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I'm sure a lot of people on here have ancient bits boxes and this happens all the time, but this wee story below just made me unaccountably happy:


I've long since lost the Genestealer hybrids from the Space Hulk Genestealer box so used the recent Hachette Combat Patrol magazines to grab a bunch of hybrids to replace them to play some of that bonkers Space Hulk psychic goodness again.

So far so good, but modern hybrid weapon fits are quite different to 1990. Notably plasma cannons and rocket launchers. I considered picking up some Horus Heresy heavy weapon sprues but even then I'm really not sure how good a fit they may be, and they ain't cheap.

Digging into the depths of my bits box I uncovered an ancient RTB-01 (Rogue Trader first ever plastic Space Marine Sprue) rocket launcher thick with decals and gooey paint. It had been on an Ork for a couple of decades but was ripped off and bunged in a box and forgotten.

A quick dip in Fuse Biostrip 20 (discontinued shockingly!) and I have a lovely clean, as-new, classic rocket launcher! But while I was scrubbing it clean it occurred to me that I never bought a box of these back in the day so was racking my brains why I had it.

In the late 80's (maybe early 90's) the UK Torquay GW shop used to let you have dig through their bits box to buy some cheap rando stuff if you bought some blisters and this is where I turned up a (I think, half empty) RTB-01 sprue.

This precious rocket launcher I will keep and make moulds of using a very easy technique (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVZLXLaidjQ) for the three rocket launchers I want to put on the hybrids.

This was a triple bits box win. A heavy weapon model from a sprue in a bits box went into service on an Ork for 20 years from a bits box rummage in early noughtys. Which is now being recycled to serve as a master for some epoxy putty versions for Space Hulk on Hybrids for the next 20 years or so.


Dare I ask if anyone else has rustled up some historied model parts? Not models, just parts.

As an old git who’s been in the hobby forever, there is always a chance for ancient bits to resurface.

The most recent one I used was an old RT Eldar powerfist for a scorpion exarch, as I didn’t like the claw in the kit.

I still have the contents of my original bits box - a lot of it's just generic bits of no significance, but there are some standout pieces in there that I save for special occasions. Most recently, I was painting up the Mechanicus robot jox, left over from when I used a Castellan as a Helbrute, as a Technoarchaeologist - I uncovered an old mini-kitbash I did based on the renegade bolter from the sprue included with the hybrids in Space Hulk: Genestealer, with parts cut from an old chainsword handle arranged on the front of it like some kind of energy projectors, and stuck it to the base half-buried and covered in rust like it's some Dark Age weapon he's stumbled across.

My most recent bitzbox deepdive was this guy:



The only parts on him that aren't holdovers from my 2E Eldar army are the base, purity seal, and Inquisorial rosette hanging from the back of his coat.

Old models are still popular with some older players.

Tell me about it; my Xenos Inquisitor is made from female space marine Gabs

 UR-025 wrote:
Old models are still popular with some older players.

Hey! I resemble that remark.

Grumble grumble. Kids these days.

Somewhere I’ve still got a complete sprue of Eldar weapons.

No. You can’t have it.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Somewhere I’ve still got a complete sprue of Eldar weapons.

No. You can’t have it.

Well someone's got their retirement sorted!

Somewhere I have a complete seated Genestealer Patriarch, and the original Marneus Calgar/Imperial Commander. Also a couple of Female Commissars that I got on Yahoo groups in the early 2000s for a copy of Necromunda