Heresy Era Iron Hands - Veterans Painted, and something unexpected...

I hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year! It's been rather busy on the Real Life(tm) front, back to long hours at work for quarter end and year end fun. Woo. That doesn't mean there's been no hobby time, though - for as of the post, everything that was purchased and planned for the Iron Hands has now been painted! The last unit that was waiting in the wings was the Veteran squad:

They're designed to take advantage of the Tank Hunters upgrade, and are armed with a trio of melta weapons and a thunder hammer to help pick off those pesky vehicles. As befitting their veteran state, they all use the Iron Hands legionaries models which are chock full of cog tooth icons and bionics!

With those out of the way, I really wanted to just paint something for fun, and my eye fell on a trio of minis I'd purchased from Victoria Lamb miniatures which have been waiting to spring forth and shout... Well, you know. Heh. I need to go back in and clean up the faces a bit it seems. Amazing how taking pics shows up all the little screw-ups, eh?

Next up are some really colorful minis to counteract the months of black and iron we've been slogging through!

Heresy Era Iron Hands - Caestus painted

Nearly at the finishing line now - the last of the transports was completed over the weekend in the form of a Caestus Assault Ram!

It's a big ol' brick of resin, and it balances precariously on the flight stand. I truly have a fear of it tipping over and mashing flat any miniatures it may fall upon! While it did take a fair bit of hot water bending to get the front assault booms straight and assembled, it was overall a snap to build. It really has a heavy, meanacing look to it - rather suitable for an assault craft!

  

I used some Iron Hands brass etchings on the tops of the booms and on the sides, but otherwise went fairly minimalist with the paint scheme as befitting the Legion. I did manage to miss one of the aquilas (right on the freakin' middle of the cockpit) which was annoying - generally speaking during the heresy only the Custodes and the Emperor's Children bore the aquila. Ah well, just left it back to de-emphasize it. I do think that I need to add a little cogtooth pattern on it somewhere, perhaps on the wings?

To facilitate storage and transport, the wings are attached via a combination of magnets and pins - the magnets by themselves didn't prove strong enough, and the pins help hold everything straight and level.

With that, there's just one unit of Veterans left to be painted prior to the Heresy Event Weekend in mid-January! ...But there's likely a few more units to be added to the army once I get on the other side of that.

Hope you all have a great New Year, and we'll see you again in 2014!

Heresy Era Iron Hands - Army Pic Ahoy!

A very [insert your preferred festive greeting] to you all! Hope that as the year draws to a close, all of you lovely readers out there are warm, safe and happy!

I've had a few days off from work (or as near to a day off as I can actually get) and in between doing some last minute shopping and whatnot I pulled out all of the Iron Hands that have been painted so far, and took some time to update the painting chart.

I didn't realize quite how much infantry there was until I laid it all out! Big units seem to be the order of the day in 30k, with the weapons available, casualties come fast and furious. I avoided the lighter transport vehicles for that very reason, the two tactical squads are carried to battle in Land Raiders instead! The Sicarans are designed to take care of the massed enemy infantry, and should be able to knock out any skimmers and light vehicles. A pair of Contemptors (one Mortis with the Kheres cannons and one 'vanilla' with Lascannon and Powerfist) were thematically appropriate, as the Iron Hands are known to utilize them heavily. 

The Iron Father and the Terminators are slated to get a Caestus to transport them around, but for now will be relying on the 2-in-6 chance of the warlord trait providing them Deep Strike. Most terminators in the heresy-era ruleset do not get the Deep Strike special rule as standard, which came as a surprise. The army also includes a 20-man unit of quasi assault marines (one of the tac squad options is to replace their bolter with a close combat weapon for free), who are joined by an Apothecary to help keep 'em in the game with FnP. Ferrus will usually join that unit as well, as he's too bulky to ride in the Caestus with the terminators.

Surprisingly close to the finish line with the army! One ten-man squad of vets, the Caestus, and a pair of counts-as tarantula turrets that are still inbound and it'll be complete! ...Until I get a unit of Immortals.

...And maybe a Spartan. Hah!

Heresy Era Iron Hands - Ferrus Manus painted!

On holiday break(ish) at the moment which means I have a fair bit of hobby time. After building the bug hunt corridors, I was itching to paint some more Iron Hands but didn't fancy diving into another huge unit. Ferrus Manus it is, then!

  

I went with the same color palette as the rest of the Iron Hands, though he got a fair bit more gold trim as befitting his status. He comes on a big diorama base, and I enjoyed the opportunity to paint a couple dead Emperor's Children!

I am quite pleased with how his face turned out. As befitting his eventual fate, Ferrus' head was magnetized, which allowed me to paint it separately from the rest of the model. I think his metallic hands/forearms turned out fairly well also - several layers of boltgun metal, silver, and thinned blue washes did the trick!

  

The model comes out of the diorama base and is mounted on a 40mm base for gaming, and he definitely is a beast compared with a basic marine. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed painting this model, it was hands down the most beautiful sculpt I've ever laid hands on. I was terrified by the prospect of mucking it up, but while it's not a competition paint scheme, I think I did manage to do it justice.

Next up, some overall army shots of the boys in black!

Heresy Era Iron Hands - Cataphractii Terminators Painted

Had a reasonably warm day yesterday and I was finally able to get some models that have been finished for a while now sealed! First up is the unit of Cataphractii Terminators:

The limited palette really worked out well on these guys, as they all have a nice bright blue spot color on the various power weapons and plasma coils. Being vets, I wanted to give them a bit of gold as well, but wanted to keep that subtle.

 

Not the best pic of the sergeant and plasma blasters, I'll have to rectify that. The sergeant gets a cyber-familar, which boosts his save to an impressive 2+/3++. While I love the reaper autocannons, I found it amusing to have the Iron Hands use a lot of plasma weapons. After all, if it gets hot and blows their hands off then hey - more bionics! Heh. All three got lightning claws as I wanted to get a few swipes in at a reasonable initiative in melee.

 

In that vein, four of the troopers carry combi-plasmas and power fists. I continued the iron-colored loricated armor on the rear of the models, which matches up with the Mk.III power armour nicely!

 

The chainfist has always been my favorite terminator weapon, so the unit gets a trio of 'em! To balance out their cost, the models just end up carrying a basic combi-bolter. Pretty pleased with how they turned out, the tall slate basing really makes them rather imposing when compared with the tac marines!

Heresy Era Iron Hands - Of Cataphractii and Characters

Got some good headway on the batch painting, but decided that after getting all the base black and iron on the models that I would just paint them up in units of ten. I think that the terminators and veterans in particular would benefit from some more individual effort.

That said, I pulled out the terminators and got the white weapon housings and leather laid down on 'em. I also added some cog-tooth pattern to the right shoulder pad and left knee to help Iron Hand 'em up a bit. So far, so good!

Speaking of terminators, I finished up the Praetor a little while back but realized I hadn't actually taken any photos of it. Rather pleased with him, went with the basic blue on the power cables and thunder hammer, and went with a reddish-orange glow on the Volkite weapon based on the cover art from Tallarn:Executioner.

While I was about it I also banged out an Apothecary for the army, went with the color scheme laid out in one of the old compilation books from the RT era - Primarily the default legion paint scheme, with a white helmet, backback and right arm/shoulder pad. Think it worked out pretty well!

Heresy Era Iron Hands - The rest of the infantry built!

It was a jam packed and fun holiday weekend, and I hope all the Yanks had a great thanksgiving! Finally had some free time to put together all the remaining infantry for the army - There was a surprising amount of it as well, photo barrage inbound!

First up is the unit I was most looking forward to building, the Cataphractii Terminator squad. Fairly straightforward to build, though I would say that attaching the shoulder guard to the arm before attaching the arm to the body does make things easier.

  

I went heavy on the plasma for the unit, it amuses me to think that the dangers of wielding the plasma weaponry just means the opportunity for more bionics. "Lost another arm, sir..." Two plasma blastguns and four combi-plasmas should be good for winnowing down enemy heavy infantry.

Next up is the Veteran squad, composed primarily of the new Iron Hands Legionaries kit. These models are positively dripping with cog-teeth and detail, and should contrast nicely to the 'vanilla' tac marines. This squad is armed with a pair of melta guns, a combi-melta and a thunder hammer. The Tank Hunters veteran skill is the obvious choice, then!

 

Next up are some odds and bobs to make up the command models for the various tac squads. The sergeants were built from the Legionaries kit as well, so they match up as veteran sergeants. The Voxcaster and Vexilla were then attached to some regular marines, which gives them a little extra Iron Handedness.

Then it was time to build something big! The Caestus was a breeze to assemble, though there was a fair bit of hot-water-bending required on the assault booms. One they were straightened out however, there's only about ten pieces to the whole model. The wings are attached via a pin-and-magnet arrangement to allow for easier transport - important, as this thing is quite a bit bigger than I'd anticipated!

 

Of course, if I'm doing the iron hands this was a foregone conclusion...

 

It was challenging to build, but not the nightmare that I'd feared. This is probably the most beautifully and intricately sculpted model I've ever worked on, I have to admit I'm worried about doing it justice.

 

The diorama base is a multi-piece affair to which I've attached a few magnets. The pieces lock together surprisingly well, but this definitely makes it secure. On the gaming base, he's definitely a domineering presence!

Now you know I can't leave you without a pic of the batch painting madness! At this point the basic black and iron has been applied to all of the models above (with the exception of the Caestus), which is the heavy lifting pretty much done. Can't let up on the pace though - there's just a little bit more than month left to go before the event!

Heresy Era Iron Hands - Proteus Land Raiders painted, sort of.

More tanks! Always need more tanks. The Iron Hands are known for having a lot of vehicles, and I tried to brink that into the army list as well. There's even more to come after this!

Next up is the slightly disappointing part of the army I'm afraid. The Proteuseses. One of them turned out pretty well, but unfortunately the other one really has problems, as we'll see below. Think I'm going to call it the Short Bus...

This one turned out okay - sort of like the rusty effect on the lower hull.

Might need to push the mud spatter up a little higher on the sides though.

I like big exhausts and I cannot lie...

And now the short bus. From the side it's okay, think the chipping around the access ramps turned out okay but the tracks are pretty wonky - this is the tank where I learned you should start and the top and work down to allow for gaps and possible track removal, rather than follow the directions provided by FW which suggests you start at the bottom and work up. By the time I got to the top, there wasn't quite enough room to fit the top track section and it ended up being a bit raised off the roller on the upper rear. Disappointing.

...And then to compound the disappointment, something happened with the sealant on the front and the finish totally crackled up. Must have had some moisture on it or something. I'm REALLY disappointed about this tank - from the ham-fisted assembly to the wonky sealant level, it just didn't turn out the way I'd hoped. Figure I have three ways to go - either I figure out a way to work that texture in as some sort of weathering (melta scarring, maybe? give it a metal drybrush pass?), use some fine sandpaper to try and remove the crinkly layer and hope I don't jack up the underlying paint too much, or dump the whole damn tank into Simple Green and start again... Argh.

Heresy Era Iron Hands - A mess of infantry painted

One of the things about heresy army lists are the big ol' units of marines - it's pretty common to see them in groups of twenty, which meant I had a whole mess of 'em to do for the Iron Hands. I decided on one unit of Tac marines armed with bolters and one unit with bolt pistols and chainswords (the poor man's assault marines). They lack jump packs, but are almost half the points cost!

I'm waiting on the new Iron Hands Legionaries sets to arrive so I can finish off the Vox, Vexilla and Sergeant for the unit (hence the two half-built models and the blank base), but other than that, they're pretty much ready to rock!

I had some issues with the FW order that was destined to become the second squad, so in addition to the sergeant, vox and vexilla, I also needed to wait for the replacement bits to finish off a few 'regular' marines as well. Still, 31 done is a nice feeling!

  

My buddy Dave was kind enough to let me have one of the leftover thunder hammer bits he'd ordered from MaxMini for his Salamanders, which I think has a much better heresy feel to it for the Praetor than the previous modern era hammer I had on there before. I also added a servo skull to act as his cyber-familiar (grants an additional +1 to his invulnerable save) and some cog-tooth inserts for the shoulder pads. Helps drive home the Iron Hands look pretty well, I think!