Iron Warriors and Terrible Decals

I know what you're thinking, "What kind of a title is that? Are his decals crappy and yet he's showing off his squad?" The answer is kinda yes.

Hi guys, Macca here, and today I am going to show you my new tac squad, aka what a month of procrastination looks like. However, I am quickly going to change topics and go into talking about Games Workshop decals about halfway through.

I decided to change to black rims on the bases this week, I really like the brown, however I felt I just wasn't getting the contrast, they honestly looked like a 70's apocalypse movie, just brown on brown. Too boring.

The paint job is nothing too interesting, I know, but these are currently only tabletop quality. Down the track I will add some scratch marks to go with the armour chipping, I will also do more highlights on the flesh on the bare head. As it is, I'm wanting to get this army to playable in the quickest fashion, rather than going straight at a Golden Daemon.

Angry Macca and Shitty Decals:

So, at this point, let's swap topics. I used a mix of decals on these models. I used Forge World ones on the knee (for the squad number) and the right shoulder (for unit type). Then I decided, in a truly stupid clusterfuck moment, worthy of derision, that I would use the 40k Iron Warrior emblems on the shoulders, rather than embossed pads. Rookie, so very, very rookie.

This is one of the better decals, yet you can clearly see the edges of the decal in this image, about a quarter of a millimeter from the silver, however, that's an optical illusion, more on that later.

On the squad Sergeant, you can also see some crinkles on the cranium of the skull. This is despite a ton of decal thinner and a lot of time spent working on each decal (4-5 times as long as any other decals).

By contrast, this Forge World decal is almost flawless.

The Problem:

Take a look at these decals. The decal areas are far larger than the item printed onto them, this means you will need to trim. Not just that, the decals are very thick, making them incredibly hard to apply smoothly.

Further to that, have a look up close. See anything odd? That's right, that's the silver skull and the black features not lining up. This is something I didn't notice until I applied them to the miniature, as the silver blends into the pale background of the decal sheet. This then led me to 'paint' over any overhanging silver, leading to the optical illusion that the emblem is nowhere near the edge of the decal, despite my trimming.

These Black Legion emblems are perfect examples of shit printed decals.

What is this? Seriously? That's a vehicle decal, that gap is almost a millimeter!

This set of Ultramarine symbols are almost not even printed onto the decal area!

I thought at first I just had a bad batch. Then I decided to go through my decal collection (It's a big one) and I realised that every chaos decal sheet, collected from 2003-2014 (when I gave up on 40k) are all this bad. This is not isolated at all, these are very poor quality decals.

The Actual Point?

Now, I know, I whinged and moaned all the way down this page. But in the end, my point is this:

Don't use Games Workshop infantry decals. They are shit, they will potentially ruin your expensive models.

You see, I am providing context here, it's no good me just saying "these suck", it's important for me to actually show why. This is 'bitching with a purpose'.

Anyway, all this aside, I am pretty happy with the squad, the second tac squad is in a similar state, so I have no choice but to continue on and do the best I can with them. I'd like to know how other people have dealt with this problem. Has it ever come up? Have you tried your best, followed the tutorials and yet the decals don't work? Please let me know, I' love to hear your stories.

~Macca

Narik Dreygur, Praevian Consul of the Iron Warriors: Part 2

Wow, hasn't a lot happened already this weekend? (That's of course for our overseas bloggers, for those of us here in Australia, it's actually closer to Monday than Friday now). Anyway, enough of that, here's what you came here to see: Narik Dreygur!

This miniature is incredibly detailed. Something approaching the actual Character Series, in my humble opinion! Check out the grim specter of death emblazoned onto his tabbard.

I also elected to paint some knee hazards, something I don't often do. After painting it and comparing it to the Forge World model, I noticed that's exactly how they did it too!

There are also 3 distinct gouges I have painted onto his power fist. I'm gonna call these the Wolverine marks.

This lens on his pistol is absolutely tiny. It was a bitch to paint, but in the end, I got there.

A Praevian Consul in all his glory.

Check out his banner....

What do you think? If you want to know how I did any particular, please feel free to let me know. Also feel free to leave feedback in general. Also, a shout out to Eadwine for supplying me with this miniature. Without him, I couldn't have got it without paying some price gouging fuck my first born baby, so cheers for that mate!

~Macca

So, it's been a little while, but I wanted to share the newest Praetor joins the ranks of the Iron Warriors. There are big things in the works from all the crew here, and unfortunately we've all been too focused on getting things done. This will change soon, so expect quite a few updates in the coming month. ~Macca

Expect a different helmet on this guy, I'm just waiting on the parts I have ordered to arrive.

Iron Warriors: Iron Havok Squad 2

Hello! Macca here with the latest addition to my Iron Warriors Legion project. Today, I have some more Iron Havoks, this time equipped with Autocannons. The new camera lens I am using takes super detailed images, so every speck of dust, every missed paint stroke, it's all proudly on display!

The unit itself is converted from the Iron Hands tactical squad kits, and the Autocannons have actually been modified slightly: I removed the belt feeds and added drum feeds by using the spare heavy bolter mags from the other Iron Havok squad. I like the effect, no matter how useless in battle such a modification may be!

There has been some back and forth among the crew here at AGIF about the pose on these guys. Basically I'm all for these cocky guys leaning around on their guns and mocking their enemies, however the guys are right.... it looks a bit strange with such oversized kit, so I may have to heat and end these guys in future.

The squad markings are straight out of Book III: Extermination. The triple devestator chevron looks very sexy once in place.

 
Up close you can see the imperfections in my hazard stripes. These will get some gently battle damage soon, but I wanted to show them off as they are now, imperfect. I do not paint perfect hazards, "Dammit Jim! I'm a man not an airbrush!".



There it is, two of my FOUR heavy support choices, with the infantry leading the way. I have no AP2 or AP3 here, in fact, they are kinda weak choices (the heavy bolters that is), but I like the infantry and the theme, so if I lose games but stick to my theme, so be it!

Until next time,

Macca

Iron Havok Squad 1

I know what you're all thinking: Three posts in three days from that asshole Macca. He was too busy to put anything up for a month, now he gives us 3 posts in 3 days. Yes, I'm as bad as BOLS for click-baiting sometimes.

But hey, at least I show what I promise?

So, what did I promise today? Converted Iron Havoks, that's what! Iron Within, Iron Without Brothers and Sisters.

The squad leader has all the kit, including servo skulls. Mechanicum bitches love servo skulls.

The shoulder marking is a nice simple one. Also note the pattern I applied to the drum mag on the heavy bolter, and on top of his helm in the next picture.

I have chosen to have very few minis in this army unhelmed so far. This is one of them, because I love this sculpt, it's perfectly detailed.

Believe it or not, this is the only member of the squad with some hazard stripe markings. I chose to keep them really tones down here, as the Iron Hands kit these minis are based on already has quite a lot of bling.

So there you have it. In game, this loadout is a bit meh. Their weapons cause cover saves taken against them to be at -1, however they also lose a point of ap for using shrapnel (pinning) rounds, making them kind redundant in this role. On the plus side, the unit has tank hunters, so against units like rhinos and skimmers, these guys may just pull off some kills.

Why might I use this unit if I am not a fan of them weapon-wise? Because I don't care. The rule of cool trumps tactical usability any day haha.

(For those who are curious, the bases are quite plain at the moment. Well, that's because this army is making the move to 32mm shortly)

Thanks for checking them out,

~Macca

Iron Armour: The Coolest Armour?

In my humble opinion, MK III, or Iron Armour, is the coolest armour going. This is a strict opinion article, and I wrote it just because I wanted to share some of the things that I love about this armour and why.

What makes it so cool? Well, as far as a sculpt goes, it has a lot more going on then the armour that comes after it. You have large pauldrons, a classic medieval knight helm, large greaves and vambraces (arms and shins), with lots of smaller details, such as overlapping plates on the rear of the legs, and rivets and trim all over. As far as the painting process is concerned, all the pros of the sculpt come in to play. Large areas on the torso, shoulder and shins mean you can have some real fun with freehand or decals, and the rivets keep the plates from being boring.

The Legion Command options are even more interesting, as they take these elements and add the classic imperial symbols, such as olive wreaths, golden gilding and Greaco-Roman weapons, and iconography. The MK III platform really lends itself to this.

The custom Legion variants of MK III are also the most impressive of all (make your arguments for MK II and IV, I'm keen to hear them), with the Iron Hands and Salamanders thus far getting the real treatment, but the upgrade kits for the Death Guard and Imperial Fists are very impressive.

Lastly, the breachers are fantastic. Rules-wise, you don't really see them as a popular option, outside of zone mortalis, but the rule-of-cool means they often see use on the battlefield.

That's it, just a simple opinion piece, let me know what your favourite armour MK is and why,

Macca