The Marines have arrived

My beakies arrived from Blighty today. The photo I posted earlier does not do these figures justice. They are much, much worse than the photo would have one believe.

No big whoop, they're going into the Simple Green here in a moment.

Actual size of container may vary.

Also going to dunk a number of insurgents. I hope they get along. Pics soon. I promise.

Figures preview

I took a bunch of pics of my insurgents, but I'm not happy with the results. I'm going to redo them and the Rhino pics with some better lighting. In the meantime, here's a preview of some of the figs that will be rising up in Helsreach.

These were among the original dudes my folks got me.
Best. Christmas. Ever. 

Oh, I also acquired 22 beakie Marines via eBay for a song. Here they are, per the pic from the sale.

Simple Green is in order. Of course. I'm fine with that.

So, I got some work to do.

Returning to Helsreach

Christmas of 1988, my parents gave me Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. The illustrations in the book fired my 14-year-old imagination in a way few other things had before or since. In particular, a series of illustrations and accompanying text describing a settlement called Helsreach stirred images of a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than even Mos Eisley.

Fast forward 24 (!) years later and I long to game in that setting. I still have almost all of the Space Pirate, Adventurer and Mercenary figures my folks got me that Christmas, too. Sadly, the original RTB01 box of plastic Space Marines is gone. I only have parts of five or six of the marines remaining. I still have a soft spot in my heart for the old RT-era figure designs. It may be the nostalgia speaking, but they definitely don't make them like they used to.

The setting for 40K back then was open for adventure. Chaos was on the horizon, Grimdark was off in the future. It wasn't exactly a happy place to inhabit, but it wasn't covered in skullz and spikez. Space Marines weren't Space Nazis, Orks weren't green buffoons, the Imperial Army (!) wasn't a Human tide butchered in their millions. The Eldar were fruity then too, though. Remember Squats? How about a Zoat? Genestealers had a big gaping maw for a face.

Enough reminiscing, back to Helsreach.

I want to do some smallish games set in and around Helsreach. As I mentioned, I still have my assorted ne'er-do-wells, as well as some (not many) Imperial Army figures and plastic Imperial Guard figures. I'll need to procure some Space Marines from that era. The plan is to have the two sides be Space Marines against an insurgency made up of the aforementioned ne'er-do-wells with the Imperial Army/Guard guys as deserters.

Stay tuned for details.