# The Iron Warriors's 44th Grand Company



## Dies Irae (May 21, 2008)

Hi everyone! 

As the summer vacations are nearing their inevitable end, I decided to open a Project Log to get me motivated in painting my Chaos Space Marines force.

I started collecting this army in 2005, and grew every year, making it now a big 7000-ish points force. It includes a wide array of HQs, Elites, Troops and Heavy Support choices, all with lots of tiny conversions to make every miniature unique. With the release of 6th Edition and the fact that I finally found a way to play games on a weekly basis, I hope that this army will see the light more often than in the past, and thus I have to paint it!

Over the next 4 weeks I will try to post daily updates of my progress, from conversion work to painting, as well as terrain building and other stuff.

Before I get to the pictures, I should note that I have had some trouble taking pictures for 2 reasons:
-It's cloudy today, so I don't have a lot of light. I'll post better pictures when the sky is clear.
-My hands tend to shake a little bit, so the pics are a bit blurry. I'll fix that by scratch-building a stand for my camera.

So let's get started:

-One of my melta squads. Each squad in the army (I have 5.5 now, and want to have 8 in the end) has a different colour painted on it's Icon, it's right shoulderpad and everywhere else it looks good. This is Yellow Team, and the other melta squads are Red, Orange and White Teams


A few close-ups of the squad members. The yellow was done with a Iyanden Darksun base, a Bleached Bone drybrush and a Devlan Mud wash.




-One of my plasma squads: Blue Team (the other ones are Green, Purple and Black Teams). For this squad I wanted a high-tech feel, that I achieved with lots of loyalist bitz, Iron Hands boltguns and every single scope or lens I could find.


Close ups of the Champion, a Plasma gunner and the Auspex bearer: the light reflection was done using an Ice Blue drybrush, followed by a mix of Ice Blue and Skull White. The same technique was used on the power sword.




-My unit of Plague Marines, converted using Vampire Counts's Ghouls. The armour took and extra Devlan Mud wash on top of the usual Badab Black. Armed with 2 flamers and a Powerfist, this squad is perfect for taking and holding objectives, no matter what you throw at them.


The Marine on the right will get a flamer next week. I did not glue the weapons on him and one of his pals so I could have an easy access to the chest plate.



-A squad of Possessed made using the Iron Hands upgrade pack and Max mini's conversions bits. This is only half of the squad, the rest is not painted yet. I took photos of individual models in the unit, but they were too blurry :/



And here are the projects I will be working on this week:

-My beloved Daemon Prince, now complete with HUGE wings that I fear will break everytime I touch them:





-A Chaos Rhino that is nearly completed, but still needs some chevrons and decals, and some Etched Brass from Forge World that I will only have in a couple weeks.


-A set of Imperial ruins, converted to the glory of the Dark Gods. 



I'm looking forward to hearing from you! Please tell me what you liked, what I have to improve, and if you have any good ideas for conversions.

Dies Irae out.


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## Viscount Vash (Jan 3, 2007)

It's all good and makes for a tidy looking IWs army.

The Daemon Prince in particular is very good ( breakable wings included) the Mask addition is so Iron Warriors it could have been made for the job, I love it.

I look forward to seeing him and the other stuff as they get painted.


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## Disciple_of_Ezekiel (May 23, 2010)

Dies,

Great work on the conversions! The Daemon lord as Vash said, looks excellent and the statue....FANTASTIC! Good job as well on the hazard stripes locsted on the chain sword. They can look like crap if done wrong, yours are well done. Really look forward to seeing those two pieces finished and painted.

+Rep 

Regards,
DoE


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## Dies Irae (May 21, 2008)

Thanks for the comments and the rep :biggrin:

The Prince has still some work going on on him, I'm gonna try to sculpt the Iron Warrior's emblem into his left kneepad. I'll also work a little bit on the top of the head, to make the mask feel like it fused with the DP.

The stripes take a lot of time, and none of them are perfect, but from a good distance they look great.

I finished my first unit of 8 Khorne Berzerkers tonight, the pictures will be here tomorrow morning. I'm not very pleased with them, if someone has a tip to make blood that looks like it's been spilled just a few seconds ago that's much appreciated.


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## Dies Irae (May 21, 2008)

Alright, time for pictures!

Here is a view of the squad, followed by a few close-ups as usual:




I painted them as usual Iron Warriors, but I splattered blood all over the armor, trying to apply it only on the areas close to their close combat weapons. If you look at this unit and at the other ones above, you may see that I am affected by a strange curse: I can pose every model in dynamic and interesting poses, except for the unit's champion. In this case it is the dude with the Power axe, and he is looking rather dull.

Next is the Chaos Lord with Bloodfeeder, my favourite unit in game due to the pure randomness of his attacks. The Gods watch over me, and most of the time it will spit out a dozen of attacks that will turn the enemy into bloody ribbons.


And finally is the Rhino that I will use to get them across the board. I built it 2 weeks before the 6th Edition hit the shelves, and now it feels useless. Damn it!
(BTW my main opponent plays Space Wolves, so the bodies are going to be painted as such. They are here because a) It's cool and b) To represent Extra Armour)





Today I'm going to finish the sculpting work on the DP and base it, and I'll start painting the statue and the broken Aquila. Stay tuned!

EDIT: Could someone tell me how to edit the title of the thread? I'd like to do it to give a glimpse of the updates.


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## Lethiathan (Nov 11, 2011)

Fuck. Should have thought heretics would use Imperial marines as extra armour... Devious. Really digging the rhino!


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## Dies Irae (May 21, 2008)

I DECLARE THIS PLOG REBORN!










This thread has been dormant long enough, fortunately I have not. Time to wake up.

So what has happened in 9 months? A lot of things really. More than a couple units got painted, some new additions were made to the army thanks to the new codex, some new projects have been set in motion...
TONS of pictures incoming!

To keep things clear in the beginning I'll split everything on 5 posts, one for HQs, one for Elites and so on. Starting Monday I will have plenty of time, and nothing to waste it on but my army, so you can expect (at least) weekly updates, perhaps even step by step tutorials and stuff like that.

I'm also going to write some lore, so when that is ready I would really appreciate your input on that 

So lets start now with the HQs...


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## Dies Irae (May 21, 2008)

*HQ*

So, the fine commanders of the army! You already met the Khorne Lord, which did not suffer many modifications (I repainted the axe blade in a slightly darker tone, but nothing fancy so I didn't bother to take a picture). Here as his acolytes:

Slaaneshi Sorceror!



This guy is not painted yet, and I fear that day. The wings make it almost impossible to reach some areas.

Nurgle Lord!






This was my first ever IC. I swapped the head for something more Nurglesque (I used the original in Orange Squad, see below). I used my trusty Chestnut Ink on almost everything here, from the armor to the fur. I'm quite pleased by the stark contrast between the white helmet and the rusted armor.

And finally...
*DRUMROLL*

The Daemon Prince!








My greatest piece so far. If my memory serves me right, it took around 12 hours to paint, which is not that much when you consider the time some artists spend on Golden Daemon entries for example. 

Completing this collection are a Tzeentch Sorceror in Terminator Armour, and of course a Warsmith, also a Terminator. I have not included them because I feel the need some work still. And I already have too much pictures to upload.


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## Dies Irae (May 21, 2008)

*Elites*

Time for some Elites.

My army now features a brand new Berzerker unit. To tell it apart from the other one, the blood spatters are not as dark as on the others. Here they are:





A side by side comparison with a Berzerker from the other squad



Their Thousand Sons "buddies". Well at least they don't kill each other. Most of the time.
They were kit-bashed with a variety of bitz from the CSM Squad box. There may also be a Terminator shoulderpad somewhere.





I tried something new with them and added a drop of Iyanden Darksun into the gold. It created a different tone from the rest of the army with helps them stand out as a special unit.

I also have a squad of Noise Marines coming soon. And I only have one word to describe what's ahead of me: pinning. Lots of it. Their arms just won't stick to their bodies. 



But what would be Chaos without insane killing machines? So let me introduce: The Dreadnought (I won't call it a Helbrute, because it really isn't)






Remember when I said new projects have been set in motion? Notice the Carnifex bit on the base? 

But this story is for another time. For now it is time to show you the pinacle of my kit-bashing skills. Really, I don't think I can do better than that. Ladies and Gentlemen, the Chosen!







This is a fine mix of CSM and Sm bitz, sprinkled with FW MkIII Iron armors, Iron Warrior conversion kits, MaxMini heads and a Chaos Warrior weapon here and there. But wait, there is more!







The weapons were made using a tutorial published by Galahad IIRC (Thanks  ). The are used as flamers or meltas depending on the situation. Everything else is just counted as CCWs.
I plan on painting one of those squads with Night-Lords-style lightnings on their armors, and the other one with tiny weeping faces (like those I sculpted on the Thousand Sons Sorceror).


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## Dies Irae (May 21, 2008)

*Troops*

Meltas first. My squads are geared follwing two models: 2 Meltaguns with Powerfist, or 2 Plasmaguns with Power Weapon. They cost the same points, they fit their role perfectly. It saves some time when writing army lists.






Orange squad (which is not that Orange really, but Red squad will be much darker) is the result of a competition between me and a friend: over the course of one night, who will finish first: me with a squad of undercoated Chaos Marines, or him with Bioshock Infinite on Hard difficulty.
It's such a shame he collapsed around 9am, allowing me to finish my squad AND the game. Which is awesome by the way.






White squad is probably the closest you will find to a loyalist Space Marine in the army. These guys have honour. They will still crush you, but they will do so by the rules. Both this squad and Orange Squad are actually finished at 90%, there is still some work to do (Hazard stripes, lenses, a few minor things to tweak).

It's becoming overwhelming to write something about each squad, I've already noticed there missed things in previous posts, maybe I'll go back over them later. Fortunately I don't have a lot to explain about Red Squad: they are Close Combat specialists, with nice looking weapons from the Raptor's box and Warriors of Chaos.





The problem when you have 8 squads is that you are bound to have "clones" somewhere. I always try to bring an extra something to avoid that, like on the top of banners for instance.

Moving on to the plasmas now! There has been less painting work going on there, despite the fact that they are the squads I use the most. Here is Black Squad:






The other two are not painted. Yet.
Purple squad:






The unit's champion was made using the body of Fabulous Bile, found by chance in my GWS's bitz box, a sword from the metal Terminator Lord and a loyalist Boltpistol.

Green Squad is the least trusted in the army, for good reasons: they loot the corpses of fallen loyalists to get the latest armor designs. I had a squad of Battle for Maccrage I needed to used, and with some chaotic bits here and there they blend in just fine.





You can catch a glimpse of my painting skills when I started the hobby with BfM. Man that was bad.


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## Dies Irae (May 21, 2008)

*Fast Attack*

What is this even used for? Fast Attack? What's faster than a bolt or a laser? 
Oh well, you can't go wrong with a little bit of everything after all.

The following squad was inspired by the "Darksiders" games. They depict a rather unique version of the Four Apocalypse Horsemen. And they are quite bad-ass. So as I needed a squad of four bikers, I decided I could try to represent them in the 40k universe.



War

Death

Fury

Strife


But of course I've also fallen to the Dark Side of the Internet and it's cheesy army lists. That's why I'm also packing this:


It's still in progress, but stayed at my apartment, so I won't be able to work on it until September.


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## Dies Irae (May 21, 2008)

*Heavy Support*

Last but not least, the big guns that apparently never tire.

A first Havoc squad:




Modified "Suntouch" Plasmacannon


Another Havoc Squad! So many Lascannons!





A homemade Obliterator






And finally the Warsmith's personnal ride:




Hope you enjoy all of that.
Questions, comments and criticisms are always welcome


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## revolantis (Jun 27, 2013)

Your army looks great! I particularly like how you've made the specialist god worshippers, like the berserkers and plague marines, look fully devoted to their chosen god while still staying true to the iron warriors look. 

I'm not a big fan of the kit, but your Heldrake is looking awesome too.


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## Dies Irae (May 21, 2008)

Hello fellow Heretics.

I'm running against a minor situation right now: I am cut of from Internet. Actually this was part of the plan, spend one month with no free Internet access, so that I could focus on painting with getting distracted by Facebook or League of Legends. I planned on using a local cybercafe (not sure the term is right in English, it's a place where you can rent computers to go on Internet or play games) to upload pictures of my progess and expand my PLog. The uploading part went well, but I discovered this afternoon that Heresy Online is blocked by their firewall. I'll talk about that with the owner tomorrow.

In the meantime the pics still made it to my photobucket account, so by searching for Dies_Irae there you can get a glimpse at what's to come, in that case two squads of Terminators, and a step by step turorial on how to paint an Iron Warrior Terminator (which can also be used for regular Marines).

Today I also undercoated Green Team, and I hope to have it finished by Friday.
Next, I'm torn between painting a Rhino or Predator, or focusing on the infantry first, with a squad of Havocs. I don't feel the NEED to paint something different yet, so maybe I should hold on to that. What's your advice?


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## SwedeMarine (Jun 3, 2013)

Nice work so far man. Hope to see what you can manage with a month of no itnernet


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## Dies Irae (May 21, 2008)

Thread Necromancy !!!

I now have access to a computer, so it's time to start the PLog's engine again. Let's first glance at what I promissed you weeks ago: Terminators.
I did not repaint them entirely, but corrected some mistakes, put a new coat of gold and re-did the bones/skulls/horns. Here is the result. They are plit in two squads.

The first one is my Warsmith's bodyguard. They pack combi-meltas and a Reaper Autocanon, as well as Power Axes. One of them as a scratch-built Servo-arm as, at the time, Warpsmiths didn't exist and I wanted one of those somewhere in the army. It was made using sprues left-overs, an airsoft pellet and teeth from chainswords.




The other squad is the retinue of my Tzeentch Sorceror, and was designed to hunt "Deathstar" units. With a pair of Lightning Claws, 2 Chainfists and a Powerfist, they can take on anything but hordes. The Mark of Tzeentch hopefully protects them on their mission.




One of the Terminators, the first squad's Champion, was not yet painted as I wanted him to carry a large banner. This project got scraped and I built him a Warp-blade instead, using and arm from the possessed box. While I painted him I took photos of each step, and since he features a large number of elements I believe this can prove usefull to novices. If you like this tutorial I'll ask for it to be added to the Tutorials section.


HOW TO PAINT AN IRON WARRIORS TERMINATOR (LORD)

Step 1:
Undercoat the model with Chaos Black. This will create the base for all our colors, which we want to be dark. Sometimes it is a good idea to use a white primer, but with Iron Warriors you really want to avoid that.



Step 2:
Using an old brush/ GW's Small Drybrush/ Anything similar, drybrush Leadbelcher on all the metallic parts, be it iron or gold. 



Step 3:
Using a Standard/ Detail brush, dependingon the areas, paint a thin layer of Gehenna's Gold on all the golden parts. If you are not satisfied with the result, paint a second layer over the first, but keep your paint thin.



Step 4:
Basecoat time! Take your paints from the "Base" line. I use Foundation paints because I have some left and I want to finish them before moving on to the new paint line. Paint several thin layers on everything that is still black: skulls, cables, flesh, leather, wood...
Here I have used Iyanden Darksun for my cables, Khemri Brown for the spikes, fur and leather, Dheneb Stone for the bones, loincloth, flesh and wing, and Mechrite Red for the cape.



Step 5:
Now it's time to correct any mistakes you could have made on the shoulderpads or where you want your chevrons to be, using Abaddon Black.



Step 6:
Go one last time over the details. Here I have painted the Warp flames in Lich Purple and the Dark Angel helmet in a mix of green and black to come as close as possible to the original colour.



Step 7:
Once everything on your miniature is basecoated, it's time to let the magic begin with the best paint EVER: Agrax Earthshade. This is my "Ten thousand years of battles in a box" paint. It turns the shiny metal into a corroded plate, the clean bones into dirty trophies, it adds shadows to everything, it's just insane. Take a large brush, a small quantity of it and aplly it everywhere. Make sure it does not pool on flat surfaces, or it will leave marks. The more you put, the dirtier the mini gets, so use it wisely.



Step 8:
Believe it or not but we're soon finished! Highlight the bone with a light drybrush on Ushabti Bone, and an even lighter drybrush of Ceramite White. Stike your brush gently from the top to the bottom.



Step 9:
Now we work on the cape. I highlighted it using horizontal drybrushes of Mephiston Red, to which I then added a dash of Wild Rider Red for the final highlight.



Step 10:
Perfection lies in the details. I washed the Dark Angel helmet with Nuln Oil, then highlithed it with Goblin Green and Scorpion Green. The wing was drybrushed in Ceramite White, then glazed with Enchanted Blue, then drybrushed again, more lightly this time, with Ceramite White. The lenses where painted in Mephiston Red, then I added a dot of Wild Rider Red and a wash of Nuln Oil.
The Tyranid skull was drybrushed with a very small amount of Enchanted Blue, following the plates, then a very light brush of Ice Blue in the other way.
The flaming blade was brushed with a very light coat of Ceramite White, then glazed with Lich Purple.
I used Chestnut Ink on the meltagun's barrel and on the fur, but I think a mix between bronze and Agrax would also work for the barrel, and a large coat of Agrax for the fur.



Step 11:
The famous black and yellow chevrons. Start on a black base and, with a detail brush, paint yellow lines at the end of the weapon. If you are quick, the line should be right. Leave some space, then paint another parallel line. Repeat until you are at the base. Then fill between the lines with two thin coats of yellow.
You should practice on chainswords and bolters before trying to do them on shoulderpads or anything else that is rounded. Remember that you can always correct your mistakes with a thin coat of black.



Step 12:
Base your model. My Iron Warriors, as many I have seen, are usually walking amongst ashes, dust and rubble. But pick whatever works for you. I basecoated the sand with a dark grey, drybrushed it with a light grey and applied an Agrax wash.




And voila! Tabletop results in a moderate amount of time. I usually take around one hour per model. I'll admit this one took two, because I had to consider how to paint the Dark Angel helmet and the Warp-balde, which were new to me.

Comming right up are two Obliterators, two Tactical squads, two Havoc Squads and a Noise Marine squad I painted since last time. Tomorow I'll start working on Red Squad, the last Tactical I have to paint.


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## Dies Irae (May 21, 2008)

So, once month has passed since my last post. My rythm went down a little bit, I now pain about one squad per week. Which is fine since i'll soon run out of unpainted squads :laugh:

Let's start with the 6th and 7th Troop squads, Green Squad and Purple Squad, both geared for killing MEQ.






These squads include my first attempts at two techniques I hope to master someday: Freehand and NMM. 

Now the first Havoc ssquad:





I tried to apply the technique used by the Eavy Metal team on daemon machines on the lascannon's powercells. Maybe I should add lighting all around them to emphasise the "energy" feel.

Finally the Obliterators:




Multiple texts about them say that their blood is essentially plasma, so I used the same paintjob on their veins and on the plasmaguns.

See you in a few days for the progress on Red Squad, and the choice of my next target.
Comments and advice always appreciated 

And if someone could finally tell me how to update the thread's title he would recieve my eternal gratitude.


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## Jacobite (Jan 26, 2007)

I really admire the Terminators, looking very nice, I'm interested to see how that Helldrake is going to turn out, putting the hazard lines in the wings is a great idea. Are you using masking tape to do that?


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## Dies Irae (May 21, 2008)

Exactly. I basecoated the whole model in Leadbelcher, keeping the first pair of wings in their black undercoat, then put some masking tape on them and painted two thin layers of Iyanden Darksun. Then I moved the tape on the yellow stripes and made sure the lines were clean with Abaddon Black. Then I painted the gold trim over that.

I actually worked on it after I took the picture, and I would say about 2/3 of the gold is done. Next I'll have to work on the cable, the tail and the claws. It shouldn't take long, the hardest part really is painting all that gold :wacko:
Oh and it's on a scenic base, with a wounded Space Marine tank commander, some debris and a trail of fire.


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## revolantis (Jun 27, 2013)

Your latest troop units and Devastators look particularly good, especially their champions. Two really characterful models!

In relation to Agrax Earthshade, I've been meaning to bring this up elsewhere, but did you notice that it smells really bad? Now I'm using Devlan mud, I think Agrax is the new version, but maybe they've updated the formula. It's the single foulest smelling paint I've ever used. Even after drying, my models stink for a while. (I give them pretty hefty doses of it..)


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## Dies Irae (May 21, 2008)

Meh, I'm studying to be an Engineer in Chemistry, and after you've smelled stuf like 13mol/L ammonia, nothing chemical is noticeable anymore :laugh:
But I'll agree that it has a certain smell, but weaker than GW's black undercoat spray or superglue for instance.
The worst is the taste of Foundation Paints.


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## revolantis (Jun 27, 2013)

Well compared tot he solventy smells of the spray paint and the glue, I think it's a whole different scent! It's just funny how some of my more recent models still stink of it... But then maybe Devlan mud is different. 
In any case, the effect it has on miniatures can't be argued with


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## Dakingofchaos (Sep 29, 2009)

Just read through the blog and I must say its looking sick!


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