Iron Warriors 49th Grand Company "The Iron Hounds"

[Skrundle87]

I like your concept of an AL flanking tram of chosen, I have exactly that, I made it to destroy my mates guard so it's flamers all round except for the champion with dual lightning claws, does the trick

[Warsmith Aznable]

That would be dead kill-y against troopers, for certain. Whenever I see IG it's normally tanks tanks tanks, so I never get a chance to bring out my flamers.

[Skrundle87]

Yeah my mate is odd he has a very very infantry heavy guard army

[Warsmith Aznable]

The herjar-brothers of the Iron Hounds love to tell stories. To honour worthy opponents, to remember friends, to simply amuse one another, or to contemplate the bittersweet illusions of life. A herjar-brother who can weave a good tale is valued, and the best are kept close to the Warsmith. Story-telling is a deeply ingrained part of life in the Iron Hounds, an exercise of the warband's mystic cult. Some stories, however, are told reluctantly, and with bitterness. These are cautionary tales, made necessary by the razor-thin edge separating the Way of the Old Dead Gods from the Ruinous Powers. Temptation and corruption is never more than a heartbeat, and lurking in the minds of every member of the Iron Hounds is the dread knowledge that not all are worthy of the Pure Land, and the Waelheim Road is long and filled with danger.

The most repeated tale of woe is that of a being now known only as The Forsaken. In the early days after the company was rededicated to the Old Dead Gods, and the Ruinous Powers were rejected, there was a promising sergeant of a tactical squad. He was a skilled warrior with a gift for command, but his discipline was undermined by his pride. He rejected the Ruinous Powers along with the rest of the grand company, but secretly felt that he could simply use the false gods of the warp, taking from them what he wanted but staying true to his convictions. He wanted to show the Warsmith how clever he was, to pluck the beards of the cursed usurpers while enjoying their stolen power.

This was not the Way.

The Iron Hounds had broken free of the Eye of Terror and slipped the leash of the Warmaster during the 7th Black Crusade, and set about establishing a reputation as pirates and mercenaries. During one of these early battles, The Forsaken, then still known by his real name, sought out and challenged four worthy enemy leaders. He taunted each of the Ruinous Powers in turn with each victory, imagining he could play them against one another to his own benefit. He first took a skull and held it aloft for Khorne to see. He was rewarded with strength, but he controlled his blood lust. He next made a show of his skill for Slaanesh, cutting the second champion six times six times with his blade before executing him with an artful flourish. He was rewarded with speed, but he focused his mind and would not be distracted by the brilliant colours and sweet sensations of the battle. Third, he withstood the hammer blows of an enraged assault terminator sergeant, fighting on through pain and suffering so as to make even his opponent stop and wonder. As he slew the the incredulous sergeant, he felt his pain melt away as life surged through his ruined sword arm once more. He tore the mutating arm from his own shoulder socket, scorning the boons of Nurgle. Next he sought out the enemy Librarian, advancing through terrible sorceries to come to blows with him. The enemy's psychic powers lashed at him, but he allowed them to flow into him and through him. He exerted his willpower on the raw stuff of the Warp around him, and killed the astonished Librarian with his mind alone. He felt the potentiality of Tzeentch coursing through his veins, but held tight to his reality and ego.

He had become powerful, crackling with energy, bending realspace around him as he moved triumphantly across the battlefield. He would display himself before the Warsmith and earn much honour, perhaps even be accepted as one of the Warsmith's equals in his council. His own squad, however, attempted to stop him approaching the Warsmith. His best friend, his trusted corporal, denounced his actions, pleading with him to return to the Waelheim Road. The shock of that betrayal caused his mental fortitude to slip and, filled with rage, he rained angry blows at his comrade.

The corporal valiantly defended himself, trying to the end to avoid killing his sergeant. But his bludgeoning attempts to subdue were answered with deadly cuts, and The Forsaken slew his fifth champion of the day.

Khorne, Slaanesh, Nurgle, and Tzeentch had granted their boons to The Forsaken and had been rejected in turn. Malal, yet unknown to any of the warband, answered his final act of evil, and thrust upon The Forsaken a twisted apotheosis. Gone was the promising sergeant of the Iron Hounds, replaced by a Daemon Princew whose true name would be struck from the history of the Iron Hounds, never to be uttered by any of his former comrades again. He had sought glory and honour, but damned even the memory of himself in the eyes of his former brothers.

The Forsaken was driven off, escaping into the raging tempest of the Warp. But deep in the creature's mind it still desired to stand before the Warsmith and prove his worth. He would have his praises sung by the Warsmith, or he would have the Warsmith's head from its neck. Dark tales tell of The Forsaken appearing during battles and attempting to lead the Iron Hounds, enraged by their rejection but compelled by his perverted ego to attack their enemies. He can appear in the moments before a battle begins or, even worse, manifest in the body of any of the herjar-brothers who have wandered too far from the Waelheim Road themselves. All the recruits are warned against him, lest their hearts open a doorway for him and they lose their Way.

I had an extra Daemon Prince kit, and I felt like building something after my very long painting session last night. So I decided that I should have a Daemon Prince model that I could use if any of my Champions of Chaos models earned the Dark Apotheosis result from the Boon Table. I've worked so hard to make the Iron Hounds anti-daemon, that I have to admit that the idea of a power armour Daemon Prince wearing the colours of the Iron Hounds kind of excited me a bit. So it is written, so it shall be painted.

[Warsmith Aznable]

Update #2 for my counts-as Cypher

Dear sweet, merciful Papa Nurgle, I have no idea what I'm doing here:

I had never painted Alpha Legion before, so I had only the vaguest idea of what to do. I'm not convinced I've done this right, but this is the direction it took. I started with Ultramarines Blue, then washed it with Asurmen Blue, then did the green lines with Scorpion Green, then washed that with Thraka Green (I'm not sure why, I just did), then I did the trim Mithril Silver and the hooded robe in Bleached Bone. The soft bits of the armour and the gash in the UM symbol in Boltgun Metal, along with his bionic eye. Not pictured here is the Elf Flesh on his face and the Gryphonne Sepia over the Bleached Bone.

I mean, all that sounds like I might know what I'm doing, but I assure you that I do not. This is virgin territory for me, and I'm off on an adventure...

Thanks for reading!

[Warsmith Aznable]

There was some discussion of Doom Rider in the Chaos Ascendant forum today, so bikes were kind of on my mind tonight. I'm slowly collecting the parts to make a squad of bikers, but I had found an old, broken biker floating in my Simple Green jar yesterday. It came from a group of models I rescued, and was in pretty bad shape. Since it was all jacked up, I decided to use it as a base for a chopper conversion. So... time for a Biker Lord:

The front forks and wheel were missing, so I had to scrounge for bits anyway, so chopper really made sense for this project. One of the handlebars was completely missing, so I cut the other one off and drilled a hole all the way through. I'm going to make some ape-hangers for the Lord, just because I think they're cool. The foot platform was broken on one side, so I cut the remaining side off. I'm going to use guitar string to connect the engine to the molded tailpipe ends, and make pegs for him to put his feet on.

I'm not sure how I'm going to attach the twin-linked bolters. They were missing, and they wouldn't be aimed correctly since I extended the forks anyway. Maybe on the front axle? Not an immediate issue; I'l' figure something out.

There will be a big Defiler mask on the front, because it looks like the Iron Warriors mask to me. The Lord is going to have a backpack with a servo-arm, just because. The left arm is going to be magnetised to switch things out, but the right arm is going to be permanently hanging from the hand grip, partly because I think that will help stabilise the model, partly because I'm lazy.

I know the front forks are pretty thin at 1/16th, but I'm going to say that I'm going for an old school 1970s chopper, and that's the way they really were. Also the next size tubing I had was that which the front axle is made from, which I thought was too big. But there it is, that's the way they are...

I'm finalising the paint on the Rhino and Cypher right now. I'm killing time while paint and glue dries and whatnot, but there will be another update before the sun comes up with those two projects finished. Probably.

Thanks for reading.

[Warsmith Aznable]

OK. Just this one thing and I can return to the slab...

Third and final update for my counts-as Cypher:

My favorite part of the whole thing was the Ultramarines shoulder pad. My second favorite thing is how the green lining on the backpack came out. I'm also liking the new pot of red paint I got, Evil Sunz Scarlet.

I want to do at least a five man squad of Chosen using the Vanguard Veterans kit, and do them up in the same Not-Ultramarines style. But that's for down the line, after I've forgotten how much of a pain this paint job was...

Third and final update for my Chaos Rhino:

I made the twin-linked bolter from a Chaos Terminators kit. I originally was going to do a TC up there, but I decided I didn't want to deal with him right now. I actually think I like the remote style better, so I'll save the TC up in the gun for a Land Raider at some later date.

I took this next photo just because:

The old workbench. If my blog seems haphazard and all over the place, it's because my work space is. Because my brain is. Because that's how I do things/exist on a day to day basis...

-Thanks for reading-

[Brother Ambroz]

Cypher looks great and the Rhino looks ace man. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the chopper.

[deathspectersgt7]

Easy Rider!! The DP Looks cool and Nice Job on the Rhino.

[Warsmith Aznable]

I'm pretty excited about the modeling work on the chopper. It's been fun to do so far, and I'm looking forward to doing more on it. I am not sure where or how to attach the twin-linked bolters, though. If anybody has any good ideas about that I'd love to hear them.

 

The daemon prince might end up being a sixth vow for Call of Chaos, but I'm not sure yet. I really want to paint him, but I don't want to start on him until the vows I've already made are complete.

 

I'm glad y'all like the Rhino. I really wish I still had some Badab Black, though, because I wanted it to be dirtier. Nuln Oil just does not have the grab to do what I've been doing with Badab.

[Brother Ambroz]

For the chopper, could you put them between the spokes or is there not enough room? Or how about on the outside of the spokes?

[Lord Doyok]

That bike WIP looks great.. and so was your Cypher. 

I did my own Cypher too. Here is the WIP Pics . 

 

The Call of Chaos is about to close. Keep it going bro. 

[Warsmith Aznable]

@Tanith Ghost - I appreciate the suggestions, I think you'll like what I ended up doing.

@Lord Doyok - Very nice Cypher. I like the hard-line highlights; I'm not very good at that myself.

@deathspectresgt7 - Easy Rider indeed...

I posted the final updates for my Call of Chaos projects in the CoCVI thread itself, because I was in a hurry to get them up. It was pretty close to the deadline, with about twenty minutes to spare. I'll post them here, too, but I'd like to eventually get better pics of them.

Squad of 10 Chosen (with 5 plasma gunners):

Fabricator Volundr, in all his orange and black goodness:

Moving on to my chopper project, I did some more work on it tonight while taking a break from painting my SoB Retributors.

The twin-linked bolters:

I ended up shaving the front spray-guard thing off to fit that bolter on there. The bolter is from a Chaos Terminator kit, and the skull mask is from a Defiler kit. You'll see that I didn't actually put a servo-arm backpack on him. The one I had wasn't "working", so I put one of the old Berserker backpacks on him instead. His head is from the Dark Angels Captain model, because I thought he looked pretty grim-faced, and much more unique than modifying a CSM head.

Above I was trying to get a good perspective shot to show off the agressive front rake. You can also see the guitar wire I used to replace the missing exhaust pipes, as well as the tubing I used to make pegs to replace the missing floorboards. That tube that looks like handlebars was just there so I wouldn't accidentally get putty over the holes for where I'm putting the actual handlebars later.

Another shot. You've probably noticed the green background. It's a new thing I'm trying for models that have no paint on them. My thinking is that they'll show up better.

Side profile. Yes... Easy Rider, indeed...

- Thanks for reading -

[Warsmith Aznable]

Got the handlebars in. The ape-hangers don't end up looking as big as I first imagined, but they'll do:

I put the magnetised DA power-maul on him, to have a look at how it all fit together. I've been worried that the ape-hangers would get in the way of him holding a power weapon. This is from a biker kit, so it's posed in a way that accommodates. I may have to get some bits orders and convert the maul into an axe for him, as well. I'm not really sure what the best load-out for a biker lord is yet.

Another shot with the power-maul raised:

I need to figure out if I want to do any kind of hand grips, and if so, how?

- Thanks for reading -

[Warsmith Aznable]

Yet another model I put together instead of finishing my SoB Retributors. Honestly, there's like fifteen minutes of painting I need to do on those things and then I'm done, but I can't bring myself to look at my brushes for some reason. Not to mention that Avenger Strike Fighter conversion that I'm about 95% done with...

Anyway, my "Chaos Apothecaries" were done as counts-as Icons of Excess for cool factor. It also makes sense to lose your special ability when having a special dude shot rather than someone dropping the magic stick, so I ran with it. It also fits into the fluff of my warband. So I was thinking about warband organisation last night and decided I needed an analogue of the Reclusiam. If the Dark Apostle is a low rent Chaplain, then I would go the route I went with my Apothecaries and make a Dark Apostle HQ and some counts-as Icons of Vengeance for him to be in charge of, because how else do you make a unit Fearless without babysitting them with an HQ?

Here is the WIP on the first counts-as Icon of Vengeance:

I put as much junk on him to make him fancy looking as I thought I could get away with. The two modeling experiments I tried on him were the bionic leg and the chained up bolter. I have probably mentioned this a hundred times before, but my warband just are not down with the Ruinous Powers, and they carry on the old Iron Warriors fluff of chopping off mutations and replacing them with bionics. These bits parts are expensive, so I've long thought about how to fiddle them up myself. What I did was simple: I glued the legs to the base for positioning, chopped out the thigh of one of the legs, and then used 1/16th flat bar for a base, then 1/16th guitar string on either side of that for mechanical effect. Simple and effective and, most importantly, inexpensive. The bionics are something that I want to do more of on more veteran characters, to get across that the Ruinous Powers are basically chasing after them. It's one of the grimmer things I've worked into my warband fluff, that the more heroic guys end up going a little crazy and seeking out worthy deaths before they're either turned into brains in jars or accidentally let themselves be spawned.

The chain was something I picked up from the jewelry section at Walmart forever ago for a Daemon Prince of Nurgle that I'm going to build eventually for my Death Guard side project. It was hard to work out how to drape the chain to the back pack to make it look like it was holding the bolter in a way that looked like he could pull it off and use it, and do this without the backpack glued to the torso. The pack is blue-tacked to the rest of the model there, so I can paint them separately. That is an absolute must with all the junk I hung all over this guy.

Getting him to hold the book was sort of a pain. I took a bolt pistol arm and cut the pistol off, then cut a rounded notch into his hands. Then I used plastic cement on both pieces and jammed them together. I don't want to deal with that book falling out all the time, you know?

I ordered some Space Wolf backpack icons that I may or may not end up using. I liked them because they were wolf heads with othala runes on them, which fits right in with the Iron Hounds cultural background. Speaking of background, I need to figure out what to call these guys besides chaplains and work out some fluff for them. Skalds? I'll work on it...

Like the Chaos Apothecaries, I'll probably do three PA guys and a Terminator. Maybe a Biker and a Raptor, too, who knows?

I know I'll probably never use these things, but it's some cool modeling I get to do to make the warband more complete.

- Thanks for reading -

[RolandTHTG]

Skalds is actually pretty good, if you don't mind treading on Space wolf toes a little. But the concept of someone who is recording and passing on the deeds that the squad does keeping them in the fight, but once he goes down and there is no one left to record their actions, the squad becomes reluctant and starts looking to fight another day.

[deathspectersgt7]

The Bike looks great!! So does the IOV.

[Warsmith Aznable]

Skalds is actually pretty good, if you don't mind treading on Space wolf toes a little. But the concept of someone who is recording and passing on the deeds that the squad does keeping them in the fight, but once he goes down and there is no one left to record their actions, the squad becomes reluctant and starts looking to fight another day.

I drop blast templates on the toes of Space Wolves. Large ones.

The Iron Hounds are a blend of Anglo-Saxon culture and Pure Land Buddhism in concept, so there is going to be some similarities here and there. I'm OK with that, because I enjoy going toe to toe with the Space Wolves anyway. I haven't faced them in forever, since the new Tau and Iyanden codexes came out, though.

I was thinking of just calling them "Teachers" or "Masters", and saying that they're the ones who direct the non-battle time of the Iron Hounds in artistic and philosophical pursuits. That's a pretty underused section of my fluff. So instead of being all "kill for the Warsmith!" they'd be all "This is an illusion! Calm your mind and call upon the mercy of Khalder... by smashing these illusions with style!" And that's what makes them Fearless. But otherwise they just chase after them and make them draw graceful sumi-e and write haiku if it looks like they're thinking about growing a tentacle from their forehead.

The Bike looks great!! So does the IOV.

Thanks! I am thinking of starting the paint on him tonight, just because. I'm thinking of maybe a dark grey to make him stand out from the orange and black, but I'm just not sure.

[Warsmith Aznable]

Got as much done on the junior grade dark apostle as I could tonight:

I went with the grey and it's OK. I decided at the last minute to do the orange and black shoulder pads, to show a little solidarity with the rest of the warband. I used my new copper metal paint instead of the usual burnished gold. I don't know, just because? Maybe to make them just a little more distinct from the rest of the guys but still similar? Or maybe because it's a new pot of paint and I like it. Whatever.

In my excitement/rush to do something with this guy, I forgot to finish the hand holding the book. I was going to make some fingers out of putty. I might still do it, just so he at least has a thumb.

I don't know if I over did the red gore or not. I tried to make it follow what I thought would be the logic splatter lines of a down swing with a chainsword.

I did leadbelcher on the bionics joints, but it doesn't contrast as well as I'd like with the fortress grey armour. I did a little highlighting with mithril silver, which helped a little, but then I splattered blood everywhere.

Also, I realized that the colour settings on my camera have been set from neutral to a bluer tone for bog knows how long. I honestly can't tell the difference with the post-Photoshop pictures because I do a colour-correct thing.

I should get his backpack banner top thing in the mail Thursday or Friday, but I've got some junk to do this weekend and don't know if I'll finish him until the following week.

- Thanks for reading -

[Brother Ambroz]

Icon bearer looks great and the bike is coming along well too!

[Warsmith Aznable]

I know... I know my blog is all over the place lately... But the voices... they speak to me...

All the talk in the rumours section about Knight-class Titans got my brain gears turning. So I looked up some awesome conversions some other B+Cers have done, and got myself inspired.

I decided that my warband lacked maulerfiends:

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA! ROBOTS!!!!!!

I sold my old utility van for cash today, then drove straight to my FLGS and bought a model kit. I have "robotulism," or some other kind of compulsive mental disease. But I was going to build a robot this evening come hell or high water, and this is the start that I got on it.

Since it's a maulerfiend, I oriented the base so that it was narrow end forward. I was putting him in a sort of boxer stance, but right when I was gluing the feet my emotionally needy cat jumped up on me, so it's slightly off from where I intended it to be. I didn't bleed very long, either, but I had to hide her streamer toy to get her to leave me alone so I could get this far.

So I have four Defilers, and I didn't figure I needed a fifth, so I'm using my store of Defiler bits to kit-bash with a Dreadknight. The big claws are just big enough themselves to make arms for this thing. I thought they'd be too big, but I think now they're perfect. Contrary opinions will be considered, but I'm 99% sure this is how I'm moving forward. What I did was cut notches in the gear-joint things, and used plastic cement to fix some plastic balls to them. The plastic balls are cut from Bionicle toys, and they fit right into the sockets on the Dreadknight shoulders. The legs were a bit different. I did the same thing with them, and rotary-tooled out the hip sockets a little bit, and then used some putty to help fix them in place. I needed putty on the ankles, too, which is odd since I didn't do anything different with those. But the hip joint conversion was necessary to get a more dynamic pose. I reckon I will have to add some armour plates and greebling to make it look right, but I've a good feeling about it.

That could be the wine, however.

I'm not sure how I'm going to do the cockpit. I briefly ( briefly, mind you ) toyed with the idea of putting a Chaos Terminator in there how the Grey Knight Terminator is supposed to go. I've seen some very nice walker conversions using bikers or storm talons, but I have neither on hand for bits right now. I could pick up a biker tomorrow, but I don't think that's how I want to go.

I compared the IG Sentinel head to it, and it's too small, I think. Then I looked at the Defiler torso, which is too big, I think. But I really like the top plate of the Defiler torso, so I may use that and some plasticard. Then it would be down to having the space marine standing up in the hatch, or dropped down in the hatch, or the hatch closed.

I'm kind of making it up as I go along.

- Thanks for reading -

[Brother Ambroz]

Wow awesome idea man. Think I might steal it from eventually. :P Some ideas, what about the thundertusk thing from the ogre kingdoms? Might be too daemonic for you.....hmm....have to think on this.

[Warsmith Aznable]

Wow awesome idea man. Think I might steal it from eventually. Some ideas, what about the thundertusk thing from the ogre kingdoms? Might be too daemonic for you.....hmm....have to think on this.

Thanks for the suggestion! It is too daemonic/mutated for the Iron Hounds, though. I need some kind of technological pilot set-up. I would like to show the pilot, but I guess I don't really have to as long as it's successfully implied.

And anybody is free to follow on to any ideas I present here. That's why we share here, innit? I know I'm shameless when it comes to ganking good ideas...

[Skrundle87]

Look forward to seeing it develop, you're in for a treatz my dreadknight conversion was probably the moat fun I've had converting so far

[Brother Heinrich]

In the land of fist/claw biker lords its good to see another wielder of the Black Mace. I can tell you from experience, that thing wracks up a toll on the tabletop, regardless of the AP4. Diggin the extended forks to.