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Iron Warriors - The Disgruntled Marines

9K views 48 replies 10 participants last post by  Brother Dextus 
#1 · (Edited)
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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#2 ·
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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#3 ·
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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#4 · (Edited)
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!
 
#12 ·
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.
 
#5 ·
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!
 
#8 ·
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?
 
#9 ·
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.
 
#10 ·
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.
 
#15 ·
@ 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?
 
#17 ·
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.
 
#18 ·
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 :)
 
#19 ·
Wonderful! Looking forward to that.
Did the new traitor legions rules changed sothing in your army composition ideas?
 
#20 ·
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!!
 
#21 ·
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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#22 ·
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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#23 ·
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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#24 ·
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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#26 ·
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!
 
#27 ·
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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#28 ·
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!"
 
#31 ·
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!)
 
#32 ·
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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#33 · (Edited)
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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