The Brotherhood of the Cog

[Anvilarium]

My Relictors army slowly and naturally came to a close a couple of years ago and I slowly began to lose interest in model making, although I have always kept tabs on the + PAINTING, CONVERTING and ARTWORK + section here at Bolter and Chainsword, and the Project Logs section over at Warseer for new ideas.

I've had an idea brewing for a while now - I have wanted to make an Iron Hands army for as long as I can remember, and I have always loved the Crusade/Heresy Era of the 40K universe, ever since I picked up the original Epic 40K Games when they were first released (Adeptus Titanicus and Space Marine 1st Editions!). However these along have never really been enough motivation for me to start another army, I already had a large Relictors army which was constantly being added to, and didn't really want to start 'yet another Marine army'.

Then one day I came across Apologist's incredible Praetors of Calth Project. His True-Scale Astartes are a magnificent representation of the Crusade/Heresy era Marines, and his attention to detail and backstory were like nothing I had ever seen up until then. My 'inspirado' was re-ignited, and my brain began to whir with the possibilities!

After spending ages reading up on methods for 'True-Scaling' Space Marines, I had a rummage through my bits box and began to formulate a plan. I was going to create a Crusade Era True-Scale Iron Hands Strike Force! I went for the pre-Heresy Crusade Era as the Iron Hands only seem to be involved in two major engagements during the Heresy: The Istvaan V Drop Site Massacre (where they get resoundly thrashed..) and the Battle of Tallarn, which is a massive tank battle with little or no infantry involvement.

I also decided that like Apologist's Praetors of Calth, my Iron Hands would each have their own name, some personal history and unique heraldry. To this end I am creating The Brotherhood of the Cog, and have come up with names for 31 Astartes of the X Legion (Iron Hands). The force will be a roughly even mix of Terran 'X Legion' and Medusan 'Iron Hands', and I hope to show evidence of the two factions becoming one integrated fighting force.

Please note: I have no interest in making these models 'Game Legal' - I am modelling them entirely as diplay pieces only!

This was my very first mock-up, where I was testing to see if I could achieve the 'True-Scale effect' myself. He's a very, very (very!) rough mock-up:

The early Mock-Up developed into this almost complete prototype over the last week. I am immensely proud of how he has turned out, although I think his Shoulder Pauldrons may need to be lowered slightly:

Here is a size comparison between one of my old Relictors Sternguard and my new True-Scale Iron Hands:

He's MASSIVE! :woot: He does also look very much the part of a Cruade Era Astartes, a mythical Angel of Death striding across the battlefield. Nothing can stand before the might of the Gorgon and his Iron Hands!

So far, I have been fairly limited in my ability to obtain Crusade Era Helms. I don't really want to spend a load of cash on Forgeworld kits (despite the fact that they are amazing), as I would only really be using the Helms & Backpacks. On the other hand there are Bits suppliers such as Bits & Kits and Bitzbox, but they rarely have Pre-Heresy style parts in stock and when they do they get snapped up in minutes and go for a lot of money.. Same applies for eBay too :(

In the end I decided to have a go at crafting my own, using the bazillions of spare Mk.7 helms I have laying around. I think they have come out quite well!

All I did was:

1) Trim off the pipes from the mouthguard.

2) Trim off the mouth-grille and as much of the mouth area as possible.

3) Put a small blob of green stuff onto the mouth area and sculpt into an 'Optimus Prime' style mouth guard.

4) Add vents using a sharp pin or knife as desired.

[Anvilarium]

I've also created a blog here for this project, there is some extra info there, such as heraldry designs and the names for my Iron Father and three of the Squads I plan to build:

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...amp;blogid=1195

[Doghouse]

Very nice work so far!

 

Will be watching this with interest. ;)

[Anvilarium]

Thanks Doghouse!

 

I've been a big fan of your True-Scale Marines for a long while now, especially your True-Scale Night Lords and your World Eaters!

 

I need to source some more Terminator Legs, (I've only got three pairs so far) and then I'm hoping to get a bit of a 'production line' going - get the backs of the legs sculpted, then get the Terminator Shoulderpads converted for True-Scale and convert some more Crusade-Era Helms.

 

Once I've got about ten or so sets of those put together, I'll start work on a proper Squad.

 

I've also got a few spare Terminator chest plates, so I'm going to use it to try out your alternative True-Scale chest plate method.

[Grotsmasha]

If you dont mind repetitive poses, AoBR termis are cheap on eBay $20-$25AU for 5, which is what I use, I've been stock-pileing for awhile and now have 60+ to get my production line rolling.

 

Cheers,

Jono

 

P.S. Yay for more true scalers

[Ironwrought Huw]

True-scale and Iron Hands? I love the sound of that! :(

 

I like what you've done so far. Especially the axe - I'm still trying to work out what you made it from

How are you going to do your Iron Father (I like the name you gave him in the blog btw) - wargear wise? Are you going to go for the techmarine approach with servo-arms, or just have him with an axe?

[Anvilarium]

I've got an Iron Father Servo-Harness stashed away to use for him - the one that was a very limited release (Australia only or something?)

 

I'm not sure about what other equipment he is going to have yet, most likely a large Cog-Axe and some fancy combi-weaponry! :(