What am I going to do with this?

I excitedly picked up Crusade of Fire recently.  I am a huge fan of campaigns, even if in the past my attempts at running one have been full of issues, and mixed successes and failures.  From having too many players, to having to deal with power gamers, campaigns are a difficult thing to do correctly.

This time around though I promised myself it would be different.  Instead of running the group in conjunction with a local game store supporting it, I would run it more privately, with just a few like minded friends.

So, I spoke with a couple buddies, and while we are all eager to play a full fledged 40k campaign, it's that time of year.  By that I mean 40k while played, takes a back seat for a few months while I usually get my Mordheim on (those of you may remember my past years posts with my Rieklanders and Chaos Warbands).  I have gotten in a couple of games, but have been recently side tracked with terrain building and holiday season prep work.  As a Husband and Father of three, there is only so much hobby time in a week.

I like, err.. love the skirmish games that GW has put out over the years, and I haven't played Necromunda in some time.  So, with a new campaign book in hand I thought we would do the Crusade of Fire...

Necromunda Style! Sorry, too much?

 

There, that better?

Now my thought wasn't to try and replicate the whole campaign using gangs and experience from Necromunda and try to wage such a large scale war. 
I want to use the Crusade of Fire as a source book for all of our future 40k adventures, very akin to what you might have done with Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms in your old D&D days.

The Corvus Sub-sector is the perfect place for all sorts of campaigns.  A quick read of the background and I found where our Necromunda campaign would be.
Corvus Majoris, perfect.
Given the current state of the Sub-sector, this also gives my son a chance to easily integrate his Chaos Cultists from Dark Vengeance into our games and play a Chaos Cultist gang.

So, that was all the easy part.  I have been hard at work at Aetherstorm Games painting a variety of City Terrain, and building some more traditional looking terrain for our upcoming campaign.  Look for an upcoming post featuring some cool looking tables in the near future.

Now, I have to come up with some special campaign rules, paint a gang myself, paint up some NPCs, and decide upon a format for the News letter that keeps the players informed from week to week.  Easy right?

Shooting for a second week in January 2013 kick-off. 
I'm really geared up, this should be a blast, stay tuned for some WIP posts real soon!

Some WIP on my Space Marines

I've been hard at work lately on the painting front, between getting my Iron Warriors up from 1500 points to 2000 points for some upcoming events, painting terrain for Aetherstorm Games down the corner from me, and painting my as of yet unnamed Space Marine Army.

I have recently found the Space Marines to be a much needed distraction from the terrain project and the Iron Warriors.  Especially the Iron Warriors, don't get me wrong, I love them.  Fun to play, fun to paint, and while I certainly don't think it's my best painted project ever, I'm not unhappy with how they have turned out.  I just went a little to hard on them trying to get them ready for Mechanicon, and am suffering from a little burn out.  I do have to get back to them though, as I have the Colonial coming up in January, and the St. Valentine's day Massacre in Feb.  Both at 2k points.

I do have my next Land Raider for them assembled, and hit with their metallic base coat.  So that's a nice start.

Next up I have some quick pictures of my new Space Marines, some of you may remember the test models I threw up here a little while ago, some progress has been made since.

"And then there were 3" with the completion of the Sergeant, I now have a whole three marines completed!
With the list I have in mind that means I only have like sixty or so more marines to paint...

I have been using a wide variety of bits putting these marines together, using pieces from Dark Angel, Blood Angel, Black Templar, and normal Marine sprues.  The only pieces I have been staying away from are Space Wolf, as they just don't fit in with the Knightly theme I am going for. (though I usually find a way to sneak in a Wolf Pelt)

Above you can see some WIP, these guys are very time consuming.  I have been using Wolf Grey as a base coat, which seems to be working fairly well, allowing for a rich red color while allowing me to work up the white without too much hassle.  I have changed my recipe for painting the white, and while I don't think I have it down quite yet, I am much happier with the more recent results.

After receiving some comments on the red and black hazard stripes on one of the other marines, someone suggested I try a checkered pattern on some Chainswords.  Above you can see my first attempt at that.

I am still very early in this project, and am nowhere near deciding on a list, but I do think it is going to be very infantry heavy led by a Biker Captain, with a Biker unit (or two) as troop choices.

I also know I am going to be doing several Tactical squads, all with Flamer and Missile Launcher.  Other than that? I am just not sure.

Finishing up the Iron Warriors over the next couple months, I am adding the following; a 2nd Land Raider, a unit of 5 Terminators, and a Helbrute with Plasma Cannon.
While I certainly don't think they are the most powerful choices I could make, I think it will stick with my Heavy Armor theme.
That gives me 2 Land Raiders, a Rhino, Defiler, Vindicator, Helbrute, and Forge Fiend all squeezed into 2k points.  Not to mention the ten terminators.  Should be a blast!

I'll post more details on that when I have that list finalized.

Some new terrain

Been hard at work working on some new terrain.
Well, that is new to me, it seems Mike down at Aetherstorm Games has come into some used terrain from Les, from when he had GVE games.

The terrain was for the most part already assembled, but was in need of some TLC.  So me and my buddy Chris set to work repairing and repainting all of it.

We are not finished yet, but I figure at the pace we are going we should have a full 2 tables worth of new terrain finished by the end of next week.

 Here is a WIP shot, I wish I took some more "before" photos to give you an idea of the amount of work we have put in, but I was so eager to get started, I didn't get many.

Above you can see the test piece, this was the piece I did to figure out the paint scheme and over all look that I was going for with the terrain.
Below a quick shot of what will probably be an Adeptus Arbites HQ

 And of course the Fortress of Redemption!  I am pretty pleased with the way this beast turned out.

Of course there is more to come, and the gears are already turning for how to form a campaign around this stuff, and of course some Necromunda action, and then the IG army I want to do to match the new terrain set...

Damn this plastic crack!

I have some serious issues.

I decided I needed a short break from painting Iron Warriors, so was messing with some bits that I had laying around, and thinking I wanted to paint a new "Vanilla Marine" army.

Choosing a Chapter is always a problem, so inspired by Dave Taylor, and Jawaballs I decided I wanted to do something a little different.  No, I am not doing the Lamentors, but damn, I do like the idea of painting the checks.  So old school, reminds me of the Rogue Trader days.

No, I thought I would try and leave my comfort zone, and paint some colors I really don't like to paint.  originally I was going to do Howling Griffons, but after some fiddling around this is what I decided on.

They are quite intimidating to paint, but just the thing I need to try and expand my painting ability, and hopefully take my work to the next level.  I do have to get back to work on my Iron Warriors sometime in the next week if I expect to get another 500 points done for St. Valentines Day Massacre in February, but this is a nice distraction as a side project.

I'm actually quite pumped to get a squad done, if not a whole army.

The Mechanicon, a win for the Iron Warriors! so, what's next?

Chucky and me at the Mechanicon out in front of their WIP mascot!

What a great weekend!  we both had an absolute blast hanging out with Chris "Jawaballs" himself, and of course so many of my old friends that I only get to see a couple of times a year, Evan, Kieth, John, Colin , Mike B. the list just goes on and on.  Then of course there is Tony and Crew, who put on this great event.  I know I say it often, but it bears saying again.  This is the best 40k event of the year, and this year was no different.

As many of you know, I changed things up this year and for year 4 of this Tournament, I left my Space Wolves at home and took a brand new army.  My Iron Warriors, which I began painting late this summer in anticipation of a new Chaos Codex.  Boy am I glad I did, shockingly enough, I won over-all!  Now attendance was a bit on the low side mind ya, but hey, a win is a win! hahahaha.

I have been posting quite a bit of coverage  on the Bolter And Chainsword, here is the link for those interested in checking out some notes on the missions and full lists of my opponents http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?showtopic=264498

I love to play "anti-meta" and go against the grain with my lists, and I really think I have done that with my current Iron Warriors army, my "Armor Saturation" theory while certainly not unbeatable (in fact it is quite fragile) is a blast to play, and against many opponents actually works. In an age where many on the internet are screaming that "Melta is dead!" I say go ahead and believe that, because I've got some Land Raider Loving for ya!

So, what's next?  well, I have to take my Iron Warriors up to 2000 points.  Currently the list stands at 1500 and I need lists that work at 1750, 1850 and 2000. 
I quickly have the Colonial coming up, possibly in January(?) and don't know what point level that will be, so I am going to prepare for the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in February next.  That's at 2000 points.

What to add? well, I have thought about many different options, on of which included a Helldrake.  but in the end, I'm going to continue with my theory.
I am going to add a 2nd 5 man Terminator squad for some more Deep Striking goodness, and they will get a Land Raider transport that will start on the board.  I still have points for a Hellbrute with a Plasma Cannon.  There are some other minor tweaks to the current 1500 that I am going to make, time permitting.  Such as, dropping the Fist from the Champion in my ten man squad and adding the Icon of Vengance, and getting rid of the Power Lances on my Terminators, but those are low priority right now.  First things first, and I've got to get another Land Raider together, hopefully this afternoon.

Tomorrow, The Mechanicon!

Well, I have just finished painting my Iron Warriors Army to 1500 points, and thought I would snap a few photos before I pack them up for their big debut at the Mechanicon.

I certainly don't think that they are my best work for a couple of reasons, I painted the entire 1500 points in less than 3 months, that's very fast for me, so some of the army feels rushed.
Also due to time constraints, I didn't do as much conversion work as I would have liked.
That being said, I am still very happy with the army, it has been a wonderful break from painting Space Wolves, and has given me a chance to experiment some more with free-hand work, and learning how to paint red.  Which I think may be very important for my next project.

Here are a couple of more pictures

 Above you can see my Terminator Squad, with some minor conversions making a mockery of the Grey Knights.

 I wanted to convert all of my cultists using Flagellants but just didn't have the time if I wanted to use the army for Mechanicon, so I painted up 20 of the models from the new boxed set.

Above you can see an example of a couple of the standard Chaos Marines in the force, there are only 15 of them forming 2 squads, but they set the standard for the army.

So, my son Chucky (who still isn't done painting), our friend Chris Hartman playing Dark Angels, and I will be heading out around noon tomorrow and meeting up with Jawaballs where I will try and get some revenge for the pounding he gave me on Friday night last year at the Mechanicon!

So Mechanicon is going to be great, and will be my first major tournament of 6th edition.  Truthfully, my list is quite weak in my opinion, but what the hell, I'm hoping for 2 wins through the weekend, and I'll call it a success.  I am guess my army is going to garner some mixed reactions in regards to its paint score as I went a bit non-traditional on a traditional legion.  One that has a strong following, I'm thinking some people will love it, and some will hate it.  But that is the chance you take when you try something new.

I am committed to this army for the year though, and this is going to be my main Tournament army into 2013.  I am going to be expanding it quickly to 1850 for their next big outing, but have not yet decided what to add, but that is for another post.

Till next time, wish me luck.
and Jawaballs, you had best look out, I have lots of Pie-plate lovin' comin' yer way...

The Forge Fiend

Well, I am painting furiously, but I am right on track to get my 1500 points army of Iron Warriors done in time for the Mechanicon

Damn, this guy was time consuming, but a wonderful model

You can see in the photo above, that I gave up on painting all of the banding, though I did try and make it so that it looked intentional, rather than me running out of time. (and getting tired of painting red)

You know, I do love to convert models, but I'm finding more and more with Games Workshop that the model quality is such, that I feel like it would be a shame to alter this beast.  Maybe on the next one, I'll add some personal touches.

Hope you all enjoy, now I'm off to paint some Cultists, and get a practice game or three in...

It's finally here!

Last evening I finally got my hands on the brand new tome of ultimate evil that is Codex, Chaos Space Marines. Oh, and a Forge Fiend a Warp Smith, the New plastic Champion, the Psychic power cards, and a Dark Apostle...(I hate finecast)

Okay, so right off the bat I'm gonna say I love it.  Yeah, I know I'm a GW fan-boy, and my opinion on such matters means little, but the book is beautiful with lots of cool options.  But you can get discussions on the new book everywhere and that is not the true purpose of this post.

What I really want to take a few moments to do is discuss the progress I've made on my Iron Warriors project.  This project has unfortunately been woefully short on W.I.P. updates, but I have made a lot of progress.  In fact I had reached a stand still and couldn't progress any further without the new Codex in hand.

Here is a short list of what I have painted so far:
5 Terminators
Land Raider
Vindicator
15 Space Marines
10 Cultists
Defiler.

Prior to last night with a WIP rhino and my Aegis Defense line with Quad-gun, I was fielding roughly a 1250 list (using estimated points costs for the cultists based off what I knew from the White Dwarf)

Now with the new book in hand I could finalize my 1500 Point list for the Mechanicon.  When making this new list I set myself with a couple of rules.  Firstly, I promised myself I would take all of the models that I had painted thus far to the Tournament, it's only about 3 weeks away, and I have no time to start from scratch.  Secondly, the Warpsmith is a must take as is one of the new Daemon Engines.

Taking that into consideration, this is the list I quickly drew up and am currently working towards.

HQ: Warp Smith
Elite: 5x Chosen Terminators.  2x Power Lance, 2x Combi-MG, Chain-Fist, Combi-PG
Land Raider Transport
Troops: 10x Marines with 2x MG, Champion has Power Fist and Combi-MG
Rhino Transport with Havoc Launcher
Troops: 5x Marines
Troops: 10x Cultists with Auto-guns and a Heavy Stubber
Troops: 10x Cultists with Auto-guns and a Heavy Stubber
Heavy: Defiler
Heavy: Vindicator with Siege Shield
Heavy: Forge Fiend with Ectoplasma everywhere

So, in an edition where people are saying armor is dead, I'm going to saturate the board with it.  Well if it doesn't work well it's going to be cool to play, and I think it fits strongly with the Iron Warriors, Warp Smith theme.

The Jump to 1850 will either be a pair of Hellbrutes and a beefing up of the small marine squad, or a Hellbrute and Hell Drake with a couple extra marines for that small squad.

Check back soon, I'm hoping to snap some pictures this afternoon...

Poor Boris the Besieger, fired already...and the Mechanicon getting sooooo close

 

My newly painted Chaos Lord, Boris the Besieger hasn't seen much action yet.  Maybe three or four games goofing around at the corner store, and just one Tournament at Jester's Playhouse (took over-all at that oddly enough).
Don't get me wrong, I like him enough, I think he fits well with the look and feel that I was shooting for with my Iron Warriors army, it's just well...

He isn't this guy

 My army just must be led by the new WarpSmith.

Oh but that is not all folks.  Under the current Codex, my army stands at about 1150 painted, with just a few hundred more points to go.  The Mechanicon rules state that they will be using any Codex out prior to October 7th, with the Chaos Codex release date set for October 6th, that means I'm in with the new book.  Now, this is good and bad.  Good in that I get to use all those fancy new rules, and hopefully get some of the new models painted in time for the Mechanicon.  On the bad side, I've only got a few weeks to make adjustments to the army and have the list finalized and emailed to the Mechanicon staff by October 20th.  An exciting time with some self induced stress just for fun!

I would be even more excited if I could find out if Chaos Terminators still have the option to take Land Raiders as dedicated transports.  If yes, then I'm in good shape, if no, then I have some serious thinking to do.

Here is a rough estimate of what I have planned for a list:

HQ: WarpSmith
Elite: 5x Terminators with a couple of Combi-weapons, and one Chain-fist
Land Raider Transport (I hope)
Troop: 10x Marines with 2x Melta, Champ with Fist and Combi
Rhino Transport
Troop: 5x Marines
Troop: 10x Cultists
Heavy: Forge Fiend
Heavy: Defiler
Heavy: Vindicator
I should have some points left over, maybe for a Dread or Aegis Defense line with Quad gun
Light on Troops, but heavy on what I feel makes and Iron Warriors army look like Iron Warriors.

Oh, I did get some pics taken at the Tournament the other day, but have been too lazy to post them.  Well not really too lazy, just been spending all my free time in a painting frenzy, trying to meet my personal set deadline for Mechanicon.

Which reminds me I gotta go, have painting to do...

Iron Warriors First Blood

I finally got enough of my Iron Warriors finished for a game, well, a small game anyway.  I challenged my son to a game of 900 points.

My list (army pictured above)
Chaos Lord in Terminator Armor, and Mark of Nurgle
Squad of 6 Chaos Marines with a Melta-gun
Squad of 7 Chaos Marines with a Melta-gun, one upgraded to Aspiring Champion with Combi-Melta and Power fist
Land Raider
Defiler with Havoc Launcher
Aegis Defense Line with Quad-gun

Below you can see the Battle Field we set up at Aether Storm Games, a Game Store down the corner from my house.  Mike is the owner and a great guy, he always keeps an area open for us WH40k guys, regardless of what events he has going on.

 My son chose to take his Dark Eldar, this shocked me a bit as I fully expected him to field the Imperial Fists he has been working on.  He managed to put 8 Dark Lances into this small force.

I rolled my Warlord trait using the Command Traits table and got the Dust of a Thousand Worlds, giving my Warlord and any friendly unit within 12" the Move Through Cover special rule.

Rolling for the mission we got The Emperor's Will, with a single objective marker in each deployment zone.  and our deployment would be Dawn of War.

Rolling for board sides and first turn, I won the roll-off and began to deploy my forces, opting to take the first turn.  You will note that as a house rule, we deploy fortifications with our deployment, and in our deployment zones, we have found that this works well for our gaming group.

 I deploy my forces in a tight group on my right board side, then in shockingly, my Son deploys his forces directly opposite of me.  This would prove to be a huge error, he knows better, he will be crushed for this mistake...
Chucky (my son) fails to seize initiative, and I begin to open fire, focusing on the two ravagers.  The combined fire power of the Land Raider, Defiler, and Quad-gun destroys one, and immobilized the other.

Chucky responds by rushing forward with his two Raiders packed with Wyches.  He scoots his two Venoms on the other side of the board to gain a good field of fire on the unit behind the Aegis Defense line.
Shooting with his Dark Lances, he doesn't even scratch the paint on any of my Vehicles, the Venoms manage to kill a couple of Chaos Marines.  The Dark Eldar are proving to be quite ineffective.

In my turn, I decide I'm going to hit the Dark Eldar while they are weak,  my Lord bails out one side of the Land Raider, while the squad bails out the other, splitting up to hit more targets.
Shooting from the Land Raider and the Defiler drops both Raiders, and one of his squads of Wyches is pinned in the process!

The Chaos Lord charges and declares a challenge, killing the leader of the Wych Cult squad, they break and flee, the Lords heavy Terminator Armor prevents him from giving chase.

Not much for him to do in his turn, his fleeing squad rallies, but wont be much help, the pinned squad can't do anything this turn (we forgot that pinned units can snap-fire, but that would have been of little consequence anyway)
On the other side of the board, his Venoms continue to harass the squad behind the Aegis Defense line.
In my next turn, my lord re-engages the Wych Squad, my combined fire power destroys the other Wych squad that was pinned the previous turn, and also contained his Warlord, the Quad-gun also drops one of his Venoms.

  In my eagerness to utterly destroy the enemy, I almost lost sight of the primary objective.  Chucky attempts to take advantage of this and moves his lone surviving Venom forward taking up a position of cover, preparing to make a play for my Objective marker, behind the Aegis line.  His other squad the one that disembarked from the destroyed Venom moves back to control his home objective.
He had been attempting to lure me into a trap, keeping me busy with the Ravagers and Wyches while his Venom squads moved in on objectives, sneaky Dark Eldar...
His Venom opens fire and forces a moral check on my Marine squad guarding the Objective which they pass.

In my turn I decide they will pay for trying to take a fortification from the Iron Warriors, I open fire on the Venom and destroy it, forcing the squad inside to disembark.  My remaining fire power finishes off the squad.

Realizing he cannot win, Chucky decides to call the game.  5(1 for 1st Blood, 1 for killing the Warlord and 3 for having an objective)-3(the Dark Eldar held an Objective) an Iron Warriors victory.

A small game I know, but I think it gave me an idea of how to use some of my units in this army.  It's play style is going to be quite different from my Space Wolves force.  As for Chucky, I think he made a critical mistake in his deployment, by deploying right across from all of my fire power.

Over-all though a blast for both sides, next time he says he is bringing his Imperial Fists, I say "bring it"

I am soooo pumped, New Chaos, new DA all in one new 40K starter box

I don't care what I have to do, that new Hell Beast, Dread thingy is going into my IW army...

In fact, I think most of the above models with a little conversion work are going to make the cut.

Not to mention I'm gonna be putting some cultists in,
looks like I'm going to have some work to do...

More progress made, and an updated list.

Believe it or not, I am actually on schedule with the pace that I set myself with this project.  Well sort of, basically the schedule I have set myself is forcing me to call certain things finished even though I would like to spend a bit more time on it.  I may go back and do some final highlights, and maybe even weathering at a later time, but I am forcing myself to the next unit when the timer rings.  For example, I allowed 20 hours of paint time for the Defiler.  It actually turned out to be more of a beast than I thought, so I didn't really get to finish all of the highlighting on the metals.  Oh well, it is just going to have to be good enough.

Here is a list of what I have done so far,
The Defiler
10x Chaos Space Marines, with 2x Melta-guns and the Champion with Power Fist and Combi-Melta
(doesn't seem like much but it is quite a dent)
Here is WIP,
the Warsmith (Modeled primed and based, will be done by Sunday)
5x Chaos Space Marines with Bolters (Most of the colors blocked out, highlights and washes started, will be done tomorrow)
Next up,
2x Rhino Transports, (I am going to build both of these, so I can paint them at the same time.  I think this process will be much faster and make the two look uniform)

If I stay on schedule, I will have an army ready for some play to start using these guys on the battle field, albeit a very small force consisting of
Chaos Lord
10x Marine Squad
5x Marine Squad
Defiler

I did let my son talk me into one game with my Chaos army at 1000 points, but I hate using unpainted models, so I wont talk about the game, other than to say, I love the Defiler...

Well let us move on to some pictures,
First up here is a WIP of Boris the Besieger my Warsmith

 Next up we have my painted models arrayed all together, so you can start to get a feel for what the army will look like on the table top

 next a close up of one of my standard marines, nothing really special about him except that I think he is cool.

 Finally a picture of my Defiler after 20 hours of painting, he is just going to have to do for now...

After some discussion with my son Chucky and his buddy Joe, my list has changed once again.  I don't think it's particularly strong, but I think it even better captures the look and feel of the Iron Warriors.

Iron Warriors Ver.4
Warsmith with Terminator Armor, Power Lance, Combi-Bolter

10x Marines with 2x Meltaguns, Champion has Combi-MG and Power Fist
Rhino with Dozerblade and Havoc Launcher

10x Marines with 2x Plasmaguns, Champion has Plasma Pistol and Power Sword
Rhino with Dozerblade and Havoc Launcher

5x Marines

4x Chosen Terminators with 4x Combi-Plasma, one has a Chainfist (I haven't decided on the Power Weapon load out of the other 3 yet)
Landraider Transport

Defiler with Havoc Launcher

Vindicator

Aegis Defense line with Quad-gun

Hopefully this will be the final draft of the list, because I already have everything for this list, and soon I will be pretty far into building and painting and changes will be more of a set back time-line wise.  Though with my luck the new Codex will be out soon and that will force me to revamp the whole list...

Iron Warriors WIP, the Defiler

Hi all, just a few quick pictures of my Defiler, it is still very much a WIP but I feel is coming along nicely.

More to come very soon!!!

The Iron Warriors project...

Well, I have finally got some real work done on the Iron Warriors project.  I have always liked the Iron Warriors, and in fact this is the 3rd Iron Warriors army that I have painted.

The trick this time around was that I really wanted to try and do them justice, but how do you make dry-brushed bolt-gun metal, with yellow and black stripes, stand out and "pop" on the table top?  

Don't get me wrong, I have seen some very good Iron Warriors armies over the years.  Unfortunately I have also seen a lot of crap...

I did a lot of research, and talked to a few of my friends to try and come up with a solution to my problem, How do I paint an Iron Warriors army to my Tournament Standard?  To be honest, I didn't like what I was hearing, the most immediate answer was usually to do the entire army in a NMM scheme.  Ouch, that wasn't going to happen.  For a couple of reasons.  1. I like the look of metal paints.  2. I have never attempted NMM before and to attempt it on a whole army seemed a fools errand for me.  3. If it is not done well, it will just look like a "Grey colored Chaos Marine army"

Then it dawned on me as I was trying to figure it out and was looking at a test model I had done for the Grey Knights I was so intent on painting.  I just need to add a little more color.  I have done this in 2 ways throughout this first squad.

1st. I used a blue wash on some of the creases of the armor, this was to give the armor a highly polished look and a bit of a color tint.

2nd. I decided on using Red for my banding instead of gold.  The gold while a nice color blends to much with the yellow and black banding that is so common in most Iron Warriors armies.  Red I feel adds a nice contrast, and is the Color of the Mechanicus, and of US army Combat Engineers.  All of which fit in with the theme of the Iron Warriors.

Below we have the first five of these Warriors...

First up a standard Bolter Marine, no real conversion work here, just what I hope is going to be the "standard" for paint across this army

Next we have a Melta-gun armed Marine, one of two for this squad.  Note the old metal Legion of the Damned back pack with skulls, it was sitting in my bits box and I thought it too cool not to use.

Next we have the Squads Aspiring Champion, armed with a Combi-Melta and a Power Fist.  He wears Red Robes (as will all of my squad leaders) has the Warsmiths right arm, a Terminator Fist arm, a helmet from the possessed.  I really think that this model well represents the look and feel that I am going for through the entire army.

Next we have another Bolter Marine, this model was just assembled on a whim when I was bored one night, and he was elected to be the test bed for the paint scheme.

Yet another Bolter armed Marine

 
And above we have the whole squad formed up and ready for battle, well I guess I shouldn't say the whole squad, as I have the other 5 men assembled and in various stages of finish.  I expect they will be done by the end of the week.

Then its on to the first of the Rhino Transports.
I know that this paint scheme may not be to everyone's taste, but I really think that it accomplishes what I am setting out to do.
Of course all comments are welcome, and thanks everyone for reading.