Iron Warriors XVIIth Grand Battalion, "Iron Thunder" blog

[Fulminata]

There comes a time when you reach your goal and you get a sense of accomplishment. Things didn't turn out how you planned, but along the way you make concessions, changes, additions, subtractions; but in the end when it is all laid out in front of you, you realize you have reached the objective. I have reached such an objective with my Iron Warriors. They started out in 2003 with a single purchase, the Iron Warriors Warsmith. I thought the model looked cool, but had no intention of collecting a Chaos Space Marines Army. I painted him in Iron Warrior colors, he was my best painted model at the time, and he either sat on the shelf as my Dark Angels went to war or in the very last storage case. Then, sometime in 2006ish I purchased the ForgeWorld Iron Warriors Dreadnought and painted him up as a display model, never as part of any army. Then I thought, wouldn't these two Iron Warriors look cool in a diorama with some dead Dark Eldar that I had never used. That never saw fruition, but along the way I decided I was going to create an Iron Warriors Army. I told myself that I would not let happen to the Iron Warriors what happened with my growing Dark Angels. I would buy a unit, primer, paint and base before I bought anything else. So I purchased the battle force and went to work. I kept true to my word, I completed everything in the box before I purchased anything else. Now, back then I didn't fully complete each model, I didn't base and none had hazard stripes as my technique was horrible. But My Iron Warriors were born, I fought many battles against my son's Orks and Tau, and against my friend who detested the Iron Warriors. And from there the army grew.

 

Since that time I have broken my promise to myself, a several units have been primered but not yet painted. However, I am now in the process of completing every unit. At the end of last winter, my son and I put EVERYTHING on the table and to see what we had and to not put anything back on the shelf until they were painted to our liking. Things went well, I started with finishing Azreal, who I had for about 10 years but never completed, then I began to finish the details on my Iron Warriors Terminator Lord. I worked my way through most of the elite units, painting hazard stripes and the new Blood for the Blood God to the Iron Warriors, and details to my Dark Angels. We cleared the table before we finished everything, the desire to play again outweighed the desire to to finish ALL the painting, you will see why in the pictures below. But we have continued to grab a unit off the shelf and finish them to just beyond tabletop quality.

 

So back to my original thought about being complete. After about eight years of collecting Iron Warriors, I think I am finished with collecting units for my XVIIth Grand Battalion "Iron Thunder". I am painting a unit of 10 Warp Talons (what a pain, lots of little details which will look amazing when finished) to escort my flying sorcerer and decided I do not want to paint 10 more Raptors to boost the other unit to 15. So that being said, I am complete collecting Iron Warriors (until an Iron Warriors supplement comes out that is). I will continue to finish each unit along with my Dark Angels, (which are almost to the point where I can say I am finished with them also after 14 years) so I can begin my Heresy-era Iron Warriors.

 

This blog will serve as a focal point to showcase all of my work on the Iron Warriors, some are complete, some are work in progress. I have history and background on some of the units, others just exist. Some will have counterpart models in the Heresy-era units (those that survived the Long War) and some will have perished along the way. I have about ~12000 points planned for the Heresy-era Iron Warriors which is roughly the same size of my current collection. Once I start, I am going to paint each to fully beyond tabletop standard before I purchase another unit. Because buying for ForgeWorld is so expensive and takes a while, I may have some units lying around waiting, but I will complete each before I move on to the next.

 

Sorry about eh long windedness, here are a few pictures of my Iron Warriors assembled for the family photo. I will add some close-ups of individual units throughout. As also comments and critiques are welcome. Enjoy.

 

Iron Within, Iron Without. Roll Iron Thunder!

 

Ancient Dreadnought Rhor Ironfist and Warsmith Veraukus circa 2006

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh111/fmcbide4/2014%20Iron%20Warriors/P7250061.jpg

 

EVERYHTING on the table (~15000pts Dark Angels, ~12000pts Iron Warriors, ~12000 Orks, ~7500pts Black Templars, ~4500 Tau)

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh111/fmcbide4/2014%20Iron%20Warriors/6a9baad0433f2dcb7ec00450a9eb7674.jpg

 

Iron Warriors XVIIth Grand Battalion "Iron Thunder" Family Photo (12394pts)

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh111/fmcbide4/2014%20Iron%20Warriors/DSC00038.jpg

 

Now Chosen Champion Veraukus, Ramir & Iron Warriors Banner, and Castigan

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh111/fmcbide4/2014%20Iron%20Warriors/VeraukusRamirandCastigan.jpg

 

Chosen Ramir and Iron Warriors Banner

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh111/fmcbide4/2014%20Iron%20Warriors/RamirandBanner.jpg

[Xenith]

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh111/fmcbide4/2014%20Iron%20Warriors/VeraukusRamirandCastigan.jpg

 

The melta dude looks ace!

 

Great army, in every sense of the word, very impressive!

 

How's about some close ups?

[Goreshed]

As a fellow Warsmith this brings sweet oily black tears to fruition and warms my cold black heart

[Fulminata]

Sorry I have been abscent since opening this topic. I was going through chemo and it kind of sapped my strength to really do much. I will be posting some close-ups soon along with a story about Veraukus Sturm.

[Xenith]

"Iron Within, Iron Without"

 

Look forward to seeing more, but don't overdo it.