How I Paint: Iron Warriors

Iron Warrior Chaos Space Marines

For the second "How I Paint" instalment  I thought I'd continue the Chaos theme by talking about the Iron Warriors that I've added to my Word Bearer force. I know, Iron Warriors and Word Bearers, it's a little unusual, but I have my reasons.


So why do I have Iron Warriors, the paranoid, bitter and distrustful traitors, fighting alongside my religious zealot Word Bearers? In a word, daemons.

Word Bearers view themselves (or rather, the Adeptus Astartes) as the pinnacle of humanity. There are none in the human race more powerful than the Space Marines. Daemons, on the other side of things, are beings of pure spirituality; thus, to the Word Bearers, the fusion of the two is the most divine form humanity can take, the closest one can become to the true gods of the galaxy, short of daemonhood in full.

The Iron Warriors, on the other hand, are much more secular. To them, daemons are tools, ammunition, fuel for their machinations and war engines.

The Warpsmith Kar'Thanal

Enter the Warpsmith Kar'Thanal, the Warlord of my force. Kar'Thanal, like most Word Bearers, believes in the divine purity of daemonic possession, but after a tenure fighting alongside the Iron Warriors, began to push this drive further and further. Why stop with the possession of the mortal shell? Sure, many of his legions vehicles and weapons had daemons bound within, but to Kar'Thanal, this was not even close to enough. Devoted utterly to the Ruinous Powers and obsessed with his studies of Daemonology, Kar'Thanal will not stop until the entire material galaxy is fused inexplicably with the immaterium; man, machine and weapon, as one with the daemon.

In short, I really like daemons in 40k. Daemon units, daemon weapons, daemon engines... and I wanted an excuse to have as many of these as I could. I imagine that Kar'Thanal, master of binding daemons to weapons and physical forms, has made a pact with an Iron Warrior warband for their services and expertise in daemon engines.

In truth, however, this is all just an elaborate excuse to include some cool models in my army and to paint up some Iron Warriors - something I've always wanted to do but never had the drive to do a whole force.

Iron Warrior Chaos Space Marine 

As usual, I worked from a Chaos Black Spray undercoat. However, unusually, I did the first two steps of both the Power Armour and the Brass Trimming before I continued with each section. In other words, I basecoated both the armour and trims, then washed the armour and trims, then did the Ironbreaker drybrush (across the whole model including trims) before continuing each part separately.

Iron Warrior Power Armour:
Basecoat: Leadbelcher - Large Drybrush*
Wash: Nuln Oil - Wash Brush
Layer: Ironbreaker - Large Drybrush**
Wash: Nuln Oil - Wash Brush
Layer: Runefang Steel - Fine Detail Brush
*As yesterday, these steps are 'all over' drybrushes.

Brass Trimming:
Basecoat: Brass Scorpion - Basecoat Brush
Wash: Agrax Earthshade - Wash Brush
Layer: Ironbreaker - Large Drybrush**
Layer: Brass Scorpion - Standard Brush***
**This step was done across the whole model, as detailed above.
***A neatening up stage, leaving a bit of the Ironbreaker drybrush showing on the edges of the trims.

Iron Warrior Chaos Space Marine

Gun Hazard Markings:
Basecoat: Averland Sunset - Basecoat Brush
Layer: Abaddon Black - Detail Brush
Layer: Averland Sunset - Detail Brush****
Wash: Seraphim Sepia - Wash Brush
****Small 'scratches' of Averland Sunset were added across the black stripes to simulate damage.

Eye Lenses:
Basecoat: Ceramite White - Detail Brush
Wash: Biel-Tan Green - Wash Brush
As shown on page 95 of "How To Paint Citadel Miniatures" and shown on the DVD.

The bases are detailed exactly as with the rest of my Word Bearers, shown in this blog post.

Iron Warrior Chaos Space Marine with Meltagun