77th Grand Company, led by Warsmith Meridius. Admired at Warhammer World by his holiness, Graham McNeill

“Tell them ruin has come to their world. Death, despair and red war. Tell them their hopes and pride have come to nothing. Tell them their empty whispers fall upon deaf ears – their gods are dead, human reason has killed them. Tell them the Angels of Death have come. Tell them nothing can save them now.”

— Perturabo, Primarch of the Iron Warriors Legion

After getting 1000 points’ worth of Iron Warriors’ 77th Grand Company done for The Dark Throne back in April (see here), I’ve been slowly adding to it over the year, with a couple of Rhinos for my troops to help them get across the board better, a Land Raider to deliver my Terminator Lord and Trident into the enemy lines without relying on the fickle reserves/deep-strike fate, and lastly a tooled up Daemon Prince. As always, drybrushing and plenty of dirty washes have been my friend, and the long-term goal is to go back to everything and highlight a few more steps.

First up, a pair of Rhinos, utterly lacking in bling. You can really go to town with the weathering on these, and can get away with being sloppy. Sketch and Paulo, our 2 weathering experts, imparted some good knowledge here. Blister sponge chipping on the edges, brown first, then chrome. Washes in crevices and coming off rivets. Plenty of dirt and rust around the tracks and lower parts. Drybrush some black around any vents to show smoke damage. Also, purple and green washes on exhausts for that oily effect. I also stole Sketch’s spot colour of light blue for the OSL on the headlamps. On the tabletop, they work great for grabbing objectives, and a can fire a couple of emabarked plasma guns out of the hatch too

Land Raider was painted the same way as the Rhinos, but I need to go back and finish off those twin-linked Lascannons. I also did the hairspray trick on the hazard stripes, so it actually peels away in places, as I didn’t put a gloss varnish coat on first, but I’m happy with the accidental outcome.

My HQ, Warsmith Meridius, is decked in Terminator armour, and carries a Power Fist and Lightning Claw, so can choose which weapon to strike with. His Trident retinue carry combi-weapons, so can unleash the melta/plasma before they steam into combat with their power axes

Last up, a plastic flying Daemon Prince carrying a kit-bashed Black Mace. Again, a very basic paint job with a bit of drybrushing, that I can go back to when I feel confident highlighting flesh. On the tabletop, we’re talking a 350 point monster that can absolutely decimate non-vehicles/walkers when it gets into combat. The trouble is, between bad dice luck on perils of the warp and the daemon weapon, I’m usually down to one wound if I get into combat, and it’s not doing the job. Still, it looks big and imposing on the table, and draws a fair chunk of firepower.

All in all, I have about 2000 points’ worth painted up and tabletop ready, so that’s a big tick for my 2014 hobby goal. I’d like to add a few more big toys, as I really enjoyed the weathering aspect, so another Rhino full of troo, a couple of Maulerfiends kit-bashed with those new Maggoth Lords, a Forge World Sicaran Battle Tank, another squad of Havocs need finishing, and maybe some kit-bashed mechanized Chaos Spawn to continue the fast-moving theme and represent the spear tip assault that follows the typical Iron Warriors bombardment and tide of cannon fodder.