Winter Project: a set of Iron Hands

[Muninwing]

i'd been wanting to organize my thoughts for awhile, so the giveaway is plenty prodding for me!

As soon as i heard that GW was promoting Iron Hands again, i immediately ordered some of their conversion sets. past that, i scoured my bitz box for available parts for conversions. why?

Because my first army was Dark Eldar, and i learned on the fragile glass cannons before realizing that my play-style was far more suited to something a little more resilient. as i shelved my unsuccessful first army, i debated which chapter to use for my second, and narrowed it down to two: Black Templars and Iron Hands.

Sadly, the BT won, and i proceeded to dig into the Armageddon Codex, cobbling together a poorly-painted crusade where i learned how NOT to paint.

Years later, i regretted that decision. sure, Iron Hands past 3rd lost their individual flavor, but they were still a cool-looking set with a lot of potential. thus, when they were touted as being individuals with special behaviors, i decided to dig in.

Concept: every model converted. every vehicle looking different. every individual named and unique. in effect, treat them like a kill-team instead of an army.

originally, they were to be a Detachment for use with my Dark Angels, but they have grown...

Current plan:
1 HQ on bike
1 Master of the Forge with Conversion Beamer
1 Tac Squad of 10 with a Razorback
1 Tac squad of 5 with a Razorback
1 Bike squad using old models (of 6)
1 bike squad using Outriders (of 5)
1 Contemptor Dreadnought
1 Squad of Centurions, magneted to as to be used in any capacity
1 Legion of the Damned squad of 10 with full options
(potentially, i'll add a flyer as i go, though which one and how it will be converted i haven't made up my mind yet)

besides the actual models, i have rounded up the following supplies:

*the remains of too many bitz form my bitz box

*GSI tentacle maker, for cords and conversions

*plenty of plasticard

*Happy Seppuku base stamps -- i had originally thought i'd do the metal grating and the catwalk plates, but my goal is to create contrast with the models and not compliment, so i'll be using a combination of their cobblestone and their herringbone brick. additionally, the plasticard and some cork sheet will be used to create a sidewalk effect -- with the brick being the walkway and the cobblestone on top of a layer of cork being the streetway, and a curbstone dividing the two.

*the remnants of someone else's Forgeworld-based army, won on auction... including the character update pack, some Umbra Ferrox Bolters, the classic heavy weapons pack, some outriders, Valthrex, and some gribbly odds and ends.

* Weathering powders. i picked up some during StP's sale last summer, and haven't had opportunity to try them out yet. thus, i'll be looking for opportunity to use them on each model.

...

i'll submit photos of each model, including a list of parts used, once i have a chance.

i also used a names list to find appropriate names from Kazakh -- the Medusan names are an odd combination of east and west, so what better location with a language that draws from aspects of both while still feeling far away? silly me, i name my models when i can within theme, so i'll include that in the model description.

finally, this will (as a craft project, not a playable force, since i'm still enjoying my DA) be a great opportunity to use some technical skills that i've been lacking... some sculpting, some editing, some painting... but i'll indicate all of that as i go.

[Muninwing]

Current plan...

Project Part 1: Plastic
Project Part 2: Bases
Project Part 3: Greenstuff
Project Part 4: Paint

this will not be a fast project, since it'll be fit in between career and (new) family.

largely, part one is done for many of the models in the army. pictures to follow.

[Muninwing]

6391

Parts:
Valthrax body and Conversion beamer
Terminator Thunderhammer arm and handle
Character upgrade arm and pistol

soon... i will take apart some old watch faces for some gears to make a power axe. i might also add a radar dish on the other side, because it looks unbalanced.

greenstuffing: little will be needed, past some extra cables to overdo the beamer.

[Muninwing]

the Happy Seppuku base stamps are excellent. i highly recommend them to anyone.

6392

the first base set is for my Centurions. the three are in various states of done... the leftmost is nearly done, with the herringbone brick sidewalk and the cobblestone street below. i will add a set of plasticard strips on the exposed cork lip, as a curb.

the middle one will be a bit harder to do, with the curb curve, but it'll look great when done. here you can see the bottom-level texture done, and the cork riser glued onto the second level, but the top texture isn't done.

the rightmost one is set up... the cork is cut, and the surfaces are prepped for adding a level of putty and stamping.

6393

this is a preliminary test... it's actually my initial experiment with the stamps. but here you can see the two different surfaces in this set. the three on the left are the the upper set, though there is no cork riser to distinguish. the two on the left are the lower texture, and the lower of the two shows the hole for a slotta base. since it's dry now, i have to cut the extra to fit the hole before mounting a model.

[Muninwing]

some level one minis conversions...

6394

Working model conversions: hand (currently missing), minor leg augment (part of a Darktalon sideplate)

6395

Working model conversions: head (top half replaced by half of a smoke launcher), foot (replaced by plasticard rod and a sentinel foot)

6396

Working model conversions: mostly parts swap... a Ravenwing command pistol and the IH upgrade pack stuff. this will be a thematic sergeant.

6397

Working model conversions: the head is a partswap. the leg is made up of a Chimera lasgun, a Sentinel toe, and the cable from a Terminator Powerfist. since it's a little bulky, i'm hoping to add some extra, lighter cables to make the model simultaneously overburdened and lighter-feeling.

6398

Working model conversions: the Beakie helm has had one side hollowed out, with a HK missile's rangefinder replacing it, and the floodlight from the front of a Leman Russ replacing the front. the powerfist is from the character upgrade. and the other arm, with the upgrade pistol, is from the Valthrex model. i really liked the cables in resin, and other than a thin cable leading from the eyepiece, this model is pretty much done.

i really like the mecha-hand. it's actually creepy when you think about it, since this isn't so much a piece of wargear as much as it's a ridiculously-oversized prosthetic. with the oversized eye, it looks all City of Lost Children.



these will be flash-stripped, greenstuff sealing and smoothing edges, and some added cables with the Greenstuff maker.

[Muninwing]

6400

Working model conversions: the helmetless Sgt head has been cut and the vials from a Ravenwing Command Apothecary have been stripped from their lower box, and the hoses aligned with the lower box on the head. the Apothecary symbol has been mostly cut off. the upgrade legs from the IH pack round this out.

6401

Working model conversions: character upgrade arm, IH upgrade chest. funny story... i glued the back onto the legs first, figuring i'd deal with supergluing the resin parts later, but i didn't account for the displacement. as a result, the chest was ridiculously too far forward. in an effort to fix it, i cut the hose off from a Terminator arm and fit it under the front. i then took the vials from a DarkAngel bit and glued it alongside.

i just have to make sure to paint it so it doesn't look like a futuristic colostomy bag, and it'll look all mad sciency.

6402

Working model conversions: IH legs, Techmarine head, grenade hand from the new Tac box. this one is nothing special yet, but i may do some more on the head.

6403

Working model conversions: old rebreather head, IH chest, biker arm, Missile cut from the ML adornment and placed in the open hand as a reload.

i'm sure nobody will point out that to use it as a reload it should actually have been pointing the other way in his hand...

[Darren Richardson]

wow for Loyalist Space Marines, they look very, very creepy with all your conversion work, I would be uncomfortable if I had to fight alongside such marines IRL......

In other words excellent work!

[Muninwing]

i had an Ogre Scraplauncher once.

key word: had. now i have parts that are all painted and no longer conjoined.

it was then that i discovered the amazingness that is pinning models.

if i'm working on some IH stuff, and some are larger models, i should use this as a teaching moment. pinning is a great and easy-to-learn skill for anyone who hasn't figured it out yet. for the purposes of this set, i am putting together a friend's Iron Hands Contemptor (that i might buy off of him for this army.. though looking at it i might get it cheap because it either missed QC at FW or it's a knockoff).

pinning in four stages:
1. clean the model
2. test fit everything
3. drill the holes
a. the easy ones
b the harder ones
4. glue and wait

i'm really bad at stage one, i might add. i often do just enough cleaning to get on with construction, and do my real cleaning -- mold lines, etc. -- when i'm patching things up before the primer. i'm going to skip this step.

6591

here are some parts. i spread out on the living room table and put down some cardboard from some packaging to use as a staging area. here it is with all my parts, as well as my pinvice buried in the balljoint of the model's shoulder.

i find that dynamic posing needs a few elements. one, it needs a vision, which just means that you need an idea of what it will look like before you can make that happen. two, you need all your parts on-hand so you can get an idea of what it will look like. i know some people use be-tac to get an idea of position, but i can usually just eyeball it with a basic fitting. i'm usually doing something else at the time, so i don't need to worry about efficiency, but if you're on a time limit i'd recommend using tiny little balls of that stuff people use to stick up posters when tape and staples aren't options,

6592

pin everything. i mean it. because whatever you don't pin will be where they model breaks. if you pin it all, be that much more difficult to break. here is the shoulders and the pivot point on the waist, all ready to go.

6593

some people use wire clippings. some use paper clips (my second-favorite source of pins). the cheapest and easiest source of pins are common staples. the legs of the staple (the parts that bend in) are great short pins, and the bridge is a great longer one.

6594

also, if you're using either and want a better handle on what you're doing, you can literally have a handle by only snapping one corner. then, you have the L-bend to grab on to, and can snap it later.

two staples, still stuck to each other, are the ideal. it doesn't always happen.

6595

moving on...

i want this Dread to have a great running forward pose. the HH Iron Hands are slow deliberate infantry, so a Dread for use with them should add a counterpoint to the army while still feeling included. to pose it running, but slightly off-balance and adding some destruction from its lumbering advance should suffice.

i looked for a while to find artist's sketches that show running bodies with the frame-lines still on the sketch. then, i had my wife pose. finally, i threw it all out and just started gluing.

i used a long-side staple piece for this pin. i drilled into the ends of the two hip-joints, and cleared out the space on the pelvis between them with a dremel. that way, i still had an appropriately-sized-and-shaped socket, but it was a bit rougher (to hold the glue better) and it allowed for the pin to go straight through.

as you can see, i gauged it a little poorly and ate through a little more than i wanted to. but it all fit (both before and after), and the holes were much easier to line up. after that, it was pretty easy to just stick one end of the staple-support into one hip... then feed it through the too-large hole in the pelvis... a perfect fit. now for glue...

to glue, i like to drip just a bit onto the tip of the support, then put a bubble over the hole. this helps the pin break surface tension and then pick up a little more glue on the way into the hole, which makes the support that much stronger. once it's in, you can immediately move onto the next piece, sticking one hip into place and adding glue to the next one and sticking it all together. after that, since it's not going anywhere and i deliberately used more superglue than i needed, i had enough time to pose the three pieces how i wanted them before holding it together as it dried...

[Muninwing]

what worse feeling than realizing that you screwed up your own project? and it's easy to do when anything is getting drilled.

the hard-to-reach areas are nasty to get, but with two simple tricks, they can be made far easier.

trick 1: greenstuff

drill your "easy hole" -- usually, the one on the protruding source, or at least the one that's easier to get at. if you're going to have to work at it anyway, you might as well do one the easy way. clearly, i did not take my own advice, and instead drilled the tricky hard-to-reach inside hole first. what's more, it's on the concave side of the fit, which makes it even harder. ok, this method still works.

place a blob of greenstuff into the hole, shallowly. the liquid gs even works here.

6596

all you now need to do is gauge where you want it, and redo the test-fit. make sure to press down hard, and the blob of greenstuff will transfer onto the hard-to-reach area, marking exactly where you need to drill!

6597

you should do it quickly, even just to make a mark and finish it off later. while the liquid will hold for a bit, the solid stuff might just fall off before you have a chance to get it ll done. that's why i recommend...

trick 2: paint

these were the holes i drilled in the first pinning picture. they were on the better side, and they test-fit well into the joints. i knew i wanted them to be cocked -- one back, one forward, much like a runner midstride.

i mixed paint in two shades with plenty of water. when ready, i put a daub into the hole drilled in the shoulder and fit it in. the same with the other one.

then, all i had to do was fit it in the proper position, and i was ready to go. boom -- paint dots where i need to drill! and it's all color-coded, so i don't do something foolish like mix up the parts.

6598

i should mention that, if your posts are short enough, putting the paint on the end of the posts and then fitting them is worth trying. i like long posts (and not just the wordy kind like this) because they add extra framework stability and more surface area for the glue to grab on to, so that method often won't work well for me, even though it is a little more precise.

[Muninwing]

base goal:

since i might be buying this model after it is painted, i am going to base it just like i am basing the rest of my army. this means that i will be using the Happy Seppuku base stamps -- cobblestone street on the lower tier, herringbone brick on the top of a layer of cork, with a curb to separate the two.

if the dread is going to be running, it means that one foot will be in the air. that leaves a small surface for securing the model.

to solve this, i decided to use a paperclip as a post drilled into the foot. that means it needs to be secured to the base somehow.

6604

first, i pressed the lower texture, to get that out of the way. some cut cork, some modelling putty, and done.

6605

second, the post needed to be fit. simple. i used the drill to make a hole, and popped it through. the clip is bent in a swirl in order to maximize length while minimizing area. it will offer more support.

6606

third, i used a pen to outline the clip. i've been using uniball micro pens since middle school, and while they are hard to find now, they work well on porous surfaces such as cork. since this will be underneath the cork layer, there' no need to be delicate here.

6607

fourth, i used a model knife to cut a groove in the bottom of the cork that the clip could fit into. this will allow the cork layer to be glued flat without any unsightly bumps or gaps that would otherwise undermine the look or stability of the model.



after that, all i need to do is to add some greenstuff and superglue and like magic i have a base! well, that will happen after the top texture is done. see, if i were to glue it now (before the herringbone texture) i'd have to somehow work around the post. the next phase is to do the neat texture effects on the base i'm planning... since the weight of a Contemptor should be enough to shatter the bricks he'd be standing on. more on that later...