Shadowsword - Iron Warriors

Hi guys - I have a new toy to share with you today; a Shadowsword super-heavy tank.

Its hard to tell now, but this is actually Siph's Shawdowsword that he converted back in 2009, but never got around to painting it - so I kindly re-purposed it for my Iron Warriors (not that I can really use it in games other than Apoc or 30k as Tormentor).

Siph had done some awesome work converting the tank to be 5 out of the 6 Shadowsword variants, although I ended up gluing the hull in the rear position, so its now not 100% accurate as the Banehammer and Doomhammers - but close enough for me.

I filed off the filthy imperial aquilas from the sides of the tank and anywhere else I could find them (other than the tracks - because...just no) - so it fits in with my Iron Warriors, although there is now heraldry on there.

 I actually started working on the tank back in Autumn last year - but got interrupted by a Titan, so promised myself that this would my next priority to get finished.

I treated the paint job in exactly the same way I would a normal Iron Warriors tank - just like a giant Rhino really. Which was fine until I got round to painting on all the edge highlights/scratches - which admittedly took me ages.

 

I'm pretty happy with how the weathering came out - I was a little concerned about the sheer flat expanse of some of the surfaces; even as detailed as they are, painting them as bare steel left it looking very sparse, but that wasn't really a problem after all the mud had gone on.

 

I hope you like - I can't wait to get it in a game and start blasting holes in Siphs Titans.

Iron Warriors – Rhino

You would think this lowly little Rhino is a Forgeworld super-heavy by how much I’ve been fawning over it for the past week – but it’s the first tank that I’ve built/painted and apparently that’s enough to get me excited...

It is going to probably be one of a pair that will provide some long range fire support (via Havok launchers) in the early turns and then take their respective squads to their objective-based destinations mid-game.

The build was a fairly easy choice; take the Havok launchers as yet another form of shooty and leave off anything spikey (spikes really don’t fit my armies look all that well). I picked up the Iron Warrior doors from Forgeworld – the motto whilst building this army seems to be “if you are going to do it, you might as well do it properly/expensively”.

I was a little concerned whilst painting it; people often talk about the difficulty they have painting flat expanses without the use of an airbrush and this was going to be twice as bad painting it almost solely with metallics. Luckily I managed to keep all my brushstrokes going in the same direction and it turned out looking a little like brushed steel. Not sure what will happen with Land Raiders though. The hazard chevrons were also a pain to paint – apparently I can paint in a straight line on shoulder pads, but not on a flat surface...

The lights were a nice chance to try out painting jewelled/reflective effects which turned out pretty well for an early attempt.

It was also a chance to try something new with the weathering powders; normally I have been applying them in their powdered form, but for this model I added some matt medium to the pigment to make it think and almost like a paint, which I then stippled on and finished it off with a dusting of the powder, to make it nice and dirty.

I have managed to include it in one game so far and it really was the little engine that could, after wiping out half a DE squad and taking two penetrating Dark Lance shots without exploding.

Iron Warriors- Hellbrute

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted anything new, but I seem to have been painting constantly with nothing to show for it...mainly because I am working on multiple projects right now and am trying to finish complete units before I take pics and post them up.

 

The first finished unit is the Hellbrute from the Dark Vengence starter set. I had originally planned to make some conversions to the model to make it a little more “Iron Warrior” than its current daemonic/spikey appearance (despite how awesome they look), but then I managed to get my hands on a second Hellbrute – so I left this one as standard and the other one is getting converted to hell (I am thinking long-range shooty death)!

I am pretty happy with how this turned out – the metallics and chevrons turned out aged and battle-scarred and the flesh is supposed to look like something that could have once been Astartes millenia ago...

I had a bit of a play with some pigment powders on the feet and legs, to try and tie the model into the dirt of the battlefield on its base.