Chapter badge (sort of)

While the army didn't have a Chapter badge in its first game, soon thereafter I decided upon a badge. This came about as part of the name selection. While I'd originally conceived of this Chapter as being based on the Spartans (this was in 1999 after reading Gates of Fire, long before 300 came out), I later decided not to make them too close to the Spartans in appearance after seeing the Sons of Sparta minis in WD. Another name I considered was the Storm Hawks. I think my reason for not using that name was that I wanted a name that was based more on "me". It's a good thing, too, because a year or two later someone else created a really good DIY Chapter named the Storm Hawks, and a second player later decided to use that name. Then came the cartoon.

So how is this Chapter based on "me"? Well, in the Chinese zodiac, I was born in the year of the dog. More than that, I was born in the cycle of the metal dog. I was born in the hour of the rat, too, but I figured that wouldn't be cool. So I took "Metal Dog" and thesaurized it into "Iron Hounds". I considered having either a red or white hound's head, but decided on a black hound's head (based on the Space Wolves/Ragnar Blackmane Great Company badge) in a red diamond. You don't see the hound's head because my skills at freehand suck, so all you see in the mini is the red diamond.