Clan Trago force

[apologist]

+Update+

This has turned into a mini blog; so I've changed the title. Since it's solely focussed on Iron hands, and will be as much asking for background advice and guidance as modelling and painting, is it okay here rather than in the painting forum?

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As a little side project, I'm painting up some Iron Hands, and would appreciate some help on iconography. As I understand things, the Chapter symbol goes on the left-hand pauldron, the clan Company symbol on the right, the squad number on the lower right leg and the squad designation on the lower left. Is that broadly correct?

 

Here's the test model as he currently stands; awaiting iconography and detailing. I've used white on the pauldron trims to help distinguish him from Raven Guard, and was considering some classic Rogue Trader helmet stripes.

 

 

Anything jumping out as screamingly wrong? I'm aware the clan Company organisation allows for quite a bit of freedom in terms of iconography and decoration, but it's nice to know the rules before you adapt them.

 

To whet your appetites, here's some WIP stuff at an earlier stage. Hope you like 'em!

Tacticals:

 

 

 

 

Scouts:

(You can probably ignore the White Consul lurking in the back; he'll be repainted to join the Tenth.)

 

Captain:

 

If you'd like to see any more, or read some unrelated thoughts on Iron Hands, there's more WIP on my blog (link in the signature)

Edited June 5, 2014 by Apologist

[deathspectersgt7]

Yup on the Iconography.

[Corton]

Your markings are on par with where they should be.  

[apologist]

Hmm; looks like this thread lost a few posts in the crash. Thanks again to everyone who's posted help.

 

I'm coming to paint some scouts - are their hands bionic, or is that honour reserved until they are elevated to full Battle Brother?

 

(Presumably the scout sergeant will have silver gauntlets.)

 

Secondly, how are sergeants typically marked out?

[Malus Trux]

Its one of the first things that happens so yes even scouts are given a hand.

[apologist]

Thanks!

I've been working further on the force, so here are some more developed WIPs:

 

 

 

 

 

I'd appreciate any thoughts on the scheme, iconography etc. The army is set during M37, and is a homebrew clan-company, so there's some room for variation; but I want to make sure nothing jumps out as egregiously wrong.

[Anvilarium]

It all looks great to me Apologist! The hand painted Chapter & Squad symbols have come out really well. Any hints or tips you could share for how you painted the Squad symbols on the kneepads?

 

Have you had any ideas on what you are going to use for your Clan Company symbol?

[apologist]

Ta very much. I must confess I'm finding the Chapter symbols a pain to freehand! 

 

Clan Trago's symbol will be as shown: a white cog holding three diamonds pointing towards the centre. It's intended to symbolise focus and applied force – by extension, both crushing the enemy and creating diamond-hard Marines through the use of testing pressure.

 

It's also, in less flowery terms, a bit like an upside-down Mitsubishi logo :)

 

After the very helpful advice (sadly lost) posted in this thread, I added the squad designation to the outside left greave and the squad number to the knee:

 

I simply painted a grey diamond, highlighted it up to white towards the light source, then added the number before drawing black paint down the edges of the diamond to tidy and even them out.

 

The details are a bit rough and ready, but it's a quick fun scheme. They still need some weathering and banner logos. I was considering gorgon heads on the banner... 

 

What do you think about the white pad trims? Some of the artwork has them, but a lot (most?) now seems to have either black or metal trim. I'm considering going back to my old Rogue Trader scheme by painting them black and restricting the white to the chest decorations, boltguns and helmet stripes.

[apologist]

I got stuck into building Ancient Protogenos last night. I really like the standard Dreadnought and Contemptor models – I've used them in my previous armies – but wanted to make something a bit different for the Iron Hands.

 

After a bit of a think, I decided that the Iron Hands would have less desire to show the 'human side' of their dreadnought's incumbents (or simply wouldn't consider it a priority), and so I went with the great sarchophagus-styled front, rather than one with an artificial head. While assembling it, I thought I'd try it out on top of some contemptor legs, to give it some stature. After a bit of chopping and trimming, here's the result.

 

I've used the Sons of Horus Contemptor as a base for the legs (cue much trimming of spikes), as the detailing – chain loincloth, and piping – echo the FW Iron Hands models I received in the post yesterday. I deliberately minimised the number of skulls in my Ultramarine force (they're set during the Heresy, when the cult of the enthroned Emperor didn't have so many images of death), so it was quite fun to use them here. I'll mix in some ork skulls, as this force is set during an anti-ork purge in my gaming group's area of space (feel free to have an explore – the map's clickable).

 

Here's a shot from the side. The centre of gravity is much higher than the standard Contemptor torso, as that has a recess. I'll be widening and dropping the shoulders on the sarchophagus to bring it down, but I also trimmed away a bit of the torso connecting part to drop it (shown here). Some additional material between the hips and underside of the torso will be added to bridge the gap and break up the visual space.

 

This brings the eye level roughly equal to a standard Contemptor (apologies for the WIP paintjob; only standard one I have).

 

I think he fits the description of 'two or three times the height of a marine' now. What do you reckon? Suitably imposing, or over the top?

 

Any thoughts on whether to keep or repaint the white shoulder trim?

Edited June 5, 2014 by Apologist

[Anvilarium]

I prefer silver shoulder trim, but you've done a great job with the white so I say carry on with that!

 

The dreadnought looks fantastic, although I think the waist section under the Sarchophagus looks to long and thin. Perhaps consider trimming another half a centimeter from it?

[Machine God]

+1 to what Urza said!

 

Another thing with the kit bashed Dreadnought, nice idea about the legs as Mk IV and V legs are Way too short but if you use normal Dread Arms they will look wierd.

 

They will be looking too short, long legs and short arms (ED-209 we are looking at You!)

 

Maybe you could try Contemptor arms and state that in your fluff that your Iron-Fathers were unable to replicate say parts from the existing Contemptor chassis and made do. Etc, etc.

[apologist]

The dreadnought looks fantastic, although I think the waist section under the Sarchophagus looks to long and thin. Perhaps consider trimming another half a centimeter from it?

 

Yeah, I'm still a bit unsure on the waist. I think that alterations I'm doing to the arms and the additional bits I'll be adding in this area will ameliorate the wasp-waistedness, but I may well come back and trim it further.

 

Another thing with the kit bashed Dreadnought, nice idea about the legs as Mk IV and V legs are Way too short but if you use normal Dread Arms they will look wierd.

 

They will be looking too short, long legs and short arms (ED-209 we are looking at You!)

 

A few years ago, I built this chap for my Ultramarines, which worked quite nicely; you can see how the spacers drop the shoulders down a bit and add a 'spare joint' so the normal arms don't look so weird. I do have some contemptor arms to dry fit, though, so I'll have a play around. Cheers for the feedback! :)

 

 

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing about the arms; standard Dreadnought arms on such a tall chassis would look. . . out of place.  But then again, you obviously have the conversion skill to pull off making them work.

 

Looking great!

[apologist]

The Flesh is Weak

My friend asked to play a game of 7th edition over the weekend. I'd recently built myself a gaming table, and thought it'd be great to do it properly and have two fully-painted armies playing over some nice terrain.

Obviously, the best idea was not to use any of my painted armies, but instead build and paint a whole Iron Hands army in the two days preceding the game.

So, in the interests of emulating the feats of the Primarch, I did

Here's the results.

In fairness, the Iron Hands made up just under 1000pts, so I reinforced them with some allied Lamb's World guardsmen. I'll also be going back to add some finishing details, but the bulk of the army is complete.

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Here's a pic of the Iron Hands on their own (they currently have no case to live in!)

In the background, you can see a bit of Ancient Protogenos, the great veteran of... well, one battle.

Here's the rest of him:

Like the others, he's still a WIP, so please excuse the scruffy base. I hope you like how he's turned out – I think the broader, longer arms and bulked up waist section go a long way to integrating the legs with the torso.

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Oh, and here's Brother Medardus, Clan Trago psi-gifted.

[CyderPirate]

That dread turned out great!

[Captain Juan Juarez]

That Dread is how all Dreads should look, in terms of style, and I'm loving the Brother Medardus pose; even with only a half-body shot he looks very dynamic.

[Anvilarium]

I love it all - You've done a fantastic job there Apologist!

I'm not so keen on the candle on Ancient Protogenos though. An Iron Hand would not use such a backward-thinking artefact to provide illumination!

[apologist]

Thanks very much – they were great fun (and very quick) to build and paint.

 

I guessed the candle wouldn't be to everyone's taste, but I think it's a fun little gothic touch. I'm sure Medardus has some reason for it being there – perhaps a symbolic vow to keep the light of illumination burning or similar... :)

 

 

 

I'm loving the Brother Medardus pose; even with only a half-body shot he looks very dynamic.

Cheers! I'm really pleased with how he came out. Here's some more shots. I'd love to hear what you think :)

 

I was going for a 'Doctor Doom' vibe (the Iron Hands aren't very nice!), and ended up with what I think is a very menacing model that owes as much to other comic book characters like Magneto and Iron Man.

 

At the same time, I hope that there's enough 40k in there to tie him in as a character that fits into the universe. When converting with an outside source (like comic book characters) as your inspiration, it's easy to get carried away and just make a version of that character that doesn't fit into the universe.

 

The model is mainly made from the Forgeworld Mk III Iron Hand pack (torso, legs and head); with one plastic bionic arm and a hand from the Sanguinary Guard kit, I think (I bits-ordered it from eBay ages ago), and the other arm taken from the Dark Angels librarian in the current 40k boxed set. It might seem extravagant to use a model like that for just one arm, but there's loads of him on eBay for ~99p! The backpack is from the mail order exclusive Captain, the remainder of which was used for the basis of my Clan commander (of which more in a future post). I trimmed a section out of the helmet's grille to give a more threatening look, basing it on the helmet from Gladiator.

 

The name is drawn from a book called The Devil's Elixirs, a Gothic novel I'm enjoying reading. The character doesn't really relate to this Iron Hand, but I thought it was a great name. His forename, Cyle, is a throwaway joke based on my choice of telekinesis as his psychic discipline. There are some great mechnical-type powers in the list, which I thought were most appropriate. Besides, hovering in the air as he is, telekinesis seems pretty important! +

 

+ Kneel before the Hands of Iron! +

[Captain Juan Juarez]

I really like that pose and in fact the only thing I am not fond of is the fact you can see him being held up! In fact, the more I see it the more I love the combo of armour, helm and backpack. Am I right in thinking you've tried to get glowing eyes? The monitor I have at work is as old as the hills so it's difficult to tell.

 

Going with the Magneto theme, did you consider painting up some plasticard in metallics and have him levitating a circle of iron with his magic powers to ride upon?

Edited June 9, 2014 by Captain Juan Juarez

[SlickSamos]

Brother Apologist,

 

You are clearly a skilled Artificer of the Chapter!  Beautiful job and great pictures with the first one in post #6 being my favourite.

 

Brother 'Slick' Samos

[apologist]

I really like that pose and in fact the only thing I am not fond of is the fact you can see him being held up! In fact, the more I see it the more I love the combo of armour, helm and backpack. Am I right in thinking you've tried to get glowing eyes? The monitor I have at work is as old as the hills so it's difficult to tell.

Yeah, the paperclip holding him up is a bit distracting. It's not so obvious when you're viewing him from table height, or against a dark background (hence why I opted for black rather than white. However, thinking about it, repainting it a mid grey would probably be a better compromise.

No OSL on this chap; it's a fun effect but a pain to do nicely on Iron Armour due to the deeply recessed sockets.

Going with the Magneto theme, did you consider painting up some plasticard in metallics and have him levitating a circle of iron with his magic powers to ride upon?

Now that's a cool idea! There's a Trollblood model from Privateer Press that has a cool stone spiral that surrounds him, which might fit (or something akin to it). Thanks for the idea

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You are clearly a skilled Artificer of the Chapter! Beautiful job and great pictures with the first one in post #6 being my favourite.

The group shots are always fun to do, aren't they? Here's one that shows the more modern -armoured members of the force.

I like the purple lenses, but I'm toying with the idea of mixing in a couple of other accent colours, like icy blue, emerald green or orange. Also, I'd like to spice up the bases a bit. Any thoughts on what to add? Scattered rocks, vegetation? What do you reckon?

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Finally, here's my next WIP, a Great Crusade-era Ferrus Manus:

Having done the flexible undersuit sections and bulk areas earlier using greenstuff, I'm blocking in the basic shapes of the armour at the moment using a mix of greenstuff and ProCreate.

I really like the FW model, but he didn't quite fit my image of Ferrus (not ugly enough!) I thought I'd use this force as an excuse to build a model earlier in his career. Ferrus was the third Primarch found, so he was fighting during the early Crusade. We don't hear much of that, and I thought it'd be fun to build a younger, ambitious Ferrus and record his exploits .

That leads to a couple of questions – while his armour will (almost necessarily) be an artificer-made one-off, should I add some details that link it into a particular armour mark (e.g. studs for a proto-mark V; ring-shaped sections for mark II etc.), or do you think a purely individual suit would be better?

I currently like the gem on the pendant (the anniversary Big Boris, from Heresy miniatures, for the record), as it'll be possible to add some lightning strikes or wings around it as the centrepiece of his chest armour; but I wonder if it'd be cooler to cover it and add a gorgon device or other similar decoration?

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Thanks for all your useful feedback so far, sons of Ferrus! Looking forward to future discussions on the Tenth Legion with you :)

[Captain Juan Juarez]

Liking the diversity of poses in the group shot.

 

For the Gorgon and in terms of armour I'd suggest something unique; he'd have the skills to craft something better than almost anyone else and those skills would improve over time, so I'd suggest for something early on in his career that the armour look brutal but functional.

[apologist]

Ta for the feedback on the group pics and the thoughts on the Gorgon's armour. I'm leaning toward sculpting over the gem and trying a simplified version of Böcklin's Medusa as a chest decoration; perhaps with the Imperial lightning bolts in place of the snake-hair.

 

Clan Commander Kraaanos Waysmith

 

 

 

 

[Anvilarium]

Fantastic looking mini! You have taken a pretty cheesy looking model and given it a great overhaul. The Pauldron and Head swaps make him feel like a true son of Medusa!

I honestly didn't think it would be possible to make that Ltd Edition Captain look like an Iron Hands marine until I saw your model above.

I love that sword & scabbard on his belt. It might be in a completely impractical place, but it reminds me of the 1st Edition metal Terminator Captain and brings back fond memories of the original Space Hulk. I'd love to get my hands on one so that I could put one on a Heresy-era Iron Hands Terminator Captain!

Edited June 11, 2014 by Urza

[Captain Juan Juarez]

I love how he looks like Bane! A beautiful rendition of a Captain - although I'm not a fan of the Servo-Skull personally.