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The 3 spiders are giving me the creeps in that pic! look like some of the soft red and grey bad boys I get around home!

Awesome army! Varied yet coherent, great paintwork throughout, and it's come together in good time too!

Nice work Az! Probably barely dents the undead horde you've got laying about but I'm sure it's a nice feeling to have so much more of it on the right side of the brush

In the thread itself we saw how much awesome work was done, nothing as good as seeing units getting finished and armies getting done and your Undead/Gondor look great.

Sorry guys, I've been heavily distracted and dealing with a bout of the dreaded Man-Flu lately, and not spending much time on the blogging front. I really appreciate all of the feedback and comments

At risk of being slightly repetitive, here's a final picture of all of the units that I managed to complete for the Undead and Gondor armies in the past 6 months. This obviously doesn't include all of the other random figures or scenic bits that I finished in the same timeframe. (Though that grave I painted up is in the background.)



6 months worth of focused army painting. Completed additions to my Undead and Gondor forces. I'd planned to also photograph all of the Gondor models I painted separately, but it seems that I forgot. D'oh! These "section" shots will have to suffice.



Gondor Reinforcements on the right, led by Denethor and Forlong, while a dirtied-up Faramir leads his veterans.



Denethor and Forlong survey the ground that lay in front of their small force.



On the other side of the table, Neferata and Bastet lead their own, larger reinforcements to the rest of the Undead army, who will bow to their new Queen.



Queen Neferata and Bastet stride forth before their shambling horde of followers.



Now I'm going to do some more updating on the Jan-June thread... depending on how much there is to do I might need another round after this...

Awesome work sir!

Brilliant stuff and delighted to be joining the next round

That's a pretty impressive spread. I'd love to see both armies in their entirety.

Some serious paint envy here. I'm lucky if I can get one model done completely :(

Great work Az, really like the skulls puking blood

I purchased the Assassinorum: Execution Force boardgame (interestingly, listed as No Longer Available on the GWAU site) a few months ago - it might have been around Christmas. I purchased it not only for the miniatures (new plastic Assassins) but also fully intending to play it as a boardgame, since it got decent reviews, is co-op and apparently also works as a solo game. Naturally, I haven't done a damn thing with it to date (hello, Deathwatch: Overkill!)

Recently, GW released the "Sector Imperialis" base range. With a somewhat reasonably-priced set of HIPs bases with a close-enough-to-spaceship texture now available readily and easily in 32mm, I picked up a set with a vague idea of rebasing my nascent Iron Warriors on them, as the resin ones I'd purchased years ago are all 25mm and now verboten for Space Marines. Actually, I think Marines (and a lot of other models) look better on the 32mm bases, so after an initial WTF reaction, I'm now well sold on the idea.

After picking up the bases, I put two and two together, and decided to use the Chaos Space Marines from Execution Force as my test subjects, as while they're reasonable sculpts, they're simple push-fit marines, and so perfect for proof of concept work. This what happened:



My biggest concern was that unlike, say, the Imperial Fist featured on the box art for the bases, the Iron Warriors in their, well, Iron/silver coloured armour with copper and brass accents with hazard stripes to break up the uniformity would not contrast enough with the bases, given that the bases are also painted in shades of silver iron, typically with the use of brass, copper and occasionally hazard stripes to break up the uniformity... um....



I ended up giving the bases an additional watered-down black wash to try to define them more strongly from the marines. I'e used gunmetal on sections of the flooring, and the checkplate has a thin touch of blue to it that can be seen in person, if not in these photographs. I also used two of the new Gemstone paints for the first time - Soulstone Blue on the eye lenses, and Spiritstone Red on the bolter targeters. They turned out ok, I guess.



Transfers are from the Forge World Iron Warriors decal sheet. Oh, and I sliced the "joined horns" off the guy on the righthand side. I don't particularly like those (or these giant ribbed horns, truth be told) on my Chaos Space Marines. They don't really fit my image of what I want for my Iron Warriors force. I see them much more as Renegade Marines than as Slaves to Chaos, so you probably won't see another set of those giant horns anytime soon (smaller ones are okay, in limited use). I mostly wanted to avoid very similar chop-ups on 2 of the 3 models here, and being combination boardgaming models and proof of concept models for the proper force, just let them be.

As a bonus, these three count as my first entry for the Tale of Many Gamers Painting Challenge II. Sure, they're not a legal 40k unit, but they are a "complete unit or group" for the Assassinorum: Execution Force boardgame.

I welcome any thoughts or feedback on the bases. Do they work for Iron Warriors despite the shared/similar palette? I'm not likely to add specific additions like blood spatter to them, and I'm not sure about weathering powders since I like the inferred "starship interior" look of them as well. I'm also considering using these for my Deathwatch: Overkill and even Space Hulk bases when I paint those sets of models, especially given the additional contrast from those models.

Damn those are some nice hazard stripes

I think the dark wash on the bases was the right choice. Have you considered some kind of weathering/rust for the bases as well? That would further delineate the two types of metals.

Top notch!

Those look great Az. Do quite like the iron warriors and u've done a sweet job on them.

Great looking minis in this thread. Love the Iron Warriors!

They really are some of the nicest most well painted Iron Warriors I've seen! it's a mix of the old GW stye and more modern takes on them and I really really like them! especially the stripe, so rich and well done.

Great army shots of the Undead.

Iron Warriors on the 32mm bases look great too. Nice work.

EDC

The Iron Warriors look great, especially the chevrons, so sharp, I envy your steady hand! And those bases do indeed make for good starship themed bases. I feel a stupid idea coming along..

The iron warriors look great, especially with the classic hazard stripes. The bases don't draw away from them at all. The darker wash really helps differentiate them.

Lovely work. It's even somewhat inspiring me to start painting my minis from the game (I got around to assembling a few of them, and playing a couple of times, but no paint yet). I'm off to Dark Sphere to pick up an order today -- may grab some of the new bases too! It's probably nearly a year since I last did any significant 40K painting (it's been all fantasy skirmish games for me), so many thanks for the inspiration.

I think the bases look suitably different enough from the Marines that look great. I just wish that those bases had been released before I bought and made Execution Force and Overkill. So as for the Gemstone paints do you think they have any wider uses/potential?

Lovely job there Azazel. Had to make sure I was looking at the right blog for a moment there, though. Not seen 40k stuff on here in ages lol.

If you can, pick up the rules for the Daemon Prince scenario. That makes a pretty big difference challenge wise. When I fought DP Drask, you will remember I only won by the skin of my teeth lol. I also used the DV Chosen instead of the 20yr old snap fit models that came with the box or some of my brother's Black Legion guys.

Superb stuff! Some of the best IWs I've seen!

Az- Any chance of a step by step on those stripes? They are whopper!

Wow, very impressed by those Iron Warriors!

The Iron Warriors look great. Exactly how I think they should look. Now paint an army of them for me.

I think the black wash on the bases really helps to define the marine from the base and definitely was the right call.

 Ustrello wrote:
Damn those are some nice hazard stripes

Thanks mate!

 JoshInJapan wrote:
I think the dark wash on the bases was the right choice. Have you considered some kind of weathering/rust for the bases as well? That would further delineate the two types of metals.

You know, that's so bloody obvious, yet it didn't occur to me at all. Despite the fact that I've done it to other checkplate bases. Thank you!

 GrimDork wrote:
Top notch!

Thanks!

 Januine wrote:
Those look great Az. Do quite like the iron warriors and u've done a sweet job on them.

Thanks Jan. Hopefully the other ones will turn out a lot more interesting.

 viney wrote:
Great looking minis in this thread. Love the Iron Warriors!

Thank you - I plan to get a few more of these guys (finally) finished now!

 nerdfest09 wrote:
They really are some of the nicest most well painted Iron Warriors I've seen! it's a mix of the old GW stye and more modern takes on them and I really really like them! especially the stripe, so rich and well done.

Thanks Damo - pretty much what I'm going for. Elements of both the older and newer styles using what I like and discarding the rest (except for that one pair of horns!)

 evildrcheese wrote:
Great army shots of the Undead.
Iron Warriors on the 32mm bases look great too. Nice work.
EDC

Thank you. I'll get the full army shots of the undead up by the end of the week.end. I'm happy with how the IW are turning out on 32s as well.

 BrookM wrote:
The Iron Warriors look great, especially the chevrons, so sharp, I envy your steady hand! And those bases do indeed make for good starship themed bases. I feel a stupid idea coming along..

Thanks Brook. I do enjoy doing the chevrons. I'm interested to see/hear about your idea....

 Bottle wrote:
The iron warriors look great, especially with the classic hazard stripes. The bases don't draw away from them at all. The darker wash really helps differentiate them.

Thank you Bottle. I'll be doing a mix of IW as I've been collecting/hoarding models for them (and old-school Crimson Fists) for quite a few years now. Though the Chevrons will feature throughout, since I like 'em! The comments in this thread have helped a lot in my decision to go ahead with the rest of them.

 Thraxas Of Turai wrote:
I think the bases look suitably different enough from the Marines that look great. I just wish that those bases had been released before I bought and made Execution Force and Overkill. So as for the Gemstone paints do you think they have any wider uses/potential?

I think it's that last, extra black wash I gave them that made the difference. I felt that they were too similar for awhile there. I'm now cutting my older IW that I never quite finished off their 25mm bases and rebasing them on these - and then doing those final touches that I never did in the past. Alex from Leadbaloony tried them out to give a laquered metal look to (Eldar) armour. I haven't had the project to trial them for something like that yet, but it seems like they might have some potential there.

 Ian Sturrock wrote:
Lovely work. It's even somewhat inspiring me to start painting my minis from the game (I got around to assembling a few of them, and playing a couple of times, but no paint yet). I'm off to Dark Sphere to pick up an order today -- may grab some of the new bases too! It's probably nearly a year since I last did any significant 40K painting (it's been all fantasy skirmish games for me), so many thanks for the inspiration.

Thanks Ian. The only problem is that I'm now working on my other IW instead of the cultists. After I finish the 20 or so IW that are in progress, I guess....

 angelofvengeance wrote:
Lovely job there Azazel. Had to make sure I was looking at the right blog for a moment there, though. Not seen 40k stuff on here in ages lol.

If you can, pick up the rules for the Daemon Prince scenario. That makes a pretty big difference challenge wise. When I fought DP Drask, you will remember I only won by the skin of my teeth lol. I also used the DV Chosen instead of the 20yr old snap fit models that came with the box or some of my brother's Black Legion guys.

I think I downloaded them from the BL site some time ago, but I'll check again this weekend. I think you'll be seeing a lot more 40k stuff now that I've loosened my painting shackles a little from previously only getting Gondor and Undead finished each month with everything else shoved to the side. Having a tight focus was great for getting a ton of coherent stuff done, but really got old in terms of painting for enjoyment. I don't think I'll use the DV Chosen style models for my IW at all, though - nor the RT-era CSM that I have. I'll keep it solidly in the space between 2-3e CSM, "modern" SM and the HH stuff. The more ornate and twisted DV style models, and the older stuff I'll use for a different, more corrupted fallen legion(s).

 Paradigm wrote:
Superb stuff! Some of the best IWs I've seen!

Thank you Para. Hopefully you also enjoy the stuff I have in the pipeline.

 Zaku212 wrote:
Az- Any chance of a step by step on those stripes? They are whopper!

I'll do my best - hopefully this weekend. The main ingredients are a fine brush and a steady hand, but I'll try to take some pics when I do some more at the end of the week/on the weekend.

 Mymearan wrote:
Wow, very impressed by those Iron Warriors!

Thanks mate!

 Archer wrote:
The Iron Warriors look great. Exactly how I think they should look. Now paint an army of them for me.
I think the black wash on the bases really helps to define the marine from the base and definitely was the right call.

Thanks Archer. I'll try and paint an army of them for me first. Once I've got a few units painted up, I'll see if someone can start to bash them into a workable army list - though I almost wonder if I should wait until 8th for that, now?


And since this is a Plog, Here are the WIP Minotaurs and Iron Warriors I'm working on. (4 of them finally got right arms in the last couple of nights!) Hope to have all of them done on the weekend since I don't get to do all that much after work during the week. Bloody Undead and Gondor that I need to get done in the background of last night's shot!

All looking very nice Azazel. Painting marines in metallics can be an easy way to bang out a fair few Marines at once, but your IW and Minotaurs are obviously a step or three above that. The rebasing onto 32mms sounds like a tedious project.

Rebasing? Ugh. I hate basing so much as it is, I can't imagine going through the whole process again.