Iron Snakes: Squad Lakodeme - TO DONE!

Hi folks,

At last. For those of you who have been following my progress over the past six months, you will know that I have been working on a squad of Iron Snakes Sternguard with siege mantles. They were the first project on my 2014/15 To-Do list, so I guess you could say I am a little behind schedule ;-)

The marines are all equipped with MK III Iron Armour with a simple helmet and shoulder pad swap from Chapterhouse Studios. Seven of the marines are equipped with combi-plasmas (also from Chapterhouse), two have plasma guns and the Veteran Sergeant has a power spear. All of the marines are equipped with siege mantles from Forge World. I have also included in the squad an apothecary and standard bearer, in keeping with the Iron Snakes reference material.

Within the squad, five Iron Snakes factions are represented: Cetus, Aries, Asklepios, Taurus and Scorpios. You can tell which faction each marine belongs to by his helm and/or shield design. I'll explore these factions and the main characters of the squad in my next post; it is time to establish a suitably grim/dark background for these guys!

Veteran Sergeant Thanatos of Cetus

Thanatos and another marine of Cetus

 

Squad Standard Bearer and a fellow marine of Aries

The Apothecary and fellow marine of Asklepios

Some simple details on the Narthecium. By this stage I didn't have much mojo left...

The heavy hitters; plasma gunners of Taurus.

Marines of Scorpios fighting in the shade.

The most difficult parts of the project were the free-hand shields, which represent the factions I have mentioned. I originally created some digital mock-ups using PowerPoint as a reference. I found this was a great help, as I could plan where the lines should start and finish, as well as identify lines that were vital for the "look" of the image. Get those lines wrong and you may as well pack up for the night.

Scorpios, Cetus, Aries, Asklepios and Taurus. Bonus points if you know where the names come from...

So... I guess the next step is to use them in a game. Hobby-wise, my next step will be to paint an accompanying Contemptor Dreadnought and a Master of the Forge to command them. I am hoping that they don't require an equally epic effort to complete, though there is something very satisfying about getting out the big red stamp for this particular project:

 

Squad Lakodeme holds the line against Hive Fleet Numereji

See you across the table,

M4cr0