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Hello Dakka, its been a while.

Like many of us I started out playing wargames when I was a lot shorter and days seemed that much longer. Spending a full day artistically covering all the detail on a Mines of Moria goblin with enamel paint was a viable weekend activity. However as I got older, that free time started to dwindle, there was more homework to do, then there was boarding college and uni to travel back and forth from, and girls to get rejected by. While the decision was never formally made, wargaming started to fall by the wayside. However, all was not lost. Along the way as I left Uni, I managed to acquire myself an understanding wife (I would highly recommend one by the way) and she tolerated me having a hobby room crammed with half finished miniature projects and odd glue smells. The wargaming was back on! The only downside was that I had moved away from my home town and my gaming group and could only realistically have a game every 2-3 months or so. It didn't matter though, it gave me time to slowly work on armies around work and all the business of life as a grown up (I don't think I'm really a grown up, I'm just pretending I know what I talk about. Although, that might actually be what being a grown up is like). As I got older, my tastes changed and historical wargames became my main focus. My hordes of imperial guardsmen slowly got replaced by hordes of Soviet Motor Riflemen. I just couldn't bring myself to keep the same interest in 40K that I once had. I could never put a finger on why, perhaps it was a thing about getting older and more boring.

I'm in the middle of a house move right now and as part of that, I have to pack up that room I mentioned before that's filled with half finished modelling projects. As I was searching through the boxes I came across some 2nd ed Space Marines I had inherited from another ex-Gamer as well as some old beaky marines from a ill fated Rogue Trader project I had. As I rummaged through, I felt that same sense of wonder and excitement I used to have a decade and a half ago when I first started. I think we all hold a special place in our hearts for the rules edition we started on and I'm no different.

I started on 3rd, when GW turned the dial up to 11 on the GrimDark, but the same level of 40k goofyness from 2nd came through. I remember pouring over the pictures in the rulebook of all these brightly coloured models, most of which were the old 2nd edition versions as the new models hadn't been released at the time of publication. That 2nd/3rd mix was a brilliant time where you had these bright and characterful models, a rich fluff universe, and a quick to pick up and play ruleset with 3rd. Being a young gamer, you often had a mismatched model collection, with odd minis that had been donated by your cousin or given to you by your neighbour when their son went to uni and they wanted to clear out all their stuff. I got a load of 2nd edition space wolves stuff like that, the codex was fantastic. It had a battle report in it. In the codex. A battle report. It was about trying to recapture a Predator tank, but the orks kept teleporting snotlings inside it with with a shock attack gun and there was a picture of Andy Chambers looking like a spacewolf with his mad hairstyle. Playing 40K seemed to be much more about using your imagination and having fun. You got taught in white dwarf how to make terrain ranging from a tin of beans made into a chemical storage tank to a polystyrene ball with red cocktail sticks in it as some sort of space bush. These days, you just seem to buy a kit for it.

I think that's what made me fall out of love with 40k, you no longer need to use your imagination, you just buy a kit. Models are becoming less customisable, and why would you need to change them? We've got another kit for that. That drive to sell kits has changed the game scale too. Remember when putting a Dreadnought and a Landspeeder on the table was a acceptable amount of vehicles? You'd quake in your boots when a Land Raider came out, that was just for the big games. These days if you don't have a Demi Legion of Knight Titans, a wing of attack aircraft, and a Primarch, you are under gunned.

This blog is me recreating one of those armies we all used to have of mismatched models. This project is set in early 3rd edition, but you'll see a lot 1st and 2nd edition stuff thrown into the mix. I won't be doing it to a particular army list, but I'll probably point it up when my 3rd ed Space marine codex arrives from ebay. My painting skills are a bit rusty, but please consider this my love letter to 40k of days gone by. I hope you can relive some fond memories like I have.



Having rambled enough, I know you came here to look at toy soldiers, so here they are. At least they will be if I can remember how to put images on a dakka post.



The Boss man, I'm trying to track down a 2nd Company banner for him, at which point he will have it mounted on his backpack in the finest cheap copier paper.



Rogues gallery. Yes, I know its an epic Knight, but its a weapons servitor if anyone asks.



Ok, no amount of nostalgia can make this model pretty. But its got wicked cool teeth painted on it right?

Thats all for now, I've got a few models coming from ebay that I'll need to get stripped and repainted as well as 2 squads ish of beakeys.

Oh, nostalgia - you had me at Goblin Green bases, my friend! Subbed :-)

You may want to share your stuff on the "Flashback Fridays" thread also. Every Friday people share old gaming stuff that is full of nostalgia. I'm glad to hear you are back to wargaming. I love reading the old white dwarf magazines for the the same reason you did. Making your own stuff, having a fun infantry heavy army, and using imagination. The battle reports were a lot of fun in the magazines too. I didn't know about there being one in the Space Wolf 4d edition codex, I'll have to see if i can find one to have a look at.
Flashback Fridays thread: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/617492.page

I love your paint style for the older miniatures. I still try to make sure there are nice dark lines where one colour meets another.

This will be awesome.

<sees RT dread with requisite toothy grin, Nods>

Nice retro stuff. Takes me back to the halcyon days of my youth. (or in some cases, to the shelf)

I agree that the 2/3rd split was one of the best times to play. You still had all the fluff and background stuff from 2nd, but the tight ruleset of early 3rd. And GW still felt like it was in the hands of gamers. Sure, there were issues, but there always have been. Still a nice mix of fun and function.

Just a quick workbench update. Here are my party painted beaky marines at the back and one of my ebay hauls of models prior to them going into the paintstripper. There's a bit more out of shot, but that's a surprise for later!



Along with the models above, the ebay package came with a treasure trove of bits that I started to sort through last night. This is just a selection of the stuff I dug out:



I dont know what I'm going to do with them yet, possibly some well equipped veteran sergeants. I just know I need more hand flamers in my life.

Also, talking of ebay, I just managed to accidentally win another auction and now have nearly a company of 2nd ed monopose marines in the post. I'm going to need more blue paint...

I used one of those hand flamers to make a combi-flamer for my Cassius counts-as.

That’s a lot of "I <heart> my bolter” marines. I got a couple squads of them. One thing they do better then modern marines is look good ranked up on the shelf, standing in formation. Which is where they spend most of their time. You know if you have multiple tac squads, they are going to be last to the table. Not enough nostalgia to make them look good.

RTB01s on the other hand, rock the retro hard. I field a squad almost every game. They might be a little silly, but it’s a cool silly!

@Nevelon, I know what you mean they aren't the most dynamic models!

My day so far has been filled with beaky marines. I have somehow managed to do 2 tactical squads worth. It makes such a difference having a blue spray undercoat, painting Ultramarines blue over a Chaos Black undercoat used to take aaaaaaages. However, some old school stuff has been going on with the paints, the reds are all shaded with GW Red Ink.

That's an impressive number already! And i still like that green too.

I've been taking a break from painting to do some stripping. I've also removed some paint from these old models.



Here they are soaked in Biostrip 20. Really good stuff and it smells good too! I soaked these for 3 days, but that was because I forgot about them.



Here they are after a intimate and furious toothbrushing session. Theres a few odd bits of glue I'll need to scrape off later.



Bonus pic of a few ebay hauls. I didnt look that closely at the pictures and I now have some space wolves. Gives me something else to paint when I get sick of ultramarines!

Thats all for now, if theres any weird formatting, its because I'm on mobile. Peace out!

More 90s than Britpop. Love it :-)

Your story grabbed me right in the memories. Looking forward to this

Workbench update. I've started assembling some of the metal models when I came across an issue with the Assault Marine Sergeant below; hes' got no base tab for the slotta base.I put on my engineering hat on to think how to solve it. Then it came to me, every old conversion I used to see in the white dwarf would contain brass rod in one form or another. I rummaged some out of my moving boxes and got to work.



Here's the problem child, great sculpt though.



Here he is with his mates. I've actually got more Assault Marine bodies, but I've completely run out of bolt pistols and chainswords. To Ebay!



Bonus tac squad. Look at that sexy hand flamer.

God those old metals are so much better than todays stuff!

Update time!

I have been doing a mix of painting and building. I've been struggling with bits for building, while I have a large(ish) number of metal bodies, I'm still really short on bolt pistols and chainswords for the assault marines and characters. This does mean however that some are being armed with hand flamers instead, which is no bad thing...



These were the models you used to have, but could never quite remember how you got them. The were just always there, lurking at the back of hobby boxes. You could only have a collection of eldar and you would still find yourself with a few of these somehow. Look at those sexy bolter bayonets.



The assembled models grow, there's still quite a number to go, but this will be my first wave to get painted.

Sleek rapid fire support inbound!



This was an older model I had already (mostly) painted that I based up in line with the project. I feel like its waiting for me to look away before it falls to bits haha!

I also got a bit distracted on ebay and started looking at guard stuff...



I managed to get these for not too much silly money, which is good as they normally go for the price of a kidney. I'll be adding to my guard more as my parents have announced that as I'm getting a bigger place, I can have all my boxes from the shed! Fairly sure there is a smorgasbord of old models in there, so watch this space.

 Da GeneruL wrote:
Update time!

I have been doing a mix of painting and building. I've been struggling with bits for building, while I have a large(ish) number of metal bodies, I'm still really short on bolt pistols and chainswords for the assault marines and characters. This does mean however that some are being armed with hand flamers instead, which is no bad thing...



These were the models you used to have, but could never quite remember how you got them. The were just always there, lurking at the back of hobby boxes. You could only have a collection of eldar and you would still find yourself with a few of these somehow. Look at those sexy bolter bayonets.

SPACE CRUSADE!!!!! That was my gateway drug, and the lads there were the first recruits in my Space Marine army - was a bit of a shock when I lined them up with the RTB-01 beakies though...

I am LOVING this thread. All the good bits of puberty revisited

Hello all!

I have not died and this project has not been forgotten. I was moving house over the last two weeks and hobby time got used up by moving heavy things up and down stairs.
So now that I've moved into a new place that has more space. my dear parents thought it would be a good time to kindly return my metric fethtonne of miniatures that had been cluttering up their house for years. If the wife asks, I knew nothing about this happening and had no control of it, the vast pile of boxes that arrived were due to the sole command of my mother. (I had organised it in more secrecy that the D-Day landings because I have a plastic toy soldier addiction).

So, that leads me to my NostalgiaHammer project. I may have bitten off more than I can chew dakka, my amount of space marines is growing exponentially. Below you can see the ones which are assembled and undercoated:



Yeh, thats not even all of them... There are still a number being/ waiting to be stripped of paint. All in all, I'm thinking I have about 3 companies ish so far.



Goopy stripper goodness



These are up for stripping next.

Here's a bit more detail of what's built



Basic marines. The guys in white undercoat are a series of thunder warrior conversions I did a while back. They'll get painted up retro and used as vets.



Special weapons. Bonus rhino that needs stripping.



Built characters. There's another force commander and librarian to go with this. I suppose I should really track down calgar at some point...



Assault marines. Still struggling to get more CCW for these guys. I'll have another good root for bitz in all my new bitz crates (box is too small a word for the amount of bitz are here).



Heavy weapons. Quite a mix of stuff here, theres a lot more missile launchers that are currently being stripped.



Scouts. There's a few of the newer plastics mixed in here, but they will all be getting the same retro paint scheme.



This is what is currently being assembled. Fingers crossed I can find enough arms for them.



Jetbikes, sleek, sexy...Oh who am I kidding.



I found these in a draw. Quite battered and in need of some love. The end bits of the pred cannons have gone walkabout, some DIY may be in order...

Also: check out these sexy squares!



No idea what I'll make with them yet, maybe try and replicate the old Space Marine Firebase.

I'm going to leave you with this. A space marine riding a cold one. Enjoy.

3 companies?

Good luck with all this, that is quite a force. It must be fun looking through all your old models though.

Its great fun having a look through, I've dug up loads of stuff I'd long forgotten about.

Now the issue with 3 companies of marines is which shoulder trim do I do? Classic 2nd Coy Yellow is a must, but what next? Is it 4th Coy with the green trim?

Go crazy and go black. Nobody ever paints 5th company.

I kid. Red. 3rd company is the best company.

Brother, if you're anywhere near Leicestershire, wing me some of that stuff and I'll be glad to help you out! Great to see this up and running, you've inspired my own retrohammer project :-)

This is amazing. It's like one of those tech YouTube videos where someone builds the ultimate dream PC from 2001 using parts scavenged from eBay.

I hope you're not planning to use any of those fancy new round 65mm bases for your dreads and will of course be keeping them on square bases that clash horribly with the rest of the army!

Also, that force commander with power sword and storm bolter is just pure distlled space marine. I think about 80% of my high-school gaming group all had that exact model as their HQ (including me!) I also had that Ultramarine with the tiny sword in the first post, despite not collecting ultramarines. Memories!

 GMSchofield wrote:
Also, that force commander with power sword and storm bolter is just pure distlled space marine. I think about 80% of my high-school gaming group all had that exact model as their HQ (including me!)

And for the first time in years he’s worth fielding again. Stormbolter/powersword is actually a valid loadout for the first time since 3rd edition. I know I was glad to knock the dust off my copy of him and put him down without feeling like I was crippling my list.

 GMSchofield wrote:

I hope you're not planning to use any of those fancy new round 65mm bases for your dreads and will of course be keeping them on square bases that clash horribly with the rest of the army!

There will only be square bases and the dreadnaught will be mounted diagonally for maximum awkwardness.


Edit:Bonus double post due to mobile shenanigans.

I like how every marine on a jetbike looks like he's either flailing and about to fall or shouting "Woooo! Party!"

Genuinely

So yet again I've been scrubbing away with my toothbrush cleaning up old models.



I also decided to do a proper count up of what I've got. The list below includes 2 ebay auctions which are still in the post. In summary, I have too many marines, yet still want more.

Infantry

Basic Marines 193
Sergeants 14
Special weapons 19
Terminators 42
Characters 25
Heavy weapons 22
Jetbikes 7
Assault marines 12
Scouts 23
Bikes 9
Total Models 366

Vehicles
Dreadnought 3
Rhino 2
Predator 6
Land Raider 1
Land Speeder 3
Tarantula 2

Look, I want to do a Chapter now. Its a dumb idea, but that's what its all about right..?

Gotta love that moment when you do the math and realize you have a sizable fraction of a chapter.

Having a full battle company is not a big deal. Pretty awesome to have on the shelf. And then you’ve got spare guys, old tacs, etc. 1st and 10th support. BAMN! 1/3 of the way there without even trying.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a census. Kinda afraid to now...

Quick update, life's been busy and stuff! The project is progressing quite well, but I'm sick of tactical marines now. Which isn't good as I've got 10 million more to paint. Current painted forces are below:







Sorry for the lack of light box, there's too many of them to fit in now! That and I have no idea where it is now I've moved house...

Next up, some terminators...