Storm Falcons

[Mortarion]

Recently, the Scout showcase thread got me searching through my gaming cabinet and dig out one of my older armies, that I have not posted here before. After taking photos of the scouts I looked at the other models and thougth "Why not post these as well?". And why not indeed. I enjoy looking at pictures of other people's armies so it's only fair that I show some of my own, and not just my newest stuff. However, many models in this army is quite old so do not expect them to look like my more recent stuff. Fortunately, I have evolved as a painted and sculpter over the past ten years. ;)

 

The Storm Falcons

 

Background

Back in 2001, I had decieded to stop building more 40k armies. I had two already and noone could possibly need more then two armies, right? But I could use a small painting project. I had seen a really cool Golden daemon winner in the squad category called "The Sons of Sparta". It was a squad of greek/spartan inspired marines. I figured I would do something similar, but with an ancient egyptian theme. So I bought a tactical squad and an old Light wizard from Warhammer fantasy and set off to create egyptian marines. After some thinking I wanted to keep the egyptian theme on regular marines quite toned down and make the theme stronger in characters. They should be Space marines with an egyptian theme, not ancient egyptians in power armour. After the squad was done I realised I had som terminators from Space hulk 2nd ed sitting on my desk. Allthough the project was done I could paint those. And I just had to buy those really cool newly relesed metal scouts. And then I got a really good deal on another tactical squad. And I realised I had a land speeder lying around, waiting to be painted. Around this time I realised that it was going to be an army, whether I wanted it or not. For many years, the Storm Falcons was my main army. It was the army I kept coming back and add stuff to. Now, my Flesh tearers have taken that role, as they are more fun both to paint and play with, but the Storm Falcons will always have a special place in my heart.

 

HQ

 

Thesas Aritchert Bahati - Chaplain of the 3rd company

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/chaplain.jpg

Some of my earliest work in green stuff. I had an idea that the chaplains would have masks looking like egyptian gods rather then the usual skull masks. The sculpting is quite rough and it might be a bit too colourful, but I still think the idea works. This model was my only HQ choise for the army for a long time.

 

Thesas Sentchtemt Atensef – Captain of the 3rd company

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/captain1.jpg

I started with the concept for this model sometimes in late 3rd ed. At the time, all Space marine armies could include an Emperor's champion as a special character. I made a concept sketch to see how it would look in a Storm falcon version. I wanted the weapon to look like it could be used in both one and two hands. With the release of the 4th ed Marine codex, I changed the concept a bit and made him into a captain. I'm still really happy with the weapon. It was the first time I tried out that effect for a power weapon and I've been using it ever since.

 

Thesas Thaparthal Baseka – Captain of the 1st company

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/captain2.jpg

Many years ago I won a painting competition at my local gaming store and got a free blister. I didnät really need anything at the time, so I took the newly realeased terminator captain, since it was a cool model. It ended up in a drawer for a long time, but sometime around 2006 I finally got around to actually paint it. And put some more time then usual into it.

 

I also have a librarian but his weapon had been broken. I'll fix it and post pictures in a few days.

 

Troops

 

Squad Scarab – Tactical Marines

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/tac01.jpg

The original squad I painted back in 2001! Not much conversions and quite some trial and error. A funny thing is that a lot of the stuff I just painted at random on the models then, have since been made into honour markings and used on several models.

 

Squad Cobra - Tactical marines

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/tac02.jpg

The second squad. Also from 2001. Some more conversions on this one.

 

Rhino

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/rhino01.jpg

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/rhino02.jpg

A transport for the second squad. It also features some very early green stuff sculpting.

 

Squad hawk - Tactical marines

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/tac03.jpg

A quite late addition to the army. Painted in 2007 I think. You can really see progress here as both painting and modelling are much better then the original two squads.

 

Squad Viper - Scouts

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/scouts01.jpg

The scout squad from the original army. Varied weapons as I wanted to try painting different types of scouts.

 

Squad Asp - Scouts

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/scouts02.jpg

When the plastic scouts were released I wanted to try playing a scout-themed army for a small tournament at my gaming club. So in late 2005 and early 2006 I painted a lot of scouts. This is one squad.

 

Squad Hyena - Scouts

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/scouts03.jpg

And here is another squad.

 

Squad Mirage - Scouts

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/scouts04.jpg

When the sniper scouts were realeased I wanted to try them out, so I added a unit of them.

 

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/scouts05.jpg

I had this idea of the camo cloaks morphing into the same texture as the ground. The closer they came to the ground, the more they changed. So on the standing scouts the bottom part of the cloaks have begun to adopt some kind of sand texture but on the kneeling scout you can see even more sand and some rock texture as well.

 

 

Hope you liked them! I will post more pictures later this week.

[Ammonius]

I really like these guys!

Creative imagery, well executed conversions, and a great theme that is presented in a beliveable way. Kudos!

[Kierdale]

Beautiful work. Will have to steal some ideas for my 1kSons!

I particularly like the scanner mounted atop a tactical marine's bolter, and the bow and arrows on the rhino, not to mention the hieroglyphs! Lovely little details that really add character.

[Mortarion]

Thank you.

 

Here are some more pictures.

 

Elites

 

Siunetherit Setimerit – Dreadnought

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/dread01.jpg

Another model from the original army done in 2001. When I was thinking about ideas for hte army I was looking at the pictures of bitz in the back of the old 2nd ed marine codex and noticed that the front part of a dreadnought (where the "pilot" is kept) is called "sarcophagus". Then it struck me. A mummy sarcophagus! It would look cool and actually made sense since a dreadnought is close to a walking tomb. I had almost no experience with green stuff but that did not stop me from trying to scratch build a sarcophagus. I think this is actually the third or forth thing I ever sculpted in green stuff (and all things built before were small symbols and stuff like that). I was quite proud of it back then. But the crocodile skin did not look good even in 2001. It looks like someone ran over Kermit the frog with a steamroller. :P

 

The banner shows the pilot's last stand as a living marine, an idea I later used on my Deathwing army as well.

 

Ayhahest Orokokepu - Dreadnought

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/dread02.jpg

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/dread03.jpg

As time went by and I grew better at sculpting I was less and less impressed with the sacrophagus. I liked the idea, but felt I could execute the idea much better. So I built another dreadnought. This is from 2005 or 2006 I think. The banner was really fun to paint. How would ancient egyptians paint orks?

 

On the lower picture you can see the weapons used by the pilot while he was alive, now attached to his arms.

 

Squad Crocodile – Terminators

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/terminators01.jpg

As I mentioned in the background section, I painted some terminators from 2nd ed space hulk before I realised it was going to be an army. Quite soon I added an assault cannon to the quad. And sometime during 4th ed I added some more terminators and another assault cannon.

 

Squad Sobek - Veterans

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/vets01.jpg

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/vets02.jpg

This squad was such a fun project. I started it in 2005 because I really wanted to try and create a squad of individual veterans. My goal was to make it look like a squad of eight special characters, each with something to remember them by. However, the project was put on hold for various realons and was not finished until early 2007. The squad is now illegal as veteran squads have been divided into Sternguards and Vanguards, but I still like this squad very much.

[Fire Lord Captain]

Such an amazing, original and characterful army!! Well done on all the conversions. I particularly love the way you paint the sergeants chest eagle red and green, it really makes them stand out.

[Fire Lord Captain]

Such an amazing, original and characterful army!! Well done on all the conversions. I particularly love the way you paint the sergeants chest eagle red and green, it really makes them stand out.

 

EDIT. It appears to be so good I said it twice..

[War Angel]

What a colorful army, I really like the imagery you've captured with these guys. Very well executed too I might say

[WarriorFish]

That's a great yellow and the banners are brilliant! I'm not sure what to be more impressed with, your army or that fact you can limit yourself to only building two :)

[Mortarion]

That's a great yellow and the banners are brilliant! I'm not sure what to be more impressed with, your army or that fact you can limit yourself to only building two :)

Thank you. But I might have been a bit unclear about the "two armies" thing. In 2001 I had decided not to build any more armies since I had two. But then this project evolved into an army. But that would be my last army. I thought. But when I had to finish this army (the original models) for a tournament a painted quite a lot. And after the tournament I could not really "go cold turkey" and stop painting altogether. So I started painting some orks. And then it went on with nre armies. Right now I am painting my ninth army.

[Mortarion]

Fast attack

 

Squad Sphinx - Assault marines (on foot)

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/assault01.jpg

This was one of the first additions to the original army. Built early 2002. They were never really worth their points in any edition, but they were quite cool.

 

Squad Sphinx - Assault marines (with jump packs)

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/assault02.jpg

A few years later I wanted to add an assault squad with jump packs, but faced a problem. Each battle company only have two assault squads. And for my army one of them was the assault squad on foot and the other was formed into land speeder crews (since land speeders are crewed by assault marines). Since I did not want to borrow a unit from another company (which would mean different colours) I used the same number and name as my squad on foot. I figured I would not use them both at the same time anyway. When building the models I tried to make them look quite much like the original models, but not make them exact copies.

 

Squad Khamsheen - Scout bikers

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/scoutb01.jpg

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/scoutb02.jpg

A squad of scout bikers built from normal scouts and normal bikes since the plastic scout bikers had not been released yet. I think these were built around 2006 or 2007.

 

The Claws of Amun - Land Speeder Tornados

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/speeder01.jpg

Two land speeder tornadoes. At the time I made them everyone used land speeders with assault cannons and heavy bolters. I wanted to have something different so I armed them with multimeltas and heavy flamers.

[SickSix]

WOW! What a fantastic army! The conversions are superbly done, and the free-hand is excellent! I love this army. Some awesome inspiration for anyone wanting to do a 1k Sons army.

[Lord Ragnarok]

These have great character!

[Mortarion]

Time for the last models in the army.

 

Fast attack (continued)

 

The Fist of Amun - Land Speeder

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/speeder02.jpg

This was one of the first things I added to the original army (together with the assault marines on foot). I had this old metal land speeder left from an old project and I thought "Why not paint it in Storm Falcon colours?". I wanted to do something special to it so I added the claws and tail from an old giant scorpion model from Warhammer fantasy. They are ment to be something built to look like a scorpion, but a lot of people tend to see it as a mutation.

 

Heavy Support

 

Squad Scorpion - Devastator marines

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/devs01.jpg

The original army had two devastator squads, one anti-tank and one anti-infantry. This is the anti-tank squad. Originally the two squads were 6 and 5 marines strong. I then added marines so they became 6 and 7. Later, I added more members so they both became 8, and much later I painted some AoBR-marines to make them both full strength squads. It's allmost never worth the point cost to have them at full strength IMHO, but it's quite cool to have 10-man squads.

 

Squad Am-mit - Devastator marines

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/devs02.jpg

And here is the anti-infantry squad, with a close-up on some of the hieroglyphs painted on one of the backpacks.

 

Wrath of Sutekh - Vindicator

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/vindi01.jpg

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/vindi02.jpg

A vindicator. Also a part of the original army. Some early attempts at battle damage and weathering, something I have used much more on my later armies (especially my Flesh tearers).

 

And finally, the librarian I didn't post earlier.

 

Thesas Tehenraau Abebtchaas - Librarian (Codicier)

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h233/Bulonicus/Storm%20Falcons/libra01.jpg

When building my captain (see above) I really enjoyed the design aspect of the whole thing, where I drew a concept sketch and then tried to build something from that. So I created another character that way. And for a long time, this librarian was leading my Storm Falcons to battle, summoning sand storms at the enemy (I think the power was called Wrath of the ancients, you drew a line from the librarian and anything under it took d3 S5 hits and had to take a pinning test - perfect to represent sand storms!).

[Renoster]

Attention to detail and individualisation is breathtaking. Bravo sir!

[Brother Cambrius]

I don't think I have seen so unique an army as this. Very nice "Aegyptus Astartes" Mortarion! Each and every one has its own character and personality and the close combat weapons look fantastic! What blades/weapons did you use, especially on your Captain and Beaky Veteran form Squad Sobek (right on the first pic of Sq. Sobek)?

 

Cambrius

[WarriorFish]

That's a great yellow and the banners are brilliant! I'm not sure what to be more impressed with, your army or that fact you can limit yourself to only building two :D

Thank you. But I might have been a bit unclear about the "two armies" thing. In 2001 I had decided not to build any more armies since I had two. But then this project evolved into an army. But that would be my last army. I thought. But when I had to finish this army (the original models) for a tournament a painted quite a lot. And after the tournament I could not really "go cold turkey" and stop painting altogether. So I started painting some orks. And then it went on with nre armies. Right now I am painting my ninth army.

Ah, that sounds more like it albeit the other side of the scale :P I am impressed for a different reason now :ermm:

 

I like the xeno head trophies. I've been meaning to add a collection to my Marine force since the beginning but despite acquiring a good collection of dirty alien and traitor heads I've yet to get around to it.

[Mortarion]

Thank you!

 

@Brother Cambrius: Almost all special close combat weapons fall into one of three categories: 1. Normal weapons cut into a slightly different shape. 2. Tomb kings bitz. 3. Plasticard and greenstuff.

 

The power armoured captain's weapon is made from a power axe combined with an old 2nd ed Chaos power axe (upper blade and lower powerthing) and a Tomb kings glaive blade (the lower blade). The terminator captain's sword is from the Tomb kings Casket of Souls (one of the guards). The beaky veterans weapon is plasticard and green stuff, but it is very much inspired by one of the Tomb kings Ushabti weapons.

[Xenith]

Very nice and coehesive force!

 

Do they ever see the gaming table?

[Mortarion]

Very nice and coehesive force!

 

Do they ever see the gaming table?

Thank you.

 

Nowadays they almost never see the gaming table. When I play marines I play my Flesh tearers. But looking at the old models when taking photos of them made me think about playing some games with them again.

[AlexCrute]

Certainly one of the best armies of their time.

 

Scorpion speeder is hilarious! Snip!

[Adeptus-Alaska]

so......how'd you get that yellow?

[Mortarion]

so......how'd you get that yellow?

It was originally Bubonic brown. But when GW changed that colour (but kept the name) I started mixing in a little bit of Bestial brown to make it look like the old colour. And if I remember correctly, one of the old foundation colours worked pretty well. I think it was Iyanden darksun. But with the new GW colours... I have no idea.