Iron Warriors: Ardante's siegebreakers

[Rorschach]

"There is no finesse, no flair. There is no elegance, no art or perfection. There is only advantage, and the ability to exploit it."

- Knight-Lieutenant Ardante, the Iron Warriors 19th Grand Company.

 

---

 

After several years away from the hobby, I've recently returned to painting and modelling, and whilst I have great fun with it, I've been looking for a point of inspiration. Noticing today a new Call of Chaos, I decided it was time to jump on the waggon and apply some pressure to myself.

 

I've been an Iron Warriors collector and occasional gamer since the 2nd edition Chaos codex. Unlike most people, who enjoyed the 4-pieplate, 9-Obi, I've always been a huge fan of troops choices and Land Raiders, and always preferred assault over the traditional shooty Iron Warriors. This is the direction I want to pursue with my new and improved 5th ed. Iron Warriors as well, the idea of the extreme assault units that will hold a trench, no matter what, until the moment is ripe to break the siege.

 

But! First things first - these are my Call of Chaos goals:

 

- 1 unit of 4 Terminators

- 1 unit of 8 Siege Guard (counts as Plague Marines) and their Rhino transport

- 1 Daemon Prince

- 2 Obliterators

 

Siege Guard, you ask? Basically, I'm a huge, HUGE fan of the "counts as"-rule. If it looks like it could provide what the practical rule of the original unit, I'm happy with it. In the case of Plague Marines, the rules to consider are their added Toughness, their Feel No Pain, their Blight Grenades and their lowered Initiative. They are also Fearless, unlike your average basic Chaos Marine. How do I choose to adress this? You'll see in a couple of days - I have a test mini in progress and will probably spoil him in a couple of days.

 

---

 

For the look and feel of my army, I've taken the following line off the cover of Storm of Iron to heart: "a massive force of terrifying Iron Warriors, brutal assualt troops of Chaos". Massive. Terrifying. Brutal. These are very much the qualities I seek in an Iron Warrior. I will, as much as possible, try to make my Iron Warriors LOOK more terrifying than they (let's be honest, the codex isn't extremely terrifying or brutal) actually are. I want my opponent to watch my deployment and, regardless of rules and points, feel threatened on behalf of his own models.

 

To achieve this, I've decided to go with a "Frank Miller-esque" approach to modelling. Huge, disproportioned features, hard lines, a dense, thick blacklining with strong contrasting colours, and a matt finish. I've done a few test minis that aren't part of any CoC-unit which have very much achieved (in my eyes) the effect that I aim for, but won't be posting them here as they are, after all, only test minis.

 

This is getting long now, but I'm nearly done. To illustrate my idea of "huge, disproportioned features", I'll leave you with some WIP shots of the first of the two Obliterators. I've already done a few changes to him since I took this picture (changing his Power Fist to a Dreadnought one being the major difference), but you get the general idea. I hope to have painted pictures of him to present within not too long.

 

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/contqual/DSCN0409.jpg

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/contqual/DSCN0410.jpg

 

Enjoy! -_-

[ancient god]

Love your concept! I'm really intrigued by the Siege Guard, looking forward to seeing the models.

 

Iron Warriors are among my favourite Chaos factions, so this could be interesting.

[Mr.Millar]

First of all, that obliterator looks bloody fantastic and as a huge fan of the iron warriors I'll be very interested in seeing your army when it's finished.

 

As for the brutal looking marines, sounds very, very good :D and if your marines look as good as that obliterator then they will truly be a sight to behold. A splattering of gore and the odd exploded guardsman should do the trick nicely.

 

I look forward to seeing what you do with the rest of the army,

Mr.Millar

[TheDarkApostle]

I really should have reacted more the first time I saw this thread.

 

It's awesome to see you back Rorschach, if this is going to be anything like the stuff I think I remember you doing, this is going to be awesome. :D

 

~TDA

[Rorschach]

TDA! :wub:

 

Thank you for the positive replies so far. I'm actually trying to top the stuff I used to do back in the day - to say it like South Park, "bigger. longer, uncut" :lol:

 

I hope the rest of the Marines will live up to the Obliterator, I'm very, very pleased with how he turned out. I don't think there will be much gore (Iron Warriors are meticulous with their armor, see), but there'll definitely be the odd exploded Guardsman, Imperial Fist remains or rival legio corpses. As for the Siege Guard, the greenstuff on the test model is healing rahter nicely, might be a picture of him up sometime tonight or tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a WIP shot of Obliterator number 2:

 

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/contqual/Obi2.jpg

 

:P

[Commissar Molotov]

I'm too used to Facebook - I wanted to just 'like' the thread and walk away.

 

Thanks for sending me the link to this, ol' pal. I'll do my best to follow your progress!

[Vlâdvar The Destroyer]

Awesome Obliterator fellow warmsith :D Thats gonna look like a beast on the battle field! Can't wait to see how big you Daemon Prince is gonna be! Also very interestin concept for the Siege Guard! Can't wait to see more!

[NemFX]

Got another follower man. I have ideas on what your Siege Guard might look like, but I'll keep them under my hat in case you go in a different direction B)

[Barret]

Frank Miller-esque Iron Warriors? That can't help but be cool. ;) Lookin' forwards to more.

[Leebe]

Wish there were a more ranged combat way to field a Daemon Prince, that would be a terribly awesome thing to have leading your forces.

 

Still makes a pretty neat obliterator. Great work!

[Rorschach]

Thanks again for all the positive feedback on the Obliterator - such is inspiring and thus, here it is, the first "official" progress update:

 

April, update 1:

 

Spent tonight fiddling around with greenstuff mostly, which led to a lot of "downtime" inbetween modelling to allow some healing before moving onto next layer. That downime was spent on my Obliterator, getting the first, core layers of paint in place. I'm estimating he's around 60% done at this stage, painting certain areas are a cruel task with all the stuff I've been packing onto him. Not much more to say about it so far, here are some pictures.

 

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/contqual/Obi60front.jpghttp://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/contqual/Obi60side.jpg

 

Apologizing for the low-quality pictures, my camera is cheap and my skills with it cheaper ;)

 

As for the greenstuff work, here's the main reason my Obliterators are such huge, lumbering creatures: Pure matter of scale next to the Terminators.

 

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/contqual/TermHFfront.jpg

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/contqual/TermHFcfside.jpg

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/contqual/TermHFside.jpg

 

Still have some greenstuff-work to do on his Heavy Flamer arm and around the head and trophy racks, as well as removing those horrible mould lines on his legs, but I'd say this guys is closing in on being primed for painting. The chainfist needs a bit of filling in the gaps as well, but that's a minor, 5-minute operation.

 

As for the Siege Guard, I'm starting to get to a stage I'm pleased with. No pictures or spoilers yet though! <_<

[Mnemonikk]

Dude, these are truly epic! Beautiful sculpting on those nasty fibrous muscle-looking limbs - me likey :D

 

Paint ain't lookin too shabby neither... ;)

[Terminatorinhell]

That dreadnought claw idea is GENIUS!

[Asrech]

Loving how it's going so far my friend, a huge improvment over GWs own standard oblits.

And I'm wirh Vladvar, can't wait to see the size of the Daemon prince! Valk-base anyone?

 

Cheers!

[smallvictory]

I must say that first Oblit is one of my favorite renditions yet, love the whole concept of the army. I'm running straight to my bitz box collecting weapons to give a go on my own right now. Keep up the good work.

[Rorschach]

May, update 1 -

06.05.2010

 

Thanks for all the positive comments since last update - it really helps motivation, so keep it up :)

 

The weekend went by all too quickly, with a game of Rogue Trader and writing up some background for my army suddenly having taken more hours than I expected. Times flies when you're having fun! I did, however, finish up the first of my Siege Guard, and is around halfway done painting him. After a lot of experimenting with poses, weaponry and ideas, I decided to roll with a concept based on the online game role of the tank. Heavily armored, wearing a shield, yet with enough finesse to look like a frontline fighter. I came up with this:

 

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/contqual/SG1front.jpg

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/contqual/SG1bak.jpg

 

The conversion is fairly straightforward, meld together terminator legs and a regular torso, then greenstuff the gaps. It was the latter that kept me rubbing my head for a while - though the pictures don't show it clearly, there is around one and a half millimeters of gap between the chest and back pieces of the torsos, that have been filled in with greenstuff and smoothed out. Sculpting the arms was just fun, cutting out the shield just boring. The idea is that his bulky legs preresent increased toughness and reduced initiative, and the shield counts as blight grenades as he blocks off most attacks. Since Iron Warriors are SPACE MARINES, they are by default fearless, but to kinda emphasize it, bare arms. Calgar can run with a sniper target all day, the smart guys run show off some muscle when they need to look hard!

 

Here's a really bad picture of him around halfway painted:

 

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/contqual/SGmaltWIP1.jpg

 

I also started working on the Siege Guard Rhino transport. Since I someday want to at least try out a Land Raider Rush-list (when I someday get around to making two Land Raiders...), so I wanted to try and make it look like a mini-LR. One Rhino-kit and one butchered Leman Russ later, I had this baby.

 

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/contqual/SGRhinoWIP1.jpg

 

Apologies for no WIP shots, camera was dead and I was in an inspired mood :)

 

Awesome Obliterator fellow warmsith ;) Thats gonna look like a beast on the battle field! Can't wait to see how big you Daemon Prince is gonna be!

And I'm wirh Vladvar, can't wait to see the size of the Daemon prince! Valk-base anyone?

Random preview is random.

 

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/contqual/ZaraMockUp.jpg

 

Until next time!

[Asrech]

:P :wub: :wub: :wub: Theeeres my pretty princess. Sorry for ever having doubt, now I'm happy :D

 

Cheers!

[Loken86]

WOW brother can i get a tuturial for the rhino its looks great and would look good in my night lord army. great work here brother im watchin this thread

[Rorschach]

May: Update 2.

 

I've been slacking off.

 

No really, for the last few weeks I've been swamped at work, and I just realized I had only posted one update so far this month. To top it off... my camera is dead again, so I can't even bring pictures. I'll try and edit tomorrow, show some progress on where I'm at.

 

These last few weeks have been a lot of work, but what I've managed to get down so far is the first terminator around 75% done, Ardante himself (which really only is another terminator, but with flair!) is taking shape, as is the Siege Guard sergeant. The paintjob on the Rhino has improved a bit, more details coming to the fore every painting session. finally, the DP is ready for the first of what I estimate to be around 8-9 layers of greenstuffing to create her armor. Again, pis will come (and hopefully tomorrow), but I wanted to make sure an update (it IS technically an update :D) was posted while we're still on May time.

 

WOW brother can i get a tuturial for the rhino its looks great and would look good in my night lord army.

Basically, take a Rhino kit and assemble without the tracks. It takes a lot of filing and cutting to get it into a "box shape", which you can then seal the sides of with plasticard. The Leman Russ track-houses are very easy to fit on, as they are separate components from the actual tank body. I'm sorry I haven't got any WIP pics to show - if I make another one, I'll be sure to make a tutorial with pics! :cuss

[Tsuro]

Those are some great looking obliterators, good show.

[Terminatorinhell]

Is that one of Sersi's daemon princesses?

[Rorschach]

Picture time! Finally :)

 

Let's start off with the Siege Guard.

 

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/contqual/SGhomies.jpg

 

Progress so far... not impressive, but at least this picture shows you more or less HOW I model them. I basically start off with a pair of Terminator legs, then fit a standard Marine torso (as I want a backpack on them and it has to look natural) onto it. Whether I keep the belt on the legs or torso depends a bit on which will fit best - individual combinations give different results. Think back to how we used to make Black Templar tabard-termies and you're close to it. The arms are very much just greenstuffed, which explain the anatomic anamoly of the muscular postions. I blame the warp!

 

Termiator time.

 

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/contqual/Vioxx60front.jpghttp://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/contqual/Vioxx60side.jpg

 

Around 60% done painting this guy, Knight-Champion Vioxx with a Heavy Flamer and Chainfist. As he gets more paint, I'm very pleased how he looks so much more like a Terminator, and so much less like an Obliterator. The head should take most of the credit, but the weapon racks and pauldrons most certainly help. I'm very pleased with how this idea turned out. And now, time for...

 

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/contqual/ArdanteWIP.jpg

 

...WIP Knight-Lieutenant Ardante. Rules-wise a normal Terminator with Power Weapon and Combi-melta, fluffwise, Trademark Badass and Warchief's go-to-guy for nasty operations involving unsuspecting Sororitas. The weapon rack is Abaddon, the sword is a remnant from the Daemon Prince box and the guardsman being held by his guts is a 100% ripoff from D.i.Studios' excellent Death Guard Lord. Banner is... from bitzbox.

 

And finally...

 

Daemon Princess.

 

Is that one of Sersi's daemon princesses?

It is not, it is the Forge World Zarakynel model.

 

I've spent around 6 hours on her so far, and I've gotten to the point where everything that's supposed to be glued on is in place, and it's time for greenstuffing. Here's an overview:

 

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/contqual/Zara1stOverview.jpg

 

I've placed the Sororitas on the base as a kind of "mirror", as the DP is previously the aforementioned Sororitas (and here you thought I meant something dirty with that remark!) I will paint her tabard the same colour as the Sororitas cloak, to create a colourbalance, and the Sororitas armor in a bright silver, kind of an "undirty" Iron Warrior scheme.

 

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/contqual/Zara1stBase.jpg

 

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/contqual/Zara1stLegs.jpg

 

The legs will be grenstuffed to wear something resembling warpforged Power Armour. I've repositioned the running leg to a more natural pose, and plan tu add tubings to fill in the knee gap. Not yet sure how to sort the hoof join, I'm thinking something along the lines of a boot variety there.

 

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/contqual/Zara1stMace.jpg

 

The mace is Basically the ball-and-chain from the Ork Trukk sprue tucked onto a plasticard tube. I plan to model it to resemble a spine, very similar to Astorath's axe.

 

http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h282/contqual/Zara1stTorso.jpg

 

And finally, the face. The plasticard around the neck will create the neck of the Power Armour chestpiece, and the shoulderguards serve mainly as "guidelines" for pauldron size. Not how skeletal corpse in high hand has Astartes helmet - you Fists didn't think you'd get off THAT easy, did you? The wings are from the fantasy High Elf plastic dragon.

 

That's it for now - hopefully I won't slack just as much in June! :D

[Sersi]

Oh these are sweet! Thats a brilliant them you have going Rorschach. I really like the Daemon Prince conversion. It's a shame that you removed the wrecking ball from the one obliterator's arm, it was extremely fluffy for you "siege Breaker" Theme. Although the dreadnought arm work quite well.

 

I like the concept and conversion on the FW KOS. I never even tried to repose mine, the legs just seem so awkward. However your new pose works very well.

 

 

Best of luck with the Army it looks great so far.