Warsmith Kravek Morne + Iron Warriors Upgrades

[calgar101]

Quite liking Kravek and the helmeted heads too. I feel like both the Warsmith and heads can be used in force of Astartes on the fringes of the Imperium or renegades. 

I'm going to make a Master of the Forge with him and sprinkle those heads on some Sternguard. 

[Xenith]

Big fan of this guy, not 100% on the heads, but I see they're trying to make them look like perturabo with the cables and data ports.

[01RTB01]

Named or not it's the first character for 40k that I've seen for a while with wow factor. (Huron's doctor notwithstanding).

[Cpt_Reaper]

Conveniently for me his wargear nearly matches the Saturnine Praetor. I was planning on getting one to run as an Abaddon proxy for my own Iron Warriors, but if this guy is half decent I'll use his rules.

[LSM]

Morne is very cool. The Indomitus with Cataphractii pads is a nice look.

 

I've been a proponent of the Undivided Legions getting new characters (rather than Black Library ones) in order to allow the sculptors the freedom to get nuts, so a new named Warsmith gets thumbs up from me. I like that he's "recent"; it's nice for 40k characters to be 40k characters, and I'm not a fan of everything CSM being anchored in the Horus Heresy. (Emperor's Children fans will remember my worry about the potential "pre-Heresy-fication" of the Third in 40k.)

 

Which... brings me to the crushing disappointment of the Upgrades. These are MKII Horus Heresy upgrades - hell, you could use those heads and weapons for Imperial Fists or Iron Hands no problem. There is nothing Chaos about them - and while (mostly) the Iron Warriors don't worship the Chaos gods, they sure as hell are "slaves to darkness". Daemon-fueled cybernetics, cog-trim, viking horns, tusks, gun barrels emerging from daemon skulls, spikes. They might refuse to talk the talk, but they definitely walk the walk.

 

And... I realise that there's a degree of subjectivity to that sort of thing. Lord knows, I've seen enough posts in the Iron Warriors fandom along the lines of "I want to start a 40k IW army, what bits should I use to make them look more like IW by not including horns or any other Chaos iconography 'cause I know IW don't do that". So this release is definitely feeding some people's preferences.

 

But 4 plain shoulder pads? 

 

Who... what... 

 

Why would anyone decide that what an Iron Warriors Upgrades release (for Legionaries, Chosen, and Terminators) needs is four plain shoulder pads. An actual Daemon Hammer, a Lascannon or Autocannon (going to assume those options will be gone in 11th), an arm pointing with a Servo-Arm backpack (ie. "Heavy Melee Weapon"), some bits for guys beginning to lose themselves to Obliteration, bionic arms, an up-armoured Iron Warriors Aspiring Champion chest plate, custom Terminator heads, etc, etc. No: four plain shoulder pads.

 

Ugh.

 

 

 

[Rain]

I think what draws a lot of Iron Warrior fans is specifically that they are cybernetic, and generally not mutated or chaotic. While I’m sure that varies warband to warband, if people really want to play a highly mutated and chaotic CSM army they have Word Bearers and Black Legion. Iron Warriors are the “autistic tech geek gets to be an antihero badass” fantasy, which is, let’s just say understandable in its appeal to a certain portion of the 40k fanbase.

 

Oh, and the plain shoulderpads are supposed to be painted in hazard stripes. The iconic IW design element. All of that said, I like the Corsairs models more. The Corsairs are all home runs other than the Wallace and Gromit looking Huron face.

[LSM]

1 hour ago, Rain said:

Oh, and the plain shoulderpads are supposed to be painted in hazard stripes. 

 

The Legionaries kit has 10 plain shoulder pads already. (5 of them have little teeth, I guess, if someone hates even the smallest thing.) It also wouldn't have hurt to have sculpted hazard stripes - it's not like we make Thousand Sons players paint their own.

 

When I think Iron Warriors, the Obliterator Cult is one of the things foremost in my mind. (Alongside large amounts of corrupted vehicles, and daemonically-empowered cybernetics.) Then again, I also don't find them anti-heroic or badass; I like them for being paranoid, self-deluded, cruel monsters.

 

Edited January 27 by LSM

[Antarius]

Yeah, the lack of sculpted hazard stripes is weird; I mean that would seem like a complete no-brainer.

Apart from that, while the Iron Warrior aesthetic has always been somewhat less chaotic in the sense of overt mutations, I do think this upgrade kit represents if not an outright shift then at least a nudge in the direction of a less chaotic, more "late heresy" look. Maybe because they want to have the upgrade kit appeal to both 40K and HH players, maybe because they simply want to play up that angle a bit more for the IW (but I guess it could also be argued that there are still plenty of chaotic options in the Legionaire kit, so those bits simply aren't what's needed in an IW upgrade kit).

[TwinOcted]

Yeah, I really like these upgrades.  More so, I like what this release could foreshadow, an upgrade set & character for each of the unaligned legions has been sorely needed for a long time now.

I mean, if an upgrade set for Raven Guard (for example) can be justified why not Word Bearers?

Edited January 27 by TwinOcted
Toddler got to the computer.

[Antarius]

12 minutes ago, TwinOcted said:

Yeah, I really like these upgrades.  More so, I like what this release could foreshadow, an upgrade set & character for each of the unaligned legions has been sorely needed for a long time now.

I mean, if an upgrade set for Raven Guard (for example) can be justified why not Word Bearers?

One would also think (good) upgrade kits would be a profitable product that's relatively easy to make (at least on the design front), as people with a legion-based army would likely buy several. It's also an area where I think 3D printing is both encroaching on the market as well as not quite there yet (it's the best option in many ways, as things stand currently, but the shoulder pad shape doesn't seem to lend itself well to printing - at least the ones I've seen have been ok, but not perfect and the print lines are very annoying), so it would make sense to get their own versions out there.

[Corswain]

3 hours ago, Antarius said:

Maybe because they want to have the upgrade kit appeal to both 40K and HH players

 

Whether intentional or not I do think these work for both. They'd look great mixed into MKII or III kits and if I ever expand my IVth Legion I will definitely grab some.

 

Rumours are for more Iron Warriors kits coming so I am very much looking forward to seeing what's next.

[LSM]

8 hours ago, Antarius said:

...Maybe because they want to have the upgrade kit appeal to both 40K and HH players, maybe because they simply want to play up that angle a bit more for the IW (but I guess it could also be argued that there are still plenty of chaotic options in the Legionaire kit, so those bits simply aren't what's needed in an IW upgrade kit).

 

If the either is the idea, then I think that's a real shame.

 

The Horus Heresy is a prequel. It shows what the Traitor Legions were like when they had only taken the first steps into a free galaxy - a galaxy where an Iron Warrior was not bound by petty Imperial notions like "don't put horns on your helmet"! 

 

But also other petty notions, like don't do sacrifices to ensure that your warmachines are perpetually lubricated with the blood of innocents, and don't sorcerously bind creatures of the warp into that targeting array mounted in your eye socket, and don't become so obsessed with gunsgunsguns that your flesh runs with metal and starts involuntarily sprouting large cannons in inconvenient places.

 

What would a former Techmarine do, if the (already quite inhumane) shackles of Mars were broken? If their engineering skill was combined with the power of Chaos? If every "Iron Within, Iron Without" jobber was allowed to imagine themselves a grand tyrant, tearing apart the defenses of the hated Imperium and in the wreckage building bizarre and grotesque fortresses with geometry-breaking walls topped by living sentry guns and surrounded by sentient razor wire? These are the things that the 40k Iron Warriors are able to explore - and if a player (entirely reasonably) prefers a Heresy-style army (but doesn't want to actually play Horus Heresy) then that game already provides a ready source of bits for them to kitbash with.

 

//

 

I think any 40k Traitor Legion Upgrades that are easily usable in 30k have missed their niche.

 

Edited January 27 by LSM

[Antarius]

Normally I would agree, but I’m not sure about IW specifically (keeping in mind that the upgrades still go on either a HH or a chaos marine kit, which means a lot for the final result). I think it’s a bit of a missed opportunity that there are no bionics or similar “tech-mutations”, but I think it’s fair to say that generally speaking, IW are the least outwardly chaotic looking of the legions in 40k, so the upgrade kit probably reflects that by being less chaotic looking.

 

I could definitely see them on a late-heresy army, though, and I don’t think that’s a problem at all. Similarly, I could see using a lot of chaos bits for a late-heresy Word Bearers army, as many of them got to a more chaotic point a lot faster. So, while I agree that the line between HH and 40k shouldn’t be blurred too much, I still think there are several hobby projects where it would make perfect sense.

[Casual Heresy]

I like the character and the upgrade sprue is fine, but the reveal confirms for me that I likely won't be buying them.

 

Hobby budget is a little limited this year, so I said to myself that I could only pick one of the rumoured Chaos releases to pursue. And I'm seeing more that I want to build and play with in the Red Corsairs than with the new Iron Warriors stuff. There could be more to be revealed but going to follow my gut on this one and dedicate my service and the appropriate kits from the pile of potential to Huron and Co.

 

It's still really nice to see actual Iron Warriors releases in 40k. I know my best mate will be very happy as his Chaos army is Iron Warrior themed and it straddles both 40k and HH.

 

[hd3]

Glad to see iron Warriors finally get a named character for 40k. Hopefully word bearers, Alpha Legion and night lords soon follow suit. I've always said all the undivided legions should have one named character and one special unit each. Dunno why they didn't use honsou though...

[The Praetorian of Inwit]

The Warsmith is a pretty cool model. 

 

The upgrade sprue is fine but seems very low effort. 

[LSM]

Thought/request: anyone who's a wiz with photoshop whipped up an image of how the Reavers would look with the IW Upgrade heads on them?

 

//

 

Additional thought: I wonder if a production manager on the Specialist Games side of the wall just marched outside and threw a bunch of 'The Horus Heresy: Iron Warrior MkIII Upgrades' moulds into a dumpster.

 

Alternative thought: 'The Horus Heresy: Iron Warrior MkIII Upgrades' get previewed in a months time, and they have horned helmets.

 

Edited January 27 by LSM

[Jings]

On 1/26/2026 at 2:41 PM, Jukkiz said:

Riiiight... Reddit lingo is here too.

Anyways, i rather not everything looking too clean or Iron warriors being chaos version of ultramarines in the future. 

 

Their whole deal is being among the least Chaotically corrupted Traitor Legion while also operating somewhat similar to how they did as a Legion. They traditionally chop off mutations and replace them with bionics. 

 

The only thing missing is horns which, if that's you're issue here, we are are in agreement.

Edited January 30 by Dr_Ruminahui
Removed doubled material

[LSM]

1 hour ago, Jings said:

Their whole deal is being among the least Chaotically corrupted Traitor Legion while also operating somewhat similar to how they did as a Legion. They traditionally chop off mutations and replace them with bionics. 

 

Daemon-bionics!

 

"Iron Warriors armies may not include any Daemons apart from Daemon Princes and Possessed Chaos Space Marines (although their Possessed are unusual in that they harness bound Daemonic energies to power an array of cybernetic enhancements)." - Codex: Chaos Space Marines (2002)

 

"A core of the Legion retain something of their former hierarchy, divided across huge Grand Companies that each draw upon countless batteries of artillery, swarms of clanking Daemon Engines and massed squadrons of corrupted battle tanks. They are commanded by champions using archaic titles such as Warsmith, Cannonmaster and Arkitheurge, who often bear daemonically-infused bionic augmentations redolent of the twisted, mechanical appendages of Obliterators. Numerous more autonomous warbands reave solely for their own selfish desires." - Codex: Chaos Space Marines (2022)

[roryokane]

I like the slightly mish-mashed terminator armour on the lord. I think it's a really good model.

I am, like everyone else, underwhelmed by the upgrade sprue, but feel the helmets are very likely to find their way into people's HH era armies (and the hammer and powerfist too, because why not?) - but the blank shoulderpads are just taking the mick.

[siegfriedfr]

Kraven's design looks good, and a clear "evolution" of the 30k Warsmith.

His pose however is not great... he looks like he is about to stumble.

 

The helmets are straight up inferior to their 30k counterparts.

Shoulderpads are great.

Lack of weapons : it would have been great it we could have at least upgraded the whole chosen kit with hammers and shields.

That's the problem with those upgrade sprues : by trying to cram everything into one product, it ends up being underwhelming.

Edited January 27 by siegfriedfr

[sitnam]

7 minutes ago, siegfriedfr said:

That's the problem with those upgrade sprues : by trying to cram everything into one product, it ends up being underwhelming.

 

I don't think the problem here is that they tried to cram to much, but rather they crammed the wrong things. As @LSM pointed out what's the purpose of four blank shoulder pads when the existing Legionnaire kit already has blank shoulder pads.

[Jings]

3 hours ago, LSM said:

 

Daemon-bionics!

 

"Iron Warriors armies may not include any Daemons apart from Daemon Princes and Possessed Chaos Space Marines (although their Possessed are unusual in that they harness bound Daemonic energies to power an array of cybernetic enhancements)." - Codex: Chaos Space Marines (2002)

 

"A core of the Legion retain something of their former hierarchy, divided across huge Grand Companies that each draw upon countless batteries of artillery, swarms of clanking Daemon Engines and massed squadrons of corrupted battle tanks. They are commanded by champions using archaic titles such as Warsmith, Cannonmaster and Arkitheurge, who often bear daemonically-infused bionic augmentations redolent of the twisted, mechanical appendages of Obliterators. Numerous more autonomous warbands reave solely for their own selfish desires." - Codex: Chaos Space Marines (2022)

 

And I wouldn't have'em any other way! No need for a tentacle when you can put a daemon in a gun and shoot it!

[jaxom]

22 hours ago, LSM said:

 

"A core of the Legion retain something of their former hierarchy, divided across huge Grand Companies that each draw upon countless batteries of artillery, swarms of clanking Daemon Engines and massed squadrons of corrupted battle tanks. They are commanded by champions using archaic titles such as Warsmith, Cannonmaster and Arkitheurge, who often bear daemonically-infused bionic augmentations redolent of the twisted, mechanical appendages of Obliterators. Numerous more autonomous warbands reave solely for their own selfish desires." - Codex: Chaos Space Marines (2022)

^This. IW exist on a spectrum much broader than any other Traitor Legion. Some IW warbands are indistinguishable from a stereotypical Heretic Astartes warband. Some embrace a cult to the point they’re indistinguishable from a C:WE or C:EC or have a lot of those units (eg Kroeger’s warband or IW sonic artillery themed warband). Then you’ve got the ones who subjugate demons into tech but otherwise act and relatively look like the IVth Legion back in the Scouring.

 

[Teetengee]

I definitely would have hoped for more bionics in the iron warriors upgrade sprue, and I wonder how much the new model design ethos (less ability to mix bits between mini without more work) contributes to the difficulty in making those bionics actually work as an upgrade.

THOUGH. If we get a suitable iron hands upgrade pack this year, one which could be combined with either the legionnaire or loyalist (or likely the corsairs) kits, then that could cover the gap nicely.

Edited January 30 by Teetengee