After almost 20 years, I have a painted army.

When I got into playing Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy, some time back in either 1992 or 1993, I played two different armies. In Fantasy I played Dwarves (Not Dwarfs because I, unlike GW know how to spell the word), I played Dwarves because I like beards, I like Dwarves, and I still do. In 40k I started off with Blood Angels, probably because they were included in the box and because they had this mystique about them of being freakish space vampires.

When you are that age, things like that are cool.



At that age I picked up a single GW paint set and started painting, first on marines, then on the Dwarves, then on marines, etc etc. But never did I stick with one project for long enough to actually finish it. Sure I would finish whole units of Dwarves, one time I finished a unit of Spearmen with a total of 30 guys in it. But I never finished an army, I still have that Dwarf army, and it is still not fully painted. Those Blood Angels have long since vanished from my collection for the most part, either in trades, into the trash, or what have you, I honestly don't know anymore.

But right around 1996 or so, I started painting an Iron Warriors Chaos Marine army because, hey, siege warfare is cool. And that army I did nearly finish, only needing to finish the Berzerkers and some other random bits of stuff to be finished. Then I stopped playing 40k for about three years, came back, played my gray plastic Imperial Guard heavily, and then after my Iron Warriors walked away, I started rebuilding them, only this time, I had a plan.

Like so many others, I fell onto the Pre-Heresy bandwagon, and while some went with just painting a space marine army in the colors of the old Death Guard, I went a different route. I started converting each and every single one of the Iron Warriors in the army. Each figure had weapon swaps, hand swaps, back pack swaps, head swaps, removal of Imperial Eagles, and more. Each and every single one of the guys I was building had extra effort beyond what I would have ever imagined doing for a single rank and file trooper.

And this past Thursday, I finished it. I painted the last of the Iron Warriors I have done at this point. I finished them one and all.

Now, that doesn't mean I won't be building more, painting more, and expanding quite a lot, but the basic core of the army, the troops, the heavy support, the transports, the leaders, and the elites are all done.

So, allow me to proudly present the first army I have ever actually started, continued, and finished in my nearly 20 years of playing Games Workshop games. I give you...

The Iron Warriors of the 9th Grand Company.

Pictures below.