The Sons of the Condor

[BrotherCaptainArkhan]

Cheers @BadgersinHillsand @MoriyaSchism!

The daggers are actually Roman gladii from the Victrix Early Imperial Romans set. I wanted a visual connection between these guys - who are pretty heavily Ojibwe/Anishinaabe Native American-inspired - and their Ultramarines progenitors. The gladius is a mark of honour received by every marine on completion of his training and a symbol of his heritage and bloodline shared with the warrior-kings of Macragge. So goes the theory, anyway - I'll enshrine it in a little lore piece at some point, but for now wanted it to be a small visual throwback to their bloodline.

[BrotherCaptainArkhan]

Slight tangent, I've really picked up enthusiasm for this project now. I'm planning an intro to Kill Team very soon, and am discussing a few narrative campaigns with some friends already. In the mean time, I wanted to trial a paint scheme for Tyranid NPCs. Picked up a Genestealer from the old Space Hulk 3rd ed set and this is what I came up with. Any thoughts?

[MoriyaSchism]

I like the colour scheme, I don't think I've seen a hive fleet quite like it. I think it you pulled off the organic look without the creature looking too squishy. 

[The Pounder]

Yeah, looks great!

[Firedrake Cordova]

Really nice work on both the marines and the genestealer

[BrotherCaptainArkhan]

Cheers chaps. I'm working on a fair few Tyranids for the Condors to face off against - will be a really fun juxtaposition hopefully.

 

In the meantime, also working on a Scout tester.

[Firedrake Cordova]

I like the addition of the cloak (the old sniper scouts were always my favourites)  

[MetalFingers]

Everything is looking great, love that marine scheme. I also was pulled back into the hobby this year with SM2 and the Astartes trailer. Can’t wait to see more!

[BrotherCaptainArkhan]

Thanks chaps. Same - SM2 and Astartes have a lot to answer for :)

The Scout tester is done - and just like that, I think I'm now looking at building a small force for OPR's Grimdark Future ruleset. 20-odd Astartes feels very, very doable. More thoughts to come in a future post.

 

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Those are all great.  Another doable thing you could do with them is use them as a selection of teams for Kill Team.

[MoriyaSchism]

You can run multiple (loyal and traitor) Space Marine teams in the current edition of Kill Team with just 13 models. Granted it involves making two different types of Librarian and an Apothecary but it's doable. You can push it to 20 if you want some variation with your gunners or if you include the Scout kill team. You can have a Lexicanium as a stand in for the Visionary (Night Lords) and the Balefire Acolyte (Legionary) or a Codicier as the Ventrilokar (Night Lords), Sorceror (Thousand Sons) and Malignant Plaguecaster (Plague Marines). 

[BrotherCaptainArkhan]

On 10/10/2025 at 10:28 PM, Dr_Ruminahui said:

Those are all great.  Another doable thing you could do with them is use them as a selection of teams for Kill Team.

 

On 10/11/2025 at 12:03 PM, MoriyaSchism said:

You can run multiple (loyal and traitor) Space Marine teams in the current edition of Kill Team with just 13 models. Granted it involves making two different types of Librarian and an Apothecary but it's doable. You can push it to 20 if you want some variation with your gunners or if you include the Scout kill team. You can have a Lexicanium as a stand in for the Visionary (Night Lords) and the Balefire Acolyte (Legionary) or a Codicier as the Ventrilokar (Night Lords), Sorceror (Thousand Sons) and Malignant Plaguecaster (Plague Marines). 

 

Those are really interesting ideas. On looking deeper into Kill Team, I see proxying is fairly common? I'm having my first tester tomorrow night (and can't wait). In truth, I really, really like the look of OPR for the sheer flexibility on offer. I could run a force of 20 Astartes and a Dreadnought and that's a full army (and they'd be decent in-game as well by the looks of it). But I'm very keen to try out Kill Team as I'm likely to get more games in.

I'll report back. For now I've been assembling the rest of Wolf Cadre - and a friend:

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Well... you might have a hard time finding an opponent who lets you proxy in that dreadnought in killteam.. 

 

Jokes aside, they are looking good - though, those capes sure look fuzzy before they are painted.

Edited October 14 by Dr_Ruminahui

[BrotherCaptainArkhan]

On 10/14/2025 at 5:02 AM, Dr_Ruminahui said:

Well... you might have a hard time finding an opponent who lets you proxy in that dreadnought in killteam.. 

 

Jokes aside, they are looking good - though, those capes sure look fuzzy before they are painted.

 

Haha, thanks. I think he's more likely to see use in OPR...Unless we can come up with a Dreadnought Assault-inspired Kill Team scenario :) 

Actually, now you mention it, Helbrute/Dreadnought Assault would be an interesting KT matchup...!

I had my first KT game recently - going to share pics in detail. I took a slightly better pic of Thunder Cadre in all their completeness (sorry for the spam). Next post will have fresh completions.

[Firedrake Cordova]

They look great as an assembled squad

[W.A.Rorie]

Very nicely done

[Torbenos]

 

Always fun to passion return to old well-trodden fields. The Sons of the Condor look great, the contrasting colourscheme is striking yet subdued due to the colours chosen. Your talent for the desatured continues to impress me. It continues to evade me as I end up with things being dark in much of my own work. Personalising your guys is something I always love to see. I like Sur'gesh the most I think.

 

I like the lore as well, making them Genesis chapter while still having a quite distinct identity and look avoids the usual thing of needing the gene-seed to be of rare provenance to add character. Who doesn't love a doomed warrior.

 

Looking forward to seeing more.

[BrotherCaptainArkhan]

On 10/17/2025 at 10:06 PM, Torbenos said:

 

Always fun to passion return to old well-trodden fields. The Sons of the Condor look great, the contrasting colourscheme is striking yet subdued due to the colours chosen. Your talent for the desatured continues to impress me. It continues to evade me as I end up with things being dark in much of my own work. Personalising your guys is something I always love to see. I like Sur'gesh the most I think.

 

I like the lore as well, making them Genesis chapter while still having a quite distinct identity and look avoids the usual thing of needing the gene-seed to be of rare provenance to add character. Who doesn't love a doomed warrior.

 

Looking forward to seeing more.

Thanks very much indeed - really appreciate the comment. The hobby at this point is 90% painting/modelling/lore-bashing, and 10% gaming. Glad these guys appeal.

 

I tortured myself with the Scout kit this weekend and managed to finish the first combat squad. They are by far some of the less enjoyable miniatures to assemble I've contended with - GW really don't want you coming up with custom poses or kitbashes, at least in their current era, and that felt very apparent with the Scout kit. Nevertheless, I persevered and managed to come up with a few unique elements, not least of which thanks to the cheesecloth camo cloaks.

 

Lore tidbits to come, but I'm quite happy with them now - despite the agony of assembly the painting stage was pretty straightforward. If I were to do them again, I'd move the Scout Sergeant's Deathwatch icon to the other side of his belt to make it more prominent - but hopefully the silver bracer and Deathwatch gladius are enough to convey that part of his history at first glance.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Really nicely done

[BrotherCaptainArkhan]

Cheers Cordova! Appreciate the kind words :) 

 

I'm just starting to get to the point where I want to do terrain and a proper OpFor for this project (which will be Tyranids) - usually a sign I'm getting in too deep. But I'm having fun, so let's start messing about with the staged pics. Here's a quick shot of Wolf Cadre on patrol on the Chapter homeworld, between rotations:

[BadgersinHills]

Excellent work. 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Nice set-dressing and photography! 

[W.A.Rorie]

I love them....so nice

[The Pounder]

Glad to hear you’re having fun with these! They’re looking great!

[BrotherCaptainArkhan]

Thanks brothers! Means a lot to hear. As I said, the hobby's 90% about painting/modelling these days so it's nice to share online :)

I've done up a test mini which became a test swarm for the Tyranid antagonists the Condors will soon be trying to beat back from their homeworld. I wasn't sure on colour scheme or name for the longest time, and then eventually came up with a purple/bone mixture that I feel absolutely certain I must have seen before, but can't think where!

As for designation - I figured that, just as the Condors are but one story among many, many others in Imperium Nihilus, this Tyranid force would be a smaller splinter fleet of a much larger Hive Fleet. Nevertheless, even splinter Hive Fleets need a name. I bounced around the usual Norse- or Biblical-inspired names, and then it hit me: the Condors, being the primary line of defence against this splinter fleet, would have named the threat themselves. How better to keep in-theme than to look to the same Native American mythology from which the Condors draw their own inspiration?

Apotamkin, a shadowy figure in Native American mythologies somewhat analogous to the deep-sea monsters of other pantheons, seemed like a perfect match for a Hive Fleet.

 

So Hive Fleet Apotamkin was born...