Wargames Gallery: Iron Warriors in the Ruinstorm

Lost deep within the Ruinstorm, without backup, without communications, without much hope. The loyalist Iron Warriors tackle the terror of the daemons of the Ruinstorm with grim resolve and duty. 

Wargames Gallery: Does Plasma Damage Daemonkin?

Faced with a squad of Gal Vorbak bearing down on them, the Iron Warriors support squad opens fire with plasma in the hopes that they can damage the relentless half-marines, half-daemons spawn of the Word Bearers unholy alliance with the powers beyond. 

[After report: the plasma tickled them a little bit, and the Iron Warriors suffered for their audacity.]

Wargames Gallery: Iron Warriors Assemble!

A bit of a "glamour shot" of my growing Iron Warriors force before action. Not included are the tanks and more recent additions (this was taken several weeks ago in fact). 

Still a bit of work to do before this primary detachment is declared "done"! I'm getting there now though! 

Painted Iron Warriors Spartan Land Raider

This tank has been hanging over me for years silently pleading to be painted. The task is now done to a tabletop standard! Featuring quite a few decals, some hazard stripes, and otherwise plenty of silver and black, the Spartan land raider is unmistakably Iron Warriors.

I would be lying if I said I enjoyed painting all the rivets. I started with a few and then realized my mistake! Oh well, at least it shows some attention to detail if nothing else! Very happy with how it has turned out and I might well add on some more weathering (there's quite a lot at the lower edges of the tank, but thinking that the tracks could do with some as well potentially). Job done to a good enough standard regardless. 

Painting With Decals!: Iron Warriors Rhino Dedicated Transport

Sometimes I feel that decals have really spoiled me. This Iron Warriors rhino is essentially "paint by decals" - which if its not a thing already it really should be. 

The rhino follows a standard Iron Warriors colour scheme with a variety of tones of silver ranging from lead belcher through to a more glittering silver, all toned down with washes of Nuln oil. Black and silver accents abound.

What really is interesting here are the decals. On the top hatch, I have taken one of the four very large decals and sliced it down the middle (and trimmed the upper edge a touch) to fit on the hatch. I had to carefully slice around the hinge joints to made this fit overall, but the effect is strong. Less obvious are the Iron Warriors skulls on the circular side doors which also follow the split-in-half approach. I still like them like this, but overall its not quite as effective as the upper hatch I think. Some hazard stripes and roman numerals round out the front of the tank. Overall a great job, but the decals have really done the hard work for me here. 

Iron Warriors Cataphractii Terminators

Finished painting the squad of Iron Warriors Cataphractii Terminators!

These hardened warriors are kitted out for close combat duty with 4 of them sporting twin lightning claws, and the fifth a heavy flamer and power fist. Perhaps in hind sight I should have just gone with all five of them as lightning claws, but I do like the heavy flamer in a close combat squad regardless. Not only for softening up the enemy before charging, but also as an anti-charge deterrent. 

Perhaps the most novel feature of the paint scheme here is the wet blending on the lightning claws, combined with dry brushing of reds up the arms to where the yellow and black hazard stripes are located. It is meant to give off a theme of red hot claws capable of slicing through anything. The chaos lord arms in particular work very well here indeed. I've also applied the same approach to the flamer. I am not quite as sold on the approach here, but what it does do well is to tie the squad together in a cohesive painting scheme which the bases round off nicely. 

Wargames Gallery: Take It Down

When the Iron Warriors receive the command to "Take It Down", they don't need to be asked twice. 

Wargames Gallery: Salamanders Contemptor Onslaught

The Iron Warriors look on grimly as the Salamanders' contemptor enters firing mode on the unit in front of him - there are no reactions left to be executed other than to stand there and take the shots. 

Iron Warriors Tactical Squad Painted

A full Iron Warriors tactical squad, fully painted!

I probably should have added a Vexilla, but I can't have it all, and they do have glorious bayonets affixed so I am certainly happy!

More Iron Warriors Painted

The title of the post says it all really! More Iron Warrior troops have been painted up!

The sergeant has a plasma pistol and power fist, while the rest of the squad have affixed bayonets to their bolt guns ready for the next melee!

Wargames Gallery: Hazard Stripe Supremacy

In the same location as yesterday's image, this one is the Alpha Legion Lernaeans trying to rip through a line of Iron Warriors troops guarding an objective. 

For the record, the Alpha Legion succeeded thanks to lots of hazard stripes on their chain fists. The character melee went very poorly for the sergeant of the Iron Warriors. It was a one round affair in favour of the Alpha Legion. Sorry to the Iron Warriors fans out there!

Wargames Gallery: We are the Loyalists

An Alpha Legion Lernaean terminator squad face off in deadly close combat against Iron Warriors terminators in cataphractii armour. The Tyrant Siege terminators failed to make their charge into the same whirling combat, resulting in the subsequent combat being a bit more interesting. 

The question remains though. Which side are the Loyalists again?

Iron Warriors Plasma Gun Support Squad

A support squad of plasma gun toting marines from the Iron Warriors legion!

Very happy with how these turned out. Rather than a variation in markings, this squad is very self-consistent, down to the black helmets that mark them out as being distinct from some of their other brothers that might make up veterans or other companies. Perhaps too uniform? Not sure. Regardless, I like how this has turned out!

Plasma Support Squad Gunner - Iron Warriors

A brief painting follow up to the weekend - and another Iron Warriors support squad member toting a deadly plasma gun.

For the squad, I've opted for an unusually uniform painting scheme approach with the right leg done in the yellow hazard stripes, an icon on the left leg and right shoulder, coupled with a single yellow stripe down the helmet to denote membership of the squad. The plasma itself has white in the recesses, and darker highlights - which is the exact opposite of the ordinary painting approach that has dark colours in the recesses. It takes a bit of a mind-flip to get accustomed to doing things this way!

 

Plasma for Breakfast?

What do Iron Warriors eat for breakfast? No, I don't know either, but I'm going to guess plasma might be one of the things they do eat. 

This particular Iron Warrior is part of a support squad armed with plasma guns. I've followed the white-in-recesses approach to plasma here and stuck with the blue colour as the accent for the Iron Warriors rather than divert to reds or greens on the plasma coils for consistency. I like the eyes on this marine, although I think I might need to go over the decal on the shin again to soften it up further perhaps. Another nice battlefield ready miniature!

New Year Iron Warriors Plasma Pistol Experiment

Happy New Year!

In the first post of this year, I wanted to share a painting experiment that I've been messing around with for plasma weaponry in the 30th to 40th millenium. 

This is an Iron Warriors squad sergeant armed with a power fist and plasma pistol. Although some of the hazard stripes need a bit of a tidy up (they do look better from different angles - I promise!) I wanted to highlight the plasma pistol work here.

What is unusual here is the inside-out technique used. Rather than opting for a dark colour in the recesses and going for lighter highlights, I've inverted the process. I've used a watered down white to ink into the recesses of the plasma suggesting a super charged core heat. The coils are - comparatively - cooler with the darker blue highlights. Now before anyone shouts "physics" at me, I already know blue optical colours are hotter than white due to thermodynamics. But in colour theory - shrug! This idea can readily be applied with green or red plasma guns and pistols as you please. I've chosen blue here as the plasma accent colour as it works nicely with the rest of the "serious" look of the marine. A nice start to the year!

Hobby: Iron Warriors Terminator Squad

A complete cataphractii terminator squad for the Iron Warriors!

Squad composition:

1x reaper autocannon, chain fist

2x thunder hammer

2x chain fists

Total points cost = 265 points.

Yes, it is a bit expensive, but the idea here is to be able to tackle some of the tougher nuts to crack in the game such as dreadnoughts as they charge out from a land raider of one type or another. Also very content to teleport onto the field of battle when and where permitted and needed. I might touch up some of the paint work yet, and I will also add some sparse greenery to the bases to better tie them in to the other miniatures I've completed for this force. Happy with the outcome here though! 

Hobby: Iron Warriors Legion Thunder Hammer Terminator Number 2

Matching and complementing the previous thunder hammer terminator, this particular marine has dispensed with his helm in order to survey the field with his own eye(s). 

Painting follows my now standard approach to the Iron Warriors which can be seen in the previous post but in general is lead belcher and lighter silvers with the trusty old Nuln oil. The blue of the thunder hammer could do with a bit more work admittedly, but it stands out nicely compared to the rest of the colour scheme and the Armageddon dunes basing that I have gone for - a good contrast. 

The squad is almost ready - more on this later in the weekend I feel!

Hobby: Iron Warriors Legion Reaper Autocannon Terminator

While I am still enjoying a bit of a break, here's yet another conversion that I undertook and painted up. This one is a reaper autocannon terminator for the Iron Warriors. I have taken the reaper autocannon from the older chaos space marine terminator set. It is not a fit by any means, so it had to be extensively filed down and even some green stuff used to paper over the cracks between each of the parts. Can't recommend doing this conversion unless you are like me and really keen for the aesthetic.

 

So why this particular look then? Well, as with some of my Alpha Legion forces, I wanted to have a few marines in the Iron Warriors force that resemble or give a hint at what they might ultimately become. This particular marine is obviously not there yet, but perhaps heralds what might come. The chain fist on the left arm is to go with the rest of the squad which is dedicated to dreadnought hunting (or similar). The painting scheme follows my now standard approach for this army of using lead belcher as the base and working up from there with different silvers. This particular marine does have a few more hazard stripes than the standard marine, but that's fine. Back to regular posts next week - promise!

Hobby: Iron Warriors Legion Thunder Hammer Terminator

A small hobby update for the long holiday weekend - a painted Iron Warriors legion thunder hammer terminator!

Painting follows a fairly standard formula for the Iron Warriors featuring lead belcher as the primary base and layer, followed by highlighting in progressively lighter tones of silver. I've selected some blues for the tip of the thunder hammer to give it a bit of an accent among the rest of the painting which sets it off very nicely, without actually having lightning cascading around the weapon. Not quite sure if I like it or not, but I can live with it. Decals are from the forge world Iron Warriors sheet and the base is Armageddon dunes with highlighting and dry brushing in elf flesh. I might add a bit more to the base, but otherwise I'm calling this one done and table top ready.