"In Cog we Trust": An Iron Hands log

[Gorman]

All glory to the Omnissiah.

Welcome to my Iron Hands log. This is a project that I have been working on for some time: a 2000 point "hard" Space Marine army, featuring a themed Iron Hands list which will be fun to paint but also stand a chance in a tournament setting.

I have chosen the Iron Hands because of their background, but also the very inspiring models of Rev (found in his "mostly Marines" log). The painting method has been adapted from Rev's (cheers for the help via PM!). I have run with the style and simplified it or adapted it as well.

As to background story, the list represents a strike force entirely mounted in drop pods. Because I have chosen such a dreadnought-heavy list, and earlier fluff suggested that the Iron Hands were light on dreadnoughts, I have chosen to have squads drawn from across the Clan Companies. You’ll see this shown on the various models with Forge World upgrade bits such as icon packs and symbols. As well as a variety of dreadnoughts, the army will contain tactical marine squads, and a assortment of special character models and support units.

Anyway, here is one of my HQ choices....







This model represents Forge Master Vurgan Haskan, the overall commander of this strike force. He is a “counts as” Vulkan He’stan – with an artefact-spear, field projector (represented by backpack), and gauntlet-mounted laser array. These weapons, I think, fairly represent He ‘stan’s stats and abilities.

All feedback and commentary is welcome.

[eltanko]

There are not nearly enough Iron Hands armies around, I love 'em! And this model is superb, really impressed by that! love the armour, the weathering.
Subscribed

ElTanko

[Caiphas Cain]

Thats one amazing model. Any wips?

[Lunar]

Amazing painting, especially the weathering.

Do i see a Gears of War theme here?

[Petay1985]

A fantastic model, love that its a 'counts as' vulkan he'stan' too Very nice, looking forward to seeing some more in the future

[salvindogath]

Sweet, reccently read the Iron Hands book and i've come to really like them, a future project for me and another subscriber for you!! Can't wait to see more!

[devolutionary]

That is one sexy model. I keep thinking I should do something with my spare Techmarine as well.

[wingdings]

Iron Hands! Hurrah! Great HQ model, I did something similar but not as good when attempting to make a master of the forge model.

I shall be watching closely as my poor Iron Hands have spent far too long neglected on the shelf whilst my mech IG rampage around stealing all the glory.

[Gorman]

Thanks to all for the feedback. I'm going to try to keep this log updated fairly regularly, and also going to try to answer any queries raised by visitors.

Thats one amazing model. Any wips?

Glad you like it. Sadly there are no wips - I'm finding that black is very difficult to photograph with a white background, and my earlier shots when the model was almost completely black ended up losing the detail. I'll try to get some next HQ I paint up though.

Amazing painting, especially the weathering.

Do i see a Gears of War theme here?

You'll see some more of that style across the army!

Here is one of my first dreadnoughts. I got him in a trade, and he has magnetised arms. I originally thought I would have a couple of sniper-dreads in my army, but that idea was lost early on and so I have to paint up the arms for the proper weapon load-out.



Also, here is a drop pod - there are many more like it in my army. Because I didn't want the models to end up looking too boring, I've varied the colour scheme on some pods - some have metallic panelling, others have different Iron Hands icons or Mechanicus decals.



Because of the number of pods in the army I decided really early to have the doors sealed shut. This cuts down painting time, but does mean you lose the interior detail. A fair trade I think!

[rev]

they're looking great Gorman. I really like the Hestan proxy, very menacing and somehow very true to the art in teh dex. Love it. The rest are neat but gritty, they'll be a wonderful sight on the table.

Your freehand cogs are very cool, thats great skills. well done.

Nice work.

Rev

[eltanko]

I have to say for such a, no offence meant, simple colour scheme, you seem to really give them a lot of character. I truly am impressed by your painting skills!

ElTanko

[Setha]

ive always liked iron hands but never got around to doing them , you seem to be doing them the exact way i wished to years ago !

Looking really good, love the tech-father.

[powa bear]

looks great, could you tell me how you achived the black and the metal?

[Gorman]

looks great, could you tell me how you achived the black and the metal?

The highlighting/weathering is in fact one and the same process, and it is very easy to achieve. I basically undercoated in black, then went over the black GW primer with Armypainter black spray - this has a slightly shinier finish, which I like for the power armour.

Then I did the metallic parts of the armour such as flex-joins, exposed cables etc - basically Tin Bitz, then Boltgun Metal, then a wash of Badab Black (on some parts, just for variety, I also used Devlan Mud).

Then comes the final stage - just take a really fine brush and paint every edge with ragged "highlights" using Mithril Silver. It's that easy! The last stage involves very fine brush strokes to make the damage look believable; if you use a brush that is too heavy, it'll look unrealistic. It just takes confidence with each stroke - and hit almost every edge with the Mithril. If you leave a surface undamaged, it looks as though the model is unfinished or otherwise not highlighted.

On a couple of models I've also done some dust weathering on top of the armour damage - I'll post pictures of that later in the log.

[Ostling]

Ah, a fellow IH player, finally
Looks fine so far, I like the forgeworld stuff.
Any ideas of the clan company so far?

Greetings,
Ostling

[Gorman]

Ah, a fellow IH player, finally
Looks fine so far, I like the forgeworld stuff.
Any ideas of the clan company so far?

Greetings,
Ostling

No specific clan company actually - this is a mixed strike force. I did this because the Forgeworld icons are from various clans, and I didn't want to waste any of them. Also it allowed me to have several dreadnoughts in one force, and there are some fluff sources which suggest that the Iron Hands are actually light on dreadnoughts. This has, of course, been rewritten by the 4th edition codex.....

[Ostling]

Sounds great to me, I wouldn't want to wast any either. I read it in the codex too, there it says something about a lot of cybots. If I remember correctly you could use six (!!) cybots in one army.
Yeah, the IH background ... It's hard to get anything approved by the high priests of mars, unfortunately. There isn't even a source where you can find the clan company symbols.


Greetings,
Ostling

[Dayspringer]

Iron Hands are clearly the best of the loyalist legions, and you look like you'll do them proud!
Can't wait to see more. I'm working on a force of them myself and I'm sure i'll steal many good ideas from you
One issue with the sealed pods though, wouldn't they block line of sight on the battlefield?
Anyway, keep up the good work!

[Gorman]

Iron Hands are clearly the best of the loyalist legions, and you look like you'll do them proud!
Can't wait to see more. I'm working on a force of them myself and I'm sure i'll steal many good ideas from you
One issue with the sealed pods though, wouldn't they block line of sight on the battlefield?
Anyway, keep up the good work!

Glad you like them. Feel welcome to steal any ideas you like. There are so few Iron Hands players ariound, but they are such a characterful chapter.

As for the pods, I always have an agreement with my opponent that line of sight can be traced through the pod but they count as cover. Usually works out alright!

[Monsterzonk]

Awesome work, mate! There's nothing I could say that hasn't been said already. Looking forward to the next update!

Cheers,
Monsterzonk