Ulthuan

Apart from my love for the High Elves and Caledor, i have a dark secret which is my dedication to 40k, that i wanted to share here (at least partially).
i have a fable for those dark, cloaked miniatures, that GW released under the name of Dark Angels or Fallen Angels. The background of the Dark Angels i dislike, cus it reminds me of the inquisition and torture, that we had here in europe during the middle ages, so i got myself a selfmade chapter, something that is a bit like an independent group of marines who were secuded by a daemon prince during the Horus Heresy and the events surrounding the Fall of Luther and the battle of Caliban. This daemonprince is the groups leader, who convinced the Dark Angels left on Caliban to be the essence of the planet itself. After the planet was bombed to dust, they were saved by this chaotic being and fled into the Eye of Terror, following their own agenda ever after. This specific group calls themselves "Wings of Caliban" and their "mark" is the glowing winged symbol, that most of them have (like a Mark of Khorne, Nurgle, etc.) and i play them as Chaos Space Marines.
First i want to introduce "Caliban", the Fallen Angel, lord, leader and centerpiece of my army:

This model is based on the Nagash miniature, is armed with a daemonic sword (also from the Nagash kit) and a Warp Bolter (made from one of Mortarion´s pistols and the tip of a Predator´s lascannon). The loincloth and the cloak above the belt is made of greenstuff, (the loincloth being supported by the rests of Nagash´s original loincloth), the wings are from the big griffon from the Cities of Sigmar model.
Here´s also a WIP pic of the model...

Like every proper Fallen general i´ve also included Cypher. The model is cool, but on the tabletop i can think of better options. Nevertheless, his actual version is amazing and i tried my best to give him the paintjob he deserves:

My second-in-command is a biker lord i made of the Sammael model. I did not make a WIP pic of him, but it was a pretty extensive conversion. I chopped off all the stuff the model had under the "speeder" like the heavy plasma gun etc., cut a Space Marine Biker´s tire in half and glued the halves to the bottom of the speeder. I also had to straighten the little "fins" on the back of the model and pimped a bit with chainsword blades, to make it look more nasty. The arms of the model got some sleeves made of greenstuff and a helmet from some Dark Angels champion. The powermaul in his left hand got some greenstuff flames, i added a meltagun to the front and instead of the eagle on the front i tried to sculpt something that looks like a cloaked figure, added a tiny plastic sword and attached it to the front.
I hope you like it...

Another model that is pretty much a must-have in nowadays CSM-codex, is the Master of Possession, a pretty mighty sorcerer, that can do some nice stuff.
Mine is based on the Ahriman model, i just added some Fallen Angels symbols to the belt and the top of the staff, changed the head for a cloaked one and gave him a Backpack from some Dark Angels character. It´s a rather simple conversion compared to the previous models, but i really like it.

As troops i added some basic Fallen (i think the box is called Dark Angels Veterans nowadays), one equipped as kinda "Tactical Squad" and the other one for combat. I needed a third basic unit for a batallion detachment, so i added some Cultists... and let´s admit is, the coolest cultists are made from Nazgul models, aren´t they?

To add some "punch" to the army, i also got myself some Terminators. These are made from the Deathwing Terminators, just painted up in my colours. Since nowadays CSM-terminators are equipped with "accursed weapons" i decided to give them such weapons, as they simply look cooler than boring powerfists (simply following the rule of cool), but i cant equip the whole unit with it, so i tried to equip the coolest weapons from the box. This Halberd on the upper right model has a stormbolter added on top, to give it a bit of a greyknight-esque look and the dude on the front-left has the CSM heavy weapon instead of the Dark Angel´s one.
I know my mediocre paintjob may not give the models the credit they deserve, but i love the sculpts and i think they are amongst the coolest Terminator models in the whole GW range.

Here´s something rather boring, a Rhino, pimped with the doors and front armour from Forgeworld.

For some ranged support i got myself some Havocs, which are one of my favourite units in the CSM codex. These models are from a company called Kromlech, they are a bit bulkier and bigger than the normal Fallen, which is why i´ve put them on a base with less basing materials on it, to make them look as big as their fellow legionaires from GW. I´m not sure where i got the lion shoulderpads from, but i thought it was a good idea to call them "The Lion´s Teeth". Since GW only had one Chaincannon in each Havocs-Pack, i decided to build my own. As far as i remember i´ve built the models when the Shadowspear boxed set came out, so i got myself those flying Space Marines dudes on the sticks from ebay, chopped oft the barrel and added a 3D-printed Chaincannon barrel i got from ebay.

Last but not least i made some Raptors, which are my wife´s favourite models of the army. I have to admit, i like them too. The troopers have normal Dark Angels Veterans bodies, i just modified the backpacks, chopped off these exhausts on the sides and added the wings from the Dark Eldar Scourges set. The champion is (afaik) some Dark Angels Chaplain with an extra plasmapistol.

Since i painted almot 50 models for this army in the last months of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 i decided to make a pause with my Fallen for this year, since there´s some new World Eaters models coming out and by the second half of the year i will probably return to my High Elves, to start painting the icy-themed army.
Nevertheless this is not everything i have for my Fallen, as there´s still a lot of models which are already built and some that have to be build.

What i already have is:
-2x3 bikers
-1 Leviathan Dreadnought
-1 normal Dreadnought
-2x5 Havocs
-1 Terminator Lord
-2 Powerarmoured Lord
-1 Terminator Sorcerer
-1 Powerarmoured Sorcerer
-1 Chaplain (plus 2 Cultist dudes)

What i need to build:
-5 more Havocs or Chosen, i dont know
-1 Fire Raptor (made of a Corvus Blackstar)
-1 Xiphon Interceptor (made of a Dark Talon)
-5 Warp Talons

...this should be about everything i already have at home regarding Fallen
What i am thinking about is, how to build some extra units, always having this ghostly, cloaked look in mind, that this army has in common. For example i will build the Warp Talons based on models of the Nighthaunt Myrmourn Banshees, with some Dark Angels Shoulderpads and original Warp Talon´s Lightning Claws. Other ideas are using some bigger Nighthaunt as Obliterators, by adding some 40k weaponry to it or using ordinary Nighthaunt models as Possessed. But this will have to wait till next year... when it gets warmer, i will start building the rest i have already bought and regarding the Nighthaunt-conversions i will see, when all the stuff above is done.

Icarion these are stunning, thank you. More comments when I've got more time.

They look epic indeed. I like the Nagash conversion of Caliban. it's simple (in that not a lot changed), but very effective. And yes, the Nazgul are by far the most awesome models in there Thanks for sharing! Can we also get a group picture at some point in the future?

Prince of Spires wrote: ↑Tue Feb 14, 2023 10:47 am I like the Nagash conversion of Caliban. it's simple (in that not a lot changed), but very effective.

I agree, gives me the willies.

Icarion wrote: ↑Sun Feb 12, 2023 12:24 pm Master of Possession,

He's great, I really like the dynamism he and most of the others have.

Icarion wrote: ↑Sun Feb 12, 2023 12:19 pm My second-in-command is a biker lord i made of the Sammael model. I did not make a WIP pic of him, but it was a pretty extensive conversion.

Very effective.

Icarion wrote: ↑Sun Feb 12, 2023 12:41 pm Here´s something rather boring, a Rhino,

Really nice, nonetheless.

Prince of Spires wrote: ↑Tue Feb 14, 2023 10:47 am They look epic indeed. I like the Nagash conversion of Caliban. it's simple (in that not a lot changed), but very effective. And yes, the Nazgul are by far the most awesome models in there Thanks for sharing! Can we also get a group picture at some point in the future?

Thanks for your kind words!
Regarding that Nagash model the difficulty was attaching the wings properly and doing the greenstuff cloak. This took me a while and since i am not that good with greenstuff it was a lot of try&error with the decision at the end, that it probably wont get any better, so the result is what you see. But i have to admit, i had conversions, that were a lot easier than this one and look more impressive (i plan another post with my Khorne daemons army, where i did a Soul Grinder, who has the lower body of an Arachnarok spider and the upper body of Anggrath).

Sure i can make a group-pic, but that will take a while. I have to admit, i dont like group-pictures, as i have the problem of positioning the models, so you can see all of them and even if you do, you cant really zoom in to see all models properly. BUT what i like is those army videos... people assemble their army and go over them with a camera, picking up single models, that they like to show specially. About that i thought and that might be a lot cooler than a group pic where you dont see half of the models. By the way, i have one that i did with lesser models... i hope you like it.

SpellArcher wrote: ↑Wed Feb 15, 2023 7:28 pm

Prince of Spires wrote: ↑Tue Feb 14, 2023 10:47 am I like the Nagash conversion of Caliban. it's simple (in that not a lot changed), but very effective.

I agree, gives me the willies.

Icarion wrote: ↑Sun Feb 12, 2023 12:24 pm Master of Possession,

He's great, I really like the dynamism he and most of the others have.

Icarion wrote: ↑Sun Feb 12, 2023 12:19 pm My second-in-command is a biker lord i made of the Sammael model. I did not make a WIP pic of him, but it was a pretty extensive conversion.

Very effective.

Icarion wrote: ↑Sun Feb 12, 2023 12:41 pm Here´s something rather boring, a Rhino,

Really nice, nonetheless.

Thanks for your kind words as well and i am happy you like my daemon prince!
What i really liked at that project, was, that it had a rather simple paintjob but i still like the result.
The Fallen project was something that i wanted to do for a really long time. It did not make much sense, because they are just Chaos Space Marines like most of my other 40k models, nevertheless i just love these dark, menacing dudes with their glowing red eyes and their cloaks... even if these cloaks over a power armour totally make no sense, they are still awesome!

Icarion wrote: ↑Tue Feb 21, 2023 6:42 pm Regarding that Nagash model the difficulty was attaching the wings properly and doing the greenstuff cloak. This took me a while and since i am not that good with greenstuff it was a lot of try&error with the decision at the end, that it probably wont get any better, so the result is what you see. But i have to admit, i had conversions, that were a lot easier than this one and look more impressive (i plan another post with my Khorne daemons army, where i did a Soul Grinder, who has the lower body of an Arachnarok spider and the upper body of Anggrath).

I can imagine the wings were a pain to get right. Large bits attached at only a few points tend to do that. In my experience the only way to really learn how to do it is to take on projects like this. I always learn a lot when I try something new. Sometimes it works and sometimes it's meh. This time for you it definitely worked. The group picture shows as much. He really fits in well with the other models. If you'd said he was just a real GW model for this specific range I would have believed it

And thanks for the group-shot. I agree that an army video would look epic if you ever get one, then let us know. Or if you happen to have a few battle pictures.

Prince of Spires wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 2:43 pm And thanks for the group-shot. I agree that an army video would look epic if you ever get one, then let us know. Or if you happen to have a few battle pictures.

Of course i have, but they are of rather mediocre quality.
3 weeks ago we did a "Boarding Action" game. I played against Space Wolves (which was a close match, but i still lost) and against the new Leagues of Votann, which whipped my ass pretty badly. I dont have pics of the LoV, cus they were mostly unpainted, the Space Wolves hat only one model, that was primed, the rest was painted. Nevertheless it was fun playing with my buddies after a corona-break of over 2 years.

Here´s some more pics.

Icarion wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 4:28 pm 3 weeks ago we did a "Boarding Action" game.

I love this concept, really atmospheric.

Icarion wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 4:29 pm Here´s some more pics.

These just look great, with the light and dark marines slugging it out.

Icarion wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 4:28 pm Nevertheless it was fun playing with my buddies after a corona-break of over 2 years.

Splendid!

I agree with SA. The Boarding Action game looks both fun and atmospheric. I like the terrain you have. It looks very flexible and well suited to 40k games. And it really gives off the vibe of a spaceship or industrial facility. A bit reminiscent of some of the Starcraft computer game scenario's.

The models look great and they're really set off against the lighter enemy models.

Thanks guys for your friendly comments. The terrain actually isnt mine, but it´s really cool! I plan to get some terrain stuff too, but more fantasy than 40k. I also try to get something that can be used for both, 40k and Fantasy. I mean, a rock is a rock, be in in the 40th millenium or in the past.

Hi Icarion,

I forgot to mention earlier when you posted pictures - your models look awesome. And I'm saying this as a Dark Angels loyalist!

DrSlam

DrSlam wrote: ↑Wed May 03, 2023 12:16 pm Hi Icarion,

I forgot to mention earlier when you posted pictures - your models look awesome. And I'm saying this as a Dark Angels loyalist!

DrSlam

Thanks a lot, DrSlam! I have to admit i like the aesthetics of the Dark Angels, but their background with torturing isnt mine... so i wanted to do something else. Well, and here it is! I´ll try to get some more done, but for now i wanna do some Old World stuff!