Ok so to get things started I'm just going to repost the old blog posts (after having fixed the pictures I discovered after posting it the first time). This was the first post in the Cult of Orange blog sometime in 2007:
HISTORY OF THE VULTURES (abridged):
The Rogue Trader Era:
So the Vultures began. It was 88/89. Van Hagar (Van Halen's pseudo name after Dave left and Sammy came in) was rocking the charts and I was a big fan. The less than great album OU812 had been out for a bit and (lacking any creativity what so ever) I decided to modify the old Van Halen V:
into the symbol of the Vultures. I thought it was "cool" and it fit in with the more "line style" of the BA and DA symbols of the time.
Like so (thanks to Scuzzy for whipping this up for me):
Now I can't show you any of the RTB01 minis painted up in the original Vultures Scheme (they have long since met their maker) but just imagine the following Painter Scheme only with super thick paint, no highlights and bright silver bolters. Oh and the white modified Van Hagar V. Marine Dark Blue and Ultra Marine Blue in case you are wondering:
Second Edition, HeroHammer
1992 came around (I think that was the time anyway) and 2nd edition or "HeroHammer" was born. My inspiration for Space Marines, the Salamanders had been shuffled off into obscurity. Moved down the chain from 8th Chapter of the 1st Founding to 18th Legion of the First Founding. Their colors (from the original space marine paint set) were no longer Salamander Black and Salamander Green. Those had been coopted by others and were now known as Dark Angel Green and Chaos Black.
Not wanting to see the Salamanders die off I changed the scheme of the Vultures to match that of the original Salamanders. I changed the armor to the 'dry brushed' Salamanders green and the Chapter Symbol to a red version of the same V as you saw earlier in this entry and the emblem was on the RIGHT shoulder pad still. My painting had barely improved...one might say it hadn't at all. Those with innocent eyes may want to turn away:
Unfortunately as 2nd Edition rolled on I would get "are those Dark Angels?" asked of me far to often. Clearly a change was necessary.
Third Edition
Eventually third edition came about and we (as Marine players) were blessed with the great new multi-part plastic Marine Kit. So the Vultures 3rd version came about, or as some called it "The Vultures: The Halloween Years":
note the still horrible painting!
The ribbing -- some good natured, some not so good natured clearly told me a change was necessary. But to what? First and foremost the tired old Van Halen V had to be replaced with something more fitting. After a lot of internet looking (read as begging) I managed to get this image produced:
I then found Griffon Games, now known as
Greenfield Games and had a sheet of Vulture decals printed up. This then lead to the 4th version of the Vultures color scheme (again note my sucktastic painting skills):
Admittedly this was only a test figure but my painting was still bad. Still had the emblem on the RIGHT still as well. Unfortunately it was just "Halloween in Negative" and so it too would go the way of the Dinosaurs.
Games Day Baltimore (or as it was known then simply Games Day US) came around in 2000/2001 (not sure which year I did this in) and I managed to acquire what would become the signature helmet of the Vultures. In those day you could buy metal bits for $.25 a gram!! So 200 helmets later, the 5th edition of the Vultures was born!
The idea here went back to the RT era of the Sals, their Apothecaries covered their left arm in red to represent the blood given and spilled by the Battle Brothers. My homage to this was to have regular troopers in full orange but the specialists (Libs, Chaps, Apocs, Techs) would have their helmet and right arm in their specialist color.
By this time the Legio B&C had been around some time and planning a Vulture for it was in the works. 2003 hit and the chance to have one for the old
LBC Contest came about:
Fourth Edition
Fourth edition is upon us now and with the Resurrection Contest after the great crash it was time for one more change to the Vultures. Though minor in nature it was still enough I think that we can call this the mk. VI edition. The change was going back to a more RT era (mk. VI) looking armor, complete with a studded left shoulder pad and the emblem on the right pad. The other was that specialist will now be in their speciality color from head to toe rather than just head and arm.
So this is basically how the Marines you will see for the Admin Challenge are going to come out. Notice the painting improved so I'm at least in the "not bad" category now.
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Anyway, will follow this closely !
