+ inload: Painting the Partisans II – Iron Guard +

+ Painting the Partisans II + 

+ Iron Guard Astartes +

+ Time's wingéd chariot flits ever onwards, and we go crashing into the mid-Autumn period... The War of the False Primarch is firmly in stage IV, where (spoiler warning) pretty much everything starts to go wrong for the 'Primarch'. +

+ An Inquisitor and his bodyguard advance alongside a Reaver Titan of the Amber Kings (Legio Validus) +

+ Of course, there's not much warfare if we don't know what the Chapters look like! In an earlier inload [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], we looked at painting the Inheritors, Void Barons and Silver Stars. Today its the turn of the Iron Guard. +

+ Painting the Iron Guard +

'Csak vass, semmi kevesebb'

+ ...and it's a two-for-one here, as the Iron Guard – creation of Michael M_R [+Instagram handle: @studio_fatfingers], and whose Index Astartes you can read here [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] – have two schemes. The first is as they appear during the start of the war, and the second is their later Partisan appearance. This is a bit of a preview, as the article that explains the latter is on its way. +

+ Pre-war +

+ I sprayed the figure with Halford's matt black undercoat, then applied a layer of Ironbreaker, which was then highlighted with Stormhost Silver. +

+ I then washed the whole figure with Drakenhof Nightshade to give a blue steely finish, adding a hint of Druchii Violet wash in the recesses. Once dry, I re-established the highlights with Stormhost Silver, and added some silver acrylic ink for the brightest highlights. +

+ The boltgun casing, pouches and soft armour were painted with Charadon Granite and washed with Agrax Earthshade; while the workings of the boltgun and shoulder trim were Ironbreaker washed with Agrax Earthshade. +

+ Details were picked out with Yriel Yellow and Macragge Blue, and the eyes painted with Fire Dragon Orange. +

+ The tactical marking is a vertical double-headed arrow, and the Chapter symbol a solid 'rook' icon. Be careful not to confuse it with the Star Wardens' similar castle symbol. +

+ During the war +

+ The techniques and colours were identical for the later scheme. Redolent of rust, the main (and obvious!) difference is the orange torso and helm – a slight echo of the Silver Stars' scheme. +

+ If you're planning on joining the War of the False Primarch, this is probably the best scheme to use. +

+ This is simply two layers of Fire Dragon Orange (I think Troll Slayer Orange is the new version), followed by a wash of Agrax Earthshade. This was then highlighted with another layer of Troll Slayer Orange with a hint of white added. + 

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+ 15mm Horus Heresy Gaming +

+ Another enjoyable 15mm HH game of my Emperor's Children against Bob Hunk's Imperial Fists last week. We tried out the tweaks mentioned in an earlier inload, and it's all starting to come together rather nicely, with the tweaks making Space Marines a bit more killy against each other. +

+ We also trialled having some Order dice rerolls (1 per FL, so we each had 3), though practise is clearly needed, as for the first couple of turns we were making order rolls for all units, not just those with blast markers. As a result, both sides were a bit hesitant to get stuck in. Once we'd remembered that units without blast markers don't need to test, it was all much more dynamic. We'll chalk that up to experience, I think. +

+ We used a rather old-school method of deploying the objectives – by holding a handful of old Epic order dice about a foot above the table and dropping them. Mouse-material mats turn out to be quite good for this! +

+ As you can see above, my poor Rhino came under quite a lot of fire... I mooted Rhinos being changed from a MOD (multi-order dice) unit to a single dice unit – mainly to make them less 'important.' Thoughts and opinions on this potential change would be appreciated. +

+ Lovely Imperial Fist tanks – I do love how 15mm games look. +

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+ Silver Stars +

+ Crossing the streams a little, I've also been building (and paintign) more of the strange pseudolegion in both 15mm and 32mm scale. +

+ The 15mm versions are in Crusade Armour, just like their bigger counterparts. +

+ Nothing hugely insightful to say here, but it was nice to finally assemble one with a grav gun, a weapon I've been meaning to use on the Silver Stars for a while. +

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