Iron-Bound & Fury-Borne - A IV Legion Project Log

[Macloren]

Dramatis Personae:

Mathias Bonfort: Warsmith of the 11th Grand Battalion.

Talbot Barker ‘The Siege Breaker’: Captain of 19th Grand Company & Equerry to the Warsmith.

Achall Pike: Captain of the 22nd Heavy Assault Company.

Bendall Killian: Captain of the 79th Grand Company.

Bicrant Goire: Lieutenant of 19th Grand Company.

Colwyn Maylarch: Logistics Officer & aide-de-guerre to Captain Killian of the 79th Grand Company.

Balthazar Kruze: Sergeant of 1st Squad, 22nd Heavy Assault Company.

Falzon Prothero: Sergeant of 1st Squad, 19th Grand Company.

Dolan Cassar: Sergeant of 2nd Squad, 19th Grand Company.

Hauldren Wyborn: Sergeant of 3rd Squad, 19th Grand Company.

Ballach Boyd: Sergeant of 3rd Squad, 79th Grand Company.

Olm Enyon: Sergeant of 5th Squad, 79th Grand Company.

Olver Traskk: Sergeant of 7th Squad, 79th Grand Company.

Lucas Hightower: Sergeant of 13th Squad, 79th Grand Company.

Cooper Cottam: Legionary, 13th Squad, 79th Grand Company.

 

http://i.imgur.com/JqRY5BO.jpg

 

Sargent Balthazar Kruze advanced with 1st Squad through a hail of bolter fire, their heavy Catafractii war-plate proof against such insignificant munitions. The area had once been a beautiful commercia district, but it was now a smashed and burned out shadow of its former glory, valuable trinkets strewn across the mosaicked ground were crushed beneath their ponderous steps. Kruze paid no heed to the classical architecture, ruined by indiscriminate weapons fire. He saw the priceless statues, carved in antiquity, now smashed across the thoroughfares as nothing more than cover to be utilised, or cleared of threats. He noted with passing interest, the crimson and alabaster armoured bodies which told him that the commercia had been the site of a battle earlier in the siege. The sons of the IX and XII had fought a hard battle here no more than three days ago, and whoever had been victorious had received a damn good mauling for their efforts. The fighting had clearly been savage, and Kruze suspected that the victor would simply be the one with more meat to throw into the grinder. Balthazar Kruze was a true son of the IV and was quick to recognise the aftermath of that sort of fighting. He wasted no further time wondering who the victor had been, it was irrelevant to his current conflict, and Kruze was focused solely on the yellow-armoured warriors, who were laying down a sustained barrage of bolter fire from the cover of a shattered store front on the far side of the square. 1st squad returned fire, the veteran Astartes knew their business and each opened up the second their rangefinders showed they were at optimum range. Kruze felt his cheeks tighten into a grin as the disciplined voiles from the ruined shop front wavered, then ceased as the Imperial Fists sought cover from their return fire.

“The smug whoresons don’t enjoy the flavour of their own ointment it seems!” Legionary Preece’s dry chuckle mirrored Kruze’s own amusement at humbling their arrogant cousins. His amusement was short lived however, as it was then that the warriors of the VII sprang their trap. A squad of Imperial Fists appeared on the roof of a building on the far right of the square, each supporting the weight of a missile launcher on their shoulders. With a whoosh, the anti-tank munitions descended towards them and the world around Kruze disappeared in a flash of sizzling static as his armour’s auto senses whited out for a moment at the brightness of the rapid krack missile impacts around him. He felt a solid impact on the top plate of his armour which would have killed a mainline battle tank, but the servos of his Cattafractii war-suit kept him upright, though his clouded vision was awash with warning runes as his auto senses returned awareness of the outside world to him.

“First squad. Report.” He barked into the squad com-link. He received curt confirmation of effectiveness from eight of the squad, nothing from Legionary Preece. Kruze checked the squad vitals and saw Preece’s weaken then go dark. An unfortunate loss, but acceptable.

“Command, this is Kruze, requesting fire support on my location, alternated vector of four-oh-three yards, north/north west, elevation four-six feet.” Kruze heard the whoosh of another salvo inbound and turned his shoulder to the missiles presenting his heaviest armour to the blast. The curve of his shoulder guard deflected the missile which detonated in the mosaic pavement of the plaza, showering antique tiles in all directions. There was an enormous explosion and Kruze saw Legionary Dawe’s vitals flash red displaying critical warning runes. 1st squad was showered in burning promethium as the fuel canister on Dawe’s heavy flamer unit detonated. That loss would cost them when it came to dislodging the VII Legion from their position in the buildings ahead.

“Get up you dogs, ignore those cowardly bastards on the roof, our target has not changed. Iron within!” Kruze barked to his men, hauling legionary Lunkis back to his feet from where a missile hit had knocked him flat.

“Iron without!” The response bellowed back over the squad vox from the remainder of 1st squad as they renewed their lumbering advance.

[Brother Dallo]

Welcome to the Heresy Macloren. That's an impressive first post. I'll be keeping an eye on this.

There have been a number of IVth legion plog's lately. I look forward to drawing inspiration from yours, and seeing your personal take on the Iron Warriors. I'm assuming that they are loyal(ish) to Horus?

 

Small nitpick. You misspelt cataphractii near the start.

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Dallo

[Macloren]

@Brother Dallo: Thanks for the encouragement, I have removed the erroneous 't' now! :) 

 

I've been collecting Iron Warriors since almost the beginning of my journey into the Horus Heresy, so I'm quite excited to see the number of my fellow Warsmiths popping up since Pappa Parturabo finally joined us!

 

I'll try to get some pictures up soon, but I appear to be having some difficulty there and only managed to get a link to 1st squad added to the opening post, the Add image option doesn't upload anything on edit. 

[Brother Dallo]

Looking good! If you're still struggling with pictures, BnC has a handy guide.

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/141716-posting-and-hosting-images-at-the-bc/

 

Personally I host my pictures using Imgur, but others swear by different hosting sites.

 

Looking forward to seeing more IVth.

 

Dallo

[Macloren]

@Brother Dallo thanks for that, big help! I was about to pull my beard out with frustration!

 

Right, so now that I've managed to figure out how to put pictures on here I can get on with, um, well plogging I guess! I haven't committed anything to a forum for a good while, and this is my first post on B&C, though I have periodically lurked for some time.

 

Anyway, I've been playing Heresy for a good long time now, and apart from a very brief dalliance with the 1st Legion (which we don't talk about) I've played Iron Warriors the whole time. Having played for some time, with an either unpainted, or shamelessly proxied force, myself and my gaming group set ourselves a challenge to all get 2,000pts completely painted.

 

This then is part of that challenge, so far I have the above Catafractii squad finished, along with a 15man Tactical squad and my 'Counts as Golg' so that's actually a legal army. Which I'm ashamed to admit is the first time in years, I've actually had that.

 

I'll get some pics up of the other finished stuff in a bit, but for now I bid you adieu.

[Brother Dallo]

Not the beard!

[Macloren]

With a roar he charged the makeshift barricade, firing from the hip as he came, he aimed for the lip of the cover knowing that at a near sprint, many of his shots would go high. It would never-the-less discourage the Terran solders cowering on the other side from firing on them as they advanced. He knew the rest of the squad were employing the same tactic when the top edge of the barricade exploded as a punishing cannonade of Bolter fire hammered into it, several of the humans too slow to duck behind their cover were blown to bloody ribbons by the exploding bolts.

http://i.imgur.com/3hAj6u4.jpg

+Close quarter orders+ The surly voice of Sargent Traskk crackled over the vox, and as one 7th squad slung their bolt guns and dew an assortment of chain-blades, cudgels and hatchets. Drawing his gladius, he leapt the barricade into a swirling melee, the terrified human defenders screamed and cried as they were butchered, more meat for the grinder.

http://i.imgur.com/LKkcdJ1.jpg

Their bloody work done, 7th squad immediately moved to tear down the barricade for the mechanised units who were following and as they did so, he considered the dead surrounding him. He sought neither sport nor glory and in truth, these humans had provided little of either; blood and death were his stock and trade, and it made little difference to him who his foe was, he saw them simply as another obstacle to overcome.
+Seventh Squad.+ Sergeant Traskk intruded on his thoughts.
+Time to move out, Kruze of the 22nd has found where our cousins of the VII have been hiding+
Some foes, however, were not just another obstacle. Some foes were goal, the sons of Rogal Dorn were one such foe.
+Time to get your blades wet lads, with me. Iron within!+ Traskk's voice bellowed in his ear.
"IRON WITHOUT!"
The sound of their reply shook the world around them as they set off to find their hated foe.

[Macloren]

This project is taking a back seat for a few months, while I concentrate on getting my Knight Titan project finished. But I thought I should bring this Plog up to speed for where I've gotten to for when I pick it back up again.

 

So this is my "Ready-for-detail-painting" section.

 

http://i.imgur.com/mG7iEjf.jpg

I've got my heavy support section, which equates to a unit of Iron Havocs with Missile Launchers, a Dorito Dred, with Choom-choom cannons and Missile-hat and a Legion Medusa.

 

http://i.imgur.com/6X6Pojl.jpg

I've done the fist five members of my second Tactical Squad. Some characters in the background.

 

http://i.imgur.com/RdP9ZE9.jpg

From left to right: Bendall Killian, Bicrant Goire, Mathias Bonfort & Colwyn Maylarch.

 

Finally, the beast in charge of Warsmith Bonfort's Catafractii elite.

 

http://i.imgur.com/ELfaRWJ.jpg

Achall Pike: Captain of the 22nd Heavy Assault Company.

 

That's all I have for the Legionaries of the 11th Grand Battalion so far and they'll be sitting idle for a couple of months while I concentrate on my Knights, but I'll be picking them up again in short order.

[furstyferret]

It's nice to see another Iron Warriors log. Your IV legion are looking really good and there's some nice pose tweaks and conversions going on in here. I'll keep an eye on this thread for ideas I can steal

[Macloren]

@furstyferret: haha, thanks man, steal away! I'm enjoying the increase in the number of my fellow Warsmiths that are popping up all over. :-)

[Macloren]

Hi guys, this project is on a bit of hiatus at he nomen due to me concentrating on my Knight Titan project. But, I thought I'd share my Perturabo with you, I've had him since the early release at the open day, and I jumped on him straight away, but I had to stop as I was neglecting the rest of my IW pledge.

 

http://i.imgur.com/juA9t8I.jpg

I decided straight away that I wanted to give him a helmet as I'm not a fan of the head. A friend of mine had given me the IW Contemptor, which is just a dreadful model, but I love the head, so it seemed like a good choice for the Lord of Iron. I'm very happy with how it turned out.

 

The base he comes with is very silly IMHO, so I decided that the only sensible option was to make him a gaming base. Meet poor Sgt. Smashed-face, a brave but foolhardy son of Dorn.

http://i.imgur.com/Bp8hnt2.jpg

 

I have started painting him, and I'll ping up some pics later.

[Knight of the Raven]

Are you sure that's not Captain Crushed-skull, a brave but foolhardy Iron Warrior who brought Perturabo bad news?

Achall Pike looks cool, though I never liked Anvil Industry's heads.

[Macloren]

I've not finished him yet, but I'm not far off, and I think when I finish my Knights, I'll pick up Pappa-P again and finish him off.

http://i.imgur.com/fntrj6m.jpg

 

I did some work on the hammer too.

http://i.imgur.com/nuL2WDV.jpg

 

And hears where he's at now.

http://i.imgur.com/lzRwpja.jpg

[Macloren]

@Knight of the Raven, it is possible that Perty has killed more Iron Warriors than anyone else on either side of the schism! :-) thank you though, I know what you mean about the Anvil heads, I wasn't too sure about using them, but I like this one being all bionic.

[MithrilForge]

This is very nice stuff here, starting my own ++cough, loyalist though, cough++ Iron Warriors from a Calth box so this is very ...inspirational

I really love the different way you went with the big angry man,Helmet =WIN!! its been a while since you last posted I hope this stuff has been finished and not put to the wayside(as a great many of us do from time to time )

Cheers Mithril

[Ovidius Incertus]

I missed this until just now, but this is a great project.  Love the look.

 

Too bad you don't like the IW Contemptor!

[Macloren]

Oh wow! Hey guys, thanks for the nice comments.

 

@Ovidius, yeah I think the IW Conny just doesn't fit with the image I have of the Iron Warriors. If looks a bit too ramshackle to me, my image of them is that all their stuff is very utilitarian, but well constructed. I've got a trio of Death Guard Contemptors waiting in the wings for when I pick this project back up.

 

@Mithril, ah some nice shiny MK4 loyalists! I love the BaC box, but as with the Contemptor, it didn't fit how I see the boys in... Well Iron I suppose! :-D so I've stuck with the MK3 for my rank and file guys. I've not done much on this project for a while, as I've been concentrating on my Knight Titan project, little bits and bobs mostly, but they are still very much on the go. I'll be picking these back up in a couple of weeks, so I'll share some of the little bits I've been doing on them.

 

Thanks again, it's really nice when people like your stuff! :-)

[Col.hertford]

Mate you never told me about this thread. Subbed in a heartbeat. Are you at Warhammer fest?

[Macloren]

@Col.hertford glad to hear you're in for the ride! :-D I'm not sure if I'll be at Warhammer fest this year, it may happen, but I'll put a shout out if I am.

 

As I'm picking this project up again, I've prepared a little fluff piece about poor old Sgt Smashed-face to kick it off again.

[Macloren]

He had been bested with contemptuous ease. Sergeant Dorien San-Chavez, leader of III squad, I company, VII Legion Astartes, veteran of a hundred campaigns, a huge bull necked warrior who stood a full head taller than his brothers even out of his massive Cataphractii war-plate, lay in the rubble of a low wall which had halted his shameful fall and watched the remains of his squad, heroes all, warriors he had fought beside throughout the long centuries of the Emperor’s great crusade, being butchered like cattle. He tried to raise from his prone position to re-enter the fray, only to discover the true extent of the damage he had suffered, his breastplate was marred by a huge impact crater, he could feel that his fused ribcage had been smashed and several primary organs had been ruptured by the concussive force of the blow that had thrown him across the street to where he lay and his right leg now ended at the knee, oozing sluggishly as his post-human physiognomy struggled to stem the flow of blood. Humiliation chocked him and he screamed in impotent rage, he had been so sure of himself when the enemy had been identified as the Primarch of the hated IV, the prospect of an enemy Primarch kill and the glory that would bring had driven him to a direct assault, he had even challenged his vanquisher to face his judgement and be put down like the traitorous dog he was. Such foolhardy bravado. In response to his challenge, Perturabo has simply reached down, plucked him from the ground by his ankle and held him aloft like a child’s toy. The Lord of Iron did not speak, no quip, no cutting remark for the vanquished, he did not even use his stolen hammer, he simply drew back his fist and smashed it into San-Chavez’ chest, the force of that blow had torn his leg off in Perturabo’s grip and sent him tumbling and skidding away from the Primarch like a broken doll.

 

Through the haze of warning runes scrolling across his vision San-Chavez saw his vanquisher casually toss the bloody lower half of his leg aside and continue to wade through III Squad with devastating efficiency, sending Cataphractii clad Astartes spinning through the air with each pendulous sweep of the hammer Forgebreaker. It was over shamefully quickly, the proud warriors of III squad left rent and broken upon the concourse in a matter of minutes, while crippled in the rubble, San-Chavez had watched his men’s life signs wink out one by one unable to assist them. His butcher's work done, the Lord of Iron turned toward the fallen Sergeant, still struggling to right himself, San-Chavez’ screamed curses faltered in his throat as Perturabo’s helm, shaped like the iron skull emblazoned on each of his son’s pauldrons locked onto him, he could feel the cold hatred of the Sire of the Iron Warriors even through the facemask and as the Primarch strode towards where he lay, San-Chavez could feel the earth tremble beneath him through his thick plate.

 

The Lord of Iron loomed over him, his skull-faced helm staring down on the broken warrior for what seemed like an eternity before he finally spoke.

 

“Your spirit is fierce, son of my brother. This is commendable, but ultimately imprudent of you.” The Primarch paused, his gaze sweeping the broken figures of the Imperial Fists scattered around before returning to the crippled warrior at his feet. When he spoke again, his voice was like a death knell.

 

“All perish” With that, he rose a massive armoured boot and smashed it down into the Sergeant’s helm and Dorien San-Chavez’ world disappeared in a flash of blinding white pain.

[Halandaar]

Use of the Contemptor helm is an excellent idea! Did it need much work to get it to fit?

[Macloren]

@Halandaar: thank you! It took a bit of trimming, and the chin needed a little file, not too much but it fits in the recess nicely when facing forward without any work, just getting it to look right when facing the way he is firing.

[Col.hertford]

If you can make it would be great to meet up.

 

I like the fluff your writing, I would suggest breaking the paragraphs up a bit. That's the only thing I can add!

[~Drakzilla~]

Loving the fluff. Brutal.

 

That headswap is brilliant, by the way. I didn't think it was possible to make Pert look meaner than he already was, but you did it. Helmeted Primarchs should definitely be more of a thing.

[Macloren]

@Col.hertford: Thanks man, glad you like it, I see what you mean about the paragraphs, I might rework those slightly.

 

@drakzilla: thank you on both counts! I really like the savage close quarters specialist aspect of the IV, so I like writing that side of them, rather than the long range barrage aspect, though I'll need to cover some of that too!

 

So!!! Some progress has been made after a long period of abstinence, we'll sort of abstinence anyway. I've been mucking about with other bits and bobs, mostly my Knight Project, which I'm now taking a bit of a break from. I find that I need to concentrate on one thing at a time or nothing gets done at all. So anyway, I treated myself to a load of MKIII bits to finish off my Iron Warriors to a sensible force after playing with an unacceptable level of proxy/armless/headless models since I stopped working on them.

 

First up, I made a ten Breachers. These guys will actually be going into my tactical squads to bring them up to 15 men. I really like the idea of Tac squads being issued with ballistic shields for assaulting strongholds, so the front guys provide mobile cover for their squad mates to advance behind. Also a second Medusa.

 

I scavenged up ten standard MKIII heads as they aren't proper Breachers. The breacher heads will go on a unit of Heavy bolter support dudes later. (Ignore the not IW dudes) everything got a base of black.

 

Followed by a coat of dark gun metal.

 

Followed by a zenith highlight of lighter metal to pick out the top surfaces.

 

It's a nice base to work from for Iron Warriors. I'll be adding a final highlight stage to the armour and inking it down to finish it off. It all needs blacked and decals and weathering, so still loads to do.

 

Next up I have a Veteran Tactical squad to make. Should be fun.