+ inload: Iron Warriors on the workbench +

+ Work in progress +

+ There's not a huge amount to say about these beyond 'you can blame the PCRC'. Enthusiasm is a funny thing – I thought I was all set with the Iron Warriors, but give me a couple of giant robots [+noospheric inloadlink embedded+] and suddenly I'm all enthused again! +

+ As you can see, I've been on a bit of a building spree. As long-term followers of the blog (thanks all!) will know, I tend to jump from periods of building to periods of painting – mainly owing to the fact that my workspace gets cluttered with either paints or bits. Inevitably, as I start to clear up, I spot something and start fiddling around with that. I find it a nice spontaneous way to work. +

+ Breachers! Giant-shield-bearing robots (that's giant robots with giant shields) deserve some shield-bearing infantry to accompany them. As with the others in this inload, I should probably have photographed them when primed grey, rather than sprayed black, but you get the idea. There are ten here, including a vox-link bearer and a Basilikoi sergeant (front row, second from right), marked out by his spiky shoulder pads. +

+ A destroyer. I've been hoarding a load of jump packs for ages – being as rare and expensive in the real world as they are during the Heresy, I've been saving them up for... some mythical perfect project. After being earmarked for the Ultramarines, then Imperial Fists, then an Iron Warrior assault squad, I've finally bitten the bullet and decided to just use the [SCRAPSHUNT] things on a set of Destroyers, a unit type I've never explored, but one that I think fits with the Officio Monstrosa project nicely. +

+ I'm very tempted to magnetise these Destroyers' backpacks, so that I can swap back and forth between loadouts. I really like the idea of Destroyers running through Zona Mortalis games, so I want that option too. +

+ These two Basilikoi above, like the three Legion Tactical marines below, are reinforcements for existing squads. I've been working in a very organic, unplanned way with the Iron Warriors, building and expanding the force as I go. It's a nice way to work; there's no sense of things being incomplete. +

+ inload: Iron Warrior Breachers

+ Zona Mortalis operations +

+ To go along with the Iron Circle – reviewed here [+noospheric inloadlink embedded+] – I was inspired to build a group of Breachers. I'd been intending to build some for a while, as they're one of those troop choices that's both fitting for the period and the IVth Legion. +

+ Nothing hugely creative here; just the same approach as usual for me, though they are using some updated torsos with new detailing on them – I thought Mk III armour (as seen on the rightmost in the pict-cpature) would be particular fitting. +

+ inload: Hold fast! Ultramarine Breachers +

+ The Vigintii +

+ I've banged on a lot about Breachers over the past couple of inloads, so rather than repeating myself, I'll simply pop up some pictures of the squad as they currently stand. +

+ Sergeant and four marines. The banner was painted with the new Iyanden Darksun (apologies, I can't remember the name) then washed with sepia ink. While wet, I used my thumb to wipe off the excess ink from the raised areas. Once dry, I used slightly diluted Iyanden Darksun to clean it up a bit, then added Dheneb Stone to the mix for highlights. The detail is all moulded on – I think the backpack is a metal piece from the character Sicarius. +

+ Note the inclusion of an heraldic tilt shield – I'm really enjoying adding these to the occasional veteran. +

+ Squad leader and four marines. Being organised to a fault, the Ultramarines always have a chain of command in place. This fella doesn't have any in-game rules, but made a good excuse to have a bit more fun modelling – building lots of near-uniform models isn't the most exciting process, even if the end result is worth it. +

+...and all together, plus Brother Letas (in the red helm of censure). The bases aren't complete, and nor are the squad markings. The little circles you can see on the shields will have an eta (η) symbol. Rather annoyingly, despite spending [SCRAPSHUNTERRORABORT] ages last night carefully painting in the Breacher Squad symbol (an inverted omega with a gladius through the centre) on every right shoulderpad, I forgot to get a pict-capture of any of them. +

+ You can just about make one or two out in this rather gloomy WIP picture, but you'll probably have to use your imagination for now. Regarding the markings, I couldn't resist adding a few little personalising details – the occasional CXC (for the 190th), legion numeral or additional Legion symbol here and there – but I've deliberately left them fairly neutral. These are, after all, new Ultramarines. Not quite raw recruits, but only just beginning to write their legends... +

+++ AMEND +++

+ I've now secured a pict-capture of the Breacher squad details:

+++AMEND TERMINUS+++

+ What next? +

+ With the first ten (well, eleven) Vigintii requiring just some final weathering and basing, the next things on the painting table:

+ Ah, more Breachers. Well, that's not particularly exciting. +

+ Ah, an apothecary! That's a bit more fun. I've a solid preference for the visuals of a game, and one of the things that always slightly disheartens me is when one or other army isn't on the table. This is generally due to it being pretty much all in reserve, or all in flyers, or so forth. My army sits around looking daft and then getting shot from all angles as they pop up, with no opportunity to actually fight. Fortunately, my Iron Warriors army taught me the great pleasure of augury scanners and Explorator augury webs, which go a long way to disrupting reserves and generally making life a bit more difficult for infiltration/deep-strike heavy armies, and giving my Ultramarines a chance to shoot back before they're annihilated. Why's this relevant? Well, Apothecaries can have augury scanners, so that's what he's clutching in his left hand. +

+ The visuals bites both ways – I suspect my infantry-heavy army would benefit from having lots of apothecaries, but it just seems a bit off to me to have so many in an army. One apothecary to every forty or so men seems alright, though. +

+ inload; Repurposing models +

+ inload: New jobs for old models +

+ The sun sets on the Primarch and his Honour Guard outside the walls of Macragge. +

+ Re-using or repurposing models from one army to another is something I do quite a bit. A fresh paintjob can work wonders in livening up a figure, and is – obviously – considerably cheaper and quicker than making another. 

+ The three Honour Guard figures above are a good example of figures that are good candidates for re-use. They received quick paintjobs for a specific campaign weekend, and don't quite fit anywhere in the way I now see the Ultramarines. +

+ The three started out life as Imperial Fists (see left), a short-lived project that eventually got swept under the carpet. They were pressed into service for the Ultramarines when I was hard-pushed for time, but have languished, virtually unused, in my army case since that campaign weekend. 

+ I can't get too excited about elite troops; I much prefer the down-and-dirty line infantry. For this reason, I decided that the Honour Guard would be re-used to help integrate the new Ultramarines (the 190th) with the old Ultramarines (the Praetors of Calth. +

+ The Praetors of Calth are an army of which I'm very proud, but the later models didn't quite fit with the original image I had for the army for one reason or another. With the thirty core troops in place, I flitted from expansion to expansion; adding five Vanguard or Recon troops... and then pulling them apart and repainting them when they didn't quite fit. + 

+ The 190th are an attempt to breathe new life into the army as a whole. With the release of the Forgeworld Horus Heresy range of bits, it's become a real possibility to create the army that I wanted. The first step was to build a relatively substantial force of the new models; I have a bad habit of breaking apart perfectly useable old models with the intention of updating them, then getting distracted by other projects; leaving me with fewer than I had before! +

+ So, with a large squad of new marines complete:

+ ... it was time to look at updating the older models, with the intention of creating a mixed squad of Breachers that would bridge the visual gaps between the older models and the newer ones. I started by creating some completely new models, being sure to add visual links to the newer models like updated FW helmets, equipment, and legs (taken from Tartaros Terminators). +

+ I then broke up the Honour Guard and rebuilt them with a mix of the older and newer elements:

+ Notice that the focal points of the Breacher marines (weaponry, helmets) are updated – this is relatively quick work that really changes the feel of the models. I also updated the backpacks (as these are a strong visual identifier for the period, but the majority of the work was removing the excess decoration on the originals. +

+ I like to think that these are perhaps the same marines; simply at an earlier stage of their careers. By the time of the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, the rest of the squad must have been killed or promoted away, leaving just these three grizzled survivors. +

+ As a group, I hope the newer and older models fit together well. In particular, the mix of newer and older shoulder pads in the squad (probably the most distinctive visual part of my particular method of making larger marines) links the unit both to the older and newer models. With a quick spruce-up of the paintjob – I think they deserve my best efforts –  I think they'll work well. +

+ While talking about the Breachers, note the additional marine in the back left of the image above. He's a 'transition' marine that combines elements of the older and newer aesthetics in unique ways: his backpack and shoulder pads are neither the new style nor the standard old style; instead being a unique mix that combines elements of both to assist with the unit blending together.

+ He required a bit of reposing. Here's the original construction (he's at the front):

+ While it's a pose I liked, it didn't fit with the squad. I'm being very careful with the 190th to make sure that they look good en masse; and that means occasionally sacrificing individual poses for the good of the group. With the new poses (and bits – his legs and right arm have been removed and are already the start of a new marine), the squad looks much more cohesive. +

+ This concentration on the group rather than the whole also makes the most of limited resources. I only have eight Breacher shields and seven of the gladius-style shortswords. By planning ahead and scattering appropriate-looking chainswords (see the fifth picture from the top for an example) in the squad as it's built, I'll gradually work in these divergent bits of equipment on models that otherwise stick closely to the group aesthetic; further building on the integration of the squad as a whole. +

+ On this note, it's part of the reason why one having something special (a bare head, a cool pose, a weird bit of equipment) often looks best on a model if it's set off by a group of standard marines – then the divergent bit becomes a point of interest in the overall arrangement as well as the individual figure. +

+ Anyway, enough pontification! To end this post, here's a final shot of the Breacher squad from the front. +