Fresh Blood for the Long War

[spiros14]

Thank you all very much for the compliments, and remember, TrawlingCleaner, the Iron Warriors helped pull off the greatest sneaky trick of all at Istvaan V - how any of them managed to get through it without profusely giggling to themselves at their own deception. 

 

I managed to get the last three members of my combat squad completed today. I went with a more natural skin colour for my melta-gun wielder, and I started adding hazard stripes to the round mark 7 kneepads, a practice I think I'll continue.

 

 

This completes my ten-man combat squad, who are eager to start chainswording the enemy to oblivion. 

 

For now, I'll be taking a break from painting infantry squads, and will be putting a lot of my effort into getting the venomcrawler painted next, as well as getting my Forgefiend built up.

 

+Spiros14; Aspiring Champion+

[Dr_Ruminahui]

They are looking great.

 

I agree about continuing to put the stripes on the knee pads - it looks really good.  I'm impressed how straight and consistent you've gotten them.

[Xenith]

Lovely dark Iron there, and they're based really well! 

[spiros14]

Thank you, The stripes are fairly difficult, but I've attributed their success to the fact that it's only small pieces of the armour I'm painting, I actually had a fair bit of difficulty painting the stripes on my venomcrawler, causing me to stop and restart a number of times.

I tend to use a few different texture paints on all of my bases, as I find that it adds a lot of colour and texture to it, and for the Iron Warriors I tried to get the bases to be reminiscent of a trench, so it has a dark brown at the bottom, and typically two lighter brown shelves to the side, followed up with some grey drops here and there to represent rocks.

 

I completed the venomcrawler last night, and am pleased to show the finished result! I am happy with how it has turned out, and it has certainly given me a lot of confidence for further vehicles (daemonically forged or otherwise)

 

This also marks the completion of the Start Collecting kit, which is a milestone in its own right. I found out the other week that this set has become unavailable online (no doubt to make room for the new box coming soon), so I feel lucky to have grabbed the kit when I did. 

 

My big game planning continues apace, I've written a narrative to fight over, I just need to write the actual scenario! I've also been able to mask the general points cost of the thing by privately messaging the participants over what size forces they can bring. So far, no one has asked what I'm bringing, but as we all know, Spiros14 always takes Blood Angels.

 

I shall be the architect of the Imperium's destruction!

+Spiros14; Aspiring Champion+

[spiros14]

Today's weather has been kind of miserable, so I focussed on getting the models from the Eldritch Omens boxset all built ready to be sprayed. While I will still be painting these one unit at a time (Warpsmith, then Chosen, then Forgefiend) I do try to get all of my stuff sprayed and undercoated when I can.

 

In the end, I went for a chosen squad armed with two combi-meltas, two plasma pistols, and an axe, fist, and mace, with the general idea that this squad should be able to jump out of a vehicle close to an enemy transport, turn it into slag with the meltaguns, then beat up any elite infantry that may have been hiding in there. I do like these models very much, and I look forward to painting them up and having them hang around my Chaos Lord as a sort of bodyguard.

 

The biggest thing I like about the models when I first saw them were the "holstered" weapon options you could put on the backpack. It's something of a rarity with astartes models, and I think it lends the model a "well travelled" look to it. Unfortunately, I did not realise at the time that each of these weapons are designed to only attach onto a certain backpack each, rather than being a universal fit, so my plan to give holstered chainswords to the two combi-melta guys and holstered boltguns to the plasma pistol guys were dashed, and I was only able to do that with the one model. What I may do now is keep hold of these weapons and try and model a terrain feature or objective marker to look like a weapons rack or something, we'll see.

 

Hopefully I'll get some nice weather in the coming days so I can get all of this sprayed and begin painting! Until then!

+Spiros14; Aspiring Champion+

[WarriorFish]

You're on a roll, keep the progress coming :tu:

[TrawlingCleaner]

Great updates Spiros! A great milestone to have the whole SC box done too, the Venomcrawler is a stand out and it's stripes are so clean!

I'm looking forward to seeing the Eldritch Omens box done

[spiros14]

Thank you. I have the warpsmith strapped to a painting handle at present - so I hope you will not have to wait long before the Eldritch Omens box is complete.

In the meantime, I thought I would show the mission I will be playing during an upcoming apocalypse game in June. I had written the scenario with both the Iron Warriors, and my group's upcoming campaign in the Nachmund Gauntlet in mind. 

 

+MISSION BRIEF+

Viridian Manor

Commissioned prior to the great rifts emergence by Rogue Trader Akia-Diaz as both research base and holiday home, Viridian Manor is a pinnacle of engineering, and one of the better forms of architecture found upon Vigilus, even against the noble spires of Mortwald hivesprawl.

It’s manse design allows for all the comfort a powerful viscount could ever want during a weekend break, and is fitted with a pool whose waters come not from the questionable Oteck resevoirs, but from shipments of pure ice taken from Kaelec’s Bane. For defence (for even Rogue Traders have their spiteful rivals), Viridian Manor has a well-stocked bunker, and a void shield of similar design to the great Hivesprawls themselves. As an extra measure, a small town to house the dynasty’s arms men was in the progress of being built shortly before the war of beasts, known as Ciudadde Akia-Diaz

The biggest wonder of Viridian Manor is not the manse itself, however, but in fact the grounds. Genetically bred by Akia-Diaz’ pet explorator as part of a larger experiment, a forest of revenant trees graces the lands owned by the Rogue Trader. Though incredibly difficult to cut and slow to grow, the plant life is able to thrive even in Vigilus’ desert, and is predicted to turn the barren soil into fertile grounds over the course of three centuries. Should this experiment be a success, Akia-Diaz has several contracts in place to distribute it to many of the Imperium’s blighted worlds, including more famed locals like Baal Primus.

 

Upon learning of the brilliance that was Viridian Manor, honoured Captain Fane of the Imperial Fists fifth company was reported to have said “It needs to burn – all of it.” 

 

In an attempt to dodge building and planning tax, Viridian Manor had been built outside of Mortwald Hivesprawl’s fortwall, but still inside the void shield matrix the hivesprawl had been covered in, allowing for what was considered the best defence at a fraction of the cost. When the Mortwald shield went down, however, Viridian manor became a dangerous liability to the Imperial war effort defending the hivesprawl’s fortwall – while the outside desert provided nowhere to hide for an invading ground army charging the gates, the Manor’s revenant tree forest would provide enough cover for anything smaller than a super-heavy vehicle.

 

It was not long before the forces of Chaos, under orders from Abaddon to take the hivesprawl at all cost, pooled their resources together to attack the fortwall through Viridian manor. Imperial command sent defenders to the area, hoping to push back long enough for the manor’s field to be taken down, and the area to bombarded from orbit to rid Mortwald of the unnecessary cover.

 

+MISSION MAP+

 

+MISSION RULES+

 

[spiros14]

I'm happy to report that I can end this month with one finished Warpsmith ready to stick it to the Imperium!

I had a lot of fun painting this model. As I said previously, I like the cybernetic eyes, but I also love how the mechatendrils make a cape for him, and give him a very "doc ock" look. 

I decided to go all out with the yellow and black stripes on this model, getting it on both legs and a shoulder pad. I also had some fun getting a power field effect on the hammer head, which was acheived through gradual contrast layers and traditional layer paint highlights.

 

To add some more yellow onto the model, I also adorned the warpsmith's base with a loyalist helmet found in the bits box. I was a little disheartened to hear that my local fists player was unable to make my big game (and worse, because of our work shift schedules, another Saturday game opportunity won't strike until August), which is a real pity, because he is a great player to have around, but I'm hopeful that, after getting word that I'm running an Iron warriors army, he will be eager for a one-on-one game.

 

I now have the chosen sitting on my desk, ready to get painted, These models are very well detailed, and when I get some progress on them done I'll happily wax lyrical about the design, but because of that, I think I will be doing the unit at a slower, one or two models at a time, kind of pace.

 

Until next time, brothers!

+Spiros14; Aspiring Champion+

[Kythnos]

That is an awesome-looking Warpsmith! I am still holding off building mine until the codex drops, but the more I see of the hammer, the more I get the urge to build him with that weapon.

[spiros14]

Hello again brothers!

I have been busy this last month while the B&C has been updating (I am looking forward to updating my profile with a shiny new cover picture!), all in preparation for my apocalypse scenario.

To continue from my last post, I got the chosen painted and based. I do like the look of these models. I think the design team has taken a similar approach with them as with the loyalist Sternguard and Vanguard vets, in that these models are decorated much more heavily than a standard Chaos Space Marine sergeant, with more trim around the arm cuffs and butt plate, as well as a fancier loincloth and a bunch of gribbly bits on the backpack and shin plates. 

My intention for this apocalypse game was as an introduction to the new codex, but to my horror the release of the book is in fact AFTER the game, meaning that this game will be a farewell to the old codex instead. To add salt to the wound, the codex, start collecting box, dice, and cards are all for pre-order ON THE DAY OF THE GAME! 

This is a setback to my plans, as I had wanted to get the upcoming start collecting boxset to bring my legionaire count from 20 to 30 models. I was able to work around this by fishing a much older chaos space marine box (it was part of a kill team project that was scrapped due to a lack of interest for the game by the group) and quickly building and painting a squad. I won't make any phoney excuses for this squad, they were built and painted in a hurry, and will be quickly replaced and shelved after this game. I may revisit them at a later date, and use them fleetingly in large games, or as sentries in open play games.

To help with the scenario, I invested in a second unit of Chaos Terminators, all the better to teleport behind enemy lines and shoot up the loyalists while the troops march forward onto the objective markers. 

My final bit of my army for this game are the vehicles! I ordered two of the new Deimos-patter rhinos, and I must say, it is an excellent kit. The top plate is split up into five pieces, which makes it so much easier to glue together, and the weapon options are a step up on the old kits - you can finally make a rhino with double storm-bolters! I'm also a little intrigued by the sprue design. The kit is designed so you can build most of the rhino on one sprue, with another holding the front plate, side doors, top hatch, and side steps. This to me suggests that we will be getting more plastic deimos kits that use sprue 1 as a base, and a second sprue to hold the vindicator, predator, whirlwind, and razorback sprues.

Anyhow, I managed to build and spray two of these rhinos this week, including one with a set of Iron Warrior doors (only my commander gets personalised sigils on his vehicle, the rank and file must make do with basic plate). I won't go any further than that until after the game, however.

Finally, my forgefiend has only just come off of the assembly line, ready to gun down those loyalist dogs! My game is set for tomorrow, and I will be milking this for all that it is worth, with a pub breakfast with my fellow players before the game. Those corpse worshipping fools have little idea of the trouble about to head their way. I shall be taking as many pictures of my glorious crushing of the imperial dogs this day, both to gloat over my victory, and to goad my Imperial Fist playing friend (who was sadly not available) into assaulting me.

 

Ruinous Powers! Witness Me! Iron Within! Iron Without!
+Spiros14; Exhalted Champion+

 

*edit-inserted picture of forgefiend*

Edited June 24, 2022 by spiros14

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Nice work!  Your chosen look great.

And I understand that you wanted to be able to use the new codex for your appocalypse game, but its probably for the better that you can't - a huge game is hardly the place to be trying out new and unfamiliar rules.

[TrawlingCleaner]

A very hearty increase to your Iron Warrior force, really amazing stuff! The chosen look fantastic as do the new Termies! I'm looking forward to the Rhinos