This past week I finally finished off another three Iron Warriors. Both rebasing them on the new Sector Imperialis 32mm bases from their old 25mm ones and actually completing their paint – started well over a decade ago. Yes, I paint slow, but they’ve also spent a goodly time put away in boxes before I decided to revive the project last year.
Two of these models feature arm replacements. The “champion” has a Necromunda Pit Slave chainsaw arm, along with a 90’s-era metal Iron Warriors Shoulderpad. The central warrior has a Melta Gun arm that’s taken from a manufacturer of not-40k miniatures, again from the 1990s. It came from one of their Not-Orks, later renamed “Org” and changed to a not-at-all-Ork-based organised crime kind of faction after GW sent them one of their nasty lawyer letters. Because GW owns the concept of Orcs in space. Apparently. They had a game which from memory actually had decent rules. If I ever remember their name, I’ll edit it in. Anyway, the Melta Gun arm looked great, and it found its way onto one of my Iron Warriors, a squad with a large number of obvious cybernetic implants and limb replacements. Once again, I’ve added “IV” decals to the models, to represent their still-present pride in being members of the IV Legion.
Again, aside from mechanical parts from Necromunda models and the Org arm, the models are built with a mixture of parts from modern loyalist marines, modern chaos marines, metal 2nd & 3rd edition-era chaos shoulder pads, Iron Warriors metal parts and Iron Hands metal parts. The central model’s head and torso come from the ’90s metal chaos marine biker conversion parts.
The third Iron Warrior comes with a not-so-subtle message for any who he may encounter. The chainsword’s hazard stripes look terrible when blown up to this size, but at their actual size they look completely fine.
I’ve got another five of this squad on my paint desk at present to complete, along with another four including a Warsmith in the cabinet waiting to be moved out. Following that I have an old Forge World Castraferrum Dreadnought and Vindicator to find and fix up – both purchased many years ago before the FW kit was replaced with the Citadel kit. Then I can move onto newer purchases, newer models and newer plans for my Iron Warriors.
Oooh! These guys look brutal… and shiny! Very cool 🙂
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Cheers Alex. They’re a little duller IRL, but photographing them can be a challenge.
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I like ’em shiny 🙂
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Pretty nice indeed!
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Thanks mate!
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I like ’em too — agree that the melta arm is keen and that the hazard lines took great from the distance people will be looking at them from the tabletop. Even up close, well, I’d certainly be satisfied with them if I had painted them. 🙂
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Thanks Ann. Truth is that they look fine when held in your hand and looked at reasonably closely. Just when they’re blown up to in photos you tend to see all of the flaws, and then the small ones look huge. So I’m still happy with them, and happier to have finally finished them!
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Well, I think the hazard lines look very nice. 🙂
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Thanks Ann. I appreciate it. 🙂
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They look really nice I like the hazard stripes. Always look good on space marines chain weapons.
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Cheers mate. I agree – though I try not to do the same on all of my marines and keep it most common on the IW.
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They are nice, glad to see more of this force. The bionic bits are cool, and I like that they are using more Imperial parts.
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Thanks Subedai. I figure they don’t call it The Long War for nothing, and IW are more likely to scavenge and reforge quality materials than others, while (to me) avoiding the overly baroque stuff. If I were starting again, I’d do them without any chaos iconography at all, given their contempt for much of the Pantheon and certainly of mutation.
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Great stuff man. I like the necromunda additions.
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Cheers mate. The Necromunda bionics fit them well.
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Man, those Iron Warriors are excellent — there’s just a bit of a retro feel to them, yet they should still work really well in a more “modern” army as well. Love the guy with the old metal biker torso! And the “Iron Within” draping on the shoulder pad reminded me so much of that iconic double page spread with all those ideas for building and painting by John Blanche.
Excellent stuff! 🙂
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Thanks mate, and high praise indeed coming from the likes of yourself! That same article was indeed part of my inspiration for starting the IW, though with less furs and horns on mine, along with an army showcase of someone’s IW army in an older WD. I know I’ve still got the magazine, with that article bookmarked to boot. I just wish I could actually find it again…
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Really cool and enjoyed looking at them. Agree with others on the stripes – definitely works. I have the same challenges with photos of my 25mm guys – as far as what they look like close up, but that is not a worry in my view.
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Thanks Mark. I always spot the imperfections and they annoy me, even though I rationally know when they’re minor and blown up or if it’s my own laziness.
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Yeah it’s the perfectionist’s curse. In my case I was hard wired at West Point!
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Indeed. And just the sort of place you’d want it to be hammered in!
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