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I just picked up 30 Rogue Trader era plastic marines (still on the sprue). I've never had these in hand before (the box is in the mail right now), and I'm pretty excited to put them together and pain them. I have a few questions:

- How big are the models in relationship to current marines? I know they're smaller, but I'm not sure how much smaller. Will current range weapons look out of place on them?

- Is the plastic brittle?

- For those of you who have painted the models before, do you have any advice?

Also, I'm having trouble deciding what paint scheme to use. I want to use these guys to start a new small marine army, but I'm not sure which army. I'm leaning toward a pre-Heresy army or a Badab war army. Those just feel right given the age and style of the models. But I'm not sure which one. I want something with a strong, identifiable color scheme. I'm willing to consider any suggestions. Right now I'm looking at Nova Marines, Star Phantoms (BolS version), Imperial Fists and Pre-Heresy World Eaters and Dark Angels, but (as I said) I'm open to suggestions.


Thanks,

Jake

I use to have a few hundred of those great figs, so I will offer a little advice.

Yes they are abit smaller than present marine models, pretty noticbly unfortunatly but.. the set does come with 3 really cool missle launchers, and flamers and powerfists.

The plastic is no more brittle than a standard model kit, maybe not as hard as the current plastic used on GW, but not bad.

Paint them anyway you want, but remeber the left shoulder is the one with a bunch of raised studs on it, so insignias and such only have one shoulder to work with.

I hope any of this is helpful, and congrats on owning a piece of GW history.

Thanks! That's helpful. I hadn't realized that the set came with a powerfist (or perhaps multiple powerfists?). I wanted to sue 10 of the models as assault marines (since I already have a set of super old jump packs), but I'm not sure where to get matching chainswords and pistols. Any thoughts?

I had considered that the left pad wouldn't be available for chapter markings. and of course, the models don't have the Imperial Eagle on their chest. So I'm trying to settle on a paint scheme that is identifiable without relying on these two elements.

Hi - as said, they're a little smaller, but not hugely so. The bolters look really weedy however compared to current ones.

At the time these were released, they were based at the time of the Heresy - there were no Chaos Marine figures, so you would use the same figures for loyalists and heretics.

As said, doing something interesting with the funny left shoulder pad is the most challenging - the usual thing back then was to colour them, but they are not very clearly molded either.

The models from memory aren't hard to put together, clean up reasonably well and have a relatively low amount of detail.

I reckon Imperial Fists would be awesome with the old figures.

IG chainswords may be closer to scale for them, and I am not sure how many powerfists are in the 30 box, but my guess would be 3-6 based on sprues...it has been along time since I saw mine on sprues.

Go old school on the paint schemes, the original dark angels were in BLACK armor, instead of dark green.
here's a old reference


Kinda funny that the rainbow warriors insignia is almost identical to the Marines Malevolent....I wonder what made them get all ..un-rainbowey

Thanks for the reference pic. Something about the all black Dark Angels is really appealing to me, but I'm not completely sold yet. I've always liked Imperial Fists (and I used to have an army), but memories of painting yellow are currently keeping me from choosing them again.

Oh, hey! Rainbow Warriors! I always wondered what happened to those guys!


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Oh, if anyone has pictures of these models painted I'd love to see them.

Soo'Vah'Cha wrote: IG chainswords may be closer to scale for them, and I am not sure how many powerfists are in the 30 box, but my guess would be 3-6 based on sprues...it has been along time since I saw mine on sprues.

Go old school on the paint schemes, the original dark angels were in BLACK armor, instead of dark green.
here's a old reference


Kinda funny that the rainbow warriors insignia is almost identical to the Marines Malevolent....I wonder what made them get all ..un-rainbowey

What book is that from?

Jealous.

Where did you get them from if I may ask? And more importantly do they have any more?

Bullfrog wrote:Jealous.

Where did you get them from if I may ask? And more importantly do they have any more?

my roomate has about half a box still on sprue and another box-ish worth built, along with tons of old scouts, like a dozen 2nd edition rhino's/preds/ect. and such.
his name is johnnyboysomethingsomething on these forums, PM him with an offer.

Ah! The great original 40K Rogue Trader Book! Almost nostalgic feeling to dig out my old marines and do something with them! Must resist... Mind you I could never work out how to glue the damn backpacks on as there was no obvious connection point. Great missile launcher though.

They will build up fine, the plastic won't have aged. They are a bit smaller than current Marines, do the modern weapons might look over sized for them, especially as the older Marines had smaller hands.

I have about 30 painted in horrible gloss from a previous owner but I think I could just repaint them. I don't know what colours to do them in either, I only want to paint them once so have to choose carefully.

I got about a squad full of these guys used off ebay once. Cool for nostalgia but honestly not good looking models in my opinion. They're all hunched over like chimps and look the same. I used the heads for beakie conversions on new tactical marines. You just have to build up a little bit of a neck from green stuff

Brotherjulian wrote: I got about a squad full of these guys used off ebay once. Cool for nostalgia but honestly not good looking models in my opinion. They're all hunched over like chimps and look the same. I used the heads for beakie conversions on new tactical marines. You just have to build up a little bit of a neck from green stuff

I was wondering about the hunch. I was hoping that was just the way the people who assembled them chose to pose them. It seems like all RT marines are hunched over.

It's in the shape of the legs and hips, you could build those up some with GS too but I chose not to bother

The box comes with 30 guys to make 3 full squads. So you get 3 PF, 3 Flamers, 3 Missle launchers.


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The box comes with 30 guys to make 3 full squads. So you get 3 PF, 3 Flamers, 3 Missle launchers.

Nicorex wrote:The box comes with 30 guys to make 3 full squads. So you get 3 PF, 3 Flamers, 3 Missle launchers.

Ahhh, them were the days...

My RT era Mantis Warrior army is almost exclusive made from these models. There isn't much variation in the original poses, but if you're creative you can do quite a lot with them. And if you'll excuse my posting some pics on your blog... here are some examples:





And *most* of these guys are modified beakies...



Trick is to disarticulate the joints and re-position them into something new... or get yourself some bionics from maxmini or forge world and replace some limbs with those. In either case you can make some really unique poses with just a little bit of effort.

hehe, the nostalgic part is cool, but I tossed mine out when the new plastics were released for 4th edition. I kept only one guy.



I found the plastic really didn't take paint very well at all, plus they were a dark green that took dozens of coats to cover. Yeah, I don't really have any warm and fuzzy memories of these guys at all. Have fun!

I will say that the RT era bolt pistols really stink... I've replaced mine with the versions you can get from Forge World... or just said the heck with tradition and replaced them with modern bolt pistols.

Nice job on that marine Mastiff. Funny thing is even most of the RT era METAL beakies were hunched over... must have been a casting issue for GW...

Gitsplitta wrote:I will say that the RT era bolt pistols really stink... I've replaced mine with the versions you can get from Forge World... or just said the heck with tradition and replaced them with modern bolt pistols.

Nice job on that marine Mastiff. Funny thing is even most of the RT era METAL beakies were hunched over... must have been a casting issue for GW...

I used to clip the top part of the bolt pistol off and add it to the top of the bolter as a target designator, looked great.

I think my solution was to take a normal bolt gun and cut it down to pistol size and replace the crappy bolt pistols with that. Worked fine as I recall.

sailense wrote:

Soo'Vah'Cha wrote: IG chainswords may be closer to scale for them, and I am not sure how many powerfists are in the 30 box, but my guess would be 3-6 based on sprues...it has been along time since I saw mine on sprues.

Go old school on the paint schemes, the original dark angels were in BLACK armor, instead of dark green.
here's a old reference


Kinda funny that the rainbow warriors insignia is almost identical to the Marines Malevolent....I wonder what made them get all ..un-rainbowey

What book is that from?

That image is from the original Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader rule book. Circa 1987


Priest

Thanks for the pictures guys. those look ace.

I'm expecting my guys to arrive this weekend, so I'm looking forward to starting on them. These pictures are giving me a lot of hope!

Mastiff wrote:
I found the plastic really didn't take paint very well at all, plus they were a dark green that took dozens of coats to cover.

This is what primer is for.

Proper primer, not that GW skull white (Redshirts say it is primer) spray paint.

One coat of primer, one basecoat, then detailing. Easy as cake.

Plastic is harder than current stuff, while still being polystyrene.

Prefer these to the current series of be-skulled and blinged-out-the-wazoo marines.

Yeah so far all the pictures look really good, the old shoulder pad is looking really nice! you need to post pictures when you get them, it would be nice to see in stages! I like Luna Wolfs, but white can be hard to paint.

Gitsplitta wrote:Nice job on that marine Mastiff. Funny thing is even most of the RT era METAL beakies were hunched over... must have been a casting issue for GW...

It would have been certainly, casting technology has improved in the last 20 years. Because of this older figures tend to be either very two dimensional in pose or hunched over to disguise the limitations in casting.

And primer makes all the difference, I use Halfords white car primer on decent models and never had any issues with these figures.

Here are some pics from that era, taken from WD and the Warhammer 40,000 Astronomican, not all are RTB01 marines but they might be useful to you:

Thanks for the images Pacific. Those look fantastic. I was introduced to the game back in 96 through a color brochure that I picked up at the local game store. It was full of marines with crazy paint schemes and cool weapons. These really bring back those memories!

Anyway, my models arrived today (along with 5 super old school Grey Knights). I have yet to put any of them together, but he look pretty great! The models lack the detail of the modern marine tactical squad, but the still have enough detail to make them interesting. Unfortunately the hunch does seem to be unavoidable without fairly major repositioning, but I'll be giving it a go. Also, as noted earlier, the backpacks have no obvious connection point. Oh well!

Each sprue comes with a bunch of extras, including pistols, ammo packs and chainsaw attachments for the guns! The flamers are kind of weird looking, but the missile launchers and power fists are awesome!

The plastic is blue and reminds me of the plastic used in the space hulk sprues. I was afraid it would be brittle, but I don't anticipate having any problems.


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Sevenups wrote: you need to post pictures when you get them, it would be nice to see in stages! I like Luna Wolfs, but white can be hard to paint.

I'll be starting a log including step by step photos, in about a week. I've also secured a squad of RT Grey Knights and a RT Librarian, two 2nd edition rhinos, a razorback and a predator. So my Star Phantoms are off to a good start!


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Now if only I can get on old style bike squad!

I'd really like to find some of these (about 4) to go with a 90's razorback and two marines I picked up. I focus much of my time on collecting classic models lately. Does anyone know anywhere I could find some?

I got mine from ebay for a pretty fair price. There was also a half box, some single sprues (with 2 marines each) and bits. I think putting a marine together out of bits cost about $6.