Mortarion's Flesh tearers - the collected thread

[Mortarion]

Those of you who have been on this forum for a long time might remember my Flesh Tearers army. I have been working on it in periods since 2007 and posted much of it here. However, the pictures are spread across multiple different topics, many of the threads are quite old and the old Photobucket links now have a quite ugly watermark on them. When looking at the old pictures I also realised that many of them are quite bad. So I decided to try and collect all of my models from my Flesh tearers in a single thread. This will mean many models posted before, but now gathered in one place and with better photos where needed. And also some new stuff. So over the coming weeks I will try to update the old photos. I will keep the first posts as placeholders for links so that it will be easier to find the models you are looking for. Bear with me as I fix the photos and add links as it will take some time...

 

The overall theme for the army is a strike force that has been on campaign for a long time and now everything is worn and dirty. I chose the Flesh tearers because they have very limited resources according to the background, but also their BA heritage allowed me to do artwork and ornamentations that have now been worn and damaged. There is something tragically beautiful about the once noble sons of Sanguinius who are now on a more and more desperate struggle for survival.

 

Anyway, on with the links:

 

HQ - Named characters

Chapter master Gabriel Seth - Link

Chief Librarian Alucard (counts as Mephiston) - Link

Primaris Chief Librarian Alucard (counts as Primaris Mephiston) - Link

High Executioner Virgil Caine (counts as Dante) - Link

The Exsanguinator (counts as Sanguinor) - Link

 

HQ - Other characters

Captain with jump pack - Link

Chaplain on foot - Link to be added

Chaplain with jump pack 1 - Link to be added

Chaplain with jump pack 2 - Link to be added

Chaplain in terminator armour - Link to be added

Sanguinary priest on foot - Link

Sanquinary priest with jump pack - Link

Librarian on foot - Link

Librarian with jump packl - Link

Librarian in terminator armour - Link

Librarian Dreadnought - Link

Edited July 24, 2020 by Mortarion

[Mortarion]

Troops

Tactical squad 1 - Link

Tactical squad 2 - Link

Tactical squad 3 - Link to be added

Sniper scouts - Link

Intercessor squad - Link

Incursor squad - Link

Assault intercessor squad - Link

Edited August 28, 2021 by Mortarion

[Mortarion]

Elites

Sanguinary guard squad 1 - Link

Sanguinary guard squad 2 - Link

Sanguinary Ancient - Link

Death company squad on foot - Link to be added

Death company squad with jump packs - Link

Death company dreadnought - Link

Terminator squad - Link

Vanguard veteran squad - Link

Dreadnought - Link

Furioso dreadnought - Link

Reiver squad - Link

Invictor Warsuit - Link

Bladeguard veterans - Link

Judiciar - Link

Edited March 25, 2021 by Mortarion

[Mortarion]

Fast attack

Assault squad with jump packs 1 - Link

Assault squad with jump packs 2 - Link to be added

Assault squad on foot 1 - Link

Assault squad on foot 2 - Link

Attack bike squad - Link

Land speeder squad 1 - Link

Land speeder squad 2 - Link

Heavy support

Devastator squad - Link

Predator - Link

Baal predator - Link

Land raider - Link to be added

Hellblasters - Link

Edited December 8, 2019 by Mortarion

[Mortarion]

Dedicated Transports

Rhino 1 - Link

Rhino 2 - Link

Razorback 1 - Link

Razorback 2 - Link

Drop pod 1 - Link

Drop pod 2 (death company) - Link

Dreadnought drop pod - Link

 

Flyers

Stormraven gunship - Link

Edited August 7, 2019 by Mortarion

[Mortarion]

And now finally some pictures! A new squad of Intercessors.

 

(I posted this picture in the showcase thread for primaris marines earlier.)

 

Closeups of the models. The company most of my old belong to (4th) has now run out of numbers, so I switched to a new one - hence the yellow blood drop.

 

And finally some details of the sergeant. His should pad is similiar to my other sergeant and shows a combination of the company symbol (in this case a yellow blood drop for 2nd company) and the first company skull, to show that he is a veteran sergeant.

Edited August 2, 2019 by Mortarion

[Mortarion]

A tactical terminator squad. Most models are based on the Space Hulk terminators. They have had some minor conversions (mostly removing BA iconography) but are mostly as they were. I really like the sculpts. They have a bit more battle damage then my normal marines as they are supposed to be ancient and can withstand lots of damage without being destroyed.

 

Sergeant.

 

Assault cannons. The barrels of the second cannon were damaged when I sprayed them. At first I thougth about fixing it, but then decided against it. According to the background, assault cannon barrels are worn out really fast. They should be changed after every mission. Should be. But since the theme for the army is that they have been i prolonged combat and have low resources, I figured it could actually look cool with worn out barrels. 

 

"Normal terminators".

[Mortarion]

My librarians:

 

In terminator armour. The model is the Space hulk one with a few minor conversions. The biggest one is the force weapon. The axe head on the original looked good, but the way he held it just looked stupid to me. Why would he hold up the flat side to the enemy? So I decided to make it into a force staff instead. A staff enhances the image of warrior mystics and looks quite cool if done right. 

 

Since this was my first librarian I thought a bit about colours on this one. The Blood Angels follow Codex Astartes when it comes to librarians, meaning blue armour. at the time of painting I hadn't found anything about Flesh tearer librarians, so I assumed they would be the same as BA ones. The Eavy metal version of this model features a red tabard. I thought about doing somethin similar to tie it in with the rest of the army. However, I never really liked the way it looked on the "official" model and I didn't think I could have done it any better. I just don't think a red tabard looks good. So I went totally Codex Astartes and used a yellow one.

 

On foot. The banner helped me to add a little red and black to tie him in with the rest of the army. Since he looked quite calm and as if he was waiting for the enemy rather then casting a psychic power or charging into battle I did not paint the classic "psyker eyes" on him.

 

With jump pack. And "psyker eyes"!

 

Librarian dreadnought. Most of it was built before the Furioso kit was released so it is based of the Venerable dreadnought kit.

 

And finally Chief Librarian Alucard - counts as Mephiston. When creating my version of a named character I always start by thinking about what the essence of the Character is in order to figure out what needs to stay the same and what I could change and still make my version instantly recognizable. With Mephiston the simple version of my conclusions was "Space vampire". But I kept the armour and robes as well. And I wanted my model to be a lot more dynamic then the rather static original model. Like most of my Flesh tearer characters I also wanted this one to be a bit darker then the Blood angel version. The Flesh tearers do not really have the same angelic gloriousness to them as their founding chapter. Giving him dark hair and simply using the darker Flesh tearer colours helped me a lot with the darkness and the "evil" eyes did their part as well. For some reason I come to think of the first Evil Dead-movie when I see his face, but I guess that is a good thing...

Edited August 2, 2019 by Mortarion

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Flesh Tearers.

[ranulf the revenant]

Oh yes! Very nice all around. Particulary like the smokey blue power weapon effect, how did you do that?

[Mortarion]

Oh yes! Very nice all around. Particulary like the smokey blue power weapon effect, how did you do that?

Thank you! I used the same principles as simplified NMM. Each surface has a transition from dark blue to white and each adjecent surface has the opposite transition. So, for example, if one surface has white at the top and blue at the bottom, the surface next to it would have blue at the top and white at the bottom. And then I added the lightning bolts on top of that. Lots of thin, watered-down layers is the key. When I get around to adding pictures of my Sanguinary guard, there will be better pictures of the effect.

 

And now for some Vanguard veterans.

The whole squad. Even though the Flesh tearers do not have a dedicated veteran company I still decided to make these come from the 1st company, hence the skull as company marking.

 

The sergeant. Since I could not do my usual "company symbol mixed with skull" to mark him as a sergeant (as his company symbol already was a skull) I added a laurel to it.

 

Flamer and a normal veteran. When I started building this unit Vanguard veterans did not exist and "Assault veterans" were a BA-specific unit which could take special weapons. That is also why the unit does not contain any storm shields.

 

A normal veteran and a "Flesh tearer" (counts as powerfist). I use buzzsaw blades as powerfists on all my non-terminator marines.

 

And some normal veterans.

[The_son_of_Dorn]

I've been leaning toward flesh tearers now for a long time, now im leaning even more so.

 

Great work. Specially on the shoulder pad skull detailing!

 

P.s. love the hazard stripe chain axe too!

Edited August 3, 2019 by The_son_of_Dorn

[Oshikai]

I rember thos Army from Years ago, been a Fan back then still love them no. Didn`t you have even more models with that circular saw Fist Thingy? Great Stuff all around! The Terminator Unit has to be my Favourite, plain awesome.

[Mortarion]

I rember thos Army from Years ago, been a Fan back then still love them no. Didn`t you have even more models with that circular saw Fist Thingy? Great Stuff all around! The Terminator Unit has to be my Favourite, plain awesome.

Thanks. Yes, there are quite a few other buzzsaw/powerfists in the army. They will show up as I keep adding pictures of the units.

 

But first the leader of the Flesh tearers - Gabriel Seth.

I think the official model is OK, but when I started the army I set a "rule" for myself that I may not use any parts that are not plastic or green stuff. Today this may seem quite easy, but back then a lot of models were not available in plastic. And it also meant I had to make my own versions of named characters. I tried to keep it quite close to the original, but I changed a few things. I thought long about whether to model the face after the old illustration (with hair and a metal plate) or the "new" version (bald). In the end I used the newer version as I guessed that would be more recognisable as Seth. It's also the current version of how he is supposed to look.

 

From the beginning I had ideas of having lots of spikes and blades on the model. I tested blades on the lower arms, feet and knees at different times during the building of the model but removed them all as they made the model look too busy or too chaotic.

 

I changed Seth's personal iconography to the Chapter symbol. I figured that if you are the chapter master you are the Chapter personified and have no need for personal markings. The Chapter's markings are your markings. The original Blood reaver (the weapon) looked a little boring, like it could be one of many eviscerators. I wanted my version to look like a one-off relic. To get that feeling I made it much more non-symetrical. And I'm happy with the results. I also didn't make a name scroll on it. It wouldn't really work with the weathering and gore I applied to it.

 

I had the idea that the cape would be something given to all Chapter masters of the Blood angel successors in the Second founding. There is no background supporting that idea, but I thought it would be cool. Therefore I painted it without any Flesh tearer-specific symbols, but rather stuff that could be used by all BA successors. And the three blood drops with wings could be interpreted as the smaller drops (successors) breaking of from the larger one (BA).

 

I tried to keep this shoulder pad quite close to the original.

 

The Iron halo in the shape of a Buzzsaw blade with a blood drop in the middle was something I had been wanting to try for a long time. And Seth seemed like the perfect character to try it on. The actual Chapter symbol protecting its master.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Chapter Master Seth looks great!

And finally Chief Librarian Alucard - counts as Mephiston. When creating my version of a named character I always start by thinking about what the essence of the Character is in order to figure out what needs to stay the same and what I could change and still make my version instantly recognizable. With Mephiston the simple version of my conclusions was "Space vampire".

He looks great, but I have to ask which "Alucard" he's named after: The one from the Castlevania video games-turned-cartoon, or from the Hellsing manga-turned-anime?

[Mortarion]

...

He looks great, but I have to ask which "Alucard" he's named after: The one from the Castlevania video games-turned-cartoon, or from the Hellsing manga-turned-anime?

 

Thank you. Mostly the Hellsing one. I gave him an elongated plasma pistol as a small nod to that series.

 

And now time for one of my Sanguinary Guard squads. The one without Death masks.

The whole squad.

 

Swords.

 

Axes. The last model is a result of me being annoyed that the weapons were originally called "Glaive Encarmine" but none of them actually were a glaive. So I fixed that. And now it counts as an axe.

 

And a "Flesh tearer"/counts as powerfist.

 

And lastly a Sanguinary Ancient. He was originally part of my other squad of Sangunary Guard (which I'll post later).

The banner represents what the Flesh tearers are in my eyes. They do not do precision surgical strikes or complex maneuvers to confuse the enemy - they go in head-on, crush everything in the general area, cut off the enemy commander's head and ask where the next target is. Effective, but not subtle.

[Mortarion]

A Stormraven gunship. Since I don't really like the original model I did some rebuilding on this one. The things I changed are:

 

- The cockpit. I think it looks stupid to have a glass cockpit on a ground attack aircraft in 40K. I wanted this to be more like a flying tank. So I made the cockpit armoured.

- The wings and engines. The original wings are placed way, waaayy too far back for my taste. They almost look like they hang behind the aircraft. I turned my wings around so that they could be placed further towards the front of the aircraft. The turning of the wings also gave it a more aggressive and fast look. And since the wings were placed more to the front I shortened the engines a bit to make the model more balanced.

- The top of the plane and the turret. Although the turret that comes with the model is quite nice, it doesn't really fit in with the aircraft look. It's too big IMHO. And since I made the cockpit armoured it would look quite strange to have a gun turret with a glass front. So I made a much smaller automated turret. I also removed the air intake to make the model a bit more aerodynamic (although I guess the aerodynamics on the Stormraven are a lost cause...).

- The length of the plane. I added some small plates towards the back to protect a transported dreadnought and make the model look a bit longer, but they are mostly obscured by the wings on these pictures.

 

Before painting.

 

And painted.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Sanguinary Guard and the Stormraven.

[Zon]

The freehand on the ancient banner is a showstopper. Absolutely in love with the pose, the wings, the flames... you even got the embers rising into the night sky. Usually not one to gush but that is just stunning. Would love to see a similar mural type freehand on the side of a land raider or something.

 

And the spartan figure reminds me of your old Sanguinor conversion I remember from way back--before I became a member of the forum. I like to think the guys at forge world saw that and thought "yeah we're giving Sanguinius a spear"

[Mortarion]

The freehand on the ancient banner is a showstopper. Absolutely in love with the pose, the wings, the flames... you even got the embers rising into the night sky. Usually not one to gush but that is just stunning. Would love to see a similar mural type freehand on the side of a land raider or something.

 

And the spartan figure reminds me of your old Sanguinor conversion I remember from way back--before I became a member of the forum. I like to think the guys at forge world saw that and thought "yeah we're giving Sanguinius a spear"

Thank you! There are some other big freehand pieces coming up.

And as you mentioned my Sanguinor, I might as well post that. But first the other golden model - High Executioner Virgil Caine (counts as Dante)

 

When I started working on this one I wanted to really make sure that it was recognisable as Dante. Not a captain and not a sanguinary guard, but Dante. So when constructing it, I tried to stay as close to the look of the original model as possible. The only thing I wanted to change was to add more movement. Most of Dante's special abilities at that time suggested agility. So a quite static pose like the original seemed wrong. So I tried to stay close to the original pose but add some more movement. To make sure it looked like Dante I used a regular jump pack insted of a sanguinary guard one and a hand held inferno pistol instead of a wristmounted one. I also converted the death mask to look more like Dante's.

 

Painting this model was a big "leap of faith" for me. Normally when painting my Flesh tearers I just paint them like the rest of my army. Allthough it takes some concentration, I know how to do it and have quite a lot of experience in doing it after painting a whole army. With Dante I realised I had to paint him gold to separate him from a normal captain. And painting gold on a whole model is very different from painting gold on small details. On my sanguinary guards, I could get away with a simple gold technique as most of them were painted in my standard colours. Dante would not only be totally different from the rest of the army, but quite the opposite of the rest of the army. I needed to paint a shining gold armour that was still dark and "realistic". I had an idea of how it could be done but I had never tested it before. And after the first layer it didn't look that good. But I continued and in the end it actually turned out better then I had hoped for. It really reacts well to light (which is kind of hard to capture in a photo). And I also think I managed to capture the darkness and worn look of the rest of the army. 

 

And then... The Exsanguinator (counts as Sanguinor)

 

With the previous named characters, I wanted to keep them pretty close to the original. But with the Sanguinor, that wouldn't work. I do like the original model, and it fits well in with the Blood angels. But an exalted and pure angel would seem quite out of place with my Flesh tearers. But I figured that if I got the pose and general appearence right, people would recognise it as Sanguinor and I could make some changes. The general idea was to make him more warlike. If the original Sanguinor is an Angel of Purity I wanted my version to be an Angel of War. The first thing I wanted to change was the weapon. The original sword looks kinda small for a twohanded weapon in 40K. I wanted something that looked really mean. A spear came to mind since it is a quite rare weapon in 40K and it looks like it could be wielded in two hands and yet not out of place when held in one hand.

 

The next thing I didn't really like with the original was the chalice. He's not equiped with a Chalice of blood, so why would he carry a cup? So I changed it to a shield. It fits quite well with the spear and also make him look more like a warrior. At first I was worried that it would look like a Storm shield, but it turned out OK. And at the time I built the model, Sanguinor had a 3+ inv. save.

 

The next thing on my list of changes was the head. The original model has a death mask, yet Sanguinor did at the time not have one in terms of rules. So I changed it to a helmet. Since I already had a model armed with shield and spear I thought it would be cool to make the helmet inspired by the greek/spartan helmets. It was made from a Chaos champion helmet with the horns, cabling and rivets cut off. I then added the ear/side-things from a normal space marine helmet. The crest is from a dire avenger with some green stuff added to make it fit better. And the thing on the forehead is greenstuff. 

 

The parcements holding the Sanguinor in the air were also out of the question for my version. A broken pillar would take him to about the same height, but would fit better with my other bases. And would also support the greek/roman theme...

[ranulf the revenant]

As you mentioned, it's still hard to imagine how it could actually fly, but the changes in the gunship work very well!

[Mortarion]

Some more characters.

 

First a Captain.

I really don't like terminator-sized lightning claws on power armoured models, so I built my own to fit better.

 

A Sanguinary priest on foot.

 

And a Sanguinary priest with jump pack.

The combi-melta was built to look like it was made to be fired one-handed.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the new models. I especially like the Exsanguinator- "I will make you bleed to death!" is such a fitting name.

 

Is your "counts as Dante" one of Seth's predecessors to the position of Flesh Tearers Chapter Master? Or Seth's successor- maybe the Flesh Tearers First Captain, using a Chapter Master's stats because Seth is personally grooming "counts as Dante" to replace him when he inevitably falls in battle?

[Mortarion]

Excellent work on the new models. I especially like the Exsanguinator- "I will make you bleed to death!" is such a fitting name.

 

Is your "counts as Dante" one of Seth's predecessors to the position of Flesh Tearers Chapter Master? Or Seth's successor- maybe the Flesh Tearers First Captain, using a Chapter Master's stats because Seth is personally grooming "counts as Dante" to replace him when he inevitably falls in battle?

Thanks. When I built him, Dante had very few buffing abilities and was more about fighting, so I imagined my version as more of an enforcer-type character than a strategist. Normaly, the Captain of the 8th company holds the title "Lord Executioner". The Flesh tearers currently do not have an 8th company, but I figured they could still use someone to lead important assaults. Hence the title "High Executioner". Someone who Seth could send to take out an important target. However, there is no actual background supporting the existense of a "high Executioner" in the Flesh tearers.

 

And now some more models. First some attack bikes.

The squad.

 

And close-ups on one of the bikes.

 

And some Land speeders.

Two Tornados with Multimelta and Heavy flamers. Since they would be close to the enemy I added some tools for the crew to attack the enemies. Even if you are driving a Land speeder, you still need to vent your rage.

 

And a Typhoon.

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I like the heavy flamer's chainbayonet and other Flesh Tearers-y modifications to the Land Speeders. The attack bikes are also well done.