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2021/04/16 00:31:42
Subject: What's the rarest Imperial Guard model you've seen?
Steel Legion commissar with respirator is rarest IG model I am aware of. Not to be confused with the Steel Legion commisar with skull mask or the lieutenants. The Steel Legion commissar with respirator could only be purchased via catalogue/mail order in 3rd edition. I've searched for one for about a decade, never seen one sold. Again, not to be confused with the death mask commissar. They look similar but are not.
2021/04/16 01:54:15
Subject: Re:What's the rarest Imperial Guard model you've seen?
Commissar Benny wrote: Steel Legion commissar with respirator is rarest IG model I am aware of. Not to be confused with the Steel Legion commisar with skull mask or the lieutenants. The Steel Legion commissar with respirator could only be purchased via catalogue/mail order in 3rd edition. I've searched for one for about a decade, never seen one sold. Again, not to be confused with the death mask commissar. They look similar but are not.
Can you find a picture to share? I'm assumimg the "death mask" commissar is the one that's just a gas mask wearing version of the normal commissar.
2021/04/16 02:05:44
Subject: Re:What's the rarest Imperial Guard model you've seen?
Commissar Benny wrote: Steel Legion commissar with respirator is rarest IG model I am aware of. Not to be confused with the Steel Legion commisar with skull mask or the lieutenants. The Steel Legion commissar with respirator could only be purchased via catalogue/mail order in 3rd edition. I've searched for one for about a decade, never seen one sold. Again, not to be confused with the death mask commissar. They look similar but are not.
Can you find a picture to share? I'm assumimg the "death mask" commissar is the one that's just a gas mask wearing version of the normal commissar.
Not at desktop atm but you can see a picture of it in the mail order section of white dwarf 249 I believe which is viewable online. At first glance you will think it is the same as the death mask commissar but it is not as he is instead wearing a gas mask with respirator hole on side of gas mask.
2021/04/16 02:23:50
Subject: Re:What's the rarest Imperial Guard model you've seen?
The Kasrkin didn't actually "replace" the gas-masked stormtroopers. The gas-masked ones were still on sale until the post-Doctrines book, which used that gas-masked look for the art of Stormtroopers in there.
Yeah, when the Kasrkin were released, they were a completely separate entity to regular Stormtroopers, and both kits were available for some time.
By 2nd ed, they'd cemented the "units in card boxes with foam trays thing).
I loved those foam trays. I have a table's-worth of ruins in a box downstairs made from those.
H.B.M.C. wrote: And as far as regional rarity goes, the female Commissar is similar to the Catachan Grenade Launcher. In some places it wasn't available, or was an event model, but in others you could just order it. I bought it from the UK webstore when they were still doing bits. It wasn't rare there for some reason.
The Commissar was available for some time as a regular release through the US webstore. But because nobody outside of the US knew about it, it simultaneously went for silly money on eBay outside the US.
The one in the front on the far left even has a tank crew style hat. Not sure where that could have come from though.
Actually, it probably came with one of the 3 Rhinos that were part of the set. I've wondered about this ever since noticing it and only now am I having this revelation.
It didn't come from the Rhinos. The Rhino kit didn't include gunners/crew/figures of any kind.
It's from the plastic Sentinel kit.
2021/04/16 14:51:19
Subject: Re:What's the rarest Imperial Guard model you've seen?
Interesting. Almost looks like one of them is the original model, but then they edited it for some reason before actual production and release, just like the Kell model change we talked about
previously.
The one in the front on the far left even has a tank crew style hat. Not sure where that could have come from though.
Actually, it probably came with one of the 3 Rhinos that were part of the set. I've wondered about this ever since noticing it and only now am I having this revelation.
It didn't come from the Rhinos. The Rhino kit didn't include gunners/crew/figures of any kind.
It's from the plastic Sentinel kit.
Interesting. There wasn't a Sentinel included in the collection. Is it an old part not on the recent kits? I have an older Sentinel NoS, but I didn't notice that head. I may have just missed it however.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2021/04/16 14:52:27
2021/04/18 15:28:41
Subject: What's the rarest Imperial Guard model you've seen?
Jarms48 wrote: I've seen one of those pre-forge world baneblades, and even the original forge world baneblades. The original forge world hydra. The old leman russ and chimera turret emplacements. The list goes on.
Again, I'm not sure that most of that classifies as 'rare'. Perhaps the Armorcast Baneblade, sure - I don't know how many of those things made it into the world - but the rest of what you described are just regular FW products that are no longer in production. Their rarity only stems from time passed, not because they were ever actually rare.
I mean, aside from the Armorcast Baneblade and FW's original Hydra model, I have everything in that list you just described. They were not rare when I purchased them.
At the time I lived in a rural town getting towards the centre of Australia. There was about 2 dozen regular 40k players in the entire town, with maybe another dozen part-time players who came when their shift work lined up with the weekend.
Rarity is often in the eye of the beholder. I've never seen any of those models again during all my time playing. This guy spent tens of thousands on his collection, he would come in different weeks wanting to playtest his Elysian tauros buggies, his super-heavies, his artillery emplacements, his marauder bombers, you name it he probably had it.
He had tons of old Guard stuff. A lot I can't really remember. I was around 11 or 12 when I started playing in 3rd edition. I recall he had vanquishers and exterminators from before Imperial Armour was ever a thing. He use to play with GW's armoured company rules, or maybe it was chapter approved, which had doctrines similar to the 3.5/4th edition codex.
Sometime around 5th edition he even had a titan. I can't remember which one he had. It might have been a Reaver titan? All I remember is that my friend who played Tau and I had to team up to combine our lists for more AT firepower just to fight it.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2021/04/19 06:30:23
2021/04/19 23:31:46
Subject: What's the rarest Imperial Guard model you've seen?
Interesting. There wasn't a Sentinel included in the collection. Is it an old part not on the recent kits? I have an older Sentinel NoS, but I didn't notice that head. I may have just missed it however.
It's the head included on the original version of the current plastic sentinel. Looking at the sprue pic on the GW webstore, it looks like when they recut the sprue to add the variant weapons and enclosed cabin onto it, they swapped out this head for the Cadian and Catachan heads, although the painted studio model shown on the store and the box still has the original head despite it no longer being on the sprue.
2021/04/20 00:08:22
Subject: What's the rarest Imperial Guard model you've seen?
Interesting. There wasn't a Sentinel included in the collection. Is it an old part not on the recent kits? I have an older Sentinel NoS, but I didn't notice that head. I may have just missed it however.
It's the head included on the original version of the current plastic sentinel. Looking at the sprue pic on the GW webstore, it looks like when they recut the sprue to add the variant weapons and enclosed cabin onto it, they swapped out this head for the Cadian and Catachan heads, although the painted studio model shown on the store and the box still has the original head despite it no longer being on the sprue.
Interesting. I'll have to dig out mine that's still NoS and see if it has it. I think it has the parts for the Armored version on sprue, so probably not. Also, it came in the Imperial Guard Cadian Battleforce from just at the switch to Start Collecting boxes, so I think I was a bit late to get that head. It also has my only plastic Command Squad. Amusingly, that box is entirely unbuilt. I clipped the Guardsmen and bits of the HWTs off sprue, but it's otherwise untouched. Just sitting either on sprue or among other sorted parts in my cabinets.
2021/04/22 08:54:33
Subject: What's the rarest Imperial Guard model you've seen?
Leo_the_Rat wrote: GW made a Praetorian Sentinel (battle bath tubs)and it came with a Praetorian head/torso. I know this because I owned 3 of them.
Yeah, IIRC, it was just the 2nd ed Sentinel (the worst of the sentinel designs to date) with the regular torso replaced with a Praetorian heavy weapon gunner torso.
2021/04/22 12:04:47
Subject: What's the rarest Imperial Guard model you've seen?
Leo_the_Rat wrote: GW made a Praetorian Sentinel (battle bath tubs)and it came with a Praetorian head/torso. I know this because I owned 3 of them.
Yeah, IIRC, it was just the 2nd ed Sentinel (the worst of the sentinel designs to date) with the regular torso replaced with a Praetorian heavy weapon gunner torso.
Those gunner torso's look pretty good fitted into normal sentinels. It's what I've done for my Praetorian(Victorian Minatures models) and Tallarn army Sentinels.
"Elysians: For when you absolutely, positively, must have 100% casualties"
2021/04/22 12:54:08
Subject: Re:What's the rarest Imperial Guard model you've seen?
SergentSilver wrote: I have to ask though, is the Catachan female with Grenade Launcher really that rare? I got two when I bought someone's old metal Catachan along with two of each of the other two Special Weapons models from the same blister with her along with one each of both Catachan Heavy Flamer models. I also see her as both a single model and part of the et of three she came in on ebay all the time. Usually overpriced in my opinion, but I've never considered her any rarer than the rest of them. Others here have listed her as rare too, so I'm starting to wonder.
Didn't see this answered upthread (apologies if it has been).
IIRC the story of the female Catachan grenade launcher mini is that she was a limited edition exclusive in the UK and Europe, but had a general blister-pack release in the US.
North American GW had its own metal casting facilities--maybe still does?--and would occasionally make something more widely available there than elsewhere.
Speaking of OOP metals, here's another cross-the-pond difference: GW stopped using lead in its minis in the US around 1993, but didn't go lead-free in the UK till about 1997-8. Which means you can get 'white metal' / pewter minis for 2nd ed 40K, old school Epic Space Marine, original Warhammer Quest and so on if it comes from the US, or lead minis of same from the UK for the same period. Lead is softer and easier to convert, but then again may melt your brain should you (or a small child) eat it. Take your pick.
She was originally the Games Day exclusive for GD 1995; spend a tenner and get her free (perhaps more than a tenner; 1p more than a Necromunda gang box cost, anyway), and I was foolish enough to not bother.
As you say, she was apparently freely available in the USA, and I've heard people claim she was also included in the blister pack of 2 random Catachan special weapons troopers a few years later, but I never saw one.
2021/04/22 15:48:01
Subject: What's the rarest Imperial Guard model you've seen?
Leo_the_Rat wrote: GW made a Praetorian Sentinel (battle bath tubs)and it came with a Praetorian head/torso. I know this because I owned 3 of them.
Yeah, IIRC, it was just the 2nd ed Sentinel (the worst of the sentinel designs to date) with the regular torso replaced with a Praetorian heavy weapon gunner torso.
Those gunner torso's look pretty good fitted into normal sentinels. It's what I've done for my Praetorian(Victorian Minatures models) and Tallarn army Sentinels.
The second edition metal sentinel had a crewman that in fact was just a reused Cadian HB / AC gunner. But any 2nd edition HB / AC guardsman gunner will fit in the sentinel's cockpit, except Valhallans which wear a large a tissue roll that causes hindrance.
I have three of these 2nd edition sentinels in my army, they are pretty uncommon now, due to the fact that they were sold only between 1998 summer and their replacement by the 3rd ed' "catachan" plastic sentinel when the IG 3.0 codex dropped. So that was about one year of production. I hit an ebay auction in the middle of the 2000's decade, when Ebay was still relatively new in my country, and I remember paying as little as ~15 € for the trio.
longtime Astra Militarum neckbeard
2021/04/22 20:44:32
Subject: What's the rarest Imperial Guard model you've seen?
Yeah, I have one downstairs, bought from eBay some time ago as part of a 'collect all the sentinels' project that seemed like a good idea at the time. Never got around to stripping and repainting it, and somewhere along the line it appears to have lost a foot...
2021/04/23 15:36:48
Subject: What's the rarest Imperial Guard model you've seen?
The second edition metal sentinel had a crewman that in fact was just a reused Cadian HB / AC gunner.
Actually, it was a slightly different component - there's some stuff around the sentinel pilot's waist that's not on the gunner torso piece. The Paraetorian one was just the gunner, though.
2021/04/23 18:06:38
Subject: Re:What's the rarest Imperial Guard model you've seen?
SergentSilver wrote: I have to ask though, is the Catachan female with Grenade Launcher really that rare? I got two when I bought someone's old metal Catachan along with two of each of the other two Special Weapons models from the same blister with her along with one each of both Catachan Heavy Flamer models. I also see her as both a single model and part of the et of three she came in on ebay all the time. Usually overpriced in my opinion, but I've never considered her any rarer than the rest of them. Others here have listed her as rare too, so I'm starting to wonder.
Didn't see this answered upthread (apologies if it has been).
IIRC the story of the female Catachan grenade launcher mini is that she was a limited edition exclusive in the UK and Europe, but had a general blister-pack release in the US.
North American GW had its own metal casting facilities--maybe still does?--and would occasionally make something more widely available there than elsewhere.
Speaking of OOP metals, here's another cross-the-pond difference: GW stopped using lead in its minis in the US around 1993, but didn't go lead-free in the UK till about 1997-8. Which means you can get 'white metal' / pewter minis for 2nd ed 40K, old school Epic Space Marine, original Warhammer Quest and so on if it comes from the US, or lead minis of same from the UK for the same period. Lead is softer and easier to convert, but then again may melt your brain should you (or a small child) eat it. Take your pick.
She was originally the Games Day exclusive for GD 1995; spend a tenner and get her free (perhaps more than a tenner; 1p more than a Necromunda gang box cost, anyway), and I was foolish enough to not bother.
As you say, she was apparently freely available in the USA, and I've heard people claim she was also included in the blister pack of 2 random Catachan special weapons troopers a few years later, but I never saw one.
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