Dear Readers, as things have been quiet lately, I have photographed some older models for posterity and for your viewing pleasure. When I first got into the hobby in the mid-1990s I was barely 7 years old, and I acquired an assortment of 5th ed. Warhammer lizardmen, and the 2nd ed. 40K box set…some of which was poorly painted, broken, and variously abused.
The collection was added to over the years, mainly the Space Marines and Space Orks, in dribs and drabs, but I have to admit I lost some interest as 3rd ed. 40K was released and I came to hate multi-part plastic figures, and not for the last time. I still picked up the 3rd ed box set (one gaming acquisition that I no longer have, apart from a few dark eldar, and cannot for the life of me think what happened to it) but I slowly became less active and hobbying petered out completely when I went to university.
I missed it though and eventually got back into it, and I have no memory of how this came about, with some British and Prussians for some Victorian Science Fiction gaming with Perry Miniatures‘ Sudan range and Wargames Foundry Boer War British for the Brits, and Foundry Prussians for their foes. I still have some which I managed to paint (and many I didn’t) but the lure of 40K was too strong and when the Grey Knights were updated in around 2004 I could no longer resist the call of the Emperor. I’m not sure when I actually walked back into a GW store but it must have been a year or 2 after that release.
I painted them red, inspired by John Blanche’s versions in the Daemonhunters Codex but mostly by Victoria Lamb‘s (whose claim to fame is basically inventing the OSL technique) stunning versions from the Australian Golden Demon 2006 (unfortunately there no longer seem to be any photos online…I will see if I can find any).
I never played a game with them until much later, and of course I still have many to paint.
In 2nd ed. I run them 2 squads of Grey Knight terminators using the rules from Dark Millennium. The power armoured chaps are run as Space Wolf Grey Hunters with bolters, bolt pistols, and power swords. The leader is a Space Wolf Rune Priest standing in for a Grey Knight Grand Master, and in 2000 point games they are usually backed up by two dreadnoughts with 2 assault cannons each–nasty but given the army is so small and reliant on psychic powers I need any edge I can get.
I thought about repainting these guys but in all honestly they don’t look bad enough, though my current standard is a lot better. I may add some highlights later and I have plans to re-do the bases in green. It is more important though to finish more of them than re-paint these ones (basically I need to finish 9 more terminators and the leader and dreadnoughts to finish off my 2nd ed. army). I tried to give them all their own heraldry which I thought came out fairly well, overall.
The conversions were extremely difficult and all done before I ever owned a dremel, which would have made it a lot easier. Let me know if you have any questions!
I hope you like them. Overall, I’m still fairly pleased but that may just be subjective!
Classic Warhammer 40K 
Fantastic mate. Love the red! Good to hear a bit more about you and your journey too. I don’t know why but I thought you were older than me haha but I think I’ve got about ten years on you. Maybe you’re just wiser in the way of warhammer 40k hehe. Thanks for sharing and keep sharing mate. 👍🏼
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Cheers mate. I’m like Merlin, I age backwards and was born as an old man 😉 but yes I think you would be 8 or 9 years older than me. Glad you like these anyway!
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Haha well I think we are all born old. Small, drooling, can’t feed ourselves and poop our pants. In the grim darkness of the future there is only poop
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Indeed! Not quite the image I was going for though 🤔
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Enjoyed the narrative and love the figures. Personally I never ever go back and change a figure, vignette or diorama, done is done. Why? Well to be honest it’s a record of my journey. Some of my earlier stuff which I thought good all those years ago is now shit but it records my journey so in some ways it is more important than the current stuff. 😊
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Yes I think there is merit to that approach. I have stripped and completely repainted figures before (which in some cases I have regretted and others been happy with) but I was pleased with these at the time and still am so it seems ridiculous to change them! Thanks for the comment anyway 😊 glad you like them.
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Oh man these are fantastic!
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Thank you Mr Grove 🙏😊
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Really great ones. They remind me of the Exorcists Chapter, you made them look really appealing!
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Thanks. I do have plans to add some Exorcists one day. Although they would look very similar unless I go for the proper yellow scheme. 🤔🤔🤔 Glad you like them anyway.
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Great work here, and an interesting read. I especially like the check patterning. Very Blanche!
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Thanks mate, appreciate the comment. I will do a follow up post detailing some of the inspiration sometime soon but capturing the Blanche look was part of it, for sure!
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Nice work all around. Sadly me, myself? I haven’t done any W40K stuff for a long, long time.
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Neither had I until I did! 😉
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I wish people in my area still wanted to play 2nd edition.
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It’s the best! I’m very lucky there’s at least one person here to play with!
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Fun seeing a old take on the bois in silver. I started with 2nd edition when Grey Knights only had the Terminator Squad entry from Dark Millennium, and it took me a long time to come round to the idea of Grey Knights in power armour when the 3rd edition models came out. It wasn’t until very recently that I realised they’d been there since the earliest days of Rogue Trader thanks to the Realm of Chaos books. DoH!
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Ah I hadn’t realised that! Thanks! And thanks for the comment 😎🙏
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Beautiful work! I love the older models. Somehow they have more soul.
Any further progress on your 2nd edition 40,000 force?
Your pictures/ story inspired me to acquire and paint some 2E Space Wolves and I’m hoping to see more of your work.
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Thanks Joe. Classic Space Wolves are awesome, I look forward to seeing what you do with them. I have mainly been painting Mordheim stuff this year but I have just started going back to the classic 40k stuff. Hopefully some updates soon! 🤞
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This is so nice! 😀
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Thanks! 🙂
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