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So I think this could be fun, especially for those who might have extensive collections to show off or those who are new who haven't heard of, let alone seen these models. Considering there's also a good few of them around still in the market it might also give people some ideas for conversions or just some alternate sculpts to put into their army for some variety.


As a general point of reference many(most) of the finecast models you see today were once sold in metal by GW, so if you're new and want to hunt down some metal alternatives that's one option, though metal models often retain good value on the market now (being out of production so rarer, but also because metal cleans up a lot better with paint stripping so they can be more easily stripped and repainted).

Also note that GW is doing re-runs of some of the older fantasy models (classics) made in the last material they were released in (metal or finecast). So any fantasy ones shown here have potential to geta limited window of release from GW, but of course there is no timeline nor guarantee.


A few of the finds I know of (sadly none of my own pictures, mine are either not yet build/bought yet)

Dark Elf Supreme Sorceress



Classic Juan Diaz Deamonettes (so called for the name of their sculptor) - GW did relist these for sale in the past, so might come around again.


also came in mounted form


Tyranid Zoanthrope


Tyranid Hormagaunt (the metal model that NEVER stood up)


Yeah can you tell that the Tyranids were inspired by Alien, Predator and the Zerg!

Yeah can you tell that the Tyranids were inspired by Alien, Predator and the Zerg!

the zerg where inspired by Tyranids not the other way around

BrianDavion wrote:

Yeah can you tell that the Tyranids were inspired by Alien, Predator and the Zerg!

the zerg where inspired by Tyranids not the other way around

Ahh true I mixed that up, esp because later Tyranids did get influence from Zerg (original raveners were very much inspired by the zerg hydralisk)

There was literally a lawsuit about Star Craft blatently ripping off Warhammer 40'000...But the Star Craft creators won, because you can't copyright "space" and "marine". So was born the Astartes! (TM)

 vaklor4 wrote:
There was literally a lawsuit about Star Craft blatently ripping off Warhammer 40'000...But the Star Craft creators won, because you can't copyright "space" and "marine". So was born the Astartes! (TM)

So I should blame Starcraft for crap like Aeldari?

Nope, you should blame GW's ill-advised actions against "Spots the space marine" and their other one against Chapterhouse studios for those (In their defence, they HAD to act against CHS, but they lost about half of their argued cases, even if they did functionally kill the company. GW fired their legal team afterwards, too. Since to them, ANY result other than an outright win on ALL counts was a loss of one of their "names" for each.

ALL the name changes for units and paints came about as a direct result of those actions. The cannot claim ownership on certain terms and names, so they changed things to names they CAN own copyrights on.

I’m not going to repost half my collection, but I’ve got a lot of old lead in my gallery.

A good resource for people looking to ID old stuff is The Stuff of Legends. Old catalogs scanned in.

I won't even bother starting, since 90% of my Eldar army is classic 2nd ed. (and some RT) metals. Likewise my CSM force features some metals, though mainly from 1998+, a couple of 2000 era limited edition models. Going away from metals was a huge mistake, and one I still wish GW would reconsider.

They lost a huge sales avenue when they abandoned that option.

 vaklor4 wrote:
There was literally a lawsuit about Star Craft blatently ripping off Warhammer 40'000...But the Star Craft creators won, because you can't copyright "space" and "marine". So was born the Astartes! (TM)

Um, no. Marines have been referred to as the Adeptus Astartes for as long as I can remember. As far back as at last 2nd ed, way way before Starcraft existed.

 chromedog wrote:
Nope, you should blame GW's ill-advised actions against "Spots the space marine" and their other one against Chapterhouse studios for those (In their defence, they HAD to act against CHS, but they lost about half of their argued cases, even if they did functionally kill the company. GW fired their legal team afterwards, too. Since to them, ANY result other than an outright win on ALL counts was a loss of one of their "names" for each.

ALL the name changes for units and paints came about as a direct result of those actions. The cannot claim ownership on certain terms and names, so they changed things to names they CAN own copyrights on.

I've never been too clear on why they had such a bee in their bonnet about CHS. I understand not wanting people to make model bits and taking business away but companies can just name things other words like space knights rather than marines so what does the court action solve?.

Whilst its getting a little off topic I suspect that GW was hoping that if they won against Chapterhouse it would not only shut down or cripple CH, but it would also send a scary message to other 3rd party companies making alternative parts for GW models (or whole alternate sculpts).

In GW's defence this is a problem they alone contend with on the large scale. KS has made it possible for a lot of new companies to rise up and there are a host who make quality products which are clearly designed as alternate GW armies. Raging Heroes comes to mind as one example.

So I can see GW considering legal challenge to protect what they could. I'm also aware that some IP/Trademark laws require companies to take action against infringement or they risk losing them. So it might be that GW's hands were partly tied anyway.

I used to have an entire 3rd edition metal DA army of about 2k points a year ago but I sold it for about £200 and used that money to improve my orks.

I think this is the oldest* model I own. It's certainly the first I ever painted, way back in (IIRC) 1994. It's been OOP since the late 1990s (again, IIRC).



Apologies for the disgustingly yellow colour balance in the photo.

*EDIT: Actually, having just had a look on solegends.com, it turns out he was first released in September 1989, while a couple of my other ancient Ork models date back to as early as September 1987. They never got painted, though. Which probably makes them worth a bob or two. Hmm...

I'm a big fan of the old metals!

I've got some harlequins:



Some craftworld Eldar:



And of course, my IG Praetorians. Pretty much everything here is OOP and metal:

Still in an unpainted state but I adore the old Armorcast Baneblade/Shadowsword kit, mostly since the gun on the Shadow is even bigger than our current kit .

I have a healthy mix of new and old. My current pride and joy is my old school Tyranid Warriors army. For other old models I have about 80 beakies, ancient plastic IG and Squats, 1st edition Blood Thirsters and a reasonable collection of Eldar. Of all that, currently only the Tyranids are finished models.

That's an impressive collection of old warriors... Nice paintjob, too

It's amazing to me how those old warriors look very "new" when given a modern paint up!

 Overread wrote:
Whilst its getting a little off topic I suspect that GW was hoping that if they won against Chapterhouse it would not only shut down or cripple CH, but it would also send a scary message to other 3rd party companies making alternative parts for GW models (or whole alternate sculpts).

In GW's defence this is a problem they alone contend with on the large scale. KS has made it possible for a lot of new companies to rise up and there are a host who make quality products which are clearly designed as alternate GW armies. Raging Heroes comes to mind as one example.

So I can see GW considering legal challenge to protect what they could. I'm also aware that some IP/Trademark laws require companies to take action against infringement or they risk losing them. So it might be that GW's hands were partly tied anyway.

Of course simply competing with quality rather than try to force others to shut down due to legal expenses despite GW being at wrong wouldn't cross to GW's mind.

Who knows, that could have been a Kirby direction.

Can't beat a bit of old lead!

 Overread wrote:
In GW's defence this is a problem they alone contend with on the large scale. KS has made it possible for a lot of new companies to rise up and there are a host who make quality products which are clearly designed as alternate GW armies. Raging Heroes comes to mind as one example.

This is what sunk them. It turns out there is a massive industry in after market additions to everything from hoovers to cars to fighter jets. Their argument that doing so meant stealing their IP lost. CH lost on the points where a rather generous court agreed with points of image copyright being turned into models. But it turns out you can make as many shoulder pads as you like for marines...

Pointless battle though as 3D printing was already transforming that after sales modification market, they should have been more focused in their legal action. Still at least the new team aren't idiots that try to shut down free content creation other companies would kill for...

As for metal models I love my Imperial army and metal genestealer cult models...

 zedmeister wrote:
Can't beat a bit of old lead!

I’ve got those guys in both lead and plastic.

I used to have the old plastic stormtroopers with single pose


I have lots of the single pose plastic SM tactical squads, I have also 2 squads of 2nd/ 3rd ed plastic terminators with the rotating hips

Orks. Large army of Orks. Largely oop models:

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?action=gallery;su=user;cat=1133;u=1567

I just starten collecting The OP metall scouts. Got only one finnished so far, but i got 11 to go that I found on ebay.

I think they look way more cool than the plastic ones. These actually has necks

Haha, yeah. All my Scouts are the metals, such great models.

Well, technically I have a bunch of 1st edition plastic ones... lets not talk about those

Gitdakka wrote:
I think they look way more cool than the plastic ones. These actually has necks

Except if you try imagining him without armour, you will see his neck is almost as long as his head. So, yeah, modern necks look far better than ancient giraffes...

The old scouts might not be perfect, but they are far better then the modern plastics.

<rummages around his gallery>

Some plastic bikes/snipers and resin Talion, but a chunk of old lead. Currently in the process of painting another old lead sarge, and just finished building some of the new plastic guys (sarge and a pair of shotgunners) If it wasn’t the inherent problem with repeating poses, I’d go all metal. Sculpts are just so much better.

Oh man, I love the metal scouts. I abandoned this marine force, so I sold them off --- but they're friggin' AMAZING minis.