Well, it happened.
I knew we would get here but did not predict that it would happen this quickly. Orks were a no-brainer for my first Warhammer 40k army as I've loved them since I was first discovering the game in high school. Something about giant rowdy mushrooms that grow bigger the more they fight and love nothing more than a good scrap always seems like the perfect antithesis of the turbo-fascist Imperium of Man.
My Ork force has built up nicely and less than a year into playing Warhammer I have over 2500 points of various Orks troops, vehicles, commanders, and mechs. This has only been possible because I've been looking for custom pieces on etsy that are much more affordable then GW plastic and have been kit-bashing like a fiend to create whats needed.
Now, as I decide to start my second army, I am sticking with that same strategy.
When GW does this:
I do this:
Monstrous War Chest is a store I've been keeping an eye on for a while. I went back and forth between starting Death Guard or Iron Hands and I had a entire 1000 point custom Death Guard army pieced out through this store last week. Price wasn't even the main motivation here; In my opinion custom plastic is not sometimes nicer than GW sculpts.
Look at this amazing Death Guard starter force from the Immaterium Gods line:
I'm in love with that Titan but what really grabs my attention are the Plague Marines. Those are nicer sculpts than GW sells in my opinion. Any army I build will always contain GW and non GW plastic. I think it would be slightly disrespectful to roll up to a gaming store with a box full of stuff they don't even sell (especially if it's also unpainted...).
Thankfully, I was able to round out the force with some official GW models I've been wanting to paint for years like these beauties.
The Iron Hands are my absolute favorite loyalist chapter and always have been. Honestly, before I found their lore I felt like nearly all the space marines were just different flavors of the same thing: Space Soldiers. Not my Iron Hands though.
"Only when by the power of our hate we have truly shed the prison of our own flesh, shall we be judged worthy to stand at the side of the returned primarch. Every foe I slay, every stone I cast down, makes my hatred purer, and the day Ferrus Manus is restored to us a day closer."
Iron Father Klaanu Johar
The iron hands core belief is that THE FLESH IS WEAK and, in a universe where their Adeptus Astartes flesh is the closest thing to a physical embodiment of the Emperors love, many consider their obsession with self-modification sacrilegious. Add to this that many Iron Hands forces are hermetic orders lead by self-governing councils of ancient soldiers encased in the battle-sarcophagus the Imperium of Man have named Dreadnaughts. These are a stripe of Marine all their own.
They hate themselves. They hate their allies. They hate their enemies. Their Primarch is dead. Yet they stand. They fight gainst both loyalist brother-chapters who they believe should have fought HARDER 10 thousand years ago and the ancient enemy of all Humanity: Chaos.
On the table this looks like fewer infantry than nearly any other chapter, many techmarines with their additional servo-arms, and massively powerful armored tanks and dreadnoughts. To make this force my own I have also picked up a few upgrade bits you can see here:
Crypto paid for all of this and, as someone who is going to be a new father this year, thats the only reason I'm able to buy any of this. I've been putting a lot of work into conquering our detached garage to turn into a play space and hang area.
So far, it's moving slow.
I was able to take some time this weekend and move stuff around, toss out enough, and clean up enough to get a sheet of MDF placed so I can wrap my mind around the area that needs conquered first. Cleaning up this gurage and getting all my nerd-clutter into it before my wife is too pregnant to do much at is has been a battle.
It's good to be fighting a battle that makes both my wife and I very happy right now though! Please follow me to see how it goes and stay safe until we meet again!