Iron Hands Legion - proto-Moirae detachment

[Ascanius]

Hello all. I started this thread as a place to catalogue my work on a 30K Iron Hands Legion force which is intended as a spiritual forebear to the Sons of Medusa chapter I favour in the 40K era.

 

The origins of the Sons of Medusa lie in the Moirae Schism within the Adeptus Mechanicus of M35, or rather in the way the Iron Council resolved the effects of that schism within the Iron Hands chapter in M37, so there isn't any true connective tissue between my Legion plans and the future chapter, but I want to do a variant colour scheme for the Iron Hands Legion for the same reasons I picked the Sons of Medusa in the first place:

 

a) I like the Iron Hands and their flavour

b) I don't really feel I can do plain black-and-silver or black-and-metal justice

c) I like green, but I don't feel any affinity for either the Salamanders or the Dark Angels (some of whom started going green during the Age of Darkness)

 

My plan is to do a Legion detachment, exact nature to be determined, which adds a distinct green tint to the Legion's colours, just for a visual reminder of the Sons of Medusa.

 

TL-DRish hobby background:

 

I have inattentive ADHD which went undiagnosed until my early 30s, so while I've been interested in the Warhammer setting and miniatures since I owned the 4th edition high elves vs. goblins Warhammer Fantasy Battles starter set in 1993 or so, I drift in and out of hobbies over time. I'm fairly sure making my younger brother play one battle with those figures, unpainted, was the most actual wargaming I've ever done in 20+ years.

 

To give you an idea, my Sons of Medusa date from August 2014, when I rediscovered a copy of the Assault on Black Reach 40K starter set that I had bought when it was current (so sometime between 2008 and 2012) but had never actually touched! I think maybe I'd put together and painted one Ork Boy then - I do remember I bought it because I was interested in Orks, not Space Marines - but everything else was still on the sprue. That August, I painted up the Space Marines and made a start on the Orks, but ran out of steam and set it aside. In May 2015, I picked up my paints again, but this time because I was re-enthused by the new Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii figures. I bought one of the boxes of troops and did them just as a painting project, half Vanguard and half Rangers, and even worked a little bit more on the Orks. Haven't done much since then.

 

 

I have been reading the Horus Heresy black books, and listening to the audiobooks, so I have stayed interested in the 30K era even when I didn't have motivation to paint. The release of Betrayal at Calth was obviously an exciting opportunity to get together some Iron Hands, especially given the Legion upgrade bundles that Forgeworld is doing. However, my funds are limited, so saving up for the whole shebang will take a long time. I may be better off asking for the Forgeworld bundle as a gift at the end of the year, between my December birthday and Christmas!

 

What I have done, however, is buy the new Space Marines tactical squad box. I set three of those miniatures aside for testing out three paint schemes:

 

a) Leadbelcher base > Nuln Oil shade x 3 > Biel-Tan Green shade

b) Abaddon Black base > Biel-Tan Green shade as necessary to make the colour actually show up

c) Abaddon Black base > Waywatcher Green glaze, as above

 

Options b) and c) didn't work, really. I mean, you can see the colour in the right light, and I quite like the effect so I won't forget it for the future, but it became obvious that you'd need to shade or glaze it multiple times per figure, even more than the four shade "layers" you need for option a).

 

I did test out a fourth option, painting over option b) with a base layer of Mechanicus Standard Grey and then washing that with Biel-Tan Green, but what I discovered is that creates something pretty damn close to the colour of a single layer of Waaagh! Flesh (which I use as the base layer for my Sons of Medusa). It's not identical, having slightly more of a gloss or richness than the flatter, more olive colour of Waaagh! Flesh, but still.

 

Option a) worked out the best. I had seen Leadbelcher + multiple washes of Nuln Oil recommended as a quick-and-dirty method for painting Iron Hands Legionaries before, and I'm glad to be right that adding Biel-Tan Green as a fifth step worked out as well as it did:

 

http://i.imgur.com/rNuez4il.jpg

 

I don't have a good camera and the weather's not good enough to use natural light at the moment, but hopefully you can see what I've achieved so far. I have the arms and helmet to paint separately, having only to this point undercoated and basecoated them - I wanted to figure out which scheme was best on the torso and legs before I tried to put together a full figure.

 

My next step will be to neaten up the joints with Abaddon Black and bare metal parts like the belt buckle and the pipes/cables above it with Ironbreaker, then Nuln Oil.

 

The chest eagle will be lightened up to stand in for the Iron Hands legion symbols on the actual 30K figures - probably I'll base it with Celestra Grey and then use Ironbreaker, without a final Nuln Oil wash, to keep it brighter.

 

I think I'll do the same Leadbelcher + Ironbreaker + Nuln Oil for the metallic parts of the bolter, but leave the flat case parts black.

 

There is one more thing I want to try - painting over my option c) miniature with a darker grey like Dark Reaper and then trying a wash or glaze over that, but I don't expect to be dazzled!

 

Anyway, hopefully I will be able to keep this topic going with some progress in the near future, and maybe we won't have to wait until after Christmas this year to see some real 30K figures included. Fingers crossed!