So with the release of Codex: Space Marines, I wanted to do something new. I realized every army I've ever painted has been dark, drab, or muted in their color scheme. However, I've always had a thing for old models from Rogue Trader and 2nd edition. Seeing an opportunity for something cool and different, I went ahead and started up an Ultramarines army, painted as you'd see them in the early 90s:








Now, back when I was a teenager I actually had an Ultramarines army of sorts as well. I tried to paint like I saw on the old box art and rulebooks, and ended up with really gloopy (but bright!) miniatures. Here's one of my old ones with one of my new ones for reference:


I've got heaps more to come, but I might be doing Scouts next.

My eyes! The light hurts!


M.

That's some good stuff. Bust a Move would do well as their Ride of the Valkyries.

Bust A Move is slightly too old! I'd need something a little more early-mid 90s!

i LOVE it. Brings back so many memories of the back covers of white dwarf of battle scenes...the good old days. A worthy endeavor i hope to see more of it.

BB

I painted up a squad of the old metal scouts for my Ultras. I've always loved these models; they came out right at the end of 2nd ed and they've aged absolutely beautifully. I've never really gotten to paint them before and it was really fun - I can definitely see more in the future!

Loving the continuation of the retro.

The green bases seem a bit much now, but I think it looks really great together and really suits the force. Makes me want to read my 3rd edition rulebook again.

Think I just might, cup of tea + rulebook. Late night nostalgia. Agree with the scouts having aged well.

Go for it! I couldn't tell you how many hours I've spent poring over that rulebook. Hell, that rulebook is why I have a huge Valhallan army and one of the reasons I started this army. My first exposure to the game was through that awesome rulebook.

Love this. First starter box I every had was the 2nd edition with marines and orks. I sold the orks but still have all of the Marines. Well, minus one flamer guy that I gave to a friend. Great job!

Thanks! I don't think I'll be doing those starter Marines as I did a squad for my Crimson Fists a while ago:

The repetition of poses and quality of sculpting pretty much murdered my painting enthusiasm for doing more of them though. No "I love my bolter" Marines in this army!

You often see posts about what minis need to be redone. Less often are the "what's the oldest mini that still looks good" Those scouts are up there. You can mix them in a squad of modern plastics, and they fit right in. Look better in some cases. I like how you've painted yours up.

One of these days I'm going to strip my 2nd ed marines and repurpose them into terrain. At least one squad of them (I have two) While the "I <3 Bolters" pose sucks for the battlefield, I think it would look fine on top of a pillar, painted either as weathered bronze or a marble statue.

Oh yeah, they're way better than the plastic ones in a lot of ways. Their hair, for instance, is WAY better on the metals. The "I love my bolter" Marines do make great statues though, I've used them a bunch.

These marines are great! I love the old style ultramarines colours, and I agree that the old scout models are better than the plastic kit, I have some of both and the old metal ones look so much better when next to the newer ones

Oh the nostalgia is strong in this thread.

Those old 2nd ed. starter set Marines take me back. My Dad painted them for me as Imperial Fists, though we decided on yellow with a black trim. I thought they were the coolest things ever! Then, when it came out I bought the Imperial Fists Supremacy Force (exalt to anyone who can remember it!), and those were painted yellow with a red trim, which was loads better. Even the multi part plastic Marines from 2nd ed. were so much better than the ones which came as standard in the starter box.

Anyway, great, crisp work on those Ultramarines. Goob job

I'm still kicking myself that I never grabbed the Supremacy Force when I saw it at a wargaming flea market years ago! I was even working on Crimson Fists at the time, but didn't think I needed more Marines or the three bikes the box came with. Those multipart plastic Marines will be coming up for this army soon, but only after they get a captain and some assault Marines.

If those scouts were to truly resemble the early 90s ones, they'd have the poofy sleeves and mohawks.

"I love my bolter" Marines ... HAHAHA, i'd never seen that. Yeah I slowly moved away from those guys as I picked up a few boxes of wolves over the years

Never thought of using them on statues ... awesome!

 Archonate wrote:
If those scouts were to truly resemble the early 90s ones, they'd have the poofy sleeves and mohawks.

They're still from 2nd edition, which is my only requirement for this project! The very tail end of 2nd, but 2nd nonetheless. Painting those specific models in that color scheme is what made me want to start this army in the first place. I also already painted some poofy-sleeved scouts for my Crimson Fists a whiles back:

I have a type, what can I say

Painted this guy up to lead the force. His cape was a pain to attach after painting, but I'm happy with how he came out. It's pretty clear to see that this dude from 1989 would serve as inspiration for Cato Sicarius almost 20 years later, and I'll be using him as such in games:

Painted up 5 more scouts and a test model for my Sternguard:








My next unit will be a squad of Sternguard made entirely from old marks of power armor, and here's the test Marine in Mk.VI armor:





And a little WIP of what's coming up next:

Wrapped up four more Sternguard over Christmas weekend:









And with the other veteran:

Love the vets. The crisp white goes well with the bright yellow of 2nd ed.

GW did make some vets back in the day with sculpted terminator honor shoulder pads. I have a blister or two of them; some of my favorite models. If you could dig some up they would make good sternguard for a retro army like yours. Assuming you want to add more.

Do you know what vintage they are? I'm assuming they're Rogue Trader, while the era I'm going for is 2nd ed with a little overlap into transition models, like the Captain there. I'm building up my Sternguard with old armor marks only, but I'll look into em!

 Brother SRM wrote:
Do you know what vintage they are? I'm assuming they're Rogue Trader, while the era I'm going for is 2nd ed with a little overlap into transition models, like the Captain there. I'm building up my Sternguard with old armor marks only, but I'll look into em!

Doing some reaserch, they are from 1989, so a little early for you. Sorry

http://www.solegends.com/citcat911/c2009smmarines-00.htm

First three on the second row.

There aren't a whole lot of vets with bolters out there, particuarly old ones. Which is why these guys came to mind.

Oh, I've actually painted that middle guy for my Crimson Fists! But yeah, they're not quite in the 2nd ed aesthetic that I'm looking for, like a few other RT models. I've got some of the Death Eagles models, which were later called "prototype mk7" but I'm not sure if I'll paint em up for this crew yet.

Painted up another one of the 1989 captains for use in my Ultramarines - I figure in games where I want to use someone cheaper than Sicarius and use that cool relic bolter, he'll be a good model:







And some detail shots:



I thought I'd try doing up a sergeant banner, but I'm not crazy about it:

I don’t recall ever seeing that captain before. I might have used that mini as a sternguard sergeant or Tyrannic war veteran. I forget how understated captains used to be. So used to the massive bling these days.

Nice and bright, keep rocking the retro!

He came out at the same time as the Ultramarine, Blood Angel, and Dark Angel captains of the time; I've got the Blood Angel one (proto Tycho!) lying around too, but I don't plan on doing Blood Angels anytime soon. He gets used in veteran squads fairly often from what I can tell.

I really do love the relatively simple look of these minis, it's been really fun painting models that are so straightforward. I feel like a lot of Marine units have kind of lost their soul, design-wise since they're so busy and hard to recognize by their silhouettes these days. The older models are so straightforward and identifiable.

First they assault your senses, they they assault you!

Nick job.

Finished another combat squad, finishing the second Tactical Squad:






The whole squad:


And a group shot of everything so far:


They come out to about 900 points as is, a little more if I deck out the second captain with more than just the relic bolter.

Not a bad little force you have there. What's next?

I just spent the last hour and a half working on a metal Dreadnought, digging out paint that the Simple Green wasn't enough for and reassembling the monstrous metal components. I'm thinking it's about time I reward myself with a vehicle after painting all those infantry!

Painted up a Techmarine for my Ultras over the last two days. I started timing it out and realized it's taking me forever to paint these guys, but I'm pretty happy with the results! I'll do up Servitors and/or a Thudd Gun for him eventually:






And here we have the Mirror, Mirror version of this Techmarine:

You should sculpt a little goatee on the chaos warpsmith. It’s interesting to see how the little things make the difference. Like the loyalist with the old fashioned plasma pistol (ironic) and how the style of paint changes everything. I had to do a double take to make sure that you were in fact using the same mini for the base of both those guys; they look completely different!

Will you be doing some 2nd ed vehicles to go with the troops, chief?

Yep! I've got a big metal Dreadnought lined up for February, and sometime after that I've got some Predators, Whirlwinds, and a plan to make a converted counts-as Stalker/Hunter. Infantry is just really exciting to me is all!

 Nevelon wrote:
You should sculpt a little goatee on the chaos warpsmith. It’s interesting to see how the little things make the difference. Like the loyalist with the old fashioned plasma pistol (ironic) and how the style of paint changes everything. I had to do a double take to make sure that you were in fact using the same mini for the base of both those guys; they look completely different!

Hah! I would, but my Iron Warriors keep their helmets on. It just goes to show you what a different paint scheme, a little converting, and some damn good models can do!

This old Tigurius model took me a while to paint. There's a lot of detail on this old fig, and I honestly like him a lot more than the current sculpt. The robes were really fun to paint, even if it was just blocks of yellow and orange wash. I probably should have left the backpack off, since it made painting the Ultramarines icon kind of difficult, so it's a little wonky looking. Other than that I'm pretty happy with him!

That Tigurius is brilliant, the robes make him pop, and the face is great!

Thank you! I was worried the robes would blend in too much with the rest of the yellow, but Fuegan Orange is doing right by me.

About time I gave this army some armored support!




And with Tigurius:

Nice work on the Dreadnought - interesting choice of base size/shape, too.

 Dysartes wrote:
Nice work on the Dreadnought - interesting choice of base size/shape, too.

There was a time when if it was larger then infantry, it was on a square base. Anyone know when the larger round bases were made? But the square base does a lot to cement his venerable status.

That and the fact that he’s a fist-sized chunk of metal.

Nice job, by the way.

Beautiful retro marines.

Thanks guys! In hindsight, I do wish I turned the body so it was facing the square front end instead of the corner, but by the time I'd glued it in place that sucker was NOT coming loose!

As for when larger base sizes came out, I couldn't give an exact timeline. You'd occasionally see something from this era on a large round base, but it would either be an Epic titan base (hard to find and has a window on it for a stat wheel looking thing) or a number of... I think tree bases stacked up on top of each other. I'm looking at my 3rd ed codex, and even here they're still on square bases. I'd like to think it came before the plastic Dreadnought kit in 4th edition, but I honestly couldn't tell you! Similarly, when I eventually do Terminators, they'll be on their appropriate 25mm bases as the 40mm bases didn't exist yet.

I prefer the older smaller backpacks personally. Good job, SRM. these are beautiful.

Ah good old memories of green bases with green flock. Looking good and authentic!

It looks like he’s barely on there with the diagonal, would he even fit facing the edge rather then the point?

<wander’s off to check his own unbased 2nd ed dreadnought>

There would be some overhang with the side toes on a 2” square base. The only option if you want him with his feet solidly planted on the base is the diagonal.

Unless you were talking about torso-twisting him so the bulk of the body faces the edge. I never glued my torso to the legs personally, so mine swivels wherever I need him to point.

Yeah, I meant facing his upper body towards the flat edge! I first tried making him fit width-wise and it totally didn't work. Looking through some old codices, they faced diagonally fairly often so at least it's not wholly unprecedented.

 Shandara wrote:
Ah good old memories of green bases with green flock. Looking good and authentic!

 Scipio Africanus wrote:
I prefer the older smaller backpacks personally. Good job, SRM. these are beautiful.

Thank you! I'm trying to make them as authentic as possible, even if maybe these particular paints or transfers weren't around in 1996.

I really love this thread these beautifully painted old models look just as they should do. What an amazing and totally unique army you will have. Do your source most the figures online or are they old miniatures you already owned? Reading your thread inspires me to keep pushing on with my own space marine project. Keep up the great work. I look forward to seeing this army grow.

Thanks man! It's not totally unique, just maybe a little hard to find in this decade I only got into the game in the mid 2000s, so a lot of these models were either recently acquired through eBay, or models I bought back then that still hadn't been updated. This Dreadnought is a model I've actually owned for a good 7-8 years now, and only just got to stripping and repainting. There's plenty more to come!

Just a little WIP on what's coming up next:

I finally got to get a decent sized game in with these boys! I wrote up a big ol' battle report for em, which you can see here:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/581555.page#6571741

And a preview of the action:

 Brother SRM wrote:
I finally got to get a decent sized game in with these boys! I wrote up a big ol' battle report for em, which you can see here:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/581555.page#6571741

That was awesome. Nothing like seeing all the hard work in action.

Cool report.

I was half-expecting cardboard ruins and styrofoam hills though

 Shandara wrote:
Cool report.

I was half-expecting cardboard ruins and styrofoam hills though

Don’t forget the styrofoam balls with the toothpicks sticking out of them!

All things in due time We're both pretty dedicated to the idea of a seriously old school battle report at some point in the future! Card terrain and all...

I stil have the 2nd edition cardboard ruins somewhere, but I can't find my cardboard ork dread, alas.

I've got plenty of ruins and not one but two cardboard Ork Dreadnoughts


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Just wrapped up the Predator for these boys:

Next up to bat are 5 more Sternguard, in Mk. 1, 3, 4, 8, and prototype Mk. 7 armor:

A little WIP update on these guys:

Very cool blog, this is straight out of the pages of early 90s WD! Love seeing all these old models. I've got a lot of the same ones in my collection.

Thanks! That's the exact vibe I'm going for, and it makes me happy to hear it. I drove the 90s WD effect further with the battle report I posted last page; some day I'll do one as good as the classic reports, with maps, backdrops and all!

This is great stuff! Love the OG models, OG scheme and OG basing techniques, a nice contrast from contemporary, grittier ultras. It's nice to see people keeping the golden ages alive
Subbed!

5 more Sternguard for my Ultramarines, using varying marks of power armor. From left to right:
Mk4, Prototype Mk7, Mk8, Mk1, Mk2
The big Judge Dredd-esque shoulderpad on the prototype Mk7 dude was really fun to paint, as were the shades on the Thunder Armor guy. I wish I did a better blend on the lightning claw, but eh, something to keep in mind for when I do assault Terminators at some point.

Good old combat knife lightning claws.. pure nostalgia!

Lightning claws? I thought this was a retro, old time blog! You young, 2nd ed, whippersnapper…

I know this makes me sound really old, but I’ve got stuck in my head that LCs (and TH/SS) terminators are “new” and were added later then true, old fashioned, terminators. Now lightning claws don’t show up in the RT core book, or compendium, but are in the 2nd edition wargear book. So while Brother SRM is fine for gearing up his nicely done sternguard, I ask, when were they introduced?

…Back in my day if we wanted something with more punch then a powerfist, we used a chainfist and liked it! And even those required going outside the main book. Kids and their fancy toys these days.

From a cursory look through Stuff of Legends, it seems lightning claw Terminators were released sometime in 1996, so they are era appropriate! The most recently sculpted models in this army are the scouts from 1997, but that is still in the realm of 2nd ed.

My Ultramarines just got their clubhouse today:

Looking forward to painting up the bulkheads and putting this on their display board!

You going to play it as a fortification with the new bastion rules? Size profile looks to be a bit off, and it lacks the built in HBs.

I'll admit I am not a fan of older models at all as I think the newer ones outclass them in every possible way, but you paint them well. /nod

 Nevelon wrote:
You going to play it as a fortification with the new bastion rules? Size profile looks to be a bit off, and it lacks the built in HBs.

I've thought about it, but the footprint is way different. I'm not gonna convert it, since I'd rather keep it in its original form. Depends who I'm playing, but I think I'll generally just use it as regular terrain.

 BrotherHaraldus wrote:
I'll admit I am not a fan of older models at all as I think the newer ones outclass them in every possible way, but you paint them well. /nod

Thanks man. Old models have a very certain appeal and fit a certain aesthetic that I'm just crazy about. I get that they're not for everyone, but I love em.

 Brother SRM wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
You going to play it as a fortification with the new bastion rules? Size profile looks to be a bit off, and it lacks the built in HBs.

I've thought about it, but the footprint is way different. I'm not gonna convert it, since I'd rather keep it in its original form. Depends who I'm playing, but I think I'll generally just use it as regular terrain.

How does it compare with other forts? Could you use it as a fortress of redemption? You’d need a lascannon on one side an a missile launcher on the other (whirlwind?) but the center might double as the tower.

I haven't put the thing together yet, but the box says it's 23cm high, 30cm wide, 23cm deep.

This is full of absolute silliness. I love it! You are right, retro models do have a certain appeal to them, and the classic Ultra's feel makes me feel bad for calling this chapter Ultrasmurfs. Back in the day, these guys actually rocked! Very nicely done, and a wonderful throwback!

This is great, I've been playing for 15 years and when I first started oop minis were atrocious to me, but now they have a charm that can't be matched and you are doing them a wonderful service, keep it up.

Any chance we'll be seeing an old land raider or land speeder? Those are a couple of my favs.

Glad you're digging the old school stuff! I've always liked the look of older models, even when they weren't so old.

I've got a bunch of 2nd ed Land Speeders in various stages of paint and assembly, but unfortunately one got lifted off my doorstep when the mailman brought it. As for a Land Raider, that's at my friend's place where he has a larger tub of Simple Green than I do. He'll strip it and give it back to me, then I can get to work on it. I'll hopefully have it in time for the tourney I'm hitting in June!

Thudd Gun that I'll be using as a Thunderfire in games:

Man I remember that Imperial Bastion! It was one of the first terrain pieces I ever bought. This is such a great blog, keep up the good work and awesome painting!

Now i have to pull out my old skool rule book.

Thanks! The old 2nd ed rulebooks have been a pretty constant source of inspiration and guidance in collecting and painting this army.

This is some really cool stuff. I love both the retro and current models, and as others have said, you paint them really well. I bet they look great on the tabletop too.

Nice. I have my own Thudderfire Cannon sitting around. Though it's got Squat crewmembers in addition to a Techmarine because it's more awesome that way, lol.

 Sir Bubbles wrote:
This is some really cool stuff. I love both the retro and current models, and as others have said, you paint them really well. I bet they look great on the tabletop too.

Thank you! I'm yet to paint current models in this style, but I had some ideas to get some of the Forgeworld Horus Heresy Marines and paint them like this just to mess with folks If you want to see these boys on the tabletop, may I kindly direct you to this battle report: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/581555.page

 Veteran Sergeant wrote:
Nice. I have my own Thudderfire Cannon sitting around. Though it's got Squat crewmembers in addition to a Techmarine because it's more awesome that way, lol.

I actually have the Squat gunner that came with it when I got it years and years ago, but I don't have any designs on collecting an army of the little stunties. There will be Guard eventually though! Until then, I'm almost done with a Devastator squad - I think you guys will really like them!

How did I miss this thread? Loving the old-school action - Goblin Green bases 4 eva

Finished up a squad of Devastators! The transfers were kind of a pain in the ass, but I like how they came out for the most part. I also added some variation to kneepads and some extra honorifics to the models to differentiate them a little from other rank and file dudes. The freehand on the heavy weapons was wicked fun too:










I also laid everything out to get a look at the whole army on the field together:

Now for some old style Terminators? In an old style Land Raider?

Terminators are the obvious next choice

I can't remember - were there new 2nd ed terminators, or was it still these RT guys?

 Slinky wrote:
Terminators are the obvious next choice

I can't remember - were there new 2nd ed terminators, or was it still these RT guys?

While there are older terminator models, those were the ones in use until the modern plastics. I think. But IIRC those were the ones in service throughout 2nd, even though they were RT sculpts.

I do have plenty of old style Terminators! The 2nd ed Terminators were subtly different from those Rogue Trader ones you guys are talking about though:


There's also the plastic Terminators of this same era, who look incredibly similar and are known for their swivel-torsos. They came in the 2nd edition Space Hulk set. I've got 10 of those, but they're reserved for said Space Hulk set

And yes, I do have a 2nd ed Land Raider, but it's at my friend's place since I don't have a tub of Simple Green big enough to hold it!

Thanks, just spent a while scrolling up and down seeing the fairly minor differences

They're there! The stormbolters are the most noticeable part, but the vents on their backs are really different too. The old vents were sunken in, and the newer ones are more flush with the back angle of the armor. The shape of the shoulderpads is also fairly different, with it having more of a boxy shape on the 2nd ed ones.

Bit more bling too, purity seals etc. And the sergeant's back banner, of course

My commitments for this month are these 5 Terminators, and that Imperial Bastion:

You should scan the cardstock parts in case you need to replace them for whatever reason.

Somehow I've never seen that bastion before - reminds me of the Necromunda terrain a bit. Looking forward to seeing the terminators done!

You even managed the flames and check pattern on the heavy weapons Nice work!!

Any plans to add a 2nd Edition plastic missile launcher from the 40K box where the Marine had the fire control in his left hand?

You should scan the card stock parts and send me a copy , I can't find a file with the right size formating . Looking forward to seeing your progress, good luck on your vow for he month.

Ah the Nostalgia! how this thread takes me back, when GW were gamers for gamers making a game by gamers for all!

 Zuul wrote:
You should scan the cardstock parts in case you need to replace them for whatever reason.

A friend of mine has already scanned all the card terrain of the era, so I'm covered!

 Slinky wrote:
Somehow I've never seen that bastion before - reminds me of the Necromunda terrain a bit. Looking forward to seeing the terminators done!

It's the exact same plastic bulkhead/card terrain system as the Necromunda stuff. I'm pretty sure I posted this picture earlier in the thread, but:

 Dreadclaw69 wrote:
You even managed the flames and check pattern on the heavy weapons Nice work!!

Any plans to add a 2nd Edition plastic missile launcher from the 40K box where the Marine had the fire control in his left hand?

Thank you! I'll be doing similar things with all heavy weapons I do. I've already used all those plastic missile launcher guys in my Crimson Fists, unfortunately!

Just a WIP for you all:

These guys are actually painting up pretty damn fast - faster than the power armored Marines anyway!

I've been doing some good work on these guys in the last couple weeks, painting up all the bastion bulkheads and making some solid progress on the Terminators. In the meantime, I did get a game in and took a few kinda crappy pictures with my old iPhone:

Terminators! I'm not thrilled with some of the transfers (and had a lot of trouble with them on the one with the skull on his helmet) but I'm happy with how the squad came out. I just wish their knees were big enough for the skull transfer on the Space Marine decal sheet.

These really have the old-school White Dwarf feel, nice work!

Missing the sticker banner or are you making one of your own?

Looking sharp. Love the hazard striping.

Do you have any of the old sticker banners? They would be icing on the cake.

I have some sticker banners, but a friend of mine has access to a really high quality printer and has scans of the old banners. We're going to print out a bunch of them, and I'll be putting them on sergeants.

So I'm positive this'll be lost by the typical "automatically appended next post" majiggy, but I finished the crib these boys will be staying in plus some neato objectives:

The objectives:

And everything I've painted this month:

You hand carve those “U”s? They fit your army perfectly.

Bastion look very nice.

A goon over on Something Awful had a laser and cut them for me out of acrylic. I wish I could have carved them myself, but my hand's not that steady!

Great work as always

Thanks!

Next up, I've got a little command squad. I know they're not the best unit/loadout in the world (banner, power fist, flamer, apothecary) but I think they'll be a neat unit to run:

Awesome, love the Termies, I just stripped a bunch of my old ones, standard and SW variants to be re-deployed.

Thanks! I've wanted Termies that looked like that since I was a kid. It was really great to finally get them looking like they looked in the old rulebooks.

Also, Dakka's gallery ate my WIP picture, so here it is again:

getting some good progress on these guys! Washed and built back up the blue, got some progress on the yellow (still needs washes, layers, and highlights) and blacked out the areas that will later be red, black, or gunmetal:

For those wondering, the green on top of their bases is a really watery base I put down so when I eventually do the Warboss Green, any spots I miss won't be blue.

 Nevelon wrote:
Anyone know when the larger round bases were made?

The 40mm Round was introduced with the metal Ork Warboss(the one with Twin Shoota and Chain Axe/Choppa), I believe it was '98/'99. The first "modern" 60mm round that wasn't the Titan base came with the plastic Dreadnought, can't remember the year off hand.

Loving the Old Skool style, SRM. Hits me right in the nostalgias.

Been a few weeks but I've got some progress again! I finished up my command squad:

Next up is a ride for this bunch of colorful command buddies:

I like your style! Keep them coming. Reminds me of the times when the minis were badass not because the sculpts were great but because they had character.

 Invicta wrote:
I like your style! Keep them coming. Reminds me of the times when the minis were badass not because the sculpts were great but because they had character.

Glad you dig em! And I actually prefer a lot of these sculpts to the current ones. There's less detail, yes, but the models have more purity in their design and silhouette - even your basic Tactical Marine in a modern plastic kit has as much bling as the commander of this army!

Chugging along on this colorful little tank:

So cute...

No handrails? They seem to suffer a lot when browsing Ebay.

I left the handrails off so I could put them on a Rhino - this one was actually new in box!

Have you thought about making some rails out or wire/card if you are short sets?

Awesome idea and good job!! This brings back old memories

I haven't thought about making my own rails, no, but I'd like to include them on vehicles where I can and where they'd make sense. I built a Whirlwind years ago and left the rails off, so I can probably find a good use for those bits too when I get to stripping and painting up my Rhinos.

i love it i feel like i am back in the late 90's!!!!!!
i hate the smurfs useally, and i cant stand that they are the poster boys, but you sir, you make ythem great. SUBed big time!

Hey I finished painting another thing.

Really nice work on the Razorback. I remember that was released in the first issue of WD I got (it was the original with lascannon & twin linked plasma guns)

Thank you! I would've liked to have the lasplas one, but I think I can deal with the twin linked lascannon instead.

And after a nice painting day today, I got an awful lot of progress done on these guys:


At the start of the day, they were just primed blue!

Retro goodness as always.

Another tac squad? How large are you planning on going with this force? Although a las/plas squad in a razor if a slightly different old school.

Have you done a group shot recently?

It's very 4th ed, but I wanted to include it! They also just so happened to be the Marines I happened to have left. As for army size, I'm hoping to get up to half a company for the time being. Once I finish this tac squad and an assault or bike squad, that'll be the halfway point. Beyond that, who knows! I might go for the whole 2nd company, but half of it is a very reasonable goal.

The last group shot I did was at the start of April:

Third Tac squad is done!

Next up will be a ride for the boys in blue:

With the grab bars even. Nice.

It was new in box, how could I resist?

Painted up the Rhino for the first tactical squad, and this one I DID manage to get the rails on!

Following up on this Rhino, I've painted up a combat squad of Scouts with sniper rifles. These models are leagues better than the plastics, even if the poses are kinda limited. The sergeant has the little red skull on his Ultima, and the squad is the first in the 10th company. I'll need to go back and add squad markings to my other Scouts later:

While I do like the old scouts, I'd not go so far as to call them leagues better then the new ones. Mixed in a squad they blend quite well.

The snipers at least, I don't own the other plastic scout box to make comparisons with.


Regardless, nice job painting those up.

The heads on these guys beat the pants off the plastic ones; there's so much more depth to the detail, and the hair actually looks and paints like hair instead of a Lego-esque hairpiece. The crouching one is legit one of my favorite models GW's ever made, with his tacticool loadout and grim demeanor as he loads another round into the chamber. The metal scouts altogether beat out the plastic ones in detail and character, even if some of the poses get repetitive. Glad you dig em though!

I don't know if I'll paint this too soon, but they've got a house now:

Next up, we've got 5 more sniper scouts and the big head honcho himself, Marneus Calgar:

One of the problems with the old metal snipers is that you are stuck with two sculpts. Looks like you already primed them, but any thoughts on how to make them different? Not that there is a lot of flex with the way they are built.

There were two each of shotguns and bolters, and 4 CC scouts IIRC, plus the sarge. And you are more likely to mix those up in a squad, where you want to run pure sniper squads. One of the drawback of the medium unfortunately.

Looking forward to seeing the big guy painted. Adding him will boost your force considerably.

Unfortunately the only real differentiation I've managed to get in was on the sniper sergeant, with his grey hair and red skull on his chapter badge. I honestly don't mind painting some repetitive poses since I'm used to it from painting metal IG, and these guys have so many neat little details that there's always more stuff to find and paint. I don't think I could stomach more than 10 though. I absolutely love the metal shotgun scout model, but if I picked one up he'd probably end up in my Crimson Fists since I boneheadedly only built a squad of 9 shotty scouts.

When I finish up Calgar he'll have a printed out banner and everything; I'm excited to get him out there!

I just finished putting the banner on Calgar:




Although the banner was kind of a pain, I had a great time painting Calgar. There's so much detail on him, but it doesn't feel as ridiculous as it does on modern models - the Chapter Master of the Ultramarines should be this blinged out! I only count 19 skulls on him, which is downright tame by today's standards He's just got a ton of character, appropriately enough:


As an added bonus, I finished up the last 5 scouts:







I painted 5 last month, but even given their limited poses they didn't feel repetitive to me. They're really great sculpts, like all of Jes' old Space Marines.

Once again, your work rate shames the rest of us Nice looking models too!

Thank you! Also, for those who haven't been checking out the Showcase, I put up a thread with some whole army shots in there. Go check it out:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/603897.page

And just so you know what you're getting into:

Looking good, Now just a Land Raider for those terminators!

I just need a tub big enough to strip the one I've got lying around!

Nice collection. And if they can't hit their enemies they'll just blind them with the bright colors.

 pfibp wrote:
Nice collection. And if they can't hit their enemies they'll just blind them with the bright colors.

The future's so grimdark I gotta wear shades

A surprising amount of Rogue Trader/2nd Edition models wear shades for precisely that reason.

That, and against all the bright green bases!

That and all the weapons in Rogue Trader that would actually kill you if you didn't have eye protection! I'm sure they upped your "cool" stat as well!

I felt like taking a break from blue for a little while and thought I'd work on some allies for this army. Who better than the Imperial Guard?

I always wondered how on earth they could use those special weapons... so oversized.

I guess the Ultramarines needed some cannon fodder?

The old Cadian plasma gun actually looked reasonable in comparison to that flamer:


But yeah, the Ultramarines needed some cannon fodder and objective sitters, and I thought I may as well give them a little more long range firepower! I think I'll just work on bulking out this platoon for a little bit with more infantry squads and some heavy weapons before moving on to any armor.

It's greeeeen! ;D

Just a little WIP update on some autocannon teams. I had to figure out a solution for the basing, as they used to have separate loaders and gunners, and the big 60mm round bases they currently use didn't exist yet. I think I made the right decision:

Finished up the autocannon teams! The eyes came out kinda wonky on a few of them, same as the last batch, but that's kind of a fault of the sculpt. They're Guardsmen with big helmets so I don't think many folks will see them from tabletop level anywho. My favorite is the dude with the binoculars. I was also kind of stressing about the basing for these guys since the modern HWT is on a 60mm round and the old teams came separate, but I think the big square base hits the right balance between playability and the retro aesthetic.

I like the square bases. It lets you form a nice, crisp, gunline. Very much in character of the old Cadians. It’s not like they are shoulder mounting their heavies, you aren’t going that old school. For the most part there are pros and cons to being on a larger/smaller/round/square base. It probably evens out in the end. Someone might gripe when one of the corner cases comes up and you get an advantage.

But I’ve not re-based my old terminators, so might not be the best source of advice on the topic. But taking the old termis as an example, people rarely comment on the bases, and have never complained. Especially when covering the whole squad with a template.

But your guard are looking retro cool as always, keep up the good work!

Thanks! The square bases actually reminded me a lot of some of the historical games I played as a kid, which was a nice reminder. I don't think they'll really get any advantage from a square base vs. a round one - it's not like the corner of the base is going to impact their 48" range

So I painted a lot today, basically getting these guys done in one sitting. I love the old plasma gunner, since it looks like the plasma gun is actually a rifle and not a huge heavy weapon. The old paunchy officer is also one of my absolute favorite IG sculpts; his face has tons of character and his shotgun is super cool:

Outside of nurgle, how many minis are anything but fit, trim, bodybuilders? In the grim darkness of the future, there are no alternate body shapes. Which does indeed make that cadian officer cool and unique.

Those plasma gunners have brass balls. I feel like they need to be posed with a shielding face “gets hot” marine with a caption like “suck it up and rapid fire you big sissy”. Because if they get any ones, their heads are gone.

I'm trying to think of anything else, but I'm actually having a really hard time! There might've been some weird chubbier dudes in Rogue Trader, but everything was weird and lumpy back then. And the plasma gunners look like no-nonsense soldiers actually fighting instead of just milling about like a lot of minis do. I'm looking forward to painting my other command squad now!

Finished up a Commissar to keep the boys in line:

There's at least one fat Catachan Captain from 2e era.

He wasn't really fat, he just had armor which made him bulkier than other Catachans:

I might try and get one of this guy though, he's got a ton of character and a badass cigar to boot.

I've got that guy. He remains one of my favorate scupts ever. It helps that I like the job I did painting him.

Nice work on the commisar. The pose and some of the detail is a little goofy. Not your fault for the sculpt.

Well, you've got to be used to goofy poses and details if you're painting retro Warhammer models Glad you dig him, goofiness notwithstanding. I'll find a use for that Catachan bolter guy at some point - maybe I'll have an allied Inquisitor and a retinue or something.

I love their goofiness, really. I'm using my old imperial army squad as inquisitor acolytes.

That sounds like a good role for them! I have a bunch of RT era IG that I'm trying to figure out what to do with. My first idea was Genestealer Cult counts-as Gaunts, which I might still go with.I was gonna use them in place of these 2nd ed Cadians, but I love these models too much and the aesthetics fit better.

Work is well underway on a load of Guardsmen plus a return to my Ultramarines. In the meantime, I've also been building up some more of the support for the army. Aircraft is a problem I'm expecting to face, so I needed some sort of air defense. Obviously there were no Stalker/Hunter models back in 2nd edition, and the traditional Whirlwind is still too recognizable. I went and got the old Armorcast Whirlwind turret and attached it to the old Whirlwind body. I figured it looked different enough that it wouldn't be confused for a Whirlwind and I could instead use it as a Hunter/Stalker in games of 40k:

Good idea, should do the trick

After a brief excursion into browner pastures with my Iron Warriors, I'm back painting the boys in blue! First up is a Terminator Librarian:






Next I've got some Assault Marines. I was kinda dreading these dudes because of their jump packs getting in the way, but they painted really easy! It wasn't even that hard to get the sergeant's transfer on under the jump pack vent:

Love that assault sergeant, well done.

I’ve got that librarian myself. He was one of the happy WYSWYG moments once they (re)differentiated power weapons. I think the force axe pairs well with the TDA.

Alway nice to get a blast of retro-nostalgia from your paintbench. Takes me back. Keep up the good work!

Thank you! I don't get to paint enough veteran sergeant racing stripes unfortunately.

More Guard to come, then my Hunter/Stalker counts-as!

 Brother SRM wrote:
Thank you! I don't get to paint enough veteran sergeant racing stripes unfortunately.

More Guard to come, then my Hunter/Stalker counts-as!

I'm working up some replacements for one of my RTB01 squads, first helmet stripes I've done in years. Hard to get them nice and clean.

It is, but it's totally worth it!

Also, I did take one of this army's main criticisms to heart and did more work on the bases - 'Eavy Metal used to do a yellow drybrush but I think it would look too garish, even for this super-saturated scheme. If you look above, there's now a drybrush of Rotting Flesh (an older GW color, like a mix of bone and green) over the basing sand, giving it just a little more definition. You can see it on the latest batch of models.

I finished up a whole mess of Cadians! I actually finished painting up both the second infantry squad and the company command squad the other day, but my camera died and I had to wait on a replacement. This makes one small platoon and a command section for this allied force, which I think may be it. I might add a Leman Russ to them and I've got more Guardsmen if I want them, but for now I'm saying they're done!
First up is the second infantry squad:







Next I've got the company commander and some special weapons. These'll be doled out between the platoon (melta) and company (plasma) command squads:

Very nice - You've exactly captured the look you were going for. Bravo!

Thank you! I think there's one more thing I'll add to the Cadians then I can call that detachment done for now. If I really felt like it I've got 10 more Guardsmen and 3 heavy bolter teams I could paint up for them, but I think I've worked them out of my system for the most part.

Finished painting up the Whirlwind/Hunter/Stalker. It's different enough from a regular Whirlwind that I think people will buy it as an anti-air vehicle:





And here's everything I've painted this month - it's been productive!

Shouldn’t it be launching a bunch of crayons? Where did the retro-cheezy 2nd edition missiles go?

Looking good, as normal.

I do have the old Crayola-launcher, but people with good memories will still read that as "Whirlwind" while the box looks a bit more unusual. I think by making it obviously different, it'll be a more acceptable proxy. And thank you!

 Brother SRM wrote:
I do have the old Crayola-launcher, but people with good memories will still read that as "Whirlwind" while the box looks a bit more unusual. I think by making it obviously different, it'll be a more acceptable proxy. And thank you!

The people old enough to remember the original whirlwind have enough problems remembering to take all our pills every day. I think you’ll be safe fielding it as whatever you want.

Hah! Well here's hoping nobody gives me any guff

I just ran out of glue assembling more assault Marines, so I had to run out and get some, along with a little something to fuel my hobby progress for the evening...

The people old enough to remember the original whirlwind have enough problems remembering to take all our pills every day. I think you’ll be safe fielding it as whatever you want.

*snork* Whuzz? Whuzz? Is it time to deploy already? Well, lad,then in those good old days you could always field what you wanted, counting as. Provided that your marines had proper cone-nosed helmets of course. Now the young ones, they don't have a ton of moral, we would just have tacked our crayons onto a deodorant can and called it an antigrav missile tank, and we would have liked it! At least son has a proper thudd gun, he has. Nobody never has proper thudd guns nowadays... grmbl...*snork*

Can't explain why I didn*t stumble earlier into this blog! Great thing, great execution! When I see those contemporary u-marines I always think "haven't the painters ever heard about the three colour minimum rule?" And the "Modern" ultra-blue also is not quite right. Carry on! More retro to the battlefields!

Welcome to the thread, Hruotoland! The modern Ultramarines Blue is more of a purplish hue - hell, in the previous painting guide they only used it as an edge highlight color!

I just assembled a squad of bikes after finishing up the Assault Marines last night. I genuinely forgot what gluing plastic together felt like:

Those actually vintage bikes? The difference between the old one and the newer ones is negligible, IIRC. The riders had a flat join between the legs/torso, rather then rounded, but otherwise were the same. I don’t know if I’d be able to tell the difference in the bikes themselves. Not the attack bike obviously, as it’s a hybrid metal kit.

I see the plasma gunner, are his two friends there? The melta gunner and the sarge with the sword? I notice a guy with a powerfist, is he leading the squad, or are you going to paint him up as a character?

Mmmmmmm 2nd ed.

The nostalgia runs thick around here, I still miss not being able to shoot stuff at long range, I mean the darn laserbeam does not run out of momentum and fall to the ground, sure it gets harder to acctually hit something but then again a Carnifex is quite large and not big on dodging.

 Nevelon wrote:
Those actually vintage bikes? The difference between the old one and the newer ones is negligible, IIRC. The riders had a flat join between the legs/torso, rather then rounded, but otherwise were the same. I don’t know if I’d be able to tell the difference in the bikes themselves. Not the attack bike obviously, as it’s a hybrid metal kit.

I see the plasma gunner, are his two friends there? The melta gunner and the sarge with the sword? I notice a guy with a powerfist, is he leading the squad, or are you going to paint him up as a character?

They actually are the 2nd ed kits! The riders are all the dudes with the head and torso as one piece, and all the ones still in grey plastic were new in box when I got them. They even have the sticky banners, but I'm short a few so I may have to print them like I did with the backbanners on a few of my characters. The riders of the modern ones are actually pretty much the same as out-of-the-box Tactical Marines, with separate heads, two halves to the torso, and so on. As for the plasma gunner, I only have him and I'm getting one more plasma gun torso sometime this week. I was thinking of using the classic power sword sarge, but I just love sergeants with the red helmets with the racing stripe too much!

 STC_LogisEngine wrote:
Mmmmmmm 2nd ed.

The nostalgia runs thick around here, I still miss not being able to shoot stuff at long range, I mean the darn laserbeam does not run out of momentum and fall to the ground, sure it gets harder to acctually hit something but then again a Carnifex is quite large and not big on dodging.

I think I only ever played a couple games of 2nd, and they were when I was a kid. I would absolutely love to though! This project is based heavily on the imagery I was introduced to with this game, and my relentless obsession with aesthetics.

Just finished up this tank for my Cadians. I'm not entirely happy with it, since Army Painter's Greenskin and GW's Abaddon Black are two of the worst paints I've ever had to use. Each of them took 3-4 coats just to cover the undercoat, which was already Army Painter's (actually really good) Greenskin primer. I got kind of frustrated so some parts don't look quite as good as I wish they did, but it's ready for the tabletop:





Now some of the more astute/ancient of you might think "Wait a minute! The Exterminator didn't come out until 3rd edition!" and well, you'd be right. I actually had this same realization after I'd bought the damn thing. However, I think I worked out an amicable solution:

Well, revising history is what the victor does...

If I hadn’t just replaced the sarge and heavy of one of my RTB01 squads with modern Mk VI plastics, I might have some moral high ground to stand on. But the banner is a nice nod to the fact that it’s a little out of place.

I don’t recall the IG tanks being quite so garishly bright. Not sure if that’s the mini, the lighting, or my memory. All of which could be at fault.

 Shandara wrote:
Well, revising history is what the victor does...

True that!

 Nevelon wrote:
If I hadn’t just replaced the sarge and heavy of one of my RTB01 squads with modern Mk VI plastics, I might have some moral high ground to stand on. But the banner is a nice nod to the fact that it’s a little out of place.

I don’t recall the IG tanks being quite so garishly bright. Not sure if that’s the mini, the lighting, or my memory. All of which could be at fault.

It's okay, we all have our moments of weakness I kind of wish I could put some of the new plastics into the army just because they'd be fun to assemble and paint, but a theme's a theme. As for the paint scheme of the tank, it's based directly on the old Leman Russ Demolisher scheme:

It was a darker green, but not by much. It looks like the old Snot Green, which I don't have an equivalent to in my collection. I painted the autocannons to match the autocannons in my infantry squads so they'd tie together a little better.

Finished up the second group of 5 Assault Marines. I've armed two of them with hand flamers, which I'll be using as regular flamers in games of 7th ed 40k. If I ever get to play 2nd ed with these guys, you bet they'll be using those old hand flamer templates though!








And everything I've finished this month:


Next up: Bikers!

Hand Flamers FTW!

I love them, they look like little super soakers I've been looking through old WDs and seeing 2nd ed-style flamers that aren't just attached to whole models at the chest, and I've gotta track those down.

Love it! I was just cleaning up an old metal jump pack. I forgot how nice they are.

Looking good. The hand flamers are a nice touch. You make excellent use of decals.

Is the heavy bolter carrying guardsman from page 6 Harker?

 albinoork wrote:


Is the heavy bolter carrying guardsman from page 6 Harker?

Despite the chain feed, that’s a normal bolter. Model #8033B Catachan Jungle Fighter Lieutenant.

Yep! He's just a badass Catachan. Harker didn't exist til the 5th edition IG codex. I did just get a squad of those Ratlings in that picture though, so I might do them up once I finish the bikers.

 albinoork wrote:
Looking good. The hand flamers are a nice touch. You make excellent use of decals.

Is the heavy bolter carrying guardsman from page 6 Harker?

Also, thank you! Decals are something I could never bring myself to throw away, but never ever used since they usually looked tacky and bad. I've since discovered Micro Set, Micro Sol, gloss and matte varnish, and with all these tools they've really made a great addition to my toolkit. Some of my earliest exposure to 40k (along with the old 3rd ed rulebook) was Dawn of War, and in that the Marines had tons of iconography on them without going over the top with bling. I've always wanted to pull off that sort of thing, and I'm really happy I could make transfers work for me to make that happen.

Ah those good old combat knives.. I used tons of them as bayonets for bolters.

My god that leman russ brought me back some.
Fantastic stuff.
Do you have an overall army shot to date?

 Ratius wrote:
My god that leman russ brought me back some.
Fantastic stuff.
Do you have an overall army shot to date?

Thank you kindly! I'm glad I could stir up some memories.

I did some army shots back in July, but the army's grown by about 1000 points since then:




Looking back, I might get around to touching up some of the older squads and adding tactical markings or what have you.

Missing the metal Thunderhawk...

The banner is such a nice touch to the Russ.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Brother SRM wrote:
Work is well underway on a load of Guardsmen plus a return to my Ultramarines. In the meantime, I've also been building up some more of the support for the army. Aircraft is a problem I'm expecting to face, so I needed some sort of air defense. Obviously there were no Stalker/Hunter models back in 2nd edition, and the traditional Whirlwind is still too recognizable. I went and got the old Armorcast Whirlwind turret and attached it to the old Whirlwind body. I figured it looked different enough that it wouldn't be confused for a Whirlwind and I could instead use it as a Hunter/Stalker in games of 40k:

Just call it a Hyperios, the AA Whilrwind.

 Shandara wrote:
Missing the metal Thunderhawk...

A friend of mine has one, but he's yet to assemble it. The damn thing will collapse under its own weight if you don't build some scaffolding inside! I'm seeing a few on eBay going for between 800 and 1500, but I'd rather eat this month

barnowl wrote:
The banner is such a nice touch to the Russ.

Just call it a Hyperios, the AA Whilrwind.

Thank you! And I've thought about using the Hyperios rules, but I'm glad just to use the Stalker rules out of the Space Marines codex. It served me well my last game!

Very nice army! Its just so awesome to see a vintage army painted in this polished old school sorta way.

I don't know what you have planned, but that epicast/armorcast Whirlwind makes me think you should consider one of the epicast/armorcast Vindicators. I don't see a Land Raider either.

Thank you! I've got an Epicast Vindicator and an old Land Raider soaking in Simple Green right now, actually!

Russian cupola predator, open turret razorback and the Original Thudd-Gun... those were the days... I still love to field my predators sqadron-size. Since the nerfing of multi-turreted tanks a waste of points beyound justification, but better to go down with style than to win without!

This thread is full of nostalgic awesome. Bring on the Land Raider!

Really enjoyed skimming through this blog! Brings back a lot of memories! I have the old 2nd ed Chaplain on Bike (inc old school bolters and combat knives sprue and the self adhesive pennant) Currently being used as a Ravenwing Chaplain in my Dark Angels.




As for the Predator, I've got the Deimos pattern Predator Executioner, which does hearken back to 2nd ed with the turret,sponsons and exhaust pipes
Apologies for the pic on this one- bit too much exposure here.

That Chaplain rules! I've got one of my own that I recently stripped, but I don't have any immediate plans to put him in the army. Gotta finish up the bike squad first! Also that Deimos pred is nifty

 youwashock wrote:
This thread is full of nostalgic awesome. Bring on the Land Raider!

All things in due time! Once it's done being stripped I'll need to remount the lascannons with brass rod or something sturdy.

Yeah I have fun with it. You can kit it out with a Heavy Conversion Beamer or Plasma Destroyer. The plasma weapon doesn't have great range (36")but with S7 AP2 Heavy 3 Blast it's great for killing large/heavy units. Most of the time I roll direct hits with it!
Plus plasma weapons are quite a common occurrence in the Dark Angels chapter, so it makes sense that they'd likely have one of these in service.

I'm going to a tournament this weekend and while my list isn't the most competitive thing in the world, I'm proud of the formatting:

That is pure awesome. The only thing missing is the little symbols that will represent them on the battle report.

I was trying to find the little symbols but could only find Troops and Fast Attack, and I didn't feel like digging out my existing graphics and pulling them out into Photoshop. The tourney's not for a few days though, so I might if I find the time.

Just discovered this thread. Packed with vintage goodness and I'm loving it!

It's making me really want to get back into my squat project.

Thank you! You should definitely get back to your Squats - oldhammer is the best kind!

I took these boys to a tournament today up in Maine. I got beaten pretty handily in 2/3 of my games, but I had a lot of fun and got some good pictures (and a neat trophy) out of it!









I think the Imperial Guard are, sad to say, a total liability. They only served to die miserably in every game I played, and if I spent those same points on bikers, a Land Raider, Devastators, or damn near anything else I'd have done loads better.

The Emperor Protects...

Surely your opponents didn't recognize your Imperial Guards were all veteran, did they? I mean, to field those great old school helmets alone should be worth 3-4 victory points! Well, 2 points actually. Still no rogue trader goodness.

Oh, I've got a platoon of Rogue Trader Guardsmen, I just like the 2nd ed ones a load more!

Did you mistakingly paint up a PDF force rather then guardsmen?

Glad you took the Ultras out for a spin and had fun. Playing a list with a lot of self-imposed restrictions in a competitive environment can be rough. But it does make for some memorable battles on on sides. You have any bat-reps for the tourney?

In my first game they were just unwieldy and out of position until they got charged by some Assault Terminators, but they were able to at least hold them off til the end. In my second game they were just the obvious target for my opponent's Thunderfire Cannon, so they got pounded til they were gone. In my third (and ugliest) game, they were erased on turn 1 from a Broadside missile team. Anything that can cause 21 wounds that ignore cover, don't need line of fire, are twin linked and S7 doesn't sit right with me. In my practice games with this list before the tourney they were either Thunderfire food or died to a man before any Ultramarines died, which I guess is pretty fluffy at least

I don't have any proper batreps, but I do have more pictures!






This game was with my buddy and his retro Marines/Grey Knights, and was a really fun and close game:






This was from the last game, and here are my Guardsmen seconds before being erased from the table:




And this is the play of the day I was proud of: I'd hidden this platoon command squad with their melta guns behind this random piece of terrain. When my opponent brought his Riptide too close, they jumped out, used the order to shoot and run, vaporized the Riptide and went back into hiding!

Nice!

Epic pics!

I like how those guardsmen with the meltas look to be cowering behind cover trying to avoid the Riptide until they can get a good shot off at him.

 angelofvengeance wrote:
I like how those guardsmen with the meltas look to be cowering behind cover trying to avoid the Riptide until they can get a good shot off at him.

That's exactly what they did! My opponent didn't know they were back there, so when they jumped out to barbecue the Riptide he was just as surprised as the Riptide's pilot would have been, I imagine

Awesome stuff

Yeah those broadsides with Missiles are a PITA. Thats one broken unit if you ask me. But those Pics are awesome. The melta guard squad is the best one.

Love that melta squad pic, Brother.

Just finished a big ol' bike squad! These guys took me almost 2 months to paint; something about painting bikes just takes forever! I'm happy with how they turned out though, and getting the banners was really the cherry on top:

Well, each bike is really like painting two models, so they should take longer. It took me forever to do the ones I did. I’m not sure how the White Scars players can deal with it and stay sane. Then again, it might explain why all the ones I know are a little off their rockers.

Good work as always.

Absolutely love these models. The paint job is perfect on them really bring me back to my first days of collecting. I think the bike was one of my first miniatures. I've always loved the riding position of the bikers. Very american chopper. Anyway, very cool stuff. I admire how well you are sticking to the 'retro' theme.

Are those the original pennants Brother or ones which you've done yourself? Either way, great stuff. Gotta love SM bikes (even if they are a little too close to the ground to be all terrain lol.

Those were the days! Just had my 2nd ed Codex Imperialis to look at the pics. Just on spot!

I wish I had found this sooner.

You don't realize it but, you assembling those old tank helps me as the first old school Rhino I got, I thought it was a damaged ebay buy or some of the usual awful crud ebay dumps, and I seperated the two rhinos used to make the RT era/2nd edition Rhinos, finished one with cardstock and used the bottom half for terrain.

Before I embarrassingly learned here on Dakka that, that was how they were made. I felt a bit stupid and still do thinking about it. I prefer the older tanks to the new ones though, and this blog is a gem in the rough. My army is to have scratchbuilds and older vehicles with some newer bits, as they are all ebay saves. I try to tie them in with my new troops with new bits but, leave the vintage.

The thing I am most jealous of in this blog besides your predator's turret (I've had to make one out of half a pingpong ball and a 4th edition Rhino hatch.) Would be this...



That is beautiful. Did you ever scan it? That thing is amazing in a cool retro sense.

Thanks for the comments, guys!

The penants on the bikes are the original sticker ones. Most of my back banners are scanned, edited in Photoshop, and then printed out. I was thinking about doing the same for the bike penants, but figured they'd stick better if they were, well, sticky, and didn't rely on gravity so much.

The bike was actually my first GW plastic kit way back in the day, and I painted it in a very poor imitation of the box art. It has been lost to the sands of time, unfortunately.

And Stormwall, glad I could help your project! I unfortunately did not scan the bastion, but a friend of mine has scanned a few of those old buildings and gotten them laser cut from acrylic. It's a TON of work but they look awesome!

So while this isn't for this army specifically, I thought I'd post an update for those of you following the thread. I figured it'd be of interest to you older players who might remember this stuff. Christmas is right around the corner, so I dug up one of my spare old paunchy Cadian lieutenants and painted it up to look like my dad as a Christmas present:





The color scheme is based on the box art from his old miniatures game that he made back in the 80s:

Was that game before after the GW (tm) space marines?

Such a retro look!

Your tourney pics are really great, love the oldschool look.

Your dad made that Space Marines game? I see it pop up on Ebay Germany quite regularly.

My dad's game came out in 1986, so it's a contemporary of the Space Marines (tm) from geedubs. And my dad made that game, plus the Princess Ryan's Star Marines novel and game that came out recently and in the 90s, respectively.

So while this army hasn't been getting any additions to it (and there's not enough content here for a proper battle report) it has been seeing the field a bit! Here's some pictures from a game I had today against my buddy's IG:

Looks violent! Nice pics

It was a massacre! At game's end the Ultramarines were on all 5 objectives, had secured all three secondary objectives, and the Guard only had a Valkyrie left. It was the kind of game where I couldn't fail a save and he couldn't cause a wound, but it was still a load of fun.

 Brother SRM wrote:
It was a massacre! At game's end the Ultramarines were on all 5 objectives, had secured all three secondary objectives, and the Guard only had a Valkyrie left. It was the kind of game where I couldn't fail a save and he couldn't cause a wound, but it was still a load of fun.

Nothing can stand before the retro-awesomeness of your Ultramarines! I suspect the only reason that Valk lived was the cool shark mouth painted on the nose. It’s much harder to shoot down flyers with cool nose art.

Those shots are NOICE! They bring out your old school army in the best way. Those are not guys painted like aras, those are guys wearing heraldry armour and being proud of it while doing badassery no-nonsense! (*sigh* every was so much better in second ed... orks were orkier, Calgar was popey-degree Hamfist Mc Fisticuff and not Papa Smurf, Space Wolves were still Vikings in space and not wolf wolf wolfity wolves, gene stealers were still stealing genes, there were no Newcrons... overwatch... smoke grenade spam...) Sorry, were was I? Ah yes, expecially that bike assault picture I like!

I imagine they just had a hard time shooting down a flyer because flyers didn't exist back in their day

Thanks Hruotland! I didn't actually play much 2nd ed as I was only a kid when it was out, but I definitely share some of your nostalgia for the 40k universe of old. And hey, there were Necrons in 2nd ed!

yeah.. OLDcrons, no NEWcrons! As, in, the right Kind of crons! Nothing wrong with soulless restarted automatons going trough the "kill"-subroutine again...

I haven't updated this blog in a bit, but my Ultras were featured in a blogpost at The Flying Monkeys! Check it out for tons of pictures and an interview:
http://www.theflyingmonkeys.org/?p=206

I actually laughed out loud at this bit:

He refers to style in which he has painted them as “retro” or “90’s ‘Eavy Metal.” He’s hesitant to use the term “Oldhammer,” as he says “some more grognardy types get cranky if you use that to refer to anything after 1989.”

Nice to see your work getting some recognition.

Great army shot, such a nice vibrant blue

Every time I see this... Wow! You just need terminators and a land raider I think you'll pretty much have everything from when the 2nd edition Ultramarine codex came out.

I've got Termies! I even gave them the caution stripes on their powerfists:


The Land Raider still needs some TLC before I paint it up is all.

My bad! I missed those. Very cool!

Is there a chaplain in there?-Its just sooooo close to complete. I squeal like pig in slop when I see this army.

I have a power armor and Terminator Chaplain both hanging out near my sink where I stripped them back in July Right now I'm working on a Techpriest and some Servitors to keep the armor rolling.

Ahh the good ol' days. I fondly remember my Terminator Chaplain slugging it out against a load of Tyranid Warriors (2nd ed plastics) and a Hive Tyrant. Old school Rosarius was so awesome and kept me going for 3 turns while my brother tried to put him down lol

Great looking army, reminds me of the things that got me into the hobby. Also makes me want to dig out my old Ultramarines codex...

 Dechande wrote:
Great looking army, reminds me of the things that got me into the hobby. Also makes me want to dig out my old Ultramarines codex...

Thanks! And do it! It's a great codex, and a real treat to read through.

Been a while since I painted anything new for the Ultramarines and their moderately expendable IG buddies! I was able to trade a friend for one of the old Skullz Techpriests, and I had some Servitors lying around so I painted up the unit of them:

Nice looking lot of gearheads. I keep looking at the rules for the servitors, and trying to find a way to make them work. With the 7th damage chart it should be harder to blow up tanks in one shot, so repair is a little better. Still a chunk of points though.

Cool looking though. Fun mix of grimdark lobotomized man/robot things with the candy bright 2nd ed paintjob.

I don't right know when I'll even use them; I figure I'll park them behind a Leman Russ or a Land Raider and let them do their thing!

One of the most common requests I've gotten for my Ultramarines army is a Chaplain to lead the force. I figured why stop at one when I can have two!







Not pictured: The multiple coats of blackish blue I painted these models in that doesn't photograph well at all. I did the old 'Eavy Metal thing of mixing Regal Blue and black and mixing in more and more Space Wolves Grey for highlights, but it didn't show up too well. Also my printer broke so I couldn't print out the Chaplain's banner. Ah well!

Love the chaplains. I’ve got both those guys and still field them when I can. The power armor/jump pack one especially. While the modern TDA chaplain is better looking then his ancient counterpart, the PA one I think is better then the new ones. Which is saying a lot for a ~20? year old sculpt.

Such an iconic part of the lore, good to see them represented in your army.

Yeah, I love the Chaplain sculpts from then! I don't know if I like them better than the current ones, but I'd take any metal ones over the plastic one they have out now.

My favorite 2nd ed Chaplain sculpt is actually this one I painted up for my Crimson Fists a few years ago:

He’s a fine looking ball of rage and hatred, but I like the one with the metal skull better. I will admit to being biased though.

Looking good! I have the biker chaplain too, but I haven't assembled him. I love the metal Terminator-faced one, but I've got a thing for skull helmets!

I've had these guys lying around for upwards of 7 years now - long before this project! Thought I'd finally put some paint on them:

Bad boy, bad boy! whatcha gonna do when they come for you?

The Arbites are crisp! all neat and polished as they would be if real.

Thanks! They're probably the first time I ever enjoyed highlighting black. Using The Fang and Fenrisian Grey (old Shadow Grey and Space Wolves Grey) helped a lot.

The classic Arbites paint scheme still looks great, especially when well executed like this. Great work!

You are the law! Nicely done. I don’t think I’ve ever highlighted black in a fashion I’m happy with. I don’t do a whole lot honestly, which hurts the odds of getting something nice. What you’ve done shows off the model, without being overpowering.

You have a thought on how to use these guys on the table? IG vets? SM scouts? They going to get a rhino?

I'd love to give them a Rhino, but there's not really a means to do so. I think I'm gonna run them as scouts, since that'd let them use their carapace armor, bolters, and shotguns with manstopper shells. I know they're only supposed to be T3, but they are the law, after all

Have you considered running them as Inquisitor henchmen?-That will get you you're rhino.

I've thought about it, but I don't have Codex: Inquisition on me. I don't know if they can take shotguns!

Just checked... no shotguns anymore... I know previously they could. Now Acolytes get just Hotshot Lasguns, Bolters, and Stormbolters... upto 3 can select from a variety of special weapons.

Shucks! I think I'll keep them as Scouts for the time being; juggling one less book would be nice. Besides, a force of Arbites keeping the peace for as long as they can before the Ultramarines show up is super fitting!

At least its easy to justify the scouty-infiltrating aspect of using the Arbites that way by calling it their home-field advantage, knowing the lay of the land and such since they have a certain intrinsic defensive nature.

In some of the Black Library books they're described as having Land-speeder like vehicles too... if you felt like converting up something to count as Land Speeder Storms for some smaller Combat squads.

 aka_mythos wrote:
At least its easy to justify the scouty-infiltrating aspect of using the Arbites that way by calling it their home-field advantage, knowing the lay of the land and such since they have a certain intrinsic defensive nature.

In some of the Black Library books they're described as having Land-speeder like vehicles too... if you felt like converting up something to count as Land Speeder Storms for some smaller Combat squads.

Now I’ve got a picture in my head of a matte-black LSS with a lightbar/sirens up top swooping in to dispense justice. Although I think an enclosed cockpit, like the tempest might work better. Plus it would save you the trouble of converting the pilot and gunner. But you’d still want the open back of the LSS.

And while we are at it, some Arbites scout bikers would look cool.

I would LOVE Arbites scout bikers on Lawmasters and in hovercraft squad cars! Unfortunately these guys are pretty strictly retro, so I don't want to stray too far from their roots. However, I've got another gang of the more modern ones I could do up - you guys are giving me some great/expensive ideas!

The Arbites also have Suppression teams armed with Shock Mauls and Shields... I think you could build some by counting them as bolt pistol and close combat weapon scouts with the shields representing the the cover save from camo-cloaks.

Here are some head options for those bikers:

http://maxmini.eu/conversion-bits/head-swaps/police-helmets-bits


http://puppetswar.eu/product.php?id_product=367

That MaxMini head with the cigar has that perfect Stallone slouchy scowl! I'll keep these bits in mind; it'd be a fun project!

So I've been wanting to add Centurions to my old school Ultras for a while now, but there aren't many suitable models of the era for them. Then I thought hey, why not the old Rogue Trader robots? They're only a little bigger than a modern Terminator, and entirely too small to count-as the new Admech robots, but I think they're really fun and funky models. The Castellan in the center is really the only one of the three I think the sculptor really thought through. The wonderfully chunky Cataphract on the left is just a staircase with legs and I don't know what the hell's up with the Conqueror on the right. That being said, once I got some freehand on these guys I liked them a lot!

Nice

So here's a rare thing! Back in the early 90s, a company called Epicast was licensed to make a few 40k conversion bits. They made the Whirlwind turret (which I've painted and put on a Rhino here already) but they also made a Vindicator conversion kit, which essentially looks like they stuck a trashcan on the hull of a tank. Personally I dig it, and I got to dress it up a bit too:

Looks awesome. You should talk to Heliodore if you ever want the whole crazy history of the licensed 3rd party resin kits.

Looks just like the original vindicator made from instructions in White Dwarf - If I recall correctly, the barrel was made from a paint pot with the end sawn off

I think that rhino is compensating for something...

Wow, I remember Epicast, a real blast from the past. That vindicator bit is both warmly nostalgic and truly horrible. Really captures the DIY RT feel though.

Reminds me that I've got the metal 2nd ed vindicator bits in my box. Still haven't decided how to outfit my old school rhinos yet.

 Nevelon wrote:
I think that rhino is compensating for something...

That's nothing. You should check out the proportions of the original epic 40k vindicator.

 aka_mythos wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
I think that rhino is compensating for something...

That's nothing. You should check out the proportions of the original epic 40k vindicator.

This guy?


Looks about the same.

Did somebody say Vindicator!? Awesome thread, brings me back to the days I first started 40k! I love seeing the old Epicast stuff brought back to life! Kudos!

 Nevelon wrote:

 aka_mythos wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
I think that rhino is compensating for something...

That's nothing. You should check out the proportions of the original epic 40k vindicator.

This guy?

Spoiler:

Looks about the same.

I bet Mythos meant this guy:

Yep that's it. The one where the cannon is so huge you can't fit more than one extra shell any more and the crew would have to ride on top of it.

I love the idea of the Epic Vindicator firing one shell then blasting itself onto its own back and getting stuck like a turtle.

Glad you guys dig the stubby old siege tank! I've had that model lying around for almost ten years and I'm glad I could finally give it some TLC.

I am in love with all of this

 Celtic Strike wrote:
I am in love with all of this

Glad you dig it! There's always more on the way

Great stuff as always SRM, really refreshing to see the old stuff updated in such a clean style.

Just finished another Tactical Squad! I decided to forgo transfers on these guys and try doing an all-freehand-all-the-time thing. I'm reasonably happy with the results, although it took significantly longer than just doing some decal work. Unfortunately the sergeant doesn't have his banner since my printer kicked the bucket, but if I ever get a new one he'll get a flag to wave. This was my first time getting to assemble and paint the old multipart plastic Marines from 2nd ed, and they were a joy to put together. The detail on their chestplates was pretty shallow, unfortunately, but they beat the pants off the "I love my bolter" Marines. I think the sergeant (actually a Dark Angels sergeant) is my favorite sergeant model of the era, and the metal flamer Marine might be my favorite Marine sculpt of the era. It's just such a satisfyingly chunky model, and he's posed perfectly for what he's doing.

Loving this old school Ultramarines army matey- really nice work!

You've really nailed the look - Straight from a vintage White Dwarf

An awesome new addition to your old school ultras :-D