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Well to follow on my new post in the WIP forums bringing back Operation Reclamation, which some of you older members may remember form around 2010-11, here's the Completed, or "Reclaimed" thread, where I showcase the completed miniatures from my exploits! Now to start off with, I'm very embarrassed to say the first mini I'm showcasing is one that I in fact damaged/abused. After getting my first Storm Talon through the post from GW, I immediately got to work on building it and I decided it would be in the colours of my newest Space Marine army, a Crimson Fist successor called the "Vanquishers", who are the masters of city-fighting and urban warfare. Unfortunately, I made a mistake I will only ever do once, after discovering what a lamp's light bulb does to a Storm Talon if too close. I was trying to dry the blue wash on the cockpit glass, but I got too engrossed in an Imperial Armour book and must have lost a few minutes, which led to this horrific outcome, after 12 hours of work on it: Needless to say, I was pretty stunned and felt a bit hollow after seeing what I'd done, the Talon was so close to being finished too, all it needed was some washes, detail painting and transfers and then it would have been finished! But pretty much immediately after this moment of neglect happened, I immediately got to work on making emergency repairs, seeing this as a chance to make my Storm Talon look a teensy bit more unique. Grabbing my Green Stuff, I started to work on fixing the giant hole in the Talon and start making a base for my plasticard shrouding on the aircraft: Eventually, I managed to build a suitable Plasticard cockpit shroud/cover, making it look like a field addition for added shielding and worked on finishing the Storm Talon and its base. Unfortunately, the painting gods were clearly not on my side as more calamities befell the Talon. My black wash went crazily goopy and all over the place, leading to horrific streaks and other nasties and the 'Ardcoat I added onto the cockpit area did not cooperate well with the plasticard, leading to a bit of a mess on the front edges...but I stuck to it and finished the Storm Talon up, leading to this: And here's a better look at the base, where I made a custom satellite dish using a round base and some sprue pieces, along with other detritus I had in my bitz box. The Vanquishers are the masters of city/urban warfare, so I wanted to emphasise that with the pieces on the base: Whilst the Storm Talon isn't drop-dead gorgeous, I'm very proud and happy with how it looks after my huge error. Unfortunately, I had no way of repairing the upper vent intakes on the Talon, so I've kept them as they are and I've come up with a back story for this Storm Talon to explain its appearance: The Storm Talon "Kalore's Revenge", is a venerated aircraft in the armoury of the Vanquishers chapter. Kalore's Revenge has a very unique cockpit shrouding addition to it, along with distinctive battle damage along the top of its fuselage. This damage, and the subsequent naming of this Talon to be "Kalore's Revenge" emerged in the wake of the fall of the Hiveworld Kalore in M37; where a Chaos incursion, led by the Oblivion Warriors occurred. In the final days of the war, where the Imperial forces worked on evacuating as many citizens and Imperial assets as possible, the Storm Talon and its pilot, Techmarine Tandiel worked on harassing enemy aircraft to prevent them from attacking the evacuation forces. Despite the overwhelming numbers against Tandiel and his Storm Talon, they successfully brought down four Heldrakes and two Hellblades, before a squadron of Heldrakes managed to score a direct hit on the Storm Talon with a combined cataclysmic torrent of balefire. The top of the Storm Talon suffered serious damage, with the cockpit and upper fuselage being melted away and warped from the tainted flames, but remarkably, in his sheer stubbornness of refusing to die, Techmarine Tandiel and the Storm Talon continued to battle with the Chaos flyers, taking out the squadron with barely contained fury before retreating after expending all ammunition and running out of fuel. When Tandiel returned, his fellow Techmarines were stunned and awed by the damage wrought upon the aircraft and the apothecaries marvelled at how Tandiel was still alive, despite suffering catastrophic burns to his upper body and bionics. Eventually, with Kalore lost to an Exterminatus and the Vanquishers returning to their homeworld of Caeron, the Techmarines of the chapter began to work on repairing the Storm Talon. Despite the horrific damage from the taints of warpfire, they discovered that the Machine Spirit within the aircraft was defiant of the damage and still pure from any taint. Eventually, the Storm Talon and Tandiel were ready to take to the skies once more, with both having been extensively repaired and healed form their damage. The Storm Talon was giving extra reinforcing to repair its damage and was given an up-armoured cockpit, which also added sensor filters to better aid its pilot in dogfights. Upon flying with his Storm Talon once more, Tandiel declared that it would be renamed "Kalore's Revenge," bringing fire and vengeance for all those lost on Kalore. Kalore's Revenge continues to serve in the Vanquishers' forces, attached to the Fourth Company and has earned further honours since the Fall of Kalore. To pilot this aircraft is seen as a great honour and responsibility amongst the Techmarine pilots of the chapter and only the very best are permitted the honour to fly it into battle. And that's that! I will hopefully bring new images of reclaimed miniatures soon, now that I have a RT Land Speeder being stripped along with a classic Apothecary, so stay tuned! Any and all comments/critiques are greatly welcomed and appreciated! Cambrius