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Chapter symbol is the imperial aegis superimposed with the hammer and sickle connected together by a length of chain. THIS HAS SINCE CHANGED - SEE PAGE 2

They come from a long forgotten and silent forgeworld.

They're combat tactics - both unique and horrifying - focus on the use of nanites. The nanites are developed from a hyperdense material, impervious to all forms of radiation and electrical charge.

When assaulting an enemy force, be they on a planet of little consequence to the imperium or a planet deemed uninhabitable, they launch penetration projectiles from orbit or from the outer edges of a system. These missiles, filled with replicating nanites that systematically break down all biomass they come in contact with to a molecular scale, are both small enough and launched in such a swarm that upon entry of a planets atmosphere they appear to be little more than the passing remnants of a forgotten world, streaking through the atmosphere.

While this breakdown of biomaterial is a slow moving process, the true reasoning behind this lengthy process has slipped into myth and lore. Often times their appearance on a planet goes unnoticed, as is the wake of their visit. It can be years or centuries, and will often be attributed to a horrendous plague or incurable disease, but what has been dubbed the ‘eternal death’ is inevitable.

Once a planet has be scoured of all biomass, the vast majority of the nanites burrow deep below the surface of the planet, often to the layer just outside the planet’s core. Here they merge with one another to form a near impenetrable shell around the core.

The shell adapts in density and size until the planets polarization shifts. This takes, again, centuries and is often unpredictable. But during this process the comparatively small number of nanites still active on the surface begin to gather the molecules they had broken the biomass down to, and reassemble them into rudimentary compositions. Upon the repolarization of the planet finding completion, the nanites begin filling in the minor gaps left in said molecules to create new life based off of a randomized amalgamation of genetic forms recorded during the ‘depletion of prior infestation.’

This is again often attributed to unknown causes - but since the entire process takes so long, oftentimes the knowledge of what had occured there and what the planet had been like drifts into obscurity or is forgotten

Once the planet is terraformed, the surface nanites alter their electrical charges to an opposite polarity of the new core and float into orbit around the outer edges of the planet’s atmosphere, where they form a network of complex, micro electric relays. Should a zeno form approach or pass through this network, the nanites will polarize themselves to adhere to the invaders craft and begin rapid replication and deconstruction. Small scouting parties often appear to be meteors burning up in the atmosphere. Large fleets, however, are not broken down. The nanites recognizing the sheer size of the invading force cling to the crafts, and will later spread to whatever world the crafts come into contact with.


The nanites that now form the shielding of the planets core will recognize the change in charges occurring in the atmosphere, begin to alter the planets’ polarity continuously should the force refrain from leaving the world for an extended period of time, destroying the environment of the world untilt the zeno's are forced to flee - then the process will begin again thanks to the near limitless replication abilities of the nanites.

But the true power of the chapter lies in the soldiers. No definitive evaluation of their battle tactics is recorded within the imperium, and few rumors exist for most with sound mind dismiss the crazed ranting of those foolish enough to claim themselves survivors.

‘The Eternal Silence’ is the wake of their passing, with not but the shifting nanite sand remains after their passing. Casings, blood, bodies, all are broken down immediately by the nanites flowing throughout the world and the warriors circulatory system upon extermination.

One myth is lent weight – though very little – that the Mongers of blood and Iron never speak. The only sound is the cries of those crushed beneath their boots and the sandstorm swirling about them.

This sand is actually a nanite coating on the armor which acts as a shifting lubricant, dulling the sound of metal clanking to a mere whisper.




That is all I have so far for their back-story, still a WIP. Their visual mainstays will be…

1) Lots of chain – wrapped around wrists, hands, etc. – planning a “chainfist” that is a lightning claw where the claws have been cut off and replaced by lengths of chain with blades on the end – will be hypothetically retractable… counts as power weapon or lightning claw, not sure.
2) Using some chaos bits for chain axes – lots of chainsaw stuff.
3) Using hammers and sickles as power weaons as well – will have another lightning claw that replaces claws with sickle-like blades.
4) Chapter Mast will use giant sickle blades attached by chains – kinda like kratos form God of War – but the blades will look more like those of Gundam Sandrock from the anime Gundam Wing
5) They will have rivets on a lot of plating
6) Primarily a walking wall of death – no bikes, no speeders, but deffinately drop pods, land raiders, thunder fire cannons – Will probably have a couple Achiles from FW as my chapter’s pride and joy – embodied with the machine spirits of two forge worlds which were cleansed or destroyed, no one remembers haha…
7) Will have a metallic, dulled sheen but will be painted up in a sandstone or just rough sand/rock color. Some chips on a few, but mainly just that dirty, rock color stuff.
8) Will have resin desert bases, or custom ones if I can make them look decent…
9) Will just honestly look fairly simple – kinda inspired by iron monger suit from Ironman 1/The golden Army from Hellboy.

And that’s all I have for now. Please, give me feedback. These are a long-term goal, and will be a labor of love and pride. Any advice or criticisms will be much appreciated.

I will try to get some pictures uploaded for reference to a lot of what I've mentioned above.

Good to see your Blog started up Markillius, i will be watching with baited breath
I like how much effort you have put into you fluff as well, one thing i would say is it sounds a bit....Necrons meet Nids but i still like it.

EDIT:You may want this in Dakka P&M Blogs if you are planning on it being continuous, up to you.
Good luck regardless.

Revenent Reiko wrote:Good to see your Blog started up Markillius, i will be watching with baited breath
I like how much effort you have put into you fluff as well, one thing i would say is it sounds a bit....Necrons meet Nids but i still like it.

EDIT:You may want this in Dakka P&M Blogs if you are planning on it being continuous, up to you.
Good luck regardless.

How would I go about moving it? Also, change of plans as this will be a chaos marine army now lol. Don't want to be stuck in one genre if you know what i mean!

No worries about the change of plans, sounds good man (makes more sense in my head now too lol).

I'll ask for it to be moved for you. Future reference: the yellow exclamation mark on the top left? its the MOD alert button (used mostly to report rules infractions, but also for moving threads), hit it and then ask politely for it to be moved, simple lol Ill ask for it to be moved to Dakka P&M blogs

Thanks bud!

So they're a cross between Iron Warriors and Death Guard that control a variation of the obliterator virus mixed the sentience?

Not trying to pigeonhole you, but aside from the very, very, very, very lengthy Stargate SG1-esque replicator explanation, I've gotten absolutely nothing about who/what they are.

Perhaps a bit less 'awesome nanites' and a bit more 'this is who/what they are' would go a lot further into tying both the chapter and their tech into the 40k universe, because as it stands, they could even just be a new variation of Necrons.

I understand that mystery and ambiguity are large parts of 40k fluff, but this is a bit too extreme IMO.

@Project - thank you for your honesty. It is much appreciated. And yes, I know the story is pretty much ranting about what's awesome about them and why they are awesome and not much about who they are. I plan to fix this.

The only thing I ask is that you please bear with me, as this is simply a pet project and falls prey to my Grey Knight obsession taking priority. But, I as was stated earlier they are going chaos now, so the back story is already changing.

Also, I'm not familiar with much of the 40k fluff universe, but what is the obliterator virus? I know it's fairly self explanatory when you take in to account there are units called obliterators, but would you care to lend yoru expertise in the fluff zone please?

Thanks!

imperial aegis superimposed with the hammer and sickle

Hammer and sickle??? Are they space commies???? Coz in this case I absolutely approve your project in the name of the supreme Comrade Superman and I'm proud to announce that the High Praesidium of the Soviets commend your ambitions!

As I haven't had the 3.5 edition Chaos SM codex for awhile now, the best i can offer atm is the lexicanum:

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Obliterator_Virus

The site has been a depository of all 40k fluff for quite some time now (well known, good amount of respect as they do their best to reference/site everything) ever since GW stopped keeping the history/fluff available through their website(s).

Hope it helps.

Here's the original test mini i did for the paint scheme concept. Lemme know what you think of it.

It needs a bit more colour, right ow it could simply be a metal statue...
Maybe some markings or other colours such as Tin Bitz or another metallic colour?

@purplefood - the final scheme willhave more detail, this was just a basic attempt at getting the metal color for the armor.

They will have markings and wear and tear and other standard painting practices applied, no worries.

The metal colour looks nice, with a splash of colour it'll look great, I'll keep an eye on this

I really like the colour mate, really nice effect.

I know you are going for metals, but maybe a dark green for detailing...

Loving the ideas.... Will be watching...

The chain claw idea has my intrest. Do you have an idea for the chains that you would use? Im guessing some form or jewelery chain or Greenstuff/resin.

@pluxtheduck - Yes, I feel the same way. I'm still trying to decide how best to go about the entire scheme. First, I'm going to check out how a model looks if I paint everything and then apply the wash, or atleast some stuff to give it variety.

I thought about doing some not exactly rust effects, but some wear and tear in different colors.

For example - Mithril silver base, wash baddab black, then do some wear marks with mythril silver, having either a red or possibly bubonic brown on the inner portion to look scuffed. Think that would cause a cool effect with the washes. But again, trial and error.

@1-j - Expect it to look like standard lighting claw or wolf claw, but just having retractable chains with sickles attached. ***WILL NOT ACTUALLY BE RETRACTABLE***

I like the idea a lot...

what are you going to do for company heraldry...

Was originally going to be the imperial aegis super imposed on a crossed hammer and sickle, now i'm lending towards the hammer (or sickle, not sure which) hitting an anvil, with the anvil split down the middle.

This will represent their new chaosified back story.

UPDATE - Got great news! The Iron Mongers are officially underway.

What I've got so far for the army (none of it assembled):

10 x MK III Crusade Marines
1 x FW LR Achilles

Planning on only running Achilles style LR's in the army, though I'll mod them out so that they run standard weapon options as well since people would hate to face a bundle of them.

So the following is what I have already Purchased for the army. Let me know what you think.

Stay Tuned for the Chapter Banner and shoulder markings.

And, as usual, let me know what you think. Thanks!

The models you've ordered look awesome deffinatly will give a blocky sharp robot feel to it all

The scheme will go great with the Iron (?) armour and phobos bolters.

Great selection of purchases Markillius, cant wait to see how it turns out!

dmthomas7 wrote:The models you've ordered look awesome deffinatly will give a blocky sharp robot feel to it all

Thanks, it wasn't too hard to find armor that looked just bulky and old school, but the MK III is by far my favorite. The MK IV will be great for the "newer" squad types for the army, but will ultimately rock that same antiquated feel.

Perkustin wrote:The scheme will go great with the Iron (?) armour and phobos bolters.

I personally am not a big fan of the phobos haha. I only got 10 because it was in a lot with 10 each of the umbra and umbra ferrox. But It will definitely give some more diversity to the units.

Revenent Reiko wrote:Great selection of purchases Markillius, cant wait to see how it turns out!

Thanks bud, I appreciate you're feedback as always, and your frequenting of my blogs. This one will start to get some sweet stuff here in the next month, starting with this:



THEME: I've decided that in addition to the antiquated (that's my buzzword for the army theme), I'm going to use cogs for a unified iconography. I've got some great ideas on how to add them to the shoulders quite easily, and I believe that if I do them right it will help with that old, archaic feel on the older, more battle scarred units, but also show some real flash and craftsmanship on the newer guys (DON'T GET ME WRONG, NONE of them, ONE AT MOST, will look nice. Every model will be so damn dirty and have more pockmarks from bullets than you can shake a stick at. But yeah, cogs will tie them all together, and will play into their backstory and their chapters heraldry.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!!!

Lol I bought an additional 5 MK III's, and 10 more MK IV's.


My fast attacks will not have jump packs, but instead run the "EX MK 7A ATP" (Experimental MK 7A Arachnos Transport Pack), that's a secret you'll have to wait to see, but it shall be SWEET.

And this is the first rendering of the chapters Heraldry. This would be the image on their shoulders. And YES, it has changed since the original talk of the chapter. It will all be explained, so please be patient.

I apologize in advance for my terrible Microsoft paint skills...

Oooh, this looks promising!

Regarding the Heraldry, is that going to be laid upon the shoulders of your marines? if so its going to be a pain to paint, there is some very fine detail that would need to be covered. One possible way to get around it is by using the shoulder pads from the rhino accessories sprue the ones with the cog and skull, shave off the skull so you are left with the cog, then paint your anvil and scythe onto it. The older look is going to rock btw, however I'm not sold on the colour scheme, you've already got one army that is based of a similar paint scheme, why not try something a bit different and change the colours up? (stay away from white and yellow, they are b@stards)

Colour me interested on the Arachnos packs..... I want to know more.

Knightley wrote:Oooh, this looks promising!

Regarding the Heraldry, is that going to be laid upon the shoulders of your marines? if so its going to be a pain to paint, there is some very fine detail that would need to be covered. One possible way to get around it is by using the shoulder pads from the rhino accessories sprue the ones with the cog and skull, shave off the skull so you are left with the cog, then paint your anvil and scythe onto it. The older look is going to rock btw, however I'm not sold on the colour scheme, you've already got one army that is based of a similar paint scheme, why not try something a bit different and change the colours up? (stay away from white and yellow, they are b@stards)

Colour me interested on the Arachnos packs..... I want to know more.

Thanks for commenting. And I understand your concern, but I think it will turn out alright. No silver or, yellow, white, tiny bit of red here and there, and definitely no blues haha.

Oh, and just as a thank you for your interest, sending you a PM which should give you an idea about the Arachnos. SHHHHH ! don't tell!

I am very interested to see where you take this project. The fluff has especially caught my attention. I am not sure if I missed this or not, but are the iron mongers a loyal chapter or a chaos chapter?

IceAngel wrote:I am very interested to see where you take this project. The fluff has especially caught my attention. I am not sure if I missed this or not, but are the iron mongers a loyal chapter or a chaos chapter?

Loyal, chaos, doesn't really seem to make much difference anymore haha.

But a great, I'll say it again, GREAT!!! question. The answer: Nothing is set in stone. I'm a guy who spent 3 months re-writing a prologue to a novel 78 times. It is never done haha.

But the plan as of right now is that they are loyal to the emporer, but shunned by the imperium and considered heretics because of their chapters practices (cloning, planet-wide exterminations, doing the emperor's will rather than the imperium's). So, becuase of this I'm going to spec them to be run as either chaos units or Standard Vanilla Marines. Not gonna magnetize them that much though, got my fill of sore fingers between my SW and my GK's, so I'll just stick with what I make.

They are still a highly advanced chapter, but everything they have is deceptively old-school. Their armor masses in the MK III, but their tech implants and cybernetic parts are on par or greater than that of the current chapters because of the centuries of research and "lost" technologies from the heresy, secrets which were kept safe in the data cores of their forgeworld.

The standard units will look odd, like jump troopers, because they'll use a lot of what is in all actuality experimental variations on old equipment or again proven variations that were lost.

The story stuff is in my mind, i just need to lay it out and have multiple people check for clarity and believability, but the overall things about the chapter are:

1) They are (in their minds) doing the emperor's bidding
2) They are aesthetically old and degraded looking
3) Their technologies will appear old, yet new
4) Not a whole lot of flair - simple paint other than seals and the shoulders.
5) I'M OPEN TO IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS!!! PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR IDEAS. This will help me cross check the backs story as well as just get more out of the end result.

Hope this answers your questions and raises new ones!

Update - Bought another LR Achilles.

Trying to get more work done, but it's hard to get all the kinks worked out with my terrible artistic abilities. I know what I want, but just can't get it out on paper haha.

If ANYONE is decent at art and would want to earn a little bit of cash (Key word being a little) for some art work, let me know. I've got the 'sketches' I've done ready to be uploaded almost, so if anyone's interested just PM me please.

Beyond that, keep looking because MORE UPDATE WILL COME..... eventually.... *cough*