Category Archives: Chaos

The Iron Plague #1: Iron Warrior Plague Marines (1993)

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Yeah, I know that the Iron Warriors aren’t considered especially hardcore, or even enthusiastic when it comes to worshipping the Chaos Powers, though we do have strong precedent for cult troops within the Iron Wariors’ ranks in Graham McNeill’s Storm of Iron, which features Iron Warriors Khorne Berserkers.  I’ve also had these plague marines painted for some time, though I’d never gotten around to doing more than the single group of five of them.

With the release of 40k 8th edition, I’ve been building up forces to play with, and the Iron Warriors have actually seen the table several times, so I recently started picking parts to create a squad of the aforementioned Berserkers. At the same time, the Death Guard release has been happening, with new figures released on a weekly basis. They’re lovely looking models, but quite different in both size and aesthetics to these Older-School Plague Marines from the early 90’s. (These two models date from 40k Second Edition.) What’s more was the fact that I liked the models I had painted, but was not so keen on doing an entire Death Guard army in the beaten copper that I painted these guys in.

Sometime after that point, I had a bit of an epiphany while browsing the new CSM codex in bed. I’d just use the Plague Marines in my Iron Warriors force. All they’d need would be a rebasing, and they’d be golden. After all, Storm of Iron is all the only fluff justification I need. Pair that with Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s rather excellent piece on what’s it like to be a Chaos Space Marine Lord and I have no problem going with it. I know you can do whatever, obviously, but I do like to create forces that fit in well with the game’s background, and when I was looking around for examples of Iron Warriors Plague Marines I found some rather vociferous arguments again them having any kind of cult troops. I figure that these guys are either Iron Warriors who turned to Nurgle at some stage, or they might even be Renegades from another Legion or Chapter – or even a squad that splintered from the Death Guard at some point in the past.

Naturally, the conversion from their older state was more work than anticipated. Not simply swapping over their bases. I repainted the wooden bolter stocks on these two from red to a worn-wood brown, like my old desk. Pouches went from the original green to a dark red, to match those on my painted IW. I’d have gone with black, but they already have a fair amount of black armour panels and I didn’t want them to disappear completely. Hose-looking cables were changed from pale green to pale tan wile others went from red to brass on their backpacks. Armour remained the same with the exception of the shoulders that once bore chaos star decals. I replaced those with 3d printed, glue-down “Iron Legion” insignia from Pop Goes the Monkey on Shapeways to proclaim their new allegiance.

Of course, these guys aren’t the only Plague Marines being updated. They’re just the first pair I managed to finish. I should have some more finished and posted in the next week or so, hopefully even the entire squad over the next few posts. I need to do some more varnishing when I get home from work tomorrow…

Nârik Dreygur: Iron Warrior

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Nârik Dreygur, Narik Dreygur, Iron Warriors

Today we have the Narik Dreygur Iron Warriors model from Forge World. Nominally for 30k/HH, Narik, the “Gravewalker” was a renowned Iron Warriors commander during the Horus Heresy who eventually turned from the Traitors and became a loyalist and close confidant to the Salamanders – specifically, Cassian Dracos, the “Iron Dragon”. While my grand plan for my Iron Warriors force does include creating a decent element that will be 30k/40k compatible, I’m also realistic to know that my chances of ever playing 30k aren’t huge, so the main focus will be the 40k aspects.

Nârik Dreygur, Narik Dreygur, Iron Warriors

With that in mind, I’ve painted him following the same scheme as my 40k Iron Warriors. They’re pretty much the same between 30 and 40k, but perhaps a little more in terms of Hazard striping and in some cases copper/brass trim. I considered going brass with his right shoulder, but felt it looked good in iron – and would probably look less good if I changed it, so it remained. My 40k IW retain the heraldry of the IV Legion, so Dreygur’s power fist seemed an appropriate place to stamp that firm.

Nârik Dreygur, Narik Dreygur, Iron Warriors

I gave him a not-Iron Warriors shoulder pad from Puppetswar, in Poland. They have some amazingly great designs, but when I ordered from them they were slow as molasses and the casting quality was nightmarishly bad to the point where they ended up having to replace most of my order – but only after I kicked up a huge public stink with the photos to the extent that they stopped posting on Dakka for a couple of years. I’ve not ordered from them since, so I don’t know if their casting quality and QA have improved, and I’m not that desperate to try again. I know they do occasionally send out freebies for review, and those models would obviously be lovely, cherry-picked casts.

Nârik Dreygur, Narik Dreygur, Iron Warriors

The backpack under his feet is painted in the dark green of my Dark Angels. I considered Minotaurs, but I felt that the brass of their armour would be too much metallic to add to the model, and not distinct enough from either Dreygur or his base, while their traditional foes, the Imperial Fists wouldn’t work well since I plan to eventually have only 1-2 squads of them, as opposed to the scores of Dark Angels I’ll eventually have painted up.

While Dreygur is a named character in 30k, in my 40k force he’ll be used as an Exalted Champion, to run up alongside assaulters to help inflict those important close combat wounds (rerolling 1s to wound!) I might well keep the moniker of Nârik Dreygur, as I’m sure the IW would appreciate that kind of dark irony.