DXF's WIP Thread - More Iron Hands

[Iron Father Ferrum]

So, I'm on the my third deployment to Iraq and I've found that, with the war winding down (can we declare victory. . . again?) I have plenty of time on my hands. I'm a staff guy not a trigger-puller, so I don't have patrols to do every day or anything like that, and boredom has begun to take its toll. So I ordered a bunch of stuff and had my folks and friends send a bunch I had left lying around various places and decided to start cranking out more Iron Hands. So to start with, here's the beginning stages of an Iron Father. For those of you unaware, the Iron Father model was a variant of the best Techmarine sculpt made specifically for the Iron Hands back in 3rd Edition when the Chapter had its own rules out of the Index Astartes. I found three of them for decently cheap bids on eBay and couldn't help myself.

Oh, and PS: brush-on primers suck. Is it legal to send spray cans in the mail?

Components after flash-trimming:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0155.jpg


Standing on his base to make he sits flat. The rocks on the base come from GF9's concrete rubble basing kit:
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0154.jpg


Components after priming (you can see the Undercoat Black pot there in the near background):
http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0157.jpg

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Ok, Day Two progress report! First off, I slathered a layer of Tin Bitz on the servo-arm, but forgot to take a picture of it and I'm about two minutes from sleep, so that'll have to wait. But the base is done! It was given a straight coat of Codex Gray, followed by progressively lighter dry-brushes of Fortress Gray and Skull White:

 

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0158.jpg

 

 

Then the Iron Father himself was given: a Chaos Black coat to dull the shiny primer, a heavy dry-brush of Codex Gray to provide highlights and. . . I find it hard to describe. I don't like a flat black on armor plates, so I dry-brush it with the gray to, as I put it, "break up the black."

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0160.jpg

 

 

Then I put Calthan Brown on the face, Fortress Gray on the hair, and all of the metallic bionic bits got first a coat of Tin Bitz followed by a quick strike of Boltgun Metal. Front:

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0163.jpg

 

and back:

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0164.jpg

 

 

As always, C&C welcome. Keep in mind I'm no 'Eavy Metal-level painter and things like blending are, frankly, beyond me.

[brother varen]

It looks good so far. Keep up the good work.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

I did some more work on him last night, but I'm not happy with the skin tone; its much too dark for a person who comes from a lightless world like Medusa, so that'll get some work. The insignia on the pauldrons was a base of Fotress Gray with a solid cover of Skull White; I do the majority of the power-feeds and cabling in blues layered up to Ice Blue, with the greens and reds thrown in for variety.

 

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0165.jpg

 

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0166.jpg

[Odsox]

Never seen this model before - was it based on Malcolm McDowell, do you think?

 

Painting level looks above standard at the very least, which makes it a damn sight better than my own work. A fine use of your spare time, sir! I can't say I like the fellow's oversized head and the axe doesn't look great, but that's the designer's fault, not yours!

 

I'd recommend adding some gubbins to the base. It's well painted, sure, but it does look overly bare, and if you're going to have a fancy base, you should really go for it. Chuck a couple of bolt shells or a ruined servo skull on there and Robert's your father's brother.

 

Keep up the good work!

 

Od.

[Bannus]

While I'm not real fond of the model itself, I think that you have made look good - despite it's shortcomings.

 

You might want to give those cables a watered down coat of black ink - gives it that rubber-insulation look. :)

[Liquid_awesomes]

Its looking good, I haven't seen a IH army for a while. At least you wont run out of sand for basing.

[Abraxes]

Lookin' good so far. I have to give you credit for managing to paint in the desert. I tried in Afghanistan....once. Turns out that plastic Space Marines have one real weakness after all. They have an unfortunate tendency to warp / melt in the ridiculous heat while bouncing across the countryside inside of a LAV.

 

Keep up the good work. Your story reminds me of the fact that I've got a battle brother (army) over there now (Afghanistan) who has somehow managed to finish off a squad of Khorne bezerkers, or his 'Khorne from Kandahar' as he refers to them. I guess chaos has perfected void shielding for plastic minis...

 

Stay safe!

[Iron Father Ferrum]

While I'm not real fond of the model itself, I think that you have made look good - despite it's shortcomings.

 

You might want to give those cables a watered down coat of black ink - gives it that rubber-insulation look. ;)

 

I feel like Moses being spoken to by the burning bush!

 

And I'd love to, but sadly, black ink is currently in short supply. Then again, I'm going to have to order a ton of primer when my FW Iron-pattern armor arrives anyway, because I doubt one tub will do the trick for ten models.

 

Edit: Oh, and I wanted to ask around. I was thinking about doing a dark red for the axe-blade, and I wanted to know if anyone thought it would look good or even decent. Normally, I just paint my weapon blades straight silver and call it a day...

[Iron Father Ferrum]

First, thanks to those who commented. Any C&C is welcome.

 

Right. So. Progress has been made, here's the skinny. I made a 3:1 mix of Tallarn Flesh and Elf Flesh, slapped down a thin layer of that on the face, then hit the face again with a very light highlight of straight Elf Flesh. It lightened up appreciably without killing the shadows and makes him look especially hard-bitten, which is exactly what I wanted. I finished all of the cabling and power feeds and dotted all of the scopes, eye-sockets, and targeters with Blood Red and the big auspex/targeter looking thing on his shoulder with the same layering technique used to paint rubies on WFB models. The auspex-box hanging from his waist is Shining Gold drybrushed over Tin Bitz; same with the pitted grip on the power axe. The axe blade itself. . . well, I figured why not and started with Mechrite Red and layered up through Red Gore to Blood Red on the very tips of the cogs on the blade; it looks decent in real life, but the photos don't seem to carry it over very well. I finished with so much red because I wanted to reinforce the Iron Father's connection to the AdMech since he is a senior Techmarine; the Machine Opus also inspired me to do the blacke & white his & her half-skulls on each side of the blade. I went with the white on the same side as the Iron Father's flesh-face, and the black on the side with the bionics.

 

Frontal:

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0169.jpg

 

Side:

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0168.jpg

 

Back:

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0170.jpg

 

 

To finish: backpack and servo-arm. Then its Tactical Squad time until my Mk.IIIs show up from FW.

[Dobermann]

As our leader Bannus said :)

 

the model has its shortcomins (and that's why GW does not produce it anymore, not even as collector model)

 

but, as IH collector, I would love to have one.

 

You are a lucky one to have it and I like the way you painted it.

I would have used Silver instead of blue for the cables

and white for the bolt pistol, like in the Index Astartes article

(you may see my Iron Hands painting style in my blog, the link is in the signature).

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Doberman, the reason for the bright blue power feeds is that I use it as one of the unifying schemes of the army. It started with the chambers on my plasma guns, and the effect of Ice Blue, combined with the barren, almost lunar-scape bases I made for them accentuated the cold nature of the army. All of the other models I've painted so far have the same Ice Blue cabling and I usually get compliments on it. That's also why all of my metallics get very little in the way of highlights from the brighter colors like Shining Gold, Chainmail, or Mithril Silver -- I don't want them shiney, I want them harsh and dangerous-looking.

 

I any case. The servo-arm was done in solid Tin Bitz followed by a quick layer of Boltgun Metal with sparse Chainmail highlights, then coated again with a light drybrush of Tin Bitz to provide a dirty, greasy look. As soon as I get back to civilization I'm going to hit it with a black ink wash to dirty it up some more, but that's in the future.

 

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0172.jpg

 

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0173.jpg

 

 

And here's my next project, a counts-as Pedro. I'm going to pull a bunch more bitz to spruce the model up a bit; some purity seals, a scope on the stormbolter, a back-banner on the backpack, that sort of thing.

 

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0174.jpg

[Jeffy.Gee]

I love the pose of the counts as Pedro. An excellant start.

 

JG

[Iron Father Ferrum]

I love the pose of the counts as Pedro. An excellant start.

 

JG

 

Thanks. I was trying to convey a sense of forward motion, like he's striding forward, stormbolter blazing, fist cocked ready to punch.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Double post! Whoops.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Quick status update. I got started on painting Gideon/Pedro. Haven't got very yet, but I'm going to work some more on it later tonight.

 

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0176.jpg

 

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0177.jpg

[Brother Kovash]

Love the Iron Father. The blue on the coils helps to break the black up a bit.

 

As for Gideon, he looks perfect. The pose is very striking.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Thanks, Kovash. If you liked that, you're going to love this:

 

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0178.jpg

 

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0179.jpg

[Brother Kovash]

Wow. Very nice work. Just drill out the barrels and he's ready to stomp someone out.

[Bannus]

Love your Gideon - the pose is very fitting. I'm sure you have discovered that the very odd placement of the feet on those Iron Hands legs really limits your poses (if you want to make the model look natural). I wish that GW had chosen a more univeral pose for those legs *sigh*.

 

Keep up the good work!

[Iron Father Ferrum]

I most certainly have. It's a constant source of pain-in-the-assery whenever I'm throwing together my Tactical Squad models because if the Marine's top half doesn't look like he's walking forward guns blazing, then it doesn't match his legs and he comes off. . . goofy. I much prefer the other bionic leg piece, with the avian-style toes on the one foot; easier to model a joe Marine with them.

 

But these work perfect for him.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Quick status update. I finished Pedro's body off, with Chainmail highlights to all metallic areas, painted the purity seal on his leg, painted out the barrels of the stormbolter (I intend to drill them eventually, I just don't have a drill with me at the moment), the gold winged skull on the gun, clipped the sling off 'cause I didn't like it, and mounted him on his base. I started on his back-banner, too; I've never been very good doing thin line highlights, so I think I went a little overboard with the gray on the banner, but I'll let y'all be the judges. The box will get a little red shading on it, and then the laurels will be white and the scroll will be yellow parchment. The icon of my Clan Company is a white skull (thus the white-painted Silver Skulls shoulder pad on the right arm that you can't really see) so I'll be putting one of the skull icons from the generic SM transfer sheet on there as the final touch.

 

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0180.jpg

 

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0181.jpg

[fearlessgod]

Great work Deus Ex Ferrum. Gideon is coming along nicely. I can't wait to see more.

 

~fearlessgod~

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Right, so, here's Gideon/Pedro at 99%. I say 99&% because as soon as I get my Iron Hands transfer sheet from FW with all of my Mk.III suits, I'm going to replace the bit-too-small skull icon on his back banner with one of the chapter badges. The wording on the scroll there says "TEKTON," his surname.

 

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0187.jpg

 

http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h96/DTRI/PICT0186.jpg

[Iron Father Ferrum]

So after taking a short break to wait for my Mk.III suits (not arrived yet, sigh) I decided to finally get around to knocking out my Legio mini for Brother Mathias Bael of the Iron Hands Chapter. Updates to begin tomorrow.