the Fallen...
yes, as in fallen dark angels.
so ever since that issue of wd (321, march) back in '98 when the first incarnation of cypher was released, I've loved the idea of the fallen angels.
I've even done a few conversions a few years back but never was 100% on how they came out and have since ignored the idea of them but my recent forrays into primaris based truescaling, and the general improvement of my painting and modlling skill has got me fancying giving these enigmatic warriors a fresh go over, with primaris...
so yeah a bit of background for those not in the know.
in the WD issue in question, some of Dave Gallagher's fallen conversions were displayed.
here they are:
as you can see these dark angels have an interesting look to them. (probably considered 'quaint' now but I'm still nostalgicly rapt by them)
back in '98 there was none of this fw horus heresy back-history that was officially cannon.
so the dark angels that existed, be them fallen or not all generally had the dark green armour.
The whole; 'it was black until the fall of caliban' thing was not a thing at all and the change from black (rt era) to green just seems to be as easily overlooked as the original painting 'mistake'(?) that made it happen in the first place. kinda like how walkers salt and vinegar and cheese and onion crisps swapped the blue and green around in a printing mishap and then it became standard for it to remain...
in fact, even the cypher model that was released for chaos players at this time was painted with green armour under the robes.
however as you can see Dave instead went for a different vison for them.
many conversions I've seen concentrate on adding a lot of chaos-ism to add a difference or a sence of rebellion about them. but not all fallen are chaos in nature some are simply repentant outcasts, spreading the emperors word to the dark corners of the galaxy and trying to live worthwile lives whilst avoiding capture by the rest of the dark angels...
This is what I have in mind whenever looking at these above fallen by Dave Gallagher.
the chaos features are set to a minimum, the armour is the appropriate heresy-era black and the dark robes make so much more sense as far as reclusive warriors go.
they can hide in the shadows, lurking unseen, living on the fringes of society, until the call of war, or other fallen bring them out of isolation.
so a few years ago, well more than a few now, I gave it a go of doing my own:
as you can see they're not exactly the best work I ever did, but clearly inspired by dave gallagher's above.
but now is now, and so is primaris, so a quick flick through the newest models out there and the blade-guard ancient model from the indomitus set seemed the ideal candidate for a rebirth of this abandonned project:
So, as you can see its a markable improvement over my previous incarnations.
It features the same head as the previous 'leader' I did, literally the same one, I took it off the old one.
I added a chainsword and bolter to the belt, the sword from the mk3 set and the bolter is a SOB one as its a nice nod to the second edition bolters, except with more detail and slightly smaller, which make it look a good size on the waist-band...
the addition of a Proper embossed DA logo to the pauldron helps to enforce the DA connection even further.
I swapped out the banner do-hicky for a simple brazier (an old metal one from a whichhunter servitor) to suggest he is almost eccesiarchial, bringing the emperor's light to the denizens of the darkness.
Then, to further play up the priestly nature, the skeletal hand reliquiry was swapped out for a smoking inscense censer, made from a kroot grenade with a smoketrail from primaris infiltrator smokegrenade. although in truth this was not a vital change, but something I had planned from the get-go on this one.
the backpack is actually from the old '98 cypher model and was a last minute addition. I originally had a mk3 backpack but found this in the bitzbox when looking for the hooded head and then, after dry fitting it, felt it added too much class to it not to use it. (I just love the DA wings in place of the stabilizer jets, and the crucified skeleton on the back, thats just pure class and a great sculpt all round)
To homage my older fallen, I added a couple of church-candles to it (these are made from chopped down earphone wire with a bit of protruding wire-core as a wick).
as for the base, the bit of the old '97/'98 gothic ruin kit adds a nice 3rd edition reference and also some visual context to the model.
the paintjob is where my improved skill-set is mostly visable at work! LOL
the old models were done my simply drybrushing the robes and edge highlighting the armour. this would simply not do now.
the black armour is done as on my spacesharks, simple edge and chip/scratch highlights.
but the real trick was to get the robes a similar tone, but look a completely different physical material.
this time round I went for stippling and glazing.
I stippled successive lighter greys over a flat base of skavenbright dinge, where I would normally simply edge highlight. The stippling was started rather wide and then lesser and thinner as the highlighting progressed...
Then a heavy glaze of nuln oil blended it all together and made the colour change from grey to dusty black. this, I feel is a better way of emulating coarse-grade cloth.
the dirt weathering on the bottom edge of the cloth was done before glazing and was simply rhinox hide stippling at the bottom with a bit of steel legion drab lighter stippling where the rhinox hide meets the grey.
this was to emulate wetness and mud that had begun to dry as it worked its way up the cloth...
most of the rest of the model was done in the traditional manner I do stuff but with lots of attention added to weathering and ageing on the metals and hard parts of the armour.
Ive also added some subtle zandri-dust washings into some of the armour recesses. espescially evident around the feet and wrist greaves.
This, although almost nondescript, adds a subtle warmth to the otherwise cold black armour, giving it a little more life...
heres a montage shot that shows off a few details from various angles:
All in all I'm rather happy with the result and although intended as a one off, I'm rather tempted to take it further and add a few more to this project.
The new cypher is an obvious choice but theres also lots of nice new primaris dark angels and generally robed minis now that I can see this taking off faster than I expect... this is, afterall how my spacesharks started...
however I feel, at first at least, I'm more likely to add a retinue of human followers and acolytes, much in the manner of an inquisitorial warband... perhaps even a chaotic fallen as adversarial opponent? we shall have to wait and see...
