Horus Heresy Kyr Vhalen

This is my custom made Iron Warriors character Kyr Vhalen from the Horus Heresy!

I really enjoy the lore behind the Warhammer Horus Heresy, and now with that time period being fleshed out with the Black Library novels it is even more immersive. I also have... lets just say access to all the Forgeworld Horus Heresy books, which are stellar. For those of you who have never checked out any of the Forgeworld books, think an Osprey historical campaign book set in the Warhammer 40k universe. These books flesh out the military equipment and organization of the forces it covers using great illustrations and photographs. They specifically cover the origins, equipment, tactics and history of the Space Marine Legions in much greater depth than the novels (or perhaps in a much more believable manner than the novels).

One of the legions that is fleshed out more is the IVth legion, the Iron Warriors! The Iron Warriors are one of the nine space marine legions that turn on the Emperor and sided with Warmaster Horus. I'm not all about the 40k Chaos Space Marines, don't get me wrong, they are good villains but they don't appeal to me in the 40k universe. Flash back 10,000 years to the time of the Horus Heresy and those space marine legions are just turning traitor. Well lets just say when the Primarchs (leaders of each legion) turn traitor, not all of their troops go along with them!

One such space marine was Kyr Vhalen, the Warsmith in command of the Iron Warrior's 77th Grand Battalion. Not all of the some 100,000 odd Iron Warriors would side with their Primarch when the Horus Heresy broke out, Vhalen's 77th Grand Battalion would fight against the full strength of the traitor Alpha Legion and Dark Mechanicum forces on the planet Paramar. The planet would fall to the traitors but Kyr Vhalen would survive the battle, full of hate for his traitorous brothers...

Kyr Vhalen. made from old bits and the new plastic Mk III marines.

There is currently no miniature for Kyr Vhalen but the Horus Heresy - Book 3: Extermination covers his equipment in great detail. Therefore I set out to create a custom miniature for the warsmith.

I started with a plastic Mk III space marine torso, legs and arms, then I modified the backpack power unit with a metal servo arm from a techmarine. The head is from the new Legio Custodes plastics and the Volkite Charger is a cut down resin Volkite Caliver. I had an old metal powersword sitting around that I used for his paragon blade. The I finished things off with various pouches and some ork bullets behind his head for the Iron Halo or Cortex Controller wargear.

I cut down a Volkite Caliver to make his Volkite Charger.

I used a metal 40k Space Marine servo arm, mounted to the plastic Mk III backpack.

His Paragon Blade is a really old metal space marine power sword.

His head (which is the first space marine with no helmet I've made) is from the Legio Custodes sprue.

The pouch on his hip is from the original Rogue Trader plastic beakie marines.

I added some Ork bullets behind his head to represent his Iron Halo or Cortex Controller.

Overall I am very happy with this conversion as it was my first attempt at and Iron Warrior from the Horus Heresy timeline.