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