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That Bharroth...or whatever the winged dudes name is...is a pretty stunning paint job.

Yeah, all of them are pretty superb...particularly for models from 1993-1994. He does ask around $380-400 shipped...PER miniature though. For that kind of money it better be perfect

I just think it showcases how solid some of the sculpts are despite being hand-sculpted...in metal...25+ years ago. It's also why I roll my eyes when people spout "Oh, old ugly metals...", etc.

A lot of the hand sculpted stuff has more charm to it from the GW era. It's hard to put that into technical words, but there is more charm to them on the whole. Part of it might just be that they were a touch more unique back then; whilst stuff today is more an evolution of many of those early designs being established.


Of course GW can still create fantastic looking models - much as I love the old Slaanesh fiend in metal; the new is a really outstanding beast!

3rd edition Hive Tyrant. Loved how it drew inspiration from the alien queen.

Those phoenix lords are just wowzah 0_o

I don't have a decent picture of it, but good old Chaos Champion 021911 (rifle dude) from back in the Realm of Chaos days.

Still one of the best marines sculpts around.

Tycho

 The Power Cosmic wrote:
Still one of the best marines sculpts around.

Tycho

Iconic.

Tycho is friggin' excellent.

I think one of the reasons I prefer 2nd edition style minis is that they fall in a perfect spot between "Old and rough..." and "new and overly busy". The Tycho pictured is a very good example. If he was re-done today he'd have a toilet roll of parchment between his leg, he'd be leaping off a huge piece of masonry, and he'd have five or six extra "flourishes" on his armour...none of which add anything. The 2nd edition miniatures did a good job of highlighting important heroes without throwing the entire arsenal of randomized parts at each model.

2nd edition era miniatures seemed to be "just right" for me. An excellent example is the basic Space Marine Techmarine.

Rogue Trader: A little rough, a little goofy...not a gorgeous sculpt. Basically a marine with a wrench.


2nd Edition Techmarine: A good upgrade. Some lovely details, and very unique. Immediately recognizable as a Techmarine. Fits on a normal base, but stands out very well. Nicely sculpted and just "enough" for me. While loaded up, you get the feeling he could feasibly fit inside of a Rhino or Drop Pod along with his battle brothers.


Current Techmarine:...Holy gak. Hugely busy, not particularly attractive, just a giant mess with as many details as could be physically placed on the miniature. Taken to 11. Just way too damn busy for my tastes, also looks like it would struggle to even walk around on its own.

Completely agree with that. I'll be making my own techmarine, same with the apothcary.

I will say the Primaris Chaplin is pretty good though, and the Phobos Librarian is a fantastic model

A lot of new style models are ugly and OTT to me, like most of the recent CSM characters (Abaddon and Kharn are exceptions). I liked the 90's Kharn, Cypher and chaos lord with the power axe and plasma pistol you can possibly still buy, but who will be smaller than your normal chaos marines now

The metal greater daemons that have only just been replaced were nice models, particularly the bloodthirster. The early 2000's heads were generally improvements, and the new models are amazing, but those metal greater daemons are still good today and would make cool daemon princes

Gotta be either the Avatar of Khaine or Jes's Daemonettes!

It might seem an odd choice, but this ork warboss model was one of the first two 40k metals I bought after being gifted the 40k 2nd ed starter box.

The reason I chose this specific boss was it’s similarity to the 2nd ed codex art. With time I realised the codex art actually depicted Ghazkul, which lead me to wonder if the model I had was a prototype or predecessor for Ghazzy.

Years later, thanks to retro review on this very site, I eventually learned Ghazzy started life as a ‘randomly generated’ character in a rogue trader era book, and the model I had bought was the sculpt the writer had originally chosen to depict this home brew hero version of Ghazzy.

Honestly it’s the only model I regret selling when my parents downsized. I’d love to have another.

the OG Avatar and OG Cypher

My favourite old Ork was this guy:

A guy at my store has a model of a khorn lord on a armoured smiling hamster, he used him as the spider thing new chaos HQ. I thought for a very long time it was non GW, but he told me it was an ancient GW model.

He also has chaos casters that look like half chaos flamers or pink horrors.

My favorite is Klovis "The Redeemer" of House Cawdor in Necomunda.




Not my model but he is assembled and primed... just needs some paint.
I REALLY need to paint him, I am getting worthy of painting hazard stripe.

Someone mentioned the original Ezriel and the warlocks. I see you are a man of culture too.

The Kasrkin

Way better design than the stormtroopers, or Scions.

Second edition space marine land speeder. Also the space marine razorback with the open topped lascannon plasma gun turret.

Hellebore wrote:

 Bellerophon wrote:
The Eldar Warlocks. Pretty much all of them.

Jes' classic warlocks are fantastic. There are two that look like the same model in different poses that are my all time favourites.

Yeah, these get my vote too along with the other warlock with singing spear and antler helmet. But the Farseer with that distinctive "fly" helmet in particular has a special nostalgia for me as he was prominent in the very first White Dwarf battle report I ever read, Witch Hunt in issue 171. He stood at the front of the Eldar army overlooking the objective slaying the oncoming orks with executioner. When GW recast a bunch of the classic eldar models on the release of the 8th ed codex I snapped him up and he now leads my Eldar warhost (accompanied by his classic warlock buddies).

I have the warlock with singingspear and las pistol, and the one with the sword pointing down into the dirt. I love both. One honorable mention that isn't a classic model though, the bonesinger sculpt from dawn of war is pretty damn cool.

Given how much money I had to spend assembling a platoon of the 1999 storm troopers off ebay probably them.

Early 90s Screamer Killer and Terminator Librarian. The later designs were all crap.

Affectionately known as flamehead by his friends?

100% the Commissar with the powerfist reading from a book. Nothing is more 40k than this model for me. A bedraggled man reading from the emperors scripture while holding up a GIANT ENERGIZED FIST. Plus the look on his face just oozes hate and authority.

 generalchaos34 wrote:
100% the Commissar with the powerfist reading from a book. Nothing is more 40k than this model for me. A bedraggled man reading from the emperors scripture while holding up a GIANT ENERGIZED FIST. Plus the look on his face just oozes hate and authority.

With a few exceptions, both the commissar and chaplain ranges throughout the ages have held up very well, and do an amazing job encapsulating 40k.