Armies On Parade: The Iron Tenth

So I went into my local GW recently, to ask if there was any painting competitions coming up soon. I've only entered one before but it was a fun day, some serious talent about! Anyway, all they have on the horizon is Armies On Parade. Perfect! It's just the kick in the arse I need to get a bit of productive hobbying done. I have until the 23rd of October to get together a 2x2 board ready with whatever models on it I like. I'm going to use my Iron Hands, using this deadline to polish off a few things, figure out how to paint the tank, maybe add another character. Also, and in many ways even more important for me, is a bit of pressure and focus on actually building terrain. After two posts here showing off other blogs doing it the right way with stunning boards, it's time to get the proverbial finger out. I've been collecting bits for potential terrain for ages, bottles, containers interesting looking thingys, and now I get to use them. I measured a few of the pieces up and made rough 3D models of them to make a plan of the board. Here's where I got to. Now all I have to do is make it all...

The Iron Tenth - Part 6

Finally back with some models finished!

This is my second tactical squad I've done for my Iron Hands, and they will be the Second Tactical Squad of Clan Sorrgol. These guys are another kitbash extravaganza! Tactical, sternguard, various Forge World kits and I'm sure a few other bitz from the box. I need to revisit these guys, and all the others, to apply the clan markings, that will be a pain...  I took photos of the basing process too, but they turned out dreadful, so I've be trying that again on my next model - another Iron Father.

So lets look at a few more pics.

Assault on Black Reach meets Forgeworld

II painted in the cog: second tactical squad marking 

Brass etch II on forearm

Think the head is from an Ironclad - chain bayonet on the bolter too

Went with a heavy bolter for a change... believe it or not I think it's the first time I've ever painted one! Anyway, hope you like them.

Cheers.

Bionic arm from servitor

Another Ironclad helm and chain bayonet

It's been a bad couple of weeks...

... In real life. All work related, initially just crazy busy, but then last Thursday there was a system failure that, no joke, almost ended the company. We all had to pitch in and try to keep clients happy etc. Late nights, early starts, and frankly I got off easy compared to some of the guys. I don't know how my two bosses didn't have heart attacks, I felt so bad for them Not fun! Anyway over the worst now *touch wood*.

Anyway, as a result I haven'd touched any minis let alone paint one in about 2 weeks. I'm dying to get this squad done, but just to tired right now. Bank holiday weekend coming up though, hope to resume normal broadcasts soon. The pic above is where I'm picking up from. Looking forward to it, and I WILL do a basing tutorial for these guys. 

Cheers

The Iron Tenth - Part 5

Okay, so lesson 1: Working on 3 dreads at once is tough going.


The plan was to use all my from the various kits to make some cool models. I'm pleased with the results for sure, but I'm not convinced they're particularly unique dreadnoughts. Next time I reckon I'll try for one that was a Techmarine/Iron Father in a past life. Anyway, this was a long project. There's a good bit of kit bashing and plasticard work on each, plus magnetised arms, bases and interchangeable stuff. This, plus general real-life things going on made for a long start to end process.

Lesson 2: Working on 3 dreads one by one would have been worse.





Having said all that, I think it was well worth it, and lets face it, if I hadn't done them all together they wouldn't have been done at all! Being able to paint the models in stages, all the base colours, first level highlights, metal etc in steps really sped things up. If I hadn't committed to doing them all together, and not rushing ahead with one model until the stage I was on was done on all of them helped keep me focused. Personally, it was easy to stay motivated on this, where as I reckon if I got one done, then had to start from scratch on the next one.... I think I'd have moved onto another project!

So, here they are anyway, all painted and ready to go. I want to go back and add names to them all, including the contemptor, but I'm going to practise that a lot before I risk ruining these guys! Not sure what I'll be working on next, not dreadnoughts though that's for sure.

Hope you like them.

Cheers

Slow progress, bear with me...

So it's been a kinda slow week hobby wise. Well, at least in terms of this blog... But more on that coming soon.

So here's what's on my workbench (eh... tank box..) at the moment: what looks like a dreadnought graveyard, dude with a sweet bionic arm and some rather garish looking chaps.  Beleive it or not, all of the laborious parts on the dreads are done. The black armour and edging is complete. Just detailing now, and that's what's gonna make then stand out, I hope. More info and updates on these  and everything else coming soon. 

Cheers

The Iron Tenth - Slow Progress

Ok, so it's not been a very productive week, but I finally sat down last night, finished the plasticard detailing on the dreads, and tonight, weather permitting, I'll be priming and starting the paint.

I also got this little dude made. Again, more tentacle maker action, this time, I used plastic freezer bag ties rolled the green stuff around them, and the tentaclized them. This means they're quite flexible when dry and still hold their shape when you move them, and they're magnetic. Hope you like him, more pics below.

Cheers

Where do Iron Hands Names Come From?

Soooo.... progress on my three Iron Hands dreads has slowed a bit, hoping on getting some work on them done this evening, but no new pics to update you with yet. I have, however, been doing a little research on possible names for them, and of course, my Contemptor. Most Space Marine legions seem to have pretty clear cut origins and inspiration, such as Scandinavia and vikings for Space Wolves, Roman/Greek Ultramarines etc.

Iron Hands, to me, don't seem to follow an obvious pattern. Maybe I'm missing something? The Gorgon, Medusa etc (the Primarch's alias and their homeworld) are Greek of course, but Raukaan, Sorrgol etc.. where do these come from? I read somewhere a suggestion of Turkish origin, but not sure. Anyway, I've decided on a different route. I've basically google translated some Iron Hands related words and phrases into latin (Ferrus Mannus is literally 'Iron Hands' in latin), and from there I'm going to spell and adapt them a bit. So here we have the three I've settled on for these walkers.

English: Forge
Latin Translation: Fornax

English: Iron Wrought
Latin Translation: Ferramenta

English: Iron Clad
Latin Translation: Loricatus

English: Iron Flesh
Latin Translation: Ferrum Carnis

Actually painting these will be another story of course, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it!


I'd love a bit of feedback on these folks. Good idea / bad idea? Cool sounding or total crap? Comments people, comments!


Cheers

The Iron Tenth - Part 4.5

So this is a follow up to the previous post. Decided to try to knock all of these out in one go, so it's going to take a bit longer for the final result but we can see progress on all 3! As I mentioned, I'm working with a Venerable Dread, Ironclad, and the one from the AoBR box set. Let's take a look.

First up the AoBR standard dread. Neat little model, slightly smaller than a stock dreadnought but nothing major. There's also a bit of detail lost due to the way it's cast, but again not a huge deal. All of my dreads arms are magnetised and interchangeable, here we've got an assault cannon and missile launcher.



Need to clean up the arm joins, add some more cabling and plasticard details still. Same goes for this next guy.

This is the venerable base model. I've used the cool powerfist from the Ironclad, and you can see some of the cabling detain in the arm join. Again, more fine details to be added to bring up to par with the happy fellow at the bottom of this post.



Finally, this is our friend from the previous post, now with extra plasticard! Pretty pleased with this guy, looking forward to painting him up.



Still wish I could manage a servo arm for one of these, think that would be really nice, but might have to wait for the next one. Thanks for looking, more to come.

Cheers.

The Iron Tenth - Part 4

This is a quick WIP post of what i'm working on right now, a few more dreads. Again, rules and what they'll actually play as are not high on my list of whats important for these guys - just cool models. I basically have an ironclad, venerable and the one from the assault on black reach kit. So I'm trying to mix and match a bit from these and my bitz box to make a few cool looking walkers. So here's the first so far.

The arms will be interchangeable with others, the right arm weapons can just slide in and out of the shoulder which is really handy. I've angle that right shoulder a bit, still need to neaten that up with some cabling and stuff to make it look strong. The bit of brass is from the 40k basing kit which is suitable iron hands-y, and the plasticard arrow is to represent that this guy was a tactical sergeant or something.

The hip was altered slightly by cutting away some of the joint an cables, the I used my trusty tentacle maker to make green stuff replacements, and a couple of others too to add a bit of detail. I'm running out of iron hands brass icons, so might have to freehand the chapter symbol when painting. Haven't decided on the sarcophagus yet either, might swap that. Any thoughts out there on alternative 'faces' for this dread? My time is at a premium at the moment with work and life etc, hopefully I can keep these guys on the move.

Cheers

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...