body to keep cultists/slaves from running away (imagine the Russian commissars in WW2; no retreat!)_
_The Daemon Prince is a tricky one; RAW means he will be dedicated to a particular god, but in practice I don’t want there to be any iconography, conversely I don’t want him to be a useless points sink. I played around with load outs on battlescribe and think I'm going to go with a winged, power armoured, tzeentch aligned prince with black mace. I plan to use some large engines instead of wings, and instead of being a psyker of tzeentch, he will be a front line heavy hitter, with the "re-roll 1's" modelled as lots of bionics, and vats of engine oil to provide the "luck" aspect. _

*Formations*

*STRONGHOLDS OF CHAOS - ??pts*
Fortification
Fortification
(Fort 3 included in warband points)

_Ages ago, a buddy of mine made me a set of 1' x 1' scenic tiles for gaming. I ended up with an aquilla strong point from a FLGS on the cheap, so we made a couple of 2' x 2' tiles as well. These fortifications slots will be an aquilla strongpoint and a set of vengeance weapons batteries, but I haven't got them out of the loft to actually points them up._

*CSM; CULT OF DESTRUCTION - 375pts*
Warpsmith; _The Malevolus_
Obliterators (3) (centurion conversions) 

_I saw a set of conversions of centurions on Eternal Hunt some time ago, and really wanted to do my own versions. The GW obliterators are, in my opinion, pretty meh… but centurions turned into obliterators could look the NUTS! I have chosen to give the warpsmith no upgrades except a sigil and the cranium malevolus to back up the obliterators. _

*CSM; FIST OF THE GODS - 1125pts*
Warpsmith; _The Warpbreacher_
Land Raider
Land Raider
Vindicator
Vindicator
Vindicator

_Before, I had the land raiders placed into the individual CADs, but now with the restrictions (and apparent uselessness of the chaos land raider) I decided to put the two tanks with some other tanks and make lots of tanks. _*TANKS!*
_I really want to make one land raider that Honsou can use (complete with extra armour made from plasticard, shitloads of spikes, and probably some dead imperial fists hung from various meat hooks), and one that I can also use in 30k (so no chaos icons). I will probably take the 30/40k approach to the vindicators as well, and attempt to make them useful for both games. _
_I've put the land raiders on hold at the moment as I'm playing about with ideas and researching modern armour plating methods. When I do the extra armour, I want it to look authentic and functional rather than just some plasticard stuck to the sides. I made some decent progress with a test run of plasticard on one side, but it needs a lot of refining of how the doors/sponsons will integrate - particularly the doors, as I want to make these magnetised so the door is hinged properly and the inner hatch then opens. _

*CSM; HELFORGED WARPACK - 750pts*
Warpsmith; _The Techserpent_
Helbrute
Helbrute
Helbrute
Helbrute (metal dread)
Helbrute (metal dread)

_I have ended up with a load of dreads/helbrutes from various sources, so I want to make a proper helforged warpack, with each one unique and each one heavily converted (although I might keep one helbrute as per the original DV box set, depending on how lazy I get). _
_Many ideas, but no progress as yet._
_I want to create a complete mix of load outs, with no magnets, but no repetition of weapons at all. The new helbrutes will be anti armour with lascannons, autocannons and plasma cannons and the old metal dreads will be plasma cannons and missile launchers for targeting infantry or light vehicles and walkers. _

*CSM; TECHSPAWN - 300pts*
2x5 Spawn

_Primarily a filler slot, but I wanted to make a bunch of crazy mechanoid creations or abortions from the soulforge (not the usual spawn). I'll probably end up bashing some of these together as bits become available._ 

*CSM; TERMINATOR ANNIHILATION FORCE - 750pts*
Warsmith Shon'tu_ (HH Siegebreaker)_
Terminators _(HH Erasmus Golg)_
Terminators _(HH Primus Medicae)_
Terminators_ (HH Command Retinue)_

_I have made a fair bit of progress building these guys, who will be magnetised cataphractii terminators that can be 30k or 40k use, and may also be magentised for launchers to use as Tyrants in 30k. Currently I've got the Tartaros terminators from BoP to make into a HH command retinue, with the standard bearer being the 40k Sgt. These are still on sprue at the moment, until I clear the back log of what I have on the go at the moment. _
_The first squad will be all chainfists and combi bolters (except the sgt who is also my HH Erasmus Golg proxy who totes his combi melta), second squad is all power fists and combi bolters (except the sgtwho is also my HH Primus medicae, who is combi plasma and power sword), and the third sqaud is kitted out with an autocannon and a variety of power fists, lightning claws and the sgt (my HH standard bearer) with a power weapon and combi flamer. _
_Ive tried to cover all the bases for their use, and can swap out individuals between the squads depending on who I'm facing. The Terminator Lord will also be my HH siegebreaker, but is armed with combi melta and chainfist (modelled as a huge chainsword from maxmini)_

*CSM; LOST AND THE DAMNED - 500pts*
Dark Apostle (DV conversion)
Cultists (80)

_They're not really the 'Lost' but they certainly are damned. Cultists to iron warriors, in this instance, are slaves. Lots of slaves. Meatshields for the meatgrinder!!!_



So that's the lot for now, pics will come in the replies below.

Here's my Lord of Iron to start you off!


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

This weekend was 'Walkers Weekend' so Ive been finishing off the contemptors ready to prime and started painting the imperial knight. 

Overall I'm pretty happy with the contemptors - it really challenged me with the use of plasticard, modelling putties and scratchbuilding little bits to fit into the main model. 
I used the main iron warriors forgeworld one and the BaC standard plastic one, but wanted to have a go at making my own arm weapons, which has been pretty successful (see the chainfist arm which is a scratchbuilt apart from the circular saw which I stole from Da Orks, and a butcher cannon which is a couple of stripped down heavy bolters and some IG autocannon drums with extended barrels). I did struggle finding a design for the front of the BaC contemptor that I actually liked; the plain front of the dread isnt really in keeping with the IW theme, so i used a face from the knight kit and plasticard to get my chevrons in there. Its been pretty successful and works pretty well for what I was hoping to achieve (see BaC legs and chest).

The knight is being painted in a few discrete parts: armour plating is separate, legs and body are separate (for storage more than anything). I'm a bit annoyed that I bought the wrong nuln oil; ended up with the gloss version (which has actually been of use on the face and ends of pistons) but really just need some standard matte version to be able to dull down all the silver. 

I have changed my priming method from the basic black base coat I am used to applying to my templars and have switched to Halfords grey primer with army painter gun metal spray over the top. The halfords stuff is the absolute dogs nuts (but difficult to work out what has and hasnt been sprayed as the primer is almost the same shade of grey as the plastic), the army painter stuff is OK, but not great. It seems to dry with a glossy coating which takes a bit of work to dull down. 

All in all, a successful weekend!


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

Oh, before I forget, I embarked on making some semi true scale marines to be honsou and his unit of chosen. The method is based on extending the legs and torso to make the proportions slightly more realistic; basically cutting the legs in a few places, adding plasticard and refitting and adding a lump of putty to the join between torso and legs. 
By far the most unrewarding idea Ive ever had. It takes absolutely fucking AAAGES to cut all the bits, keep them together and refit everything with a 1.5mm bit of plasticard between them. I tried to do batches of 3, but ended up muddling leg bits and having to chuck away and start again. 

Anyway, heres some irritating pictures to give the overall effect. I admit that it MIGHT be better when painted, but I'm not convinced of the balance of effort vs reward if I'm honest.


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## Kreuger (Aug 30, 2010)

The ad hoc chainfist could really use more bulk. Right now it looks pretty spindly. The autocannon looks spindly too but it isn't designed to be smashed into walls and armored vehicles. 

Otherwise the contemptor restyling looks good to me. 

The true- scaling doesn't look all that worth it. I think it might make more sense to use smaller discs as spacers. Right now it looks like side of the white plastic is sticking out past the edges of the legs and it should also be easier to fill in the gap with putty and get a smooth finish. Too little putty can make it harder. Also make sure your tools are wet otherwise it sticks to the tools. 

Good luck!


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## neferhet (Oct 24, 2012)

Man, if you are going to have true scale marines, you are never going to finish this! Awesome result, but such a time sink!
I like your modelling, though.
Godspeed!


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

I decided just to do the one squad after this 'idea'... its a massive time sink, for sure!!


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## thebuilder (Jun 20, 2016)

neferhet said:


> Man, if you are going to have true scale marines, you are never going to finish this! Awesome result, but such a time sink!
> I like your modelling, though.
> Godspeed!


I definitely disagree!


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## neferhet (Oct 24, 2012)

Well, this means you manege to cut and reposition legs and stuff faster than me! :laugh:
How much time does it take you for a truescale mini ti be rebuilt?


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## ExaltedUrizen (Jul 26, 2013)

I really like your imperial knight and perturabo, just thinking that in your list at the top, you should probably make finished things a different colour, because I think it would be pretty hard to read them if they are black.


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

Yeah, I meant black/white (background dependent) edited in post, and also changed the black text in the first list to white as I hadn't noticed it was unreadable. 

Perty is currently just blu tac'd to the base, waiting on magnets. I did a standard gaming base as well so i can switch him out if i ever play a 30k game which he takes to the field. Nothing special; just the chaos terminator lord base and some cork bits. I really like the scenic base he comes with but its an absolute bitch to try and separate to just use the 'gaming' base.

The knight has a lot of work to do on it. I want to get the basic colours done so I can go and tart it up with chains and skulls, but I'm struggling imagining where these would actually go at the moment. 

Thanks for the feedback.


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## DaisyDuke (Aug 18, 2011)

Don't know if this helps, but here's a picture of how I've started mine.


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

Kreuger said:


> The ad hoc chainfist could really use more bulk. Right now it looks pretty spindly. The autocannon looks spindly too but it isn't designed to be smashed into walls and armored vehicles.
> 
> Otherwise the contemptor restyling looks good to me.
> 
> ...


The true scaling is certainly not worth it! Its a massive ballache!

On the chainfist, I assume you mean on the upper arm section. I thought that myself, although I'm unsure how to improve it other than just bulking it out with wider plasti tubes.


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

Thanks Daisy - will help me chaosify mine!


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## thebuilder (Jun 20, 2016)

neferhet said:


> Well, this means you manege to cut and reposition legs and stuff faster than me! :laugh:
> How much time does it take you for a truescale mini ti be rebuilt?


It takes me about half an hour (in total) to fully build a truescale marine.

This is obviously by working in bulk (10-20 at a time) and spread out over about 3 days, for various layers of GS to dry.

For me, it's become a necessity. I couldn't build a normal scale marine for myself now.


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

@ thebuilder - Ive just clocked that its your tutorial Ive used to 'truescale'!!! 
Dude, your method is sound, but JEEEBUS it takes frigging ages first time round. 

Do you mind if I PM you for assistance... I'm struggling a little bit?


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## thebuilder (Jun 20, 2016)

Brother Dextus said:


> @ thebuilder - Ive just clocked that its your tutorial Ive used to 'truescale'!!!
> Dude, your method is sound, but JEEEBUS it takes frigging ages first time round.
> 
> Do you mind if I PM you for assistance... I'm struggling a little bit?


HA! and thanks!

And trust me, it took me AGES the first times I did it too. I've been doing it for about 3 years now, and refining it all the time.

Absolutely drop me a PM, or email.


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

I've been concentrating on another project which has sat in the background for over a year, but is now 90% done. See my other (new) log here.

I am also waiting for my xmas prezzies - another BoP box and Codex Traitor Legions! I'll probably end up redoing my lists after reading.


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

I'm using up the last of my leave days today - what better way to spend it than making toys!
Todays plan is to finish off my true scale chosen; especially Honsou, The Newborn and Grendel. I've changed up using the original tutorial for true scaling and have taken advice from thebuilder and hopefully finishing what i started will be less frustrating. 
Will post pics of the WIP and finished product when the green stuff get is to drying phase


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## neferhet (Oct 24, 2012)

Wonderful! Looking forward to that.
Did the new traitor legions rules changed sothing in your army composition ideas?


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

neferhet said:


> Wonderful! Looking forward to that.
> Did the new traitor legions rules changed sothing in your army composition ideas?


I have only seen the leak of the special relics and stuff (apparently Santa is bringing the prezzies and I will have to wait until then to find out more) - but I like the relics so far. Some great siege weapons, and the ability to actually make a Honsou with actual realistic rules is pretty fcking good IMO!!


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

I had a phenomenally productive day yesterday; got my true scale marines to the point where its just the waist to finish the join and put the finishing touches to my 'Erasmus Golg' conversion, as well as a HH Primus Medicae, a legion sgt and started putting paint onto my WH Fest legion Praetor/Warsmith. 

I'm hoping to get all the green stuff work finished on xmas eve so I can spray and start batch painting in the new year. 

First up, the HH characters: 

The Legion sgt was a simple job; I got some bits from Anvil Industries and wanted to see how they fared with various glues/resin/plastic etc, and a Sgt seemed like something that would be adequate for an initial tester. 
Sgt with bolter and power axe.

I saw a post on an FB group about HH apothecaries in terminator armour; seemed like a cool conversion to use up a spare body I had. Golg started out as a standard Sgt, but I got carried away with green stuff and a scalpel! 

Golg is made with a standard BaC cata body, the head from one of the admech breacher robots ('cos it had lots of cables on 'is 'ead), and a standard chainfist arm, but with a lens i found in the bits box (think its eldar by the look of it). Loin cloth is from the 40k termie lord trimmed to fit and the other arm is a mixture of lots of bits; cata heavy flamer arm completely cut back, a 40k termie combi melta, top half of a marine power pack and a drum mag from a BaC combi bolter. I also added various bits of cables, and guitar string (which I'm really getting the hang of working with now). Really happy with how the underslung combi melta turned out, although I think I might add in some extra small guitar strings/twisted wires to it. 

The medicae is again a standard plastic cata body, with basically a modified combi bolter and narthecium. The narthecium was a lot of fiddly work - I had to cut back the chainblade base where it connects to the fist and then add a 1mm bit of plasticard to raise up the drill part, which is mounted on half of one of the grenade harnesses. The bolter arm is essentially the standard combi bolter with the half that doesn’t have the hand attached completely cut back at the barrel and mag. I replaced the barrel with a dark eldar pistol barrel and then added in a couple of toxin chambers from the apothecary back pack. I also added the back of the dark eldar pistol to replace the drum mag that got cut off (and then handily put on Golg) and added a bit of leftover from the narthecium to finish it off. I found some plastic cable and guitar string to finish off the connections from the arms to the body.

Legion Praetor/Warsmith is really only posted because he is stored in the same Tupperware box as the other cata terminators. 

Sorry for the rubbish photos.


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

For the truescale marines, I had a lot of help from thebuilder… but still had some problems, mainly due to inexperience and poor planning. I had started off with an old VeteranSgt tutorial and then switched half way through to thebuilders strategy. 
The problems I had were mainly down to gluing arms on before doing the torso connections (which are still to do) - I need to work carefully on some of them to be able to finish them off. 

Overall I'm happy with the results so far, but I need to practice a bit more; should have probably NOT started on a primary squad and characters!! 

I have lined up the dudes in the picture in order of when I did them, so you can see the changes in the method (sort of). The guy on the left (with power sword and arm missing) is the first I did, followed by Honsou….. Then in the second picture there is a guy with green stuff on one calf only, which is when I switched method. 

For my next time round, I will try and standardise and also beef up the thighs so they look less anorexic. 

Shit pics again.


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

A run down of the individuals in the chosen squad:

Honsou (with his fancy metal arm) leads his chosen warriors and protectors, with The Newborn represented as per the artwork (although I think he might be proxied with power maul or something for games, havent yet decided). 
Caradas Grendel totes his trademark melta gun and old school helmet. He is armed with a dagger to reflect the knife fight he has with some ultras on Calth.
There are four marines with bolter/power sword which are a mix of actual chaos ones and some imperial ones with notches/nicks in the blade. I'll paint these up with a bit of rust for added chaosyness. 
The three remaining guys are bolter chainswords. 

The main thing I wanted to achieve was truescale and heroic/dynamic poses (although I realised that theres actually two blokes in the exact same pose GADDAMMIT!!!) and I'm pretty hapy with the results, cant wait to get some colour on them.

HAZARDS STRIPES AT THE READY!! 

Aaaaaand shit pics.


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

I'm terrible for starting another project before I've completed one.

Started making a Land Raider, with magnetised sponsons (mainly for transport) and hinged doors, as well as extra armour and a fully working inner section. 

So far I have made the doors. 

Am planning to do some heavy armour plating to the outside and hopefully cover up those unsightly bits of wire, but im pretty pleased with what Ive achieved!


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## koosbeer (Feb 25, 2008)

The door hinges are smart. I was wondering how to do that myself. Good job!


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

koosbeer said:


> The door hinges are smart. I was wondering how to do that myself. Good job!


The original tutorial has you cutting the centre of the door hinge away, but on FW doors that leaves then incredibly brittle! 
This way does need some sort of retrofitting to hide the bit of wire, but a small bit of plasticard should solve that and be relatively easy to integrate into a normal LR side. 
In my case, its a doddle - im bulking it out with way more armour plating!


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

15/01/17 UPDATE!

I have spent a while reading and updating my army plans to align with the new Traitor Legion Codex (supplement). First post is now updated with the plans for the Iron Warriors, however I have also deleted all non-IW lists (these are migrated across to my Army List page, linky in the footer).



Additionally, my better half is trying to curtail my natural hobby butterfly-like attention span. so I am only allowed to start a project (painting, modelling or basing) until ive actually finished another. Apparently taking over the study and spare room with half finished projects is no longer a valid hobby space. 

So I did some work on this guy!


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## koosbeer (Feb 25, 2008)

Brother Dextus said:


> 15/01/17 UPDATE!
> 
> I have spent a while reading and updating my army plans to align with the new Traitor Legion Codex (supplement). First post is now updated with the plans for the Iron Warriors, however I have also deleted all non-IW lists (these are migrated across to my Army List page, linky in the footer).
> 
> ...


Im just going to steal all your ideas! Im loving the paint scheme of your knight. I want to combine it with the red/blue paint scheme of the loyal houses. Also, you added just enough spikes which is awesome. Keep up the good work! "Iron within! Iron without!"


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

Thanks koosbeer. I didnt add too much in the way of spikes or chaos icons (only one on the shield on his leg) - IWs arent 'proper' chaos in my opinion!


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## Chaosftw (Oct 20, 2008)

Dude the Knight is coming along quite nice! Im digging the marines! thats a hell of a lot of work being put into each one! Keep it up!


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

Chaosftw said:


> Dude the Knight is coming along quite nice! Im digging the marines! thats a hell of a lot of work being put into each one! Keep it up!


Thanks 
Apart from a Templar Fellblade, the knight is the biggest model Ive ever painted (and the fellblade was pretty easy - its just black with some red/white/gold details really). 

For the marines, I'm trying to focus on making each one in some way unique. The novels bring so much detail into the grunt marines that never get too much focus in the modelling. I'm also pretty well on to actually having the models, theres not actually that much I still have left to buy, and those things are pretty big purchases (FW stuff, or 3 vindicators!)


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

So its been a while since I updated... Been hectic on job hunt recently which has limited my toys time sadly. Also my partner got us a copy of x-wing ages ago and we finally got round to playing it - and then ended up buying more x-wing and sinking lots of free time into saving the empire from the traitorous dogs in the rebel alliance! 

Anywho; I had a very productive week generally, particularly Friday when I was working from home; I got lots of stuff primed. I have had a fair few projects half finished - Honsou and the true scales, contemptors, cata terminators,tarty terminators and some characters - which are now all sprayed leadbelcher and ready to enter the production lines! 
I'm going to try and stick to painting a squad, big thing, character so i don't get too distracted with them. 
_[Above, when I said I have the attention of a butterfly; I also started gathering parts from my old skaven to make a Daemonculaba so Honsou can oversee the building of the army!] _

I managed to finish the Typhon and the body of the Knight (which I still don't have a name for, and need to make the arms) so I'm pretty happy with the general progress of the army. One thing I need to work on through is the weathering; both use of weathering powders and mud and splatter. I think the powders I have a decent idea of _how _to use them, just not _where_. The mud, I just need to figure my preferred application method; I got a mud 'pen' which is a bit like a crayon, as well as the GW mud and a brown squeezy acrylic paint (which was a recommendation by a friend). The typhon just has the crayon on at the moment, but i think i need to let it set properly and then add the GW mud and a light brown dry brush to finish it off. 

Ive edited the original post above and coloured the list appropriately for reference, and will post pictures up below as I sort through them. 

Here's the Typhon and the Renegade Knight body (base WIP).


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

Light was pretty terrible this weekend, I blame Storm Doris, and living in coventry; known for its sunshine and bright outlook! 
I have now managed to get some decent pictures of the Typhon following on from my post above - so any comments welcome; particularly on how I can make the weathering better. [I'm also a bit annoyed how streaky the nuln oil wash has gone over it, maybe some medium to the wash would help next time.]

Today, however I'm feeling pretty chuffed for another reason.... Honsou and Grendel are finished!! 

These are the first of the truescale guys, and I have to say will probably be the last of my foray into such modelling. It’s a massive pain in the arse, and to be honest, my skills arent going to do it justice! Ive got 80 mk3 marines to get through as well as a load of CSM to get through and I cant picture myself doing that much dicking about with plasticard and green stuff. 

That said, here's more pictures of the Typhon


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

Honsou & Grendel during the invasion of Ultramar; hope I've done them justice!


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

Bonus picture of my WIP dread that will be a ferrum infernus (destroyer of cities) for 40k and a normal dread in 30k (kitted out the same).


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

*Honsou + Chosen*

Over the past few days/weeks Ive been painting the true scale dudes i made above. I could have probably made the green stuff work a bit better, but I basically gave up with 'average' quality of modelling and try to distract from the imperfections with the paint job! 

These guys will be my main command unit, with Honsou leading, Grendel at his side, and The Newborn in front to go bash skulls! They're accompanied by 4 dudes with bolter/power swords for which I tried to do some different colours on their swords. I've only really done blue before, so it was a nice challenge. There's also a bunch of bolter chainsword dudes with them. The unit will be deployed in a heavily converted land raider (which I mentioned above), which will be part of a formation. Theres still bases to finish off and I'm going to give weathering powders a go on some infantry after my typhon foray, plus I have noticed that the existing backpacks have a mold line or 2, and the other guys backpacks arent finished yet... but all in all, I'm pretty chuffed with how theyre turning out so far!


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

*Contemptor progress*

As well as the marines, I've also been progressing my two contemptor dreads. 

Ive finished the bases and arms, and have the prime colours mapped out on the body more or less. I still have some more brass to map out on the plastic one but its basically done. I'm hoping to be able to finish the bodies this week, and then glue it all together. I'm also going to try and do more with my bases. When I was doing my templars, I basically painted them brown and put some small cork bits on with pva. It worked, but it didnt really do the models justice. I think that these guys will be the ones to start trying more with weathering powders on for humanoid type units, but big scale. 

Had fun doing the krieg dude bleeding out on one base, and tried to do some rusty metal for the base of another. I also did a imperial fist helmet and arm, which will end up under the dreads foot eventually. "Blood for the Blood God" is an interesting medium to work with, I kind of just splodged it on and hoped for the best, it was harder on this model than on the edge of swords. I want to get better with it because I can see it being a really useful paint to bring a model to life and be more grimdark.

I'll update with better pictures when theyre done.


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

I have no idea why the site keeps rotating the pictures all weird.


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## Ring Master "Honka" (Oct 31, 2011)

Brother Dextus said:


> I have no idea why the site keeps rotating the pictures all weird.


Im Not Surprised its doing this its taken me nearly a year to reset my login so i can actually post.

these are some sweet looking models you got some full army shots?


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

A few buddies are coming over for warhammer fest at the end of the month (I live round the corner from the venue), so we decided that a bit of Shadow Wars was on the cards...

Leader (300pts)
Bolt pistol, power sword, combat blade, power armour

Trooper (180pts)
Bolter, chainsword, combat blade, power armour

Specialist (280pts)
Bolt pistol, power sword, combat blade, power armour

Specialist (240pts)
Meltagun, assault blade, combat blade, power armour


They're running Tau/Dark Angels/Harlequins so my Iron Warriors need to deal with different types of opponent. But who the hell wants tactics when you can have a facemelta and bodyexploder?

I used three from the squad I painted above and then bashed this guy together to be the Autocannon. I'm still toying with the idea of putting a belt feed on it, or changing to a drum mag, but am a bit undecided at the mo. The only reason is the belt feed is obviously heavy bolter, rather than the larger autocannon calibre round. Once I've got the autocannon finished there's just a little bit of green stuff and gap filling to do and then paint! 

Hope you guys like it!


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## DaisyDuke (Aug 18, 2011)

Nice auto cannon conversion, the only thing I can say is it could do with bigger diameter barrel. 
But good stuff. 
On another note I don't think the specialist can take a pow sword.


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

DaisyDuke said:


> Nice auto cannon conversion, the only thing I can say is it could do with bigger diameter barrel.
> But good stuff.
> On another note I don't think the specialist can take a pow sword.


I have actually upgraded the barrel dia to match the hvt bolter dia. 

There is a power sword, sword and knife in Armageddon, so specialists only have swords, not power sowrd.


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

*Autocannon bloke for SW:A*

Finished this guy. I'm happy with the result, but not sold on the ammo feed still.


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

Been a while..... Started a new job, so have been pretty busy - I'm now a train commuter! I FUCKING HATE COMMUTING ON THE GODDAM TRAIN. 

I have tried to like the primaris marines, but i just don't get it. the aesthetics are OK, but I think i need to read the 'dark imperium' book to really start to like them - I just don't really know why some of the legions would be accepting of girlyman.... Particularly the Templars, who now seem to be worshiping him rather than Big E.

Anyway - for now I've decided to forget 40k and focus on my 30k Iron Warriors. I bought a load of forge world conversion parts; heavy weapons and upgrade sets and the like, and have started gathering bits from various fleabay auctions etc. 

Ive started to build a sort of list, but focusing on making squads rather than full armies. So far I have:
2x20 man tac squads will full bolter porn
1x5 man recon squad in power armour, more of a trench clearance squad with axes and shotguns
1x5 man tartaros command squad
1x10 man siege tyrants
the dreads i posted before (which are nearing completion, but missing something that I cant put my finger on)
my HQs

I started painting up my various HQ choices that I've kitbashed and so I have a fair few models nearing completion:
Warsmith
Siege Breaker
Forge Lord
Master of Signal
Vigilator
Narik Dreygur 

Just got their arms and backpacks to finish
Will be trying to finish of my half finished projects by the end of summer and start fresh on some new models in the autumn when the weather closes in.


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

Nice work on the praetor's little shield. That skull looks like it was fiddly to do.


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

Khorne's Fist said:


> Nice work on the praetor's little shield. That skull looks like it was fiddly to do.


Its actually etched brass so was easy to paint really - an absolute fucker to get positioned though! 

In other news, I have splurged out on some HH stuff recently, and have ended up with FIVE quad mortars, and a load of infantry conversion stuff. 
I also finally bought my first actual red book of rules!


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

*Post birthday update*

Bit of an update.... Still not managed to get my butterfly style attention span under control, so have made progress to about a dozen different projects - I even manged to remember to take some pictures. [Disclaimer; I got a lightbox thingy for my birthday so bear with me while I figure out how to actually take decent pictures!] 
So, I've got another quad mortar, taking me to six (2x3). Yup, I'll be "that guy". They'll go with my new Tyrants (which I'm scrubbing with swarfega on the advice of FW, after also using cola and 1000-grade sandpaper to try and get rid of the goddam release agent) and my siege breaker (pictured above). All of this is still to assemble, but that’s a quick job once I get going.

I've built some of my havocs – 5 lascannon and 10 autocannons have been made and ready to prime (havent done the cables/ammo feeds yet though, will do those last once painted so they don’t get in the way). The 5 heavy bolter havocs and 5 missile launcher havocs are just waiting for a couple of the BaC launchers and some Mk4 legs. 
I ended up buying another copy of the death masque box and the overkill box (so have also been making deathwatch guys, because reasons), and have made the dreads into Iron warriors chaps. I have also finished up the contemptors I started ages ago.
The boxnaughts are armed with a flamestorm cannon, siege drill and heavy flamer for one, and lascannon, ccw and graviton gun for the other. I really want to add another to complete the talon and have him armed with 2x missile pods and hunter killers. (I saw a conversion online which looked simply amazeballs!)
The contemptors are armed with multimelta, chainfist and melta and autocannon, ccw and plasmablaster. After Ive assembled them, I think I might change the autocannon. It looks ok, but not great; need something to make it not obviously two plasticard tubes with holes drilled in it.

I've also completed two squads of veterans – one to be anti-infantry with bolters all over the place, and one as a tank hunter squad with melta guns and power weapons. I see the first squad sitting on an objective and sniping characters, and laying down shrapnel bolts at advancing units and the other squad in a rhino or land raider popping enemy transports and mopping up the survivors. 

From the death masque box, I made a ten man recon squad, but in power armour that are armed with shotguns and ccws. They'll be run as a "forlorn hope" unit, first into the breech to hold until heavier units arrive. I also want to make a sniper squad in carapace armour, but still looking for ideas of how they will look to fit into the theme. I have been thinking that some of the Anvil Industries units might fit. 

The land raiders are really coming on, and are nearly ready to prime. I have three now, and have abandoned the idea of trying to make extra armour for all of them; I did but a FW proper set though to make a terminator command squad transporter. 
The normal ones are complete and ready to spray, aside from sinking the magnets into the sponsons which I'll do tonight. And the armoured one just needs a temporary assembly so I can bend the extra armour into position properly. I also need a couple of the display panel things for inside so I can make the innards look decent as well. I do like a nicely painted tank interior! 

I've got enough guys to make a 10-man mk3 volkite squad and 10-man breacher squad, so that’s my next project (but with FW boarding shields instead of the breachers, as I don’t like the breacher shield aestetic)

For my 40k force, I've made some decent progress on my raptors, who will be led by Adaric Vaanes (previously a 4th Company Raven Guard chappy, now in the service of Honsou in his invasion of Ultramar). Theres a unit of 5, with Vaanes, 2 flamer dudes and two pistol chainsword dudes. Painting raptors is laborious. The trim is everywhere and I'm having to put down like 3 coats of the gold to make it look good, that’s 3 dark gold and 2 shiny gold and then a wash over the top. It’s an ass. 
Vaanes looks good though! 


In other unrelated news; I also started painting up the HH Ahriman, a bunch of deathwatch, and made a start on some harlequins which will form part of the 40k corsairs force. 
I really like the Ahriman model, and will be trying out some painting techniques on him as I've never painted this colour palette before. 
Deathwatch are great IMO, its like painting black templars, but with an unlimited amount of weapon options. 
A buddy of mine has always collected saim hann and has recently been converting some models to incorporate harlequins, exodites and dark eldar (probably with some guardians thrown in somewhere or other such xenos craziness). He's an incredible converter and always puts us all to shame with his imagination and skill. He's also amazing at painting, so he's basically a git when he turns up to our tourneys – with his shiny toys and fully painted armies (bastard). We split a load of the first death masque box I got (he took the flyers) and he has been encouraging me to try out painting up the harlequins and providing inspiration for corsairs when he posts up his models. I really want to make the pirate corsairs that allied with honsou and reckon the harlequins would be a good start, with addition of various eldar/elf looking bits and some dark eldar weapons thrown in for good measure ( Kaarja Salombar - Warhammer 40k | Lexicanum ).


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## DaisyDuke (Aug 18, 2011)

Dude, the card hazard stripes on the dreds look really good! 
You’re not wrong about the raptors, they are trim sized pain in the ass. I think the GW way is probably the easiest way to paint them, and that is to paint the whole model the trim colour and then go back and paint the panels after the trim is finished. Although this seems ‘wrong’ to me I’m going to try it for my next batch. 
Keep it up dude!


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## Brother Dextus (Jan 30, 2013)

DaisyDuke said:


> Dude, the card hazard stripes on the dreds look really good!
> You’re not wrong about the raptors, they are trim sized pain in the ass. I think the GW way is probably the easiest way to paint them, and that is to paint the whole model the trim colour and then go back and paint the panels after the trim is finished. Although this seems ‘wrong’ to me I’m going to try it for my next batch.
> Keep it up dude!



Thanks man. I've spent years doing relatively simple kitbashes for Templars, but the iron warriors and experience have given me the prod to try some more advanced stuff. 


I might try the panel technique. I've only painted 2 of them, so still 2 more to go!


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