Games Workshop ended last Friday's jam-packed New Years preview stream by dropping a batch of teaser images hinting at new Iron Warriors models for Warhammer 40k - but the details are frustratingly vague as to what they're actually going to be. Fortunately for you, Wargamer has an embittered Iron Warriors collector on its staff (it's me, I'm the embittered Iron Warriors collector), who can identify what these models are with the pinpoint accuracy of Perturabo calling down an artillery strike on an allied position.
According to GW's announcement, these models are "part of a new Warhammer 40,000 supplement on the horizon titled Eye of Terror, due out in a few months". I assume this is another narrative expansion like '500 Worlds: Titus' and 'The Maelstrom: Lair of the Tyrant', part of the build up to Warhammer 40k 11th edition, and at least one other Warhammer 40k faction will get some new minis when it releases - my guess would be the Astra Militarum.
Although there are eight preview photographs in GW's announcement, I think they only relate to four new kits, all of them either revamps or call backs to classic kits.
Warsmith
Before every Chaos Space Marine Lord and his Tarrellian dogsoldier could field a corrupt tech priest called a Warpsmith, the Iron Warriors could bring Warsmiths. That's true in the lore, as Warsmith was an honorary rank in the Iron Warriors Legion even during the Great Crusade, and in the miniatures, with the first metal Warsmith miniature released around the same time as the beloved Chaos Space Marines '3.5 edition' codex in 2002.
There are four photographs that show components attached to a power armored marine, and I think they're all from a new Warsmith. The servo arm and warpflamer are each mounted onto the back of a power pack - the thunderhammer is stubby enough to be held by a power armored marine - and the shoulder pad is clearly power armor.
The only real question is whether this will be a generic character (like the new Red Corsairs Reave-Captain), an upgrade sprue (like the ones that make Nemesis Claw or the new Red Corsairs), or a new named character. Or maybe we'll get all three?
Defiler
The massive pincer claw on the end of a roboleg is an iconic weapon of the Defiler daemon engine. And since the current Defiler kit is over twenty years old and has looked like a dog's breakfast for well over a decade, this is well overdue.
Forgefiend / Maulerfiend
The rack of daemon-mouthed smoke stacks along an arched back is exactly the style used for the current twin-model daemon engine kit, just a bit more spaced out. I'm a little tentative on this prediction for one reason - I'm more confident that we're getting a new Defiler, and it is possible that the overhauled Defiler kit is going to borrow motifs from the Fiends to unify the line, and is the real source of this teaser image.
Mutilator
The claw arm mixes flesh and steel in a way that reminds me of both the Helbrute and the Obliterators, and the shoulder pads of Helbrutes and Obliterators are very similar except for scale, which makes that teaser image a little ambiguous. But the Helbrute kit, while old, still holds up well - and the leg is absolutely the thicc calf of an Obliterator. Obliterator + melee weapon = Mutilator.
I could get all my predictions wrong and still be delighted, since these are all teasers for great looking miniatures. Time to crack out the silver, black, and yellow paint again!
What do you think - am I off base? Is there something you'd like to see that isn't covered here - maybe a dual-build kit for the Defiler that could make a new daemon engine as well? Come and let us know in the Wargamer Discord community. Photos of your Iron Warriors armies also welcome! To keep up to date with the latest and greatest stories from Wargamer, you can sign up to our weekly newsletter.