Ferrum Aeternum - A brief return - with Paint!

[PowerHungryMonkey]

FERRUM AETERNUM

Iron Hands Clan Raukaan Primaris Battle Detachment Xi-Sigma-Rho

"The Flesh is Weak"

Vale Brothers and Sisters!

This blog marks my return to the hobby after a few years absence due to life, funds and time constraints. You know how it is. I've previosly been a member of this illustrious forum as Power Hungry Monkey, but my old account seems to be lost to the sands of time and also all my pics were on Photobucket...

New start. New account. New (old) army. I've been a massive Iron Hands nerd for a very long time now. Ever since the Index Astartes article came out I've just loved the imagery and fluff behind the army. This current project marks my 4th forray into the Iron Hands with previous armies being stolen, sold or falling prey to hobby ADD respectively. With a release of the Primaris marines too there was no way I wasn't going to eventually return to my bio-mechanical children at some point.

This is going to be a slow-burn army. Short bursts of activity probably followed by long absences, so bear with me. I've been curating a bitz box over the last few months in preparation for this army so I can pretty much fully build what I want when I get the base models for it and not have to wait on bitz and pieces. With that said, enough talk, here are the first pics:

Being Iron Hands, they had to have extensive bionics; which the Primaris kits are sorely lacking. Enter the FW Mechanicum Thallax Cohort:

A success I feel. Really happy with the scale.

This was just the first step to my first character, which happens to be a librarian simply because I had most of the bitz and base model for it. Here's where he is so far:

There's still a long way to go on him and a lot of details to fix, remove, add to him but I'm really happy with the direction he's headed.

I hope you all enjoy and that there's was enough pic to offset the text

C&C welcome and appreciated. There will be more to follow when time allows.

PHM

Edited January 13, 2021 by PowerHungryMonkey

[DuskRaider]

Extremely cool and very inventive with the Thallax leg bit.

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

The choice of Thallax cohort parts for primaris bionics was simply inspired! The librarian looks great, PHM, and I hope to see more from you as time goes by!

[Grotsmasha]

A good resource for Primaris Scale bionics is Anvil Indusry's Large Bionics, ARMS and LEGS.

 

Cheers,

Jono

[robofish7591]

That is an awesome kit bash, I am looking forward to seeing what else you do!

 

Plus, its always good to see more Iron Hands on the forum!

[Pearson73]

The bionic leg section works very well. Cool pose too.

[PowerHungryMonkey]

Thanks all for the feedback. Glad you're all liking it.

@Grotsmasha: I did look at those while I was getting all my bitz together. At the time they didn't really grab me but I've since seen them used on some Intercessors and they looked great. I'm already on the path of Thallax bitz now so I'll stick with that to keep the same aesthetic.

Finally made some more progress on the Librarian (those first pics are at least a week older than the post).

He's got a new, flashier, tabard, psychic hood, those chest cables, a book (!) and a few little added details here and there. He's really looking the part now. I also fixed up the Shapeways chapter icon on his shoulder so it sits much better.

I should get some more time tonight to finish off the backpack (need to file a bic of the chapter icon to make it fit) and then do the last few details. Hopefully a finished model tonight or so.

Also, for any interested, here are the few remaining pics of my 2nd Iron Hands army from, I want to say a decade ago now...? I was when you could take the Scions of Mars chapter trait and have your sergeants in Terminator armour Good times. You can see where I was going with them.

These are likly to be the ONLY pics of painted models you'll see here for a loooong time. Not only do I never get around to painting anything but I also have to start my paint collection from scratch again...

Anyway. Hope you enjoy.

PHM

Edited November 20, 2018 by PowerHungryMonkey

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Your Terminators look great!

Where'd you get the parts to customize this AWESOME-looking Dreadnought?

[PowerHungryMonkey]

@Bjorn Firewalker: Its been a good long while since I built this guy, I made him just after the Manufactorum scenery was released, but I think I can give a good breakdown of bitz:

 

Body, legs, arms - plastic Dreadnought

Massive skull and gear symbol - cut out of a Manufactorm wall section

Smoke stacks and power plant - also from Manufactorm scenery

CCW - old, metal Chaos Dreadnought CC arm

Greaves and feet - Epic Warlord Titan

Tabard - Magos Delphan Gruss from Inquisitor

Iron Hands icon - FW Iron Hands icon sprue

Lots of computer and guitar wire

 

The shoulders and waist are spaced out with plasticard tube while the shoulder pads have been extended with layers of plasticard sheet, I think 1mm.

 

It was geat fun to build and paint this one. I won't be going quite so nuts on my planned Redemptors for this army.

 

Cheers

PHM

Edited September 13, 2018 by PowerHungryMonkey

[hushrong]

That is an awesome librarian! The bits used and pose are ace!

 

Your work on him is inspiring too. Struggling myself on some GW/FW bits to use for bionics but I had never thought to go after the martian robots for parts. Going to need to take some notes when I start expanding my alternate IH force!

 

Please keep this coming!

[malcharion]

Nice work on this librarian ! The use of bitz is really smart and well choosen ! 

I look forward to see him with some colors on ;) !

 

Malchy

[PowerHungryMonkey]

That is an awesome librarian! The bits used and pose are ace!

 

Your work on him is inspiring too. Struggling myself on some GW/FW bits to use for bionics but I had never thought to go after the martian robots for parts. Going to need to take some notes when I start expanding my alternate IH force!

 

Please keep this coming!

 

Thanks Hushrong. I'm not much one for Greenstuff but I sure love my kit-bashing. The Thallax parts was really just luck. They wont work as a full leg replacment due to the back-joined ankle on th bots but the thigh fits will with the new scale on the Primaris marines. It may work for terminator armour too but it'll look too big for standard power armour boys.

 

Nice work on this librarian ! The use of bitz is really smart and well choosen ! 

I look forward to see him with some colors on !

 

Malchy

 

Cheers Malchy. As I mentioned above, I've never been one to paint a model I've got when I can spend the time converting another one so it may be a while before this guy sees some colour. I also sold/gave away almost all my hobby stuff, including paints, at the start of this year thinking I'd be out for a long while still (due to two kids under 2. Hektic to say the least) but the Hobby Gods decreed otherwise and I'm back. I'll have to start my paint collection from scratch which will be rather expensive (again, why buy paints when I can but more minis to convert???).

 

That said, I really want to see this guy painted too so it'll hopefully not be too long.

[hushrong]

Yeah, I’m going to be doing some bitz hunting soon for thallax parts and taking a good look at the Mechanicus stuff from FW. Aside from converting slightly bigger berzerkers I’ve been using primaris bodies lately to make big marines so it’s nice to see those slightly larger machines fitting the scale!

 

To be honest I’d love to see this painted but I would love to see another conversion too. Keep it coming, bud!

[PowerHungryMonkey]

So I'm calling this guy finished. There's a little bit of GS work needs doing to tidy up the tabbard and the chest hoses but overall I'm really happy with him.

I present to you Iron Skryer Virgil Drood, Primaris Librarian of Clan Raukaan

As for the paint scheme, if I ever get to that stage, I'm thinking of going a bit old-school with it. Definatly not doing the full-smurf look on him but was more thinking along the lines of this image from the Index Astartes article on Librarians

I really like the full black right arm for some reason. I'm trying to remember now if I did this for my old Iron Hands specialists (Librarian, Apothecary, Techmarine) or if I went with a reverse scheme. As in armour all black with just the left arm, left shoulder and helm in the specialist colour. Like these guys:

I'm leaning heavily towards the latter. What do you guys think?

Cheers

PHM

[brettfp]

Very nice conversion!!

Keep up the good work :)

[Naryn]

I always prefer the latter, I can’t stand having my librarians look like Ultramarines who got lost. Can’t wait to see how it turns out?

[LaLongCarabine]

I honestly was just buzzing over the pics at first and didn't like the posing until I saw that it was a Librarian, now I find it fitting.

 

Good call on the Thallaxi parts as bionics, they seem to fit nicely.

 

Personally I think you need to set a standard in your paint scheme as a chapter. Are your techmarines red and apothecaries white? Then your librarian needs to be blue. Now if your Techmarines and Apothecaries are primarily chapter colored then just go black armor with a blue right arm.

[PowerHungryMonkey]

Wow, a few weeks of B&C being down and I've got the shakes something fierce! Good to be back and good to hear Brother Argos is on the mend; the Emperor Protects.

Glad to see people are liking the fnished Librarian. It also seems the concesus is to go primarily with chapter colours (black) and then portions of the armour in blue.When he eventually gets a lick of paint, that'll be the direction I go. Same for Techmarines and Apothecaries in the future.

Speaking of Techmarines, I have not been idle these past weeks. The time I would normally spend lurking and drooling on these forums was not wasted. I've been slaving away with clippers, knife, files and pin-vice to create the Techmarine gunner for my Thunderfire Cannon:

So, since the Adeptus Mechanicus, in its infinite wisdom, refuses to train Primaris marines as Techmarines (citing some nonsense about blasphemies against the Machine God), I've had to jank around with stuff a bit to get this guy to fit in my full-Primaris force. The main body is an Aggressor with MANY components from all over the marine range cobled together to kit him out with enough gear to equal a full Servo-harness. I figured the Gravis armour could portray the 2+ Techmarines get and help him to stand out even more from the rank-and-file.

I'm liking were he's going. There is still a lot of patching to do around the chest plate (SO MUCH CUTTING!) and the flamer and plasma cutter still have to be hooked up to the backpack, plus theres a bunch of little details and general cleaning up to do, but I'd say he's 90-95% done. I would have had him fully finished by now but I've been distracted by an Intercessor squad that was begging for bionics. More on them soon...

Anyway, hope you enjoy and look forward to your C&Cs.

PHM

[KrautScientist]

That's an excellent Techmarine conversion right there! I love how he basically seems like a modernised version of this old chestnut.

[Feirros]

Nice work! I always like seeing Iron Hands conversions.That techmarine conversion in particular is great. I like the use of the kataphron chestplate.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The Primaris Techmarine looks promising. I hope to see him completed soon.

[PowerHungryMonkey]

Nice work! I always like seeing Iron Hands conversions.That techmarine conversion in particular is great. I like the use of the kataphron chestplate.

Thanks Feirros. That chest plate was a horror to fit. Possibly because I glued the body together THEN decided he needed a torso upgrade.

Just a little follow up. Realised I didn't post the Techmarine next to his charge. Here is the Thunderfire Cannon:

I've never really liked the GW Thunderfire for some reason but I was hunting various 3rd party sites and came across the Kromlech Legionary Heavy Weapon Platform with Thunder Cannon and reallt liked it. Felt a bit more solid and sturdy. Its not as big as the GW one tho; more on the scale of the Rapier platforms from FW

[hushrong]

Oh. My. Word!

 

That techmarine is awesome! I love that mix of bits you used to make that fella! He looks bulky and terminator-esque but it's power armor that is just customized like I would expect an Iron Hands techmarine to do. Man, I'm probably going to be lurking on this page staring at that guy for quite a bit.

[PowerHungryMonkey]

That's an excellent Techmarine conversion right there! I love how he basically seems like a modernised version of this old chestnut.

 

Must have missed your comment. Cheers Kraut. While I was not thinking of that guy at the time I can see the similarities. Have to say tho, that old Techy was one of my first loves in the Space Marine range when I started near the end of 2nd Ed. I've had a bit of a thing for Techmarines and all their ilk since; hence the 3rd run at an IH army

 

Oh. My. Word!

 

That techmarine is awesome! I love that mix of bits you used to make that fella! He looks bulky and terminator-esque but it's power armor that is just customized like I would expect an Iron Hands techmarine to do. Man, I'm probably going to be lurking on this page staring at that guy for quite a bit.

 

Shucks

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

I clearly need to follow this thread, because HOLY :cuss ing :cuss, that's an amazing techmarine model! I love the way you represented the harness's various bits, and I very much look forward to your next posts.

 

How easy to put together was the thunderfire cannon? I'm considering getting one of those for my thunderfire cannons (gifted to the chapter long before from the Black Lords) and I was wondering about the quality of the build and model.