Iron Hands progress update - 1

I started an iron hands army a while back and played some games with them which have been an absolute joy, but the painting fell off my radar for about a year. I had a strong start last year, but this fall and winter I aim to get things done in a big way for these guys.

Here are a few updates of what's been on the table lately.

The Contempter dreadnought is pretty darn close to being done. I still need to paint his purity seals and do the shading and highlighting on one fist, then finish with a lot of weathering.

I've got a few more marines in the works as well. I'm painting these guys about 4 or 5 at a time to help keep things moving along.

There will be some more updates coming soon, as the mechanized portion of the force is nearly done now.

Dreadnoughts!

These guys got upgraded to be fire support dreads (at the NOVA they had assault cannons, and DCCWs with heavy flamers).  Now they are sporting twin-linked lascannons and missile launchers.  I know rifleman dreads are probably better in a mathhammery way, but I think these guys look better, plus I like lascannons.  I just wish those missile launchers were cyclones (two shots would make a huge difference).

Iron Hands!

Grey Knights Dreadnoughts

So I've had some Dreadnought kits floating around for a while and I've begun getting them ready for a Doubles tournament I'll be playing in with Dr. Lazarus at our FLGS. I took an old standard marine dread and used the death company bits from the Blood Angels dread kit and made the first of the two. The second dread is the remainder of the Furioso kit using the librarian chest plate. I swapped the standard head with a GK termie head to make him look a little meaner.



I experimented with making him a little bit taller using some plasticard rod in the leg pistons (I've always thought that the current version of the Dreadnought looked too stubby so a little more leg helps him out some).



I wanted to be able to swap out bolters and flamers for when I'll be using close combat weapons so I placed them similarly to the Forge World Dreads' torso mounted weapons and use a pin and magnet to ensure they dont fall of in transit.



I also liked the Forge World Dread feet so I replicated them with some cutting and plasticard,




Also in the works are some homebrew twin linked autocannon arms. I've been been planning on doing these for a while and have only recently started moving on it. Basically I want to make a pair of nice looking arms that are pretty detailed then cast them in resin for myself. I know everyone is saying "just use the Aegis Defense Line AC's", but I really like the old style "reaper" AC's so I wanted to get close to them without having to buy anything. I also wanted to avoid any GW bits on them in case anyone ever wants to buy them from me. Hopefully I'll have a casting kit in the next 2 weeks so I can get these done prior to the tournament.



Here's a shot of the arm blue tacked on.



Other than that, I've finally started to collect some of the terrain for my GK themed "Shrine World" table. I'll be posting about that once of got some real progress to show off.

Selling Out (Rifleman Dreadnought)

Modeling them in all of their unpainted glory

The story - I was curious about all of the bits available from the 3d printing service Shapeways (search for 40k) so I ordered some bits from various designers.  They were all untried designs that turned out to be unprintable.  Shapeways has a minimum order of $25, and I ended up with a credit in that amount.  I decided to use it before I forgot about it and ordered the arms pictured here for $12.50 each from Custom Minis, a designer who uses Shapeways.  

Comparison with twin-linked lascannon

Ordering was no problem and the level of detail is great, however I feel like the arms are about 20% too large at the "shoulder" area (i.e. the part that attaches to the body).

Beefy!

Compared to "stock" dreadnought arms

Lascannon

Autocannon - larger overhang front and back

Overall I think they're a good deal.  They are printed in one piece and are solid all the way through.  The plastic is slightly porous looking, almost like the texture of fiber paper.  I think they will look good once I get around to painting them.

Iron Hands Battle Report

I recently played a NOVA Open practice game against Joe.  It was a great game with a total of 10 dreadnoughts on the table.  The rest of his army was a bunch of Raven Guard bikers, which was a good match against my more static shooty Iron Hands.  Instead of writing a battle report I decided to refer you to the excellent report he wrote: http://www.joesavestheday.com/2011/08/more-nova-practice-raven-guard-vs-iron.html

End of turn one, the Librarian and Terminator Squad used Gate of Infinity to jump right in front of the opposing force

Unfortunately his Ironclad wiffed the back shot on my plasma cannon dreadnought

Birds-eye view of the battle

The Terminators took the shooting from most of his force leaving the Librarian standing alone, so he assaulted the scouts solo

You can see his bikers behind the hill on the left and my other tactical squad in the woods on the right

There were lots of dreadnought on dreadnought assaults

His Captain in the bottom right managed to run my tactical squad off the board after a couple of crack shots by Telion took out the Master of the Forge and Sergeant

Updated Dreadnoughts

I played with these guys on the table last night and decided they weren't done enough for me after all.  They went back under the brush tonight for some hard-line highlighting.  I'm much happier with the result now.

Ironclad - my champion

They're smiling

I'm still trying to decide if I should replace one of the assault cannons with a plasma cannon.  I'll try to get some games this weekend and see if I like the difference.

Iron Hands Dreadnoughts

And now for the core of my list...dreadnoughts!

Multimelta/Heavy Flamer

Assault Cannon/Heavy Flamer No.1

Assault Cannon/Heavy Flamer No.2

Assault Cannon/Heavy Flamer No.3 (he just looks venerable)

Ironclad - Meltagun/Heavy Flamer

They'll probably get more attention in the future, but it's unlikely I'll make any changes before the NOVA Open.  Next up, vehicles.

Iron Hands Progress

Lots of progress on the Iron Hands, dreadnoughts, Razorbacks, and a Typhoon.

Heavy Support and Elites

There are 5 Tactical "Shooty" Terminators (Black Reach) one of those guys is going to get a cyclone when I get the bits for it.  Five dreadnoughts (2 Elite, 3 Heavy Support), the Elites are a multimelta, and an Ironclad with a meltagun, the Heavy Support all have assault cannons.  All of the dreads have heavy flamers and extra armor.

Razorbacks

The two Razorbacks each have twin-linked lascannons.  I was thinking of going with the las-plas, but because of my Tau experience with Deathrain Crisis Suits (twin-linked missile pods and targeting array) I decided to stick with the twin-linked las for reliability.  Also that configuration is included in the box and I'm in a hurry.

Landspeeder Typhoon

Magnets!

There are 16 magnets in that landspeeder - I wanted to be able to change the configuration as needed.  In this list the landspeeders are my fire support and will be Typhoon's with the heavy bolter.  This is the first of three.