Iron Warriors: The Lost, Damned, and Renegades

[retrovertigo]

Just a quick introduction as I'm new to the forum... at Christmas 2012 I received the 40k big rulebook as a gift from my wife, now bare in mind I had not painted or played anything even remotely miniature or wargaming related in about 15yrs! So it's been a really crazy but fun couple of months as I have been snagged hook, line and sinker back into the hobby after years of being into cars and video games. I'd been reading the Black Library novels in the meantime, but I have a lot of catching up to do!


So onto my army. I decided before buying a Codex or a single model, that I wanted two things: lots of converting opportunities (I used to love this side of the hobby) and something with loads of fun units and variety (although what army/race doesn't have this I suppose...). So I chose the dark side and snapped up the Chaos Space Marine codex and a load of models - some off eBay some from GW.


This is what I bought (without I might add any planning or thoughts of tactics ha ha ha):

Next up was trying to decide on which Legion to represent. Iron Warriors were always a favourite, especially after reading the Ultramarines books and the Storm of Iron novel... but Black Legion looked ace and I thought I could paint the armour easily with no experience in 15yrs. Eeeeek.


Without really deciding at this point, I started building, kitbashing and converting (light conversions) my models.




I dont much like the stock, tusked terminator helmets so went entirely helmetless - the metal, semi painted Abaddon was an old model I found. Minus arms for some reason? Now my champion.


I mixed in some Space Wolf heads to my Berzerkers, and some Chaos Warrior weapons to give them a more wild, viking-y look as befits a berzerker. Lots of leaping poses too.




Next, I combined the Chaos Warrior torsos with the standard CSM bits to make cloaked, medieval armoured marines:









And converted (a tiny bit) the Helbrute to have a twin linked (either) reaper AC or Lascannon with a combi-bolter inside the powerfist maw:




 

[retrovertigo]

Nervously I decided to paint up the Helbrute first. Without a clear idea of which Legion I would choose, I went for a dirty silver and gold, a la Iron Warriors (I'm going to go back and add stripes, lacked the confidence to do it originally):




It took me AAAAAAAAAAGES to paint, the skin in particular has about 100 layers of thin paint and washes... great experience but I didn't really enjoy it after all this time, until towards the end.


Next I painted the CSM/Chaos Warrior hybrids. Now as full on IW's.

Looking back I wish the armour was less shiney but they look cool I think.


My favourite unit, the terminators.





As with everything in the army so far, hazard stripes are underplayed as I like the look this way. Also it fits with how the fluff of the force has evolved (more later).


I think about three weeks after starting the army, I had completed the last unit - berzerkers.

Hazard stripes to be added. And chipping.

And a whole army shot for fun:




Minus an HQ - Lord in terminator armour I hated how I painted and pulled to bits in rage. Ack what a fool I am.


Next I kitbashed the Bloodletters and the leftover marine bits to make an 8-person/thing strong unit of Khorne possessed:




(three not in shot)


These are still unpainted as I tried them in a game and they were hopeless how I used them. One for the future.


 

[retrovertigo]

Next I painted up a Rhino

Magnetised the havoc launcher too.


And added some BIG guns to the army

Fully mag'd Predator




Forge World Decimator was my treat for getting the infantry finished




And a converted, six armed Forgefiend





Chaos Lord with Mark of Nurgle to lead my WIP beastman cultist blob



Ten (plasma x2) marines with Mark of Nurgle. Iron Warriors who have fallen into cultdom.






And everything since Christmas - about 8weeks of painting I think?




In the works:


- 30 beastmen as Chaos Cultists, Rogue Trader style

- 5 pre-heresy armoured Raptors

- 2 chaos spawn

- 1 Khorne marked Lord on a Juggernaut

- 1 converted Imperial Techmarine into a Warpsmith... corrupted Techmarine.


Any comments or critiques are welcome! I'll update a little later on the army background idea I am using.

[mactire]

8 weeks......... 8 weeks ?????????????????/

[Grotsmasha]

Well, , that is quite an impressive feat for such a short time, especially since these are of a very high TT quality. Colour me impressed, I shall continue to follow this thread like a hawk.

Cheers,

Jono

[Chief Captain Redd]

A very good looking army and a great start back into the hobby. I'll keep my eye on this thread.

[Little King]

Really sharp schemes on the infantry, and the weathering on the raider works great, you've got a nice IW army there, and ALOT of patience, I can get through one step of painting on about 3 marines in ne session before the patience runs out.

[DarkVen]

8 weeks

Well the result is pretty good. Plague marines are a bit too dark, IMHO.

[Vesper]

First army since 15 years ? All painted up in 8 weeks ?

Well... Well that's pretty amazing.

[Redwunzgofasta]

Your army is just amazing. The chaos warrior converted chaos marines are brilliant! Cant wait to see more!

[Urauloth]

These are some of the coolest iron warriors I've ever seen. I love the rust on the tanks and especially the weathered hazard stripes.

[retrovertigo]

Thanks for the very generous words everyone, very much appreciate it! 

 

The Mark of Nurgle'd marines are dark looking I think due to bad lighting and camera... they're more a dirty iron colour in person, with loads of rust patches and corrosion. 

 

---

 

My latest unit - a five man Raptor squad. I got these Forge World Heresy-era marines second hand, already assembled. So I just rebased them, and added a powerfist to the champion and a pair of meltaguns ... for tank busting and high-value target assassination-icide. I really didn't enjoy painting them though, the spray black undercoat I used went on far too thickly for some reason dulling down some of the armour details and I personally think the bolt pistols and swords look too thin for heroic scale. I think the armour perfectly suits Iron Warrior in 40k, but in retrospect they needed a bit of chaos-ifying more than I did. But I like the idea of them being truly ancient, combat veterans still in their original Mk armour.

 

 

Extra bits to be added to the bases soon.

 

+++

 

Just a quick word on the army background. The idea is that they are lead by a veteran Iron Warrior commander(my current WIP), a corrupted and despotic legionnaire called Archduke Malko Raptus. Forced to flee from Medrengard in the aftermath of the defeat of Lord Berossus by Honsou, he assembled an army from various Iron Warrior warbands he encountered wandering the Eye of Terror. With an eye firmly on a return to Medrengard and restoration of his rightful place amongst the heirarchy of the Legion, he proclaimed himself Warsmith and began to recruit an army capable of such a task. Lacking the vast resources and planetary forges of the Legion, he instead satisfies himself with accepting any warriors who will follow his banner. As a result, he has succeeded in uniting an eclectic core of loyal Iron Warrior legionnaires and armour, mixed with cult troops and daemon engines of all kinds - including Iron Warriors who have succumbed to the temptations of the Warp in ways their Medrengardian brothers have tried to resist by worshipping Nurgle, Khorne and Slaanesh. In addition he has no hesitation in wholeheartedly using abhuman and mutants, driving them before the Legion brothers as sacrificial shields of flesh and as offering to the Dark Gods in order to further his cause and curry their favour - beastmen rounded up in large mobs from the many worlds of the Eye of Terror and pressed in the service of this rejected cadre of warriors of the IV Legion.

 

+++

 

Essentially what this lets me do is enjoy the CSM Codex fully without worrying about fluff-crime. The army consists of the core of recognisable IW's, lead by one. However I am then going to add all the various other fun units from the codex, branded with the Iron Warriors identity. So my Nurgle marines are in corroded and rusted Iron Warrior armour - corrupted and rotten - but once proud Iron Warriors. My intention is to go back to the berzerkers and brand them up as simply Iron Warriors who have formed a cabal of Khorne. And so on.

 

Hence the thread title: The Lost, Damned, and Renegades.

[Lestat]

WOW! Looks like you've been a very busy boy! That standard of work after a 15 year break is quite outstanding.

And those Bloodletters - an absolute bargain at £10!

[Snejk]

All I can say is: Holy H**L! That is one impressive army, and I will steal some of your ideas for my Alpha Legion army!

[retrovertigo]

Ha thanks! Steal away! And the Bloodletters were from Hobbycraft, I occasionally pop in to see if they have any bargains (they usually do). I just wish I'd bought the other two boxes they had at the time...

[Lestat]

Damn - my Hobbycraft is a fair old drive away. I might just have to take a trip out there and see if theres any bargains to be had.

[retrovertigo]

My local shop has a lot of the boxed models much cheaper than GW, and always loads of cheap Codexes and stuff like the Battlemats and Warhammer scenery. And always good for conversion bits like the chains and cork etc.

[Lestat]

Well I'm not back to work until Monday (having been signed off for the past month) and I've still got the hire car, so I may go and make a pre-emptive strike and spend some of the compensation from the accident :D

I wonder if they have any Terminators and the new Deathwing box going cheap.........................

[Armond]

Beautiful, love it all!  Keep it coming!

[Biohazard]

This is a great looking army, the Chaos warrior/CSM hybrid with the heavy bolter is awesome.

[Lachdannan]

Very impressive army. Excellent attention to detail and really effective kitbashing. The painting is top notch and very characterful. Really like the weathering on the metal and the hazard stripes.

 

 

All done in 8 weeks? That is an amazing feat.

[Kierdale]

Very, very impressive work!

Great painting and weathering, and some excellent kitbashes and poses.

Very much looking forward to seeing your beastmen cultists. Are you using ungors? Gors?

[Devolver]

This is brilliant stuff mate, keep at it!! look forward to seeing more!!

[retrovertigo]

Thanks again all! Yes, it was 8 weeks... now up to about 9 or 10 I think since I started? My goal was always to get playing 40k as soon as possible, but it had to be with a painted army! A personal willpower thing

As for the beastmen, I'm using Gors. Works out slightly more than the GW 5-man cultist box, but you get more variations out of it. DA cultists are plentiful but again you'd get repeats without some work. I just assembled my Gors (mostly) and simply added stuff like smashed up SM shoulder pads on one shoulder, chainswords, and I had a variety of old Necromunda pistols in metal which I also added on along with a couple of flamers.

Heldrake now added but not finished - used it today in a game. It came in turn 4 (gah...) and absolutely destroyed an entire Tau flank. The rest of my army was almost tabled by my opponents gunline - if the Heldrake had been on earlier, who knows! My first time again Tau so had no idea what was going on with all these marker lights and what not ha ha ha lesson learned! Lord on Jugger plus two spawn, went through the other flank like warm butter before getting doubled out by some robot suits with huge scary railgun looking weapons. But I think he returned double his points for his own death, in battle suits and the opposing Forge World warlord model.

[ben rolls]

nice to see you on here retro. i wont mention how jealous i am of your army so far.