The Iron Tenth - Part 3.5

So here is the finished Contemptor. Might go back to name him, or add some sort of campaign markings maybe. I was pretty concerned about painting him. I wasn't sure how well the painting method I used for the troops would scale up, but I'm pleased enough here. I realised during painting I didn't do a 100% job on cleaning the FW releasing agent from the model. Amature mistake. It was a tiny spot though so I got away with it. I think the missile launcher is pretty cool too.



Not 100% happy with the servo skull, but it was a first attempt. The plain cable is just a paper clip, which attaches to a magnet on the base, and the other coil is a greenstuff cable made using the Tentacle Maker (brilliant investment, much more use of this in the near future). I'll definitely be adding more of these servo skulls across the army, might actually revisit my tactical and sternguard squads and add one or two.



One thing that's new to me on this project is the weathering, and by that I mean the small patches of kinda dust I guess around the ankles of my Iron Hands. I personally find it so scary doing this! You put so much effort into painting the feet and legs, just to wreck them! But I'm gaining confidence in it and I think the results are not bed. For me, the test will be to revisit in a couple of months with fresh eyes and see does it look okay, or did I ruin a perfectly good paint job! Hope you like it. Comments and criticism as always is welcomed.

Cheers

The Iron Tenth - Part 3.0

So this is the second Contemptor I've made, and it wasn't an easier job second time round. My first was a standard one, which I made for my Space Wolves, and I tried to magnetise everything. Literally. Baaaad idea, I think I aged ten years in the process.

For this one, all I did was magnetise the lower parts of the arms for weapon swaps and the base for storage and transport. There were a couple of casting issues, where the resin was so thin that cleaning it just put holes straight through. Luckily this happened in spots where I could easily hide or repair. The worst was the right shoulder which is now covered by the brass cog motif so happy days.

The missile launcher was a case of having a load of suitably chunky bits that I were saving and knew could somehow work with some sort of vehicle conversion. I think its mainly dreadknight and drop pod bits in there.

Just a note, the mid-abdomen section of this had some cabling which looks pretty cool, but unfortunately limits how you can position it in relation to the legs. Found this out a bit late in the game and had to break some glued joints to rescue the pose.

Anyway, below are some WIP shots, check back again for it all painted up. 

Cheers

 
 

The Iron Tenth - Part 2

So here's some Sternguard Vets, following on from my previous Tactical Squad Post. The style, as you can see, has largely followed on from the other guys. I've used a few more of the MkIII armour pieces here to mark out their 'veteran' aspect. I also have the forge world phobos pattern bolters here. My thoughts were to use these with the sternguard to represent the special ammo. To be honest, if I ever game with this army I reckon I'll roll these guys into my tactical troops, as the elites will likely be all Dreadnoughts! Just as an aside - I love the style of the MkIII armour and it's perfect for Iron Hands in particular, but in terms of the variations and poseable aspect of the models, it's nothing compared to standard GW kits like the tactical or sternguard boxes. The way the torsos sit on the legs due to the skirt is quite restrictive, as are the arm positions. I think they're great to mix in with other models like this, but I reckon an army of them could quickly start to all look the same.

For me the ones worth a mention are the squad leader and heavy flamer. The flamer itself is kind of fixed in position because of the fuel cables, and I think in spite of that i got a pretty dynamic pose out of it. The squad leader's bionic leg was pretty fiddly but pretty pleased with the result too. Have to say though, this dude here is my favourite, cant decide why.

So I hope you like them, and check back next time for some WIP of something a little bigger...

The Iron Tenth - Part 1

Power armour is such an iconic part of 40k, and for good reason. It's just totally cool. When Space Marines got their new codex and those amazing new plastic kits, it was definitely a perfect excuse to start up a new project. I wanted a new challenge with this army, and not to worry about gaming or legality in anyway (I got a bit bogged down in optimizing my space wolves). I also wanted to learn some new skills too along the way. But what chapter to pick?

So many great Chapers to choose from: I loved Salamanders, but I'm pretty comfortable with green from my orks. Loved Imperial fists too, but yellow is a colour that I'm also pretty happy with from (bad moon) orks and space wolf/iron warrior markings. White Scars - these were a close contender! They look great, and white on that scale would be a huge challenge, so that was a close second. Iron Hands won out though.

So why black over white? Frankly Iron Hands won out for one reason - conversion opportunities! Bionics, servo arms, bits of tech-y looking crap - it's gonna be fun! These guys are just badass. All the gear, the dour attitudes, 'flesh is weak' and all that... awesome. I'm crap at painting black too, so big challenge to learn and improve. Being able to do it on a relatively large scale would be another objective - to many times I've bitten off more than I can chew in terms of keeping it consistent when scaled up. I have lofty ambitions to do up an armies on parade base for these, but baby steps...

So here's the first squad I worked on for the project - a tactical squad. Bits here come from the new tactical kit, as well as the new sternguard, some FW shoulder pads, Mk III armour and brass etching. Still have lots of brass bits, including clan markings, so may go back and add these if I decide it's one clan all the way. The painting is based on a tutorial from Tail of Painters - brilliant blog - but with a few changes that work for me. That's what these blogs are all about, taking inspiration or guidance and making it fit your own style. The bases went through several versions, but pretty happy with what I've settled on here - iron rich rust world, with bits of broken infrastructure, tiles and scrap metal. Tried to model them with a lot of 'neutral' poses. I've an idea in my head about them scouring some ancient crash site for lost artifacts, with no enemies present but still on high alert.

There are a couple of small conversions if you can spot them. The beaky guy has a guitar string bionic forearm. There's a baldy dude with more string and bits-o-crap on his right leg He was actually the first model, bit of a guinea pig for painting. I also magnetised the special weapon options and the banner is also magnetic. So there you have the first squad, stay tuned for much more of these guys.
Cheers.

Love this head for the Tenth Legion

Brother Guinea Pig - Test for Black, Bionics and Basing

Magnets for Banner and Special Weapons

Scanning and stuff

Internet - Welcome to Victory Painting!

Cutting out that chest piece sucked

I'm a 40k hobbyist. Well, a GW hobbyist really, right now though 40k is pretty much where it's at personally. Gaming is great, super-fun in fact, particularly when you're playing with a group of great people, but for me, painting, modelling and converting is what it's all about. It's always been a pretty much solitary pass time for me, but over the last while, particularly since getting involved in my local gaming group and becoming a contributor to r/warhammer, I've started seeing the hobby as more of a community affair.

Techmarine servo arm

So after much deliberation (read: procrastination), I've finally set up a blog. I've wanted to do this for close to a year now and, finally, I've bitten the bullet. Why? Well, I think it's a good and worthwhile thing to do. There are several blogs I keep tabs on, my daily websites I flick to to check for any cool little updates, new inspiring updates, or full blown epic articles on fluff, tactics and the community. I have gained so much from these blogs that I've long felt almost a kind of obligation to 'give something back'. I know, I know, we're not talking about donating blood or feeding the homeless here, but I think and hope people who read this kinda know what I mean.

FW brass etching

So here we are, Victory Painting, were I'll be keeping you up to date with my hobby experiences for the foreseeable future or until I just stop posting... hopefully that wont happen. I'm sure my good hobby buddies will keep me motivated, hopefully they might even post a few guest articles, and the more feedback I get the more I'll be pushed to keep it up (I'm a sucker for extrinsic motivation).

Tentacle Maker in action!

The type of stuff I hope to post are WIPs of project I'm working on, as well as the finished models of course. Maybe some images of my back catalogue, some of the stuff at the back of my wardrobe that would probably never see the light of day. A couple of tutorials - I'm no golden demon winner, but I 100% believe everyone and anyone can pick up something useful by seeing how others work. I've got a bit of an idea in the back of my head that I'd love to be able to pay for (most of) my hobby through commission work, maybe we'll raise that issue again in the future if anyone actually ever sees this blog (let alone likes it!).

Just needs basing

So there's my introduction, thanks for reading and I hope you make it back for some more of whatever I feel like posting! Just to kick off with some pics, here's one of my recent models that I have to say I'm pretty pleased with - my first Iron Hands Techmarine. If gaming I guess he can be run as a Librarian. He's going to be the first of, I hope, many Iron Hands Character conversions. Comments and criticisms welcome of course, not just on the pics but everything else too.

Cheers,
v1ct0ry88