The Steel Wardens - a DIY chapter log

[Ironwrought Huw]

 

+++...tastrophic casualties, repeat, catastrophic casualties! [Lance Battery fire, audio distortion for 2.8 seconds]...mpanies 1 through [static] report 87.93% losses, fourth co- [Audio loss for 9.32 seconds]. Second corsair warship launching attack run, prepare for impa...+++

- Vox-warp echo, Nephilim / Badab border, 001.M42. 

 

"Where flesh fails, re-forge with steel. Our bodies may fail but we endure" 

- Excerpt from Credo Moirae, as eulogised by Forge Chieftains of the Steel Wardens 

158.M42. 

 

 

 

+++AUTHORITY CODE ACCEPTED+++

+++INQUISITORIAL CREDENTIALS CONFIRMED+++

+++UPLINK RE-ESTABLISHED+++

 

CASE FILE 335:42:G:HJ271 - Adeptus Astartes Chapter - STEEL WARDENS, THE. 

 

A BRIEF NOTE ON MANNERISM AND ECCENTRICITIES

 

As stated, the Wardens are believed to have been founded between M40 and M41, placing them between the 24th Founding and the Ultima Founding – with evidence pointing towards the latter. As stated, upon creation the chapter was understood to initially operate much like a Codex Adherent chapter. Indeed, the earliest recorded sighting of the chapter, 997.M41, makes no mention of any eccentric organisational structure or quirks. Quite how or why the chapter ended up so divergent, and in such a short space of time is an interesting point of speculation. 

 

The chapter are known to have participated, admittedly briefly, in the Nephilim Sector during the dawn of M42, policing the borders of the Badab Sector in the wake of the Tyrant’s destruction at the close of M41. The Wardens were amongst many chapters participating in this task, including the Star Phantoms, Sons of Medusa and the remnants of the Fire Angels.  

 

Fragmentary scraps of data suggest that during this period the Steel Wardens may have sustained heavy casualties in an ill-fated raid on a corsair based of operations, however, attempts to confirm this have been fraught with difficulty. If true, the chapter has certainly recovered well, given that they currently at around 75% strength. Records are scarce, and this is one topic that the chapter seem unwilling to discuss – in stark contrast with most other topics. A log within the Ordos records of the Ordo Nephilium Conclave has been flagged as containing pertinent information, however at the time of writing that log has been indefinitely suppressed.  

 

Anecdotally, the brethren of the chapter refute claims of heavy casualties, with the senior officers and veterans being the most vocal. I was firmly rebuffed when I asked about aid given by the Sons of Medusa, given that they were known to be operating within the system at the same time, however I am willing to put the Wardens' animated responses down to typical Astartes pride. What is known, is that the chapter’s divergence is confirmed to exist after the Nephilim campaign, and that it is at this point that the chapter’s fixation with augmetic enhancement became more readily apparent (see attached comments regarding veterans). 

 

There are some within the Ordo that suggest that this series of events in the chapter’s existence is more than coincidence, especially given the time frame. Certainly, the chapter is surrounded by some… imaginative rumours, pertaining to the diverent chapter structure. The existence of a clan structure, unified by a chapter armoury, is a point that many find more than coincidental. Of course, the very idea that, having stumbled upon the crippled Wardens chapter, that various members of the Sons of Medusa have taken on the identities of the deceased senior leadership of the nascent Steel Wardens, and re-forged the chapter into something more fitting of scions of Manus is, frankly, preposterous, and need not waste our time with further examination. 

 

That said, quite why the chapter is known to refer to itself as the 'Inheritors of Moirae', is perhaps wor-[ERROR_DATA_CORRUPTION] [SPOOL MISSING]

 

 

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Enough of my badly written and incoherent fluff the lore expansions / libellous Inquisitorial rumours for now. Hobby progress! 

 

Work on the replacement / spare captain continues. He needs a fair amount of cleaning up (some of those highlights are a mess), but this is the stage so far, pre-detail work. 

The white helmet is a mixture of lore (TBC) and practice for the veterans - I wasn't sure how well a white helmet would work with grey armour, but I think it looks alright here. Undecided on the choice of green or red for the helmet lenses. 

 

Absolutely no clue how I'll paint the sword - I'm thinking a red / flame design. 

 

 

I also did a bit more work on the dreadnought - I'm still trying to work out what colours will go where. I know the ETB kits get a lot of bad press, but honestly I'm a big fan of the ETB Dread. 15 minutes to clean up and build, compared to the 3 hours it took me to clean up and build my Iron Hands redemptor. 

 

 

 

 

For reasons that I'm sure made sense at the time, I decided to try and get a fade / shade effect on the grey by hand, rather than with an airbrush which would have made considerably more sense. And yes, I may have gone a little over the top with the scratches painted onto the shoulders... 

 

 

Anyway, enough of my rambling for now. Thanks for looking! 

 

 

 

[Ironwrought Huw]

I've been lucky this weekend and managed to get a fair bit of hobby-work done - admittedly most of it terrain and objectives.

 

The Knight Order are slowly coming together - I'm trying to bring in a bit more black and green into them. 

 

 

Doing his best Ferrus Manus impersonation, here is Knight-Sergeant Foss, sporting the Mark of Taelus. 

 

 

+++

 

+++Insignum Astartes: Steel Wardens, “Inheritors of Moirae”- iconography- ‘Mark of Taelus / Scions of Sollex’+++

Though the Wardens were created using the geneseed of the Iron Hands, throughout their brief history accusations have been made that the chapter has been subtly influenced (if not outright subverted) by the Sons of Medusa, themselves the offspring of the Iron Hands.
The iconography displayed here on the tilting shield is perhaps the most visually obvious indicator of the alleged manipulation: the sable black and emerald green being the colours of the Sons of Medusa, whilst the white astral sigil is similar to the icon of the Taelus system - the Sons of Medusa’s home of operations.
 

Of course the very idea that one chapter would parasitically take over another is an absurd (if not outright heretical) idea…

 

+++

 

Terrain, Objectives and oddities. 

 

This is very much new terrain (sorry) for me, as usually I've either improvised or just used the same old terrain I've had for the past 15 years. Yes, it's amazing how many of my battles in the 31st millennium, 41st millennium and my advenutures in The World That Was have taken place in what looks suspiciously like a 19th-20th century western European town or 'Olde-Worlde' taverns... 

 

Let's start with the most... unusual. I made a train. Yes, I saw Duncan's excellent tutorial video the other month showing how to convert a Magnavent kit into a locomotive, I decided to blatantly copy him that it looked like fun and that I'd give it a go. If all else fails, at least the battlefields of the Mylens System will be different. 

 

I made a few changes to the design of mine, opting for 4 wheels rather than 6, adding a rudimentary cab roof, additional cables and wires, and so on. 

 

 

Painting this was fun. I studied a lot of photographs of the little engines used by the National Coal Board, especially in the 1970s-1980s, as I wanted this to look similar: A well-worn machine which has been patched up countless times. The paint is faded, caked in grime and soot, and is flaking off - the smokebox door in particular often seems to suffer from the paint blistering away due to heat, promptly leading to rust starting to form in patches. 

 

It's by no means neat, but I guess it isn't supposed to be. 

 

 

 

 

"For the last time, no, you can't bring it back with us..."

 

Next up, another vehicle. This sort of blurs the lines between Objective / Terrain / Unit, mostly as it's yet another orphaned project. This was my first attempt at weathing using the salt+water technique, and I must say I'm rather happy with it. It was also my first attempt at using Contrast Paints. 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I did purchase a load of WH: Conquest magazines cheaply... 

 

I'm very fond of the pylon models, if only because of the nostalgia they bring up from 4th Edition. If anyone has any suggestions for what I should do with these  - mount each of them on individual bases / mount them all on one large terrain piece - I'd be grateful. 

 

Next up - the museum piece, the dentist's chair and the ammunition stockpile. All very fun little side projects. 

The brass/bronze work has all been done with the new Necron paints. These are fast becoming my go-to metallics, as they are vastly superior to GW's previous brass and bronze paints. 

 

And finally - a real bitzbox monstrosity - a gun turret. I've yet to decide on how to paint it - as you can see it's just grey primer at the moment. Bizarrely fun to make, as aside from the turret and turret ring, the majority of it is scrap plasti-card. 

 

 

Thanks again folks! 

Edited October 29, 2022 by Ironwrought Huw
Amendment

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Fine work on the steam locomotive and the ATV.

[Ironwrought Huw]

It's been a while since I last posted here - happy 2021 everyone! 

 

In the... 4(ish) months since my last post I've continued to work on the chapter - I just haven't had the time or energy to post about it. Work dumped a load of new responsibilities on me, so time/energy has been a bit on the low side. Combine this with a few other issues (9th ed codex, Primaris vs 2 wound marines, and more)  and I lost some of my hobby motivation. As absurd as it may sound, I genuinely had a major internal conflict over whether I'd restrict myself to purely Primaris units or whether I'd take the Primaris models for 2W / truescale marines route. In the end I've settled on purely Primaris rules, with one exception - assault marines. But that's a future project... 

 

The Crusade campaign I'm running, and tthat he Wardens feature in, never really got off the ground due to the constant changing of lockdown restrictions in my part of the UK, although we did manage to get a few games in prior to Tier 3 arriving in September. However - I have managed to get a fair few games in against my dad, a long-time Imperial Guard and SoB/Inq player - it's been nice bringing him back into the hobby, as well as giving both of us some social interaction outside of our respective jobs. 

 

Anyway - I thought I'd start off with an image which largely shows the current state of the Wardens of Clan Vykairs. 6 months work and we have:

 

• Knight Captain Medlock (retired)
• LT Irwell 
• Warden Knight Artificer Calder, current acting Knight Commander
• Warden Archivist Hebble
• Warden Mediciner Foss

 

• Clave Prime (Intercessor x5)
• Clave Secondus (Intercessor x5)
• Clave Tertius (currently WIP - Intercessor x5)

 

• Knight Order 
• Venerable Brother Dreadnought Medlock (go on, guess why...)

 

• Clave Quintus (Hellblaster x5). 

 

 

 

 

Here are two of my favourites - Rab Medlock (complete with the Burning Blade of... ahem, Fire) and Shug Calder. The shading on Calder's legs is a bit rough, but Holy Throne I am so satisfied with it. 

 

 

I'll update the threat later with close-up photos of the units and characters, I currently don't have access to my photo/lighting rig.  

 

One final thing, before I end this update - chapter structure. This is what I've managed to come up with. It's a little overly complex - but that seems fitting for 40K This structure is embarrassingly rough (it's my job to make/use analysis charts) but unfortunately I'm limited to MS Word and Paint on my personal laptop...

 

The base point is that I want something which is a bit of a mixture of the Iron Hands, as per 3rd edition Index Astartes, and the Sons of Medusa as per IA: Badab 2 - which I think I've achieved. 

There are 4 clans, Vykairs (the one I'm working on), Stuhrling, Ahnfeld and Rahsaff. A shiny internet cookie to the first person to work out what the origins for those are. 

Each Clan Company is about 2.5 codex companies strong (roughly), given that they're also responsible for their own recruitment and veterans. 

I'm aware that there's a lot of complex and probably redundant armoury / forge structure, but again, I feel that this is oddly fitting. 

 

 

This is fairly vague and I'm not 100% settled on it - but for now (if anyone was interested), this is roughly how I see the chapter's structure. If anyone has any suggestions/questions then please feel free to send them. 

 

 

For a project which stemmed originally from boredom I'm incredibly happy at how my chapter has progressed. I also feel that my painting has improved which was another reason for wanting to start this off. Safe to say that this project has produced some of the best miniatures I've painted. 

 

Anyway, thanks for reading! 

[Dragonlover]

Are the Clan names football stadiums? I'm basing this purely on Anfield and being pretty sure that Stirling have a team, my football knowledge is basically nonexistent.

 

Loving the background, that little bit of 'well they could be Sons of Medusa if you squint' is really nice.

 

Dragonlover

[Bjorn Firewalker]

A fine army. What is the Chapter symbol? A gear enclosing forked lightning?

[Ironwrought Huw]

Are the Clan names football stadiums? I'm basing this purely on Anfield and being pretty sure that Stirling have a team, my football knowledge is basically nonexistent.

 

Loving the background, that little bit of 'well they could be Sons of Medusa if you squint' is really nice.

 

Dragonlover

 

That wasn't actually my plan - but it made me laugh (my own football knowledge is rather like yours), so thank you :lol:.  Although, if I made a clan called Whulledge, it would work for both football stadiums / locations and my actual naming scheme... 

 

And thank you! I wasn't sure if I was pushing that lore aspect too hard - I want there to be a bit of speculation, so I'm glad that you think it works 

 

A fine army. What is the Chapter symbol? A gear enclosing forked lightning?

 

Thank you Bjorn! The chapter icon is a skull within a gear, the clan company icon is a trident within a gear. Both are from Forge World's Iron Hands legion transfer sheet. 

[Dragonlover]

 

Although, if I made a clan called Whulledge, it would work for both football stadiums / locations and my actual naming scheme... 

 

 

So it's just various northern/Scottish towns then?

 

Dragonlover

[PowerHungryMonkey]

These guys look great. Really nice, crisp paint job and some super cool conversions

[Ryltar Thamior]

Looks pretty great and the conversion-work is tasteful 

I'm interested in what you meant about the necron paints being superior to GW's usual bronze / brass ones - I've had .. various annoyances with the latter myself, and am intrigued by a potential superior alternative

[Ironwrought Huw]

 

 

Although, if I made a clan called Whulledge, it would work for both football stadiums / locations and my actual naming scheme... 

 

 

So it's just various northern/Scottish towns then?

 

Dragonlover

 

 

Old British arms companies/factories - Vickers, Sterling, RSAF, Enfield - but given that special 40k spelling treatment :lol:

 

These guys look great. Really nice, crisp paint job and some super cool conversions

 

Thank you! Much appreicated - I loved the bionics conversions in your IH project. 

 

Looks pretty great and the conversion-work is tasteful 

 

I'm interested in what you meant about the necron paints being superior to GW's usual bronze / brass ones - I've had .. various annoyances with the latter myself, and am intrigued by a potential superior alternative

 

Thanks! 

 

With regards to the necron paints (Runelord Brass, Canoptek Alloy, Cryptek Armourshade) - I've found that their consistency and coverage is much better to the previous Citadel brass / bronze. Runelord allows me to put down a single coating which dries smoothly, and Canoptek is the perfect consistency for highlighting.

However, the shade is pretty rich and bold - I often substitute it for different brown or red shades. 

 

With colours like Hashut Copper, Screaming Bell, Warplock and Sycorax Bronze I've found I either get:

1) a pot where the pigment has split / reacted and consequently the paint needs 30 minutes minutes of vigorous mixing and shaking - and even then the paint comes out lumpy

2) something so thin and runny it's almost useless (regardless of how much mixing and shaking)

3) something with the same consistency as toothpaste, and almost impossible to thin down (with acrylic medium or water). 

 

The necron colours in comparison have been a joy to work with - minimal care needed, beyond an inital shake. 

 

The other thing with Runelord and Canoptek Alloy is that they work really well with other metallic colours and shades. Canoptek Alloy is a great highlight for golds, copper, and (perhaps oddly) leadbelcher. I'd definitely recommend giving them a try.