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Clan Atraxii – Iron Hands circa M.41/42. Aka, “just how many techmarines do you need?” In an attempt to get more involved in the forum and stop lurking I’ve decided to make a bit of an army blog. I’m also hoping it’ll help me focus on a project, as for the past few years I’ve been easily distracted with ‘one offs’ and ‘side projects’. So here we are: 40K era Iron Hands, largely Primaris based - my attempt to get a functional tabletop army finished. Background: I started playing 40K in 2004, and Iron Hands were my first army. Index Astartes III, the original metal Iron Father model – for many IH fans, the ‘golden era’ of fluff. I collected Clan Sorrgol, and for the best part of a decade had a lovingly, if rather poorly, painted army. Proof *Shudders* Urgh... In 2014, I jumped on board the Heresy Train ™. Unfortunately, the 30K scene in my area has pretty much died off, so I’ve gone back to 40K-proper and ‘side projects’. I bought Dark Imperium on release in 2017, and immediately got to work ‘Iron Handsoning’ (it’s a verb, honest) the minis (pretty sure I've posted these somewhere on the forum before) Iron Father (Gravis Captain with Boltstorm Gauntlet) Squad One (well, the first half) Sergeant's chainsword and arm came from the multipart captain model. But after that, didn’t really do anything. Back to side projects. With the release of the new Marine codex and IH supplement, I’ve decided its time for me to properly get back to my army – and the purpose of this thread. The Fluff For anyone reading with a basic knowledge and understanding of the recent (7th-8th edition) lore, I apologise in advance – due to having spent the past 5 years exclusively in the Heresy/30k timeline, my knowledge of the current stuff (Cawl, Primaris, Cadia…) is a bit vague. Is the following ‘pure’ fluff? No. But, it helps me explain the existence of my army, design elements and explain away any inconsistencies. What follows below is my spin on the fluff, merging the classic IA-3 era lore with the FW-30K era. I specifically chose an 'extinct' Heresy clan so that I didn't have to be constrained by the current GW written fluff. Clan Atraxii is one of the original Clans of the Iron Hands legion, which did not survive the Heresy. Though not actually wiped out in the Isstvan V massacre, following the end of the Heresy the clan was one of many which, to make up for legion losses, would be merged and amalgamated – their brothers and wargear folded into other clans, their battle honours lost to history. This would change by the close of the 41st millennium, thanks to Archmagos Dominus Belisarius Cawl and the Primaris project. Remembering the tensions between original Terran legionaries and their ‘true’ Medusan successors within the Iron Hands legion during the crusades, Cawl realised that merely dropping several hundred new, Terran and Martian born ‘Iron Hands’ into the chapter would likely create intense suspicion, if not outright hostility. What better way to convince the Iron Hands chapter of the success of the Primaris project, than by sending an entire clan-company, equipped and ready for war? Thus, Clan Atraxxi was reborn. Unfortunately, Cawl’s relationship with the present has been tenuous at best: as the millennia passed the Iron Hands chapter had evolved considerably, almost beyond recognition from the former Xth Legion days. The most obvious change being the chapter colours, the Iron Hands having formally adopted the plain black livery at some point around M.33. By the time anyone noticed this minor inconvenience it was too late to change, the newly formed clan having already been sent on their long voyage towards the Medusa system. By the time Clan Atraxxi arrived at Medusa, they had seen a century in combat, which explains the above average percentage of augmetics, and the appearance of non-standard Mk X wargear; such as helmets designed to imitate those of MK III, IV and VII armours. Much like the original legion, Clan Atraxii maintain their wargear in a functional, albeit well-worn state; designed for war rather than the parade ground, each scar and dent on a frater's power armour demonstrates their success on the battlefield. Though technically this 11th clan places the Iron Hands above Codex Astartes numbers, few outside of Medusa appear to have noticed; certainly the Iron Council has better things to be concerned about than having more brethren than a text they largely ignore says they can have. Painting I decided to stick with FW’s heresy-era burnt metal scheme. In part because I like it, but largely because after 10-ish years of painting black armour, I never, ever want to paint and highlight black armour again. Ever. I'm using the original method from 2014, although I must admit I'm rather tempted by Greenstuff World's rather snazzy chameleon colour-shift paints. Characters / Specialists – apothecaries, librarians, techmarines – for these, rather than painting the armour in the colour of the respective specialisations, my plan is to paint only helmets, cloth (tabards/loin cloths) and occasionally select armour panels in the appropriate colours. One thing I learnt early on with my 30K era force was that the burnt metallic scheme looked odd with random characters/specialists wearing non-metallic armour, this way seems ‘better’ to me. For non-specialists with fabric components, I’m intending to go with dark grey. Apothecary Gaumech - currently a WIP, as I'm unsure how to finish him off. The robe looks a little empty. Techmarine Name Not Found (in-game he's run as either a generic techmarine or a primaris capt / LT with various relics) Yes, the heads are magnetised, and yes, I know *insert Ferrus Manus head joke* Throwback to RT-era days with the mighty power spanner Clave Prime - the Hellblaster Squad Clave Prime are seen here deployed in the fire support role, with medium weight plasma blastguns. The meaning behind the unique black chapter and clan icons on the squad's unusual white and black shoulder pads is currently unknown, but is suspected to be a mark of status within the clan. Given that Clave Prime are the first squad of the clan, it is possible that this is a method of identifying the clan's veterans when they are deployed in a non-standard role. And wasn't at all because at the time I'd run out of the correct white transfers... Intercessor combat squad Seen here is the first half of an unknown tactical squad. The single silver shoulder pad is believed identify this particular battle brother as a veteran sergeant. Also seen here is what happens when someone tries to paint white over a black undercoat - won't be making that mistake again. That's all for this post - thanks for looking! Congratulations to those of you who made it through to the end without falling asleep C&C is always appreciated! Next up - Iron Father Huw Feirros, the Repulsor Executioner and my future plans for the army.

Part One: Birth of an army New edition, new army - not a novel concept I know, but this is the first time I've been bitten by the hype bug for quite a while. This project came about for a number of reasons, I can’t quite place which was the overwhelming significant one. I’ve been a hobby-lifelong Iron Hands player. At the moment I technically possess 3: my original 40k-era army from 3rd through 7th editions; my 30K era Shattered Survivors army; and my current Primaris 40K era force. Although I’m proud of the last two – both painted using FW’s metallic IH scheme – I came to a realisation in May / June that whilst the models individually look nice, when put on the tabletop they look a bit… uninteresting. So although I wanted to stick with Iron Hands, I wanted an army which looked appealing on a shelf and on the tabletop. Sticking with my beloved 10th Legion, I then hit another bump. I didn’t want to do any of the known IH successors. A variety of reasons, mostly due to the paint schemes and restrictive existing lore. I contemplated having a go at the Reclaimers chapter, of Ciaphas Cain fame, but decided against it – for the same reasons – there isn’t much lore, and (having gotten as far as painting a test model) I wasn’t overly keen on the grey and yellow paint scheme. Obviously I’d have to improvise! Apologist. Yes, he’s to blame! In all seriousness, his blogs, forum posts and Instagram work all inspired me to take the plunge – I’ve toyed with creating my own army, world, lore – this seemed like the prime opportunity. Combined with the fact that I've unintentionally become my gaming group's DM / GM / Loremaster and general organiser, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to take the plunge and start something completely new. (With apologies to GW...) I toyed around with a few colour schemes at first. Although I wasn’t keen on the grey and yellow of the reclaimers test, I did quite like the grey - I just had to alternate and experiment. I liked the blue and the orange-red, but realised that they'd be both be a nightmare to paint a full army of marines with. I very sincerely take my hat off to anyone who paints an entire army of marines orange. Why grey? I liked the idea that as a relatively new-born chapter (more on that later), the army wore forge-fresh armour, given a simple coat of grey to protect the metal. So I'd settled on grey - but I felt it needed something a little more - bearing in mind why I'd started this project in the first place. Turquoise! Only, due to a total brain-fart and completely forgetting how colours work, it ended up more of dark blue colour. Regardless, I quite liked the effect. Reminded me a lot of the marine helmet on the front cover of the 8th edition rule book. I decided that I wanted a coloured stripe along the top of the helmet, again to break up the colours. I toyed with red and a faded yellow / bone colour. Although I liked the red, I felt that it didn't really work. It may return in the future though... Colours decided, it was then onto the markings. I knew that they were going to be an Iron Hands successor. I also knew that, like their parent legion, the Wardens would be organised into clans, rather than Codex Astartes approved companies - more on this later. Conveniently, I have a large amount of surplus FW 30K era clan markings. Perhaps a bit lazy, but I felt it worked well enough. This happy chap, Captain Medlock, was the first HQ choice I threw together for the force. Made from an ETB Intercessor and a host of spare bits, he started out life as my colour scheme test-model. As an Iron Hands successor, and a young one at that, I wanted the chapter to be fairly 'no frills' affair, with limited decoration. The various targetting gear on his backpack is my way of representing the captain's in-game buff ability, and more importantly, help make him look a little bit less like a common squad leader. This was also a first for me - I'd made a character model for a new army and it wasn't some kind of techmarine / Iron Father. I'll admit, even I was shocked by that... For something thrown together from spare parts and scrap, I'm happy with him - but, I can't help feel that he doesn't look enough like a captain. He may well recieve a demotion to lieutenant, should I ever get around to building a replacement. Anyway, I think that's enough for one post. Next time I'll expand a little on the lore, the campaign setting, and the other units that have been added to the army. Cheers! Thanks for looking. (Here's hoping that for once I can actually keep up my promise to update a blog / WIP thread...)

My first posting so be gentle. I know hes not game legal but hes fluff legal at least in my head, some how use the fluff helps me invisage the marine as i build him. I could not imagine any IH marine trusting in the hand of a man all be it a "super" man to remove his gene seed even at deaths door hence the servo harness. The harness is still a work in progress as is the apothecary, the harness will have a surgical chainscalpel with lamp on one arm and surgical drill with pict cam on another arm. Basically took the componets of the narthecium and put each on a servo arm. The servo harness has two gene seed needles, one is for the gene seed and the other is for the machine gene seed. This IH clan believes that the machine spirit that resides in the bio implants is as important as the gene seed it self. As the servo arms block the exhaust vents on the backpack the pack has been modified with twin exhaust. Because the apothecary harvests gene seed and machine seed the apothecary symbol has bee modified so the one half of the dna symbol is angular for the machine "dna" and the other is curved for the human dna. Any suggestion or ideas would be welcome.