Making Eric Morkai

[Eternal Warrior]

Hail Wolf brothers! I am just now kinda getting back into 40k after a long break and have decided to reignite my wolves. (starting from scratch though) I love the fluff and fight style of Eric Morkai but since you cannot give a Wolf Lord the saga of the hunter (part of me understands and part of my is furious) How do you think is the best way to represent him? Maybe a Wolf Guard Battle Leader second in command? Not sure where to go and any help will be much appreciated.

[Arcus]

Hail Eternal Warrior! Erik Morkai is my favorite WL too, and it still pains me not being able to attach him to wolf scouts, but after much reflection i think (IMVHO) it would be against his style to be running with them anyway! he uses WS more then any other Lord but he is famed mostly for brutal effieciency (sp?) than stealth... his is the way of swift and exact destruction of his enemys. WS are an excellent way of smashing the rear lines of his enemies, but they work best when given the opportunity to via "distractions" up the front.

 

In my view Erik Morkai is a calculating master strategist, who uses all of his forces in perfect concert to tear apart his foe before they really know whats going on... i see his strat as being closely related to (and please dont kill me for this) the Eldar, in that all of his men work together as efficiently as possible. Personally, i would put Erik with some grey hunters - the most efficient of our boys, to hold a vital spot on the battlefield or to break the enemys lines where it will do the most damage. i also see a fair amount of fast attack choices belonging in a morkai army... two heads and all that!

 

As for loadout... well, frost axes are swift (stays at Ini) and bloody (+1 Str), with a combi-melta to smack the enemy hard and still assault. the saga is tough tho... beastslayer could reflect his cold cunning, being able to stay cool and pick out the weakspots even when faced with a charging 'fex, but bear could reflect the same feeling in him being ready for what the enemys got and therfore being very tough to pin down and kill... (im thinking you can explain it a little like Rangars dodge....)

ummm yeah thats all i got hehe sorry if its a little ranty, and i hope i helped!

[Primarch015]

im planning on making a morkai conversion sometime in the next couple months. i too, want to stay very close to the fluff, but the only fluff on him is that he employs stealth tactics a lot and favours scouts. he is also said to be grim looking. my vision of grim looking is shaved head, maybe a short mohawk, and some stubble with lots of scars on his face and pale skin. basically, nothing too "loud" like a big beard or red hair, etc. for his armor i was thinking very plain runic armor (his brother is a rune priest, couldve forged him some runic armor, who knows) with a cloak (like a scout sniper cloak), bare arms with only the shoulder pads on or maybe only one shoulder pad on. For weapons im thinking something combi melta and two small frost axes (i stress small because i want them to represent tomahawks rather than big unwieldy battle axes) or two frost knives (ala snikrot). no "loud" weapons such as chainswords, thunder hammers, power fists, that just ruins the whole "stealthy" element of morkai. hope my vision of morkai helps with your conversions.

 

edit: for his head i was thinking something along the lines of the warhammer fantasy marauder horsemen mohawk head. what do u guys think?

[Araith]

Frost knives are a very cool idea. I wouldn't model them as real knives though. Instead try to find or model some really, really big teeth. Frost weapons are after all made of the teeth of Kraken, and as knives actual huge teeth do fit.

[Wolf Guard Hengist]

I'd say model him how you need him to fit into your army. Since the new codex described each of the Great Companies there has been this idea bouncing around that Erik Morkai is some kind of hide in the shadows cloak and dagger type which is nonsense really. The codex says that his company boasts a great many of Wolf Scouts in his company sneaks it does not say Erik Morkai sneaks around like a wolf scout.

 

I do agree that making him that way would portray such image nicely but in my opion a Wolf Lord does not sneak around, he is a hammer and a leader of the army that leads by example and from the front. But at the end of the day it is of course a matter of opinion there will be some that agree with me and some that dont, you always get that on a forum.

 

I'd say do him the way you want and the way that will make you think "That is one cool model"

[Kenmichi]

edit: for his head i was thinking something along the lines of the warhammer fantasy marauder horsemen mohawk head. what do u guys think?

 

What about the small mohawk head in the new space wolves pack? I think he had some sideburns but you might be able to remove those.

[Schertenleib]

I'm trying to basically model the look on the Codex cover. That is Erik Morkai after all. IMHO

[Araith]

I agree with Wolf Guard Hengir that Erik Morkai shouldn't be a cloak and dagger man. He is indeed a Wolf Lord, leading his wolves in battle. But ideas such as those frost knives and that mohawk head are ideas that can show his image as a grim warrior who quickly makes short work of his foes, probably a dirty fighter.

[Legacy]

**Uses his wolf strength to pull this thread from the Rune Librarium.**

 

I made a Morkai Lord firgure a short while ago but had no camera. i knew this thread was talked about before so here:

 

Erik Morkai (blurry as he is) weilding a Wolf Lord Bolter, Morkai Frost axe. made from Grey hunters kit and a pair of space marine assault squad legs. For a finishing touch i need to Green stuff some tubes from his axe to his shoulder.

Morkai 1

 

Morkai 2

 

Morkai 3

 

Morkai 4

[Schertenleib]

Very nice.

Here is mine:

[Brother Caleb]

Hail Wolf brothers! I am just now kinda getting back into 40k after a long break and have decided to reignite my wolves. (starting from scratch though) I love the fluff and fight style of Eric Morkai but since you cannot give a Wolf Lord the saga of the hunter (part of me understands and part of my is furious) How do you think is the best way to represent him? Maybe a Wolf Guard Battle Leader second in command? Not sure where to go and any help will be much appreciated.

I know I'm late to the party, but I too struggled with wanting to give Morkai the hunter's saga. However, if one focuses on his grim, brutally violent mentality, it seems that saga of the warrior born makes a good fit. What better way to show a character's brutality efficiency that by increasing his killing efficiency based on his previously brutal acts of violence?

[Requiem of the Wolf]

Hail Wolf brothers! I am just now kinda getting back into 40k after a long break and have decided to reignite my wolves. (starting from scratch though) I love the fluff and fight style of Eric Morkai but since you cannot give a Wolf Lord the saga of the hunter (part of me understands and part of my is furious) How do you think is the best way to represent him? Maybe a Wolf Guard Battle Leader second in command? Not sure where to go and any help will be much appreciated.

I know I'm late to the party, but I too struggled with wanting to give Morkai the hunter's saga. However, if one focuses on his grim, brutally violent mentality, it seems that saga of the warrior born makes a good fit. What better way to show a character's brutality efficiency that by increasing his killing efficiency based on his previously brutal acts of violence?

Morkai holds a definite spot in my heart as well lol...and yes..I believe that he would be Warrior Born Saga,And honestly,even as a Wolf Lord,he would still favor Weapons he felt comfortable with...So yes a Pair of Frost Tomahawks or a Silenced Bolter would be entirely appropriate. As for a head..I think that either a short mohawk from the wolf pack box...or a Dwarven Trollslayer head would work nicely,depending on how the size compared. Especially since chances are they will come with fun and interesting scars as well.

[Adarul Greystalker]

In my opinion, there should've been an Erik Morkai special character in the codex. The way that his army is described as fighting is a bit tough to replicate through the army list as it is, and I think it would be more appropriate to allow scouts to be used as troops or allow some of your grey hunters to infiltrate (perhaps by attaching him to the squad like Shrike) or something like that. Even if you don't think that Morkai himself should be sneaky (and while I don't personally agree, there could certainly be a case for this point and I won't argue it with you), major elements of his armies are described as using stealth, and that's really not possible with space wolves as it is.

 

Honestly, I've always seen stealth as a big part of space wolf combat doctrine (in as much as such a thing exists!). It's true that they often play the role of rampaging berserkers, carving bloody swathes out of enemy lines, but they're also often portrayed as cunning hunters, stalking their enemies overland, sneaking into advantageous positions before falling violently upon their foes, and setting up ambushes rather like a wolf pack might. The duality between guile and ferocity is part of what defines space wolf combat tactics and makes them interesting. Erik Morkai embodies both sides of that duality quite well, in my opinion, and I would've liked to have seen some special rules for him that reflect that.

 

I personally use a wolf guard battle leader with saga of the hunter instead. He's part of Grimnar's wolf guard and was once the most cunning and celebrated wolf scout in the chapter. With that kind of background, he can be as celebrated and larger-than-life as a wolf lord might, and I think of him as something of a stand-in for Erik Morkai.

[Walter Payton]

I modelled mine with a hooded cloak, a frost blade and a bolt pistol.

[Tsuro]

When I get around to building a unit of scouts I'm pretty much resolved to doing a WGBL/WG to go with them, and in my mind he'll be Eric Morkai.

The way I see it, he'd likely have a kick-ass suit of scout armour somewhere for his solo missions, (which I see him accomplishing solid-snake style) so I'm going to model that. Hopefully it'll look that much better than the regular scouts that it'll be obvious his save is higher.

Anyway, this is the sketch I did way back when I had the idea. Apologies for the bad quality but it was drawn on the back of a print out, and my scanner picked up the text (which obviously had to be removed).

The decision to have him clean shaven with short, swept back hair was a consequence of my wanting to try and illustrate his cold/calculating manner. I thought it would separate him from the 'jovial' space wolves usually seen.

I went for a frost-sword and combimelta (which I was trying to find a way of making compact without turning it into a bolt pistol/inferno pistol hybrid) because it 'seemed' right.

Obviously I've worked in the double-headed wolf wherever I can.

Tsuro

[Schertenleib]

Honestly, I've always seen stealth as a big part of space wolf combat doctrine (in as much as such a thing exists!). It's true that they often play the role of rampaging berserkers, carving bloody swathes out of enemy lines, but they're also often portrayed as cunning hunters, stalking their enemies overland, sneaking into advantageous positions before falling violently upon their foes, and setting up ambushes rather like a wolf pack might. The duality between guile and ferocity is part of what defines space wolf combat tactics and makes them interesting. Erik Morkai embodies both sides of that duality quite well, in my opinion, and I would've liked to have seen some special rules for him that reflect that.

 

I have to admit this is one of the things about Saga of the Hunter that made no sense to me. We are all about the Wolves. Why can't SotH be taken by TWC or why can't Fenrisian Wolves infiltrate or outflank? Are you really going to tell methat a large predator can't sneak up on you?

[Skirnir Ragefang]

Frost knives are a very cool idea. I wouldn't model them as real knives though. Instead try to find or model some really, really big teeth. Frost weapons are after all made of the teeth of Kraken, and as knives actual huge teeth do fit.

 

There is this Ork Commando guy with two really awesome knives. You could use those. Anyway, i might steal this idea for a Wolf Scout Pack leader.