Kyle's Horus Heresy Iron Hands Paint Guide — MkVI Marines Build Feature
Kyle's Horus Heresy Iron Hands — Paint Guide
Warhammer: The Horus Heresy · Iron Hands · Paint Guide
A less popular chapter with a simple, polarising paint scheme - and one that gets less credit than it deserves. The Iron Hands are black on black, with their distinctive iron hands of course, and that is harder to depict than it sounds. Highlighting black requires working from as dark as possible with very deliberate, considered strokes. You can't go back over it - black covers everything. Unlike white, it's more forgiving, but it still demands a plan before the first stroke. A dedicated painting-black guide is now here.
This is also a deliberately streamlined guide. Fewer supplies than most of our other Horus Heresy features without sacrificing how the models look - proof that a strong scheme doesn't have to mean a long shopping list.
Kit sources: Legiones Astartes MkVI Tactical Squad (base), heads from the Space Marine Devastator Squad, rocket launcher, chainsword, and bolt pistol from the Space Marines Tactical Squad.
All four Kyle's Iron Hands MkVI Marines - every weapon configuration.
Two Iron Hands - front pose
Two Iron Hands - chainsword and rockets
Power sword - walking toward the camera
Side right - bolt pistol and chainsword
How Kyle Painted Them
A deliberately short supply list - everything you need, nothing you don't. All products in stock at Wheels & Wings.
Mecha Black - Primer and Base Coat in One
Mecha Black serves as both primer and base coat. For an Iron Hands scheme there is no more efficient starting point - the armour is black, and it starts black.
Abteilung Gun Metal Pigment
The armour edge highlights are done with Abteilung Gun Metal Pigment rather than paint - rubbed onto the raised edges and worn areas. Pigment catches on the corners and high points naturally, giving a subtle metallic highlight that reads as genuine wear rather than a painted line. The soft joints are also drybrushed with the same pigment onto the raised ridges.
The Dark Red Ochre pigment is lightly applied to the feet and lower shin sections to unify the figure with the Martian base beneath it.
Abteilung 502 Gun Metal Pigment - the armour highlight choice for Iron Hands.
White Casings, Black Green Ordnance
Weapon casings and other ammo in Corax White, washed with Nuln Oil, then highlighted back up with Corax White. Grenades and rocket tips are Black Green washed with Nuln Oil - the darker green reads as painted ordnance against the white casings.
Rocket launcher setup
Rocket launcher backpack and weapon setup
Gun Metal with Nuln Oil
Model Air Gun Metal on the hands and forearms - representing the bionic augmentations the Iron Hands are famous for - washed with Nuln Oil.
Magic Blue Lenses, Red Indicators, Screaming Bell Pipes
Eyes and large lens attachments in Magic Blue. Head pipes in Screaming Bell. Red indicator lights use Corax White line then Red Ink glazed over - leaving the white showing through slightly for a warm reddish-white glow rather than a flat red.
Eyes, lens attachments, indicator lights, and white weapon casing detail.
Screaming Bell Fins & Iron Warriors Exhausts
Top cooling fins and pipes in Screaming Bell. Exhausts in Citadel Iron Warriors - a darker, cooler metallic that differentiates the exhaust vents from the warmer Screaming Bell above.
Backpack - Screaming Bell fins, Iron Warriors exhausts, and pigment drybrushed soft joints.
Liberator Gold
Liberator Gold on the power sword hilt, hand guard, and shoulder icon - small touches of warm gold that break up the all-black scheme without overpowering it.
Martian Surface - Khaki, Dark Red Ochre & Pigment Fixer
Vallejo Khaki applied as the surface base colour. Dark Red Ochre pigment applied over the top for the characteristic Martian rust tone. Pigment Fixer applied after to lock the pigment in place without dampening it - wetting pigment with water or varnish can shift and darken the colour, so the fixer is critical to keeping that dry, dusty surface appearance.
Base pigment and fixer - all the essentials for the Martian ground.
Mecha Satin - Sealing the Pigment
Vallejo Mecha Satin as the final coat - sealing the metallic pigment onto the armour edges and finishing the model. Satin rather than matt preserves the subtle sheen that the gun metal pigment gives to the black armour.
The full essential paint lineup - deliberately streamlined.
The Finished Models
Iron Hands MkVI Marines. The flesh is weak.
All four weapon configurations
Two Iron Hands - front
Power sword
Bolt pistol and chainsword
All paints used in this guide are in stock at Wheels & Wings Hobbies in Toronto, available online with Canada-wide shipping.
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