The Iron Claw: Iron Warrior Kill Team

[Torbenos]

In the spirit of wanting to get back into engaging with Warhammer 40.000 again I've decided to try and play Kill Team, the smaller scale seems to make it an easier cell to my buddies in the local area so I can actually get games in. It also, hopefully, gives me the excuse to plan and execute a whole project and have something "finished" at the end of it. A feeling that is as elusive to me as it is to many other wargamers out there I'm sure.
 
I settled on Chaos for several reasons. For one I am a fan of chaos and have played them in the past, meaning there are plenty of bitz around to try and make something unique. Also with chaos I never feel any reluctance to fight against anyone else based on any narrative preferences, I am one of those that never liked when my Ultramarines fought against say, Salamanders.
 
The new Chaos Space Marine kit is also really nice, and I've not bought anything GW since before those came out. So I dug up an old gift card I got for christmas and ordered a box. Iron Warriors were picked largely because I really like the scheme, and the industrial theme works well with the miniatures I had around that could work like cultists.
 
I am still waiting for the big boys, so I've been doing some slow work on some bases and the cultists.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 3, 2020 by Torbenos

[Brother Dallo]

Looks like a good start.

 

Dallo

[Torbenos]

Thanks Dallo.

 

 

The Remade

 

 

 

When Captain Krotos and his company first made landfall upon the world Krixos Secondus he was unaware of what would greet them. As fiery death and doom fell upon the populus his men started giving reports of strange one-eyed men with an optical helmet fused into their flesh who welcomed and praised them, even as they were slaughtered upon roaring chainswords. They hailed them as liberators and messengers from beyond. It was quickly realised that Krixos was the home for a significant cult of the greedy gods. Calling themselves the Remade, they were the followers of a tainted intelligence which had been created by tech-priests on the world generations ago. The Iron Warriors with their enslaved engines of war and advanced armour were seen as the angels of liberation, having come to free them finally from the opression of the governer who had been trying to supress this cult for centuries.

 

Krotos communed with thistainted creation, and in the wake of it a pact was made. The creation itself was transferred onto their battle-barge to be taken where it willed, and ever since the Remade have been following in the wake of Krotos' company. Technologically adept they become the eerie pages of singular Iron Warriors. Tending to their arms and armour, unfeeling and unphased by their violent ways. The Remade have been remade acording to the plan of their Creator, and they are bound to its will, and through it to Krotos. The strange static chant from their cybernetic vocal cords heralding the coming of ruin to all.

 

 

 

Edited June 26, 2020 by Torbenos

[Verux]

Cultists are looking solid.

[Torbenos]

Finally got my box of the new Chaos Space Marines sculpts today and got to have some fun with them. I'm just echoeing what many have already said but they are certainly more dynamic than the old one, especially for what I ended up making first. A berzerker. I will have two of them in my Kill Team as it stands, crazed madmen who have been hired on by Captain Krotos in exchange for some unseemely bloody trade. 

 

Dug up my khorne bitz from a box and threw the first one together quite quick. Just a simple head and weapon swap to make him look like a distinct follower of the blood god. Also took the time to scrape off some chaos iconography from the gun and chest that I thought looked a bit too cartoony, and the space just being blank gives it a very solid appearance to my eyes. I am still waiting for the iron warrior heads I managed to snatch up to arrive, so alas more waiting before I can start putting together the chaos marines themselves.

 

 

 

[Torbenos]

Threw together the second berzerker. One of them will be a Champion, which one is the most suitable?

 

[Verux]

The 2nd guy is more ornate and looks to be of a higher favor in Khornes eye but I prefer the 1st guys posing.

[Torbenos]

I agree with you there Verux. I struggled a bit with getting the pose as dynamic and didn't quite manage to get there either. The helmet's a bit too much for my tastes as well, but I only have the orante ones left to use alas. I started trying to paint them but ran into a trouble, in the heatwave that's been going through here in Sweden my primer ended up all sticky which was a first for me. And I only messed it up further by going through and applying a metal primer over that.

 

After some further struggle I just put them in a bath of cleaning for a night before scrubbing off most of the non-primer paint and starter over by dry-brushing the metal this time. Ended up better and they don't feel sticky anymore, albeit carrying a quite fragrant scent now. Some goggling told me the sticky quality is a risk when you do it in very warm/humid weather, the more you know. We don't get heatwaves that often here. The cold tends to be my struggle, although I've never actually had primer go bad even while doing it during the winter.

 

It was rather disheartening regardless, but I've convinced myself to just paint them even with the flaws as it is better to have a project done even if it's not perfect than to add more half-way done thing to my box of shame in the corner. I am not a big fan of painting trims, so the chaos space marines are not my favourite thing there even if I love the sculpts but got through that with some patience. The iconic iron warrior hazard stripes were more of a challenge, and at first I figured I'd try to just learn to paint them but that quickly became an exercise in frustration as layers of yellow added up to start from the beginning. So I tried to do masking, which worked well enough for them to look vaguely like the goal but not amazing on the surfaces I had. I might try and paint in sub-assemblies in the future, atleast for the parts I want to mask to make reaching easier.

 

I also went ought and bought some oil paints after reading Apologist's stellar thread about his Gatebreakers, got myself both a grey and a burnt umber and I am hoping to use them on this team. I am a little reluctant though, since I am wholly unfamiliar with the medium. I used them on a Primaris marine I had lying about to try the grey, and so far that one I am not sure -does- that much. But that might simply be user error. The burnt umber does give a lovely grimy feel which I -could- use to make that sort of warband. Either way it seems something that works best on bright colours, which my marines are decidedly not. So might not be the best project to use them on.

 

But enough of a rambling from me, after my little ordeal and some hours of painting this is the current state of my first berzerker.

 

Edited June 29, 2020 by Torbenos

[Graceless]

I enjoyed the background for your cultists following the Iron Warriors.

 

Good simple colour palette for the beserker too, I like the single splash of red on the loin-thingy too.

[Torbenos]

Nice of you to say Graceless. I'll likely try to find some red accent on all of them to tie them together with the bases as all but one has a red section.

 

Spent the day putting base colours onto my second berserker, and in general not as happy with this one as the first. From posing to my painting, especially annoying as I spent more time on trying to do the hazard stripes only for them to end up worse off. There is also the problem of breaking up the colours, Iron Warriors are rather famously all metal and I sadly do not own very many variations of it. But this can sometimes lead to some trouble with for example the axes, where I have little in the way of making the weapons distinct from the model itself. In this second case I tried to put some red in there too.

 

I tried to do more red accents in general since there was no loincloth like the first. So the bolt pistol, khorne bunny ears, axe and the khorne shield on his chest all got that treatment. Currently I am not a big fan of it, but I am hoping once I wash/oil it all up that will bind the colours together more. Beyond this I repainted the cloth part of my cultists, I felt the dark upon dark was a bit monotone so I picked out a really bright grey before giving it a onceover with the oils I had picked up. That did work pretty well and my guess that it works better on brighter colours so far seems to be a true one to me.

 

Here's the current state of my second berzerker.

 

[Torbenos]

After having let the oils dry for a few days I do think I am a fan and that I do like them. For me particular painting, which suffers a bit from a lack of contrast and a tendency to go too dark it might bring things -too- dark still. But that lies on me rather than anything, it brought the model together in some ways which I enjoy and certainly made for a more weathered and rugged appearance. I think I might invest in some better quality q tips as the ones I use slowly unravel into thin thin cotton threads rather quickly but it did its job. 

 

The axes remain a touch on the bland side, the trouble of metal upon metal upon metal. I am thinking about going in with some Blood For The Blood God to spice them up a bit, and add further red accents to it all. But I am often uncertain on blood effects, they very easily start looking a bit much.

 

 

 

I've also put together my other three chaos space marines for the band and gotten them all metallic. Time for all the trimming and eventual detail, the champion has a severed Primaris head trophy on it. Any suggestions as to what chapter that poor soul should be from?

[Captain Incompetence]

Those are some good looking berzerkers. I like the hazard stripes on the bunny ears, it makes him instantly recognizable as both an Iron Warrior and a Berzerker. Good stuff

I totally understand you with blood effects just getting out of hand, but some nice dips here and there really does do wonders to spice up a mini and is almost mandatory on Khorne Berzerkers. Another way you can try to make the axes stand out a bit is perhaps some light corrosion on them, or perhaps giving the Khornate icon on them a red colour?

 

As for the Primaris head, the obvious answer is Imperial Fist, but if you have a buddy who plays Space Marines, it might be neat to paint it in his preferred chapter?

[Torbenos]

Thanks for the kind words Captain Incompetence. 

 

The idea of a khornate symbol in red is appealing, but might be beyond my current skills as I struggle with the hazard stripes alone! Glad that the headswap is effective, I felt it made for some pretty food berzerkers rather easily with the current kit. I have a few old ones around, but they look pretty dated now. I do have a friend who plays Hawk Lords, so maybe I should see about getting a pot of purple from somewhere.

 

I've been putting together my other four marines. A proud Aspiring Champion to lead my band of heretics to satisfy the vile desires of dark gods, a volatile sniper with a plasma rifle and the comm specialist to spot for the marksman and lastly a "mere" heretic with a bolter. I've based in two of them, sadly the lot are headless as of now. The heads I am wanting are held up in the russian post, which I am told is quite stalled in the current state in the world. People talk of waiting over a hundred days, so it might be I am in for a long wait, alas.

 

Excuse the terrible quality of my photos.

 

[Torbenos]

We're starting to see the project being done in the distance! All initial members as assembled and have atleast most of their paintjobs done, heads lost in distant Russia withstanding. A small part of me is contemplating if I should just cave and use some of the heads from the CSM box rather than wait, but that is likely just me being impatient to see something done. It's been awhile since I actually finished a project I set myself to.

 

 

To sound like a broken record, I continue to struggle with the hazard stripes. The hope is that the oil wash will hide some if the irregular edges behind muck and grime. Some cables and the trophy head are all that remains now, other than the aforementioned heads of course. I also figured  to throw up a photo of the cultists in their new brighter robes next to one of my marines, to show the rather appropiate size difference between the two.

 

Edited July 8, 2020 by Torbenos

[Skidman]

Looking good keep up the hard work! I know the pain of hazard stripes on curved surfaces all to well frater. Just keep practicing the washes will help disguise anything that you don’t want people to see ;)

[Torbenos]

Took a good long while for the heads I ordered to get here, and once they did I had moved on to other projects. But got back to it the other day and I have my initial 100 points of Iron Warrior Kill Team finished up now.

 

 

Pictured: Cyrax Thrice-Bound (Sniper), Champion Zerxan Khorr (Leader)

 

 

Pictured: Ageus the Grim, Savrog Rax

 

 

Pictured: Cressus the Red (Zealot), Bariya Naxos (Combat)

 

 

Pictured: Remade Cultists

 

 

Pictured: The Iron Claw 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Fine work on the many models.

[Torbenos]

Thank you Bjorn. There is a certain satisfcation with finishing a project you set out to do. Now I only hope to get to play with them.

[Skidman]

Great looking iron warriors man

[Urauloth]

That's an excellent kill team. Characterful berzerkers you've got there, I like the red accents on the IW colour scheme.

[Zebulon]

Nice.

 

Having recently fallen/ascended to starting work on a Chaos warband, I salute your fine work!

[Torbenos]

Thanks for the kind words.

 

Started tinkering with a Possessed for myself, looking through what bitz I had avaliable. Mostly happy with moving the chained mace over to the space marine hand, not quite sure if he ended up "possessed" enough. It's mostly just the one arm/shoulderpad and power unit.

 

 

Edited October 5, 2020 by Torbenos

[Torbenos]

 

Pict of Bariya Naxos, Slaughter-Sworn of the Iron Claw in the ruins of Velos Teritum.

 

An exercise in trying to take better photos of the miniatures with backdrops.

Edited April 9, 2021 by Torbenos

[Graceless]

I like the backdrop photo a lot. Great title (Slaughter-Sworn) too.

[Torbenos]

    

 

 

 

Pict of Z'arthaon, First of the Slaughter-Sworn, Lost to the Gorefather.

 

Formerly known as Thaon Vestnas and the first of Captain Krotos' Company to adopt the Butcher's Nail after the Heretek was acquired in a deal with the Dark Forgeworld of Opedious Sigma. Known for his ferocity and savage temperament Thaon was chosen to lead the host soon to be dubbed the Slaughter-Sworn. The incessant scratching horror of the Nail soon washing away much of the personality that was once there, and seeing Thaon and his new brothers fall to deeper and deeper devotion to the Red God, Khorne, the Lord of Slaughter whom they name the Gorefather.

 

Unique even among the savage barbarians that make up the Slaughter-Sworn, Thaon fell to deeper heresy still after the Battle of Narthon during the Third Reaping of Velos. As the butchery taking place in the habs of Urbs Sextus caused the Unborn of the Gorefather to emerge and join in the slaughter. In the wake of this event, seen as a favourable omen by the Slaughter-Sworn, Thaon came to merge with one of the Gorefather's Unborn children. His body wracked with mutations to aid in his bloody work his spirit is now consumed by rage. Adopting the new name of Z'arthaon to signify the two that are now one, he is seen as favoured among some of the Company whilst others look down upon such mutation and debasement of yourself before the Dark Gods.