Space Marines through the ages...

This Saturday Games Workshop will celebrate the 30th birthday for the Space Marine figures. I have not been in to the hobby that long, but I do have some old Marines in my collection that has been around for quite some time. So I guess it is fitting that I bought some old start sets last week...

I bought two old start sets, or rather what remained of them as they didn't have very much of the original content.

This is the oldest of the two, and this is the third edition start set, containing Space Marines and Dark Eldar. I think this is the only time the Black Templars Space Marine chapter has been in a start set, the Dark Eldar I'm not so sure about.

There was not very much left in the box, but I only paid hundred Kroner (about ten Pounds or twelve Dollars) for it so I got value for my money still. I got a cool box that I plan to use for keeping minis in while they are being worked on, and I got some of the tank traps, a few Marines, some Dark Eldar, and all the jungle plants along with blast templates, dice pack and measure sticks.

The Marines will all go in to my army after they have been torn apart, cleaned up and glued back together with better glue. The glue was all soggy and they could be pulled apart without damage to the minis so I will do that and paint them up as Gatekeepers. Some of the Marines were beakies and I do love those. I will make some of them as sergeants for existing squads, and see if I can't fill up some of the squads that is missing Marines at the moment. I think I have some of those in my second company.

The few Dark Eldar figures that I got I will give away to someone collecting that faction, as I will not start an Eldar army. I don't plan to have any Marines being experts in fighting Eldar, so I don't see a use for the bits either. But I'm sure someone will appreciate some free troops.

The jungle will be used as decoration on several bases, both for some Space Marines and my Catachan jungle fighters. I have a few heavy weapon bases that has been decorated with trees, and it is quite a nice effect.


The Second box I paid two hundred kroner for, and this is a rather classic box. The Battle for Macragge was the start set people talked about when I got in to the hobby. It appears it is from the fourth edition of the game. As the name gives away this box had Space Marines and Tyranids in it.

There were no Tyranids or Space Marines in my box unfortionately, but the reason I bought it was because it had the complete sprues of the crashed Aquila lander.
Some time back I bought the Aquila pilot on Ebay, so now he has a wreck to walk away from.

The crashed lander sells on Ebay from about 250 kroner and up to the double and sometimes even more. And sometimes it's not even complete. So I think I did a good deal, and look forward to painting up the crashed lander and using it as scenery on my game table.

This box also had the blast templates and dice set, and I also got a small transfer sheet with Ultramarines and squad markings.I'm not currently using transfers on my Marines, but this is something that is possible to add at any time really, so I might add it at a later time if I feel for it. And if I do, it will be the squad markings and some special details, not the chapter markings. I know I will use transfers on my Imperial Knights, so maybe after I have used them there I might be tempted to try on a few Marines depending on the result...