I'm talking about the two limited edition minis Games Workshop released last year, the 25th anniversary Crimson Fist Space Marine and the Games Day Blood Angels Space Marine.

In case you are not into this and you need any introduction, the first edition of Warhammer 40,000 (usually known as 'Rogue Trader' or simply 'RT') had this cover back in 1987:

 

This was 1987

 

The Space Marine with the Ork head became quite iconic pretty soon. Last year, GW released this special edition mini:

 

I've been posing for 25 years

 

 You might notice something strange if you look close. It's the head. The mini came beheaded in its blister. After some time trying to get a solution from GW through a friend, I got no response, so it was easier for me replacing it with a head of my own. I used a Mk6 helmet and used some green stuff on it for the nose cone.

 

Poetic justice. I had a severed head in my hand, but didn't have one of my own...

 
Before I speak of this incident, let me show you the other limited edition mini I was talking about. The 2nd Edition of WH40K was released in 1993, the game having  this cover:

 

'Grim Darkness'?

 

And this mini being released last year for the 'Games Day' event:

 

I've been posing for a while too

 

Fortunately I got all the pieces this time. That's something. Then I just had to face the problem of the annoying bubbles...

 

There's green stuff in places you couldn't imagine

 If you are familiar with the so called 'Finecast' resin GW has been using on their models for a while, you already know what I'm talking about. I had heard about the problem, but had never experienced it. These two are the only 'finecast' models I've ever purchased. The last will they be.
Talking about it would be the usual GW bashing you can read elsewhere on tne internet. I'll just say that my own experience working with this resin is not quite satisfactory. I will politely say no more.

But I don't want to end this post with a bitter taste, sooo... Bonus mini! :)

You might rememeber this illustration by mighty Jes Goodwin, depicting Leman Russ, Primarch of the Space Wolves: 

 

Pretty old piece of art

 
I got the mini on eBay some time ago for a reasonable price. Unfortunately without the wolves (Freki and Geri).

 

Ahhh... Good old reliable metal... Hopefully someday I can find the wolves. I promise to put Russ a cloak and banner then.

But having this mini, who would like to buy the Forge World Primarchs? Meh! This is more than enough!

We didn't use any special 'movie marines' rule (that will be another day, you'll see what I'm talking about...), but just regular 2nd Ed. rules, with only one single exception, the one regarding 'Squad coherency' (the distance between the Marines): they could act as individual characters, not necessarily as a Squad. We used the 'Perimeter defence' scenario from the Armageddon booklet, but with our own minis. 5 Space Marines vs. 20 Orks. The Space Marines must kill as many Orks as possible, and the Orks must kill the missile launcher (and as many Marines as possible, of course!). So this is it:

 

Entrenched heroes

Hur hur hur, come get'em, boyz!

 

The Space Marines begun their first turn by making 'rapid fire', i.e., holding steady and shooting accurately, gunning Orks down.

 

Ow! I hadn't played yet!

Fall bak! Retreatz!

  The central offensive was totally smashed down

 

Die! I command you to die, xenos scum!

 

But the Orks on the flank advanced and threw a grenade:

 

The grenade killed one Space Marine!

 

The Sergeant engaged in hand-to-hand combat, eviscerating some Orks with his huge chainblade:

 

Taste my great custom made chainsword!!

He caused 25% casualties, so the Orks had to roll a leadership check. Then a glorious forgotten rule came back to life:

 

Insane courage! The Squad immediately takes another extra turn

 

However, nothing really interesting happened. Meh.

On the flank we had another combat:

 

You can't beat me, greenskins! I'm too cool for that!

Don't fall back, you cowards! Come, come to me!

Don't fall baaaack!

On the other side of the table, the Orks charged the missile launcher Marine. Everything was at stake here!

 

Ha! Ya can't use yar weapon dis close, huh?

Die, ya hummie!

 

That's right, hindered by the heavy weapon, the Space Marine was in serious disadvantage, and he finally fell overwhelmed by the numbers.

While the Orks on the flank kept on running, the central board ones attacked the Sergeant:

 

There are quite few people left by now

 

Encouraged by the recent killing, the Orks killed the Sarge too.

 

Ork powa!

 

 That was the end of turn 4 and the battle.

 

So the Space Marines got 2 victory points for their kills. The Orks got 1 point for killing 3 Marines, plus 2 other points for having killed the one with the missile launcher. Ork victory!

Once again it was terribly fun. Having a few minis on the board makes the game much more 'personal'. It looks more like an adventure than a battle. I would like to explore further both sides of that, the adventure scenario where a fistful of characters have to accomplish a mission against odds and the small battle/skirmish aspect of the game. I'll let you know whenever I play again and we'll see what we get then!

Hope you enjoyed our little battle!

The veteran WH40K player will already know what is this all about, but let me make a brief introduction for the rest. In the Warhammer 40,000 universe, the Imperium of Mankind counts with the best of the best troops ever, the Space Marines. They are genetically modified humans able of almost anything imaginable and, according to the background, they are real giants amongst the rest of mankind, towering warriors with their distinctive bulky armour.

However, the actual minis do not show that, and the Space Marines are just as tall as any normal human (and their rules don't show them as the killing machines they are!). I've been trying to solve that for many years, inspired by true genius sculptors all over internet.

Alongside the resident contributor of this blog, KeyanSark (man, I should post a label with your name!), we faced (another) absurdly fun project some time ago: We would build up a five men Squad of giant Marines in order to play them with those 'movie marines' rules that were released some years ago (in which the Marines were indestructible and acted as movie characters. We will talk about that another day...). I would sculpt and he would paint.

The idea was to have a Sergeant, a Champion, a heavy weapons man and two regular marines. This was what we got. These are the sculpts:

 

And some hairstyle

 

 

 The Sergeant breast plate should be totally heroic:

 

 

 

So should look the Champion:

 

 Regular chainswords looked ridiculous in these beasts' hands, so I used two chainswords for the Sarge's weapon:

 

 

I also sculpted the Crimson Fist icon:

The 'regular' Space Marines were as bulky as the characters:

 

I had to do some extra work on that arm later

I still have to learn lots of things about green stuff

Extra large backpack

 I've learned later on that the backpack thing is not necessary, as regular ones work nice. Another leason learned.

It happened otherwise with the missile launcher. The normal one looked petty when held by a realscale marine, so I added a plastic piece to make it look 'normal'.

 

It's from some kind of ballpen, if I recall it right

He's looking at an internet ad: 'enlarge your missile launcher'

 

This was my first take on this other guy

Left the can opener at the fortress monastery

I wasn't sure of wht to do with the head

I finally chose the first option

 
Now you are asking: 'how do they look next to a 'normal' marine? Do they look as big as you pretended?' Well, I'll let you judge:

 

No steroids, just a balanced diet.

 
And the group photo:

Did you like them? Then wait to see what did Keyan achieve:

 

  We made up a name and a full story for each one of them, making real heroes of them with their own background, but I'll talk about it another day, this entry is becoming too long now...

For the moment let them be just as they are:

 

The Heroes