From GregB: Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader Space Marines, Command Team and Rhino (100 points)

From Greg:

Well this challenge has kicked me into sci-fi gear! Building on my recent submissions here are a group of Games Workshop Space Marines (and one non-Marine flunky) from the Rogue Trader era - late 80s, early 90s.  There is one tactical squad of ten Marines, and a collection of Marine characters, specialty functions found in each company of Marines.  They are enjoyable, and really reflect the grim setting of the Warhammer 40,000 future. 

The Chaplain - back in the time when GW was much more selective with skulls (now found on every surface), the Chaplain was the exception.  In theory a Chaplain is meant to bring spiritual comfort and guidance to the soldiers, but a Marine chaplain is a grim spectre of death, with skull everything - helmet, shoulder plates, etc. If this is what gives comfort to Space Marines, no wonder they are stuck in so many pointless last stands.  And of course the Chaplain is a kick-ass fighter, hammering the Emperor's enemies with his arcane weapons and motivating the battle brothers around him.

The Medic - yet another theoretically relatable role tortured into something grim 40,000 years from now.  Although the Marine Medic can sometimes treat wounded battle brothers, mostly he goes around the battlefield putting the wounded ones out of their misery with an "Emperor's Mercy" bolt to the head.  He then recovers genetic material so a new Marine can be created.  Ah - the Emperor's circle of life…

The Librarian - very telling that in the Warhammer 40,000 setting, the gathering, storing and organizing of knowledge (something we take much too for granted these days) is an activity that is regarded as mystic, arcane, dangerous and even grounds for suspicion.  Only the rare trusted psychics - who weren't fed to the Emperor, and were tough enough to become Space Marines - carry out these duties in the Space Marine Chapter.  And, as with the Chaplain, it's no staff function - this fellow can kick ass with his funky "force sword", psychic powers, and guns. 

The Techmarine - I personally find mechanics today to be suspicious and somewhat arcane; in the Warhammer 40,000 setting, who knows how weird they would be? This fellow mends the vehicles of his Company with a mix of prayer and a huge wrench-spanner thingy…

The Astropath - this figure, "Yerl" from the old Citadel range, is based on an image from the Rogue Trader rulebook.  Astropaths are the 4G-LTE wireless communication devices of the 41st millennium, passing messages back and forth through the warp and allowing the Imperium of Man to (mostly) stay in touch across the vast distances of the galaxy.  The Astropath lives a crummy, weird-genes-and-odd-looks, who-said-you-could-leave-your-chamber life in Warhammer 40,000, so I painted his skin tone to match. This figure will be a good objective marker or model for Rogue Trader games.

There are two command-type models, one with a communicator and the other with some kind of data slate.  I put an antenna in the one fellow, and see these two guys as either crew for an emplaced weapon, or maybe an artillery spotting team. 

The tactical squad is a 10-man unit, led by a hero with "Terminator Honours".  There is a multi-melta and a melt gun in the unit, and the rest have blotters.  There are five metal figures and five classic RTB01 plastics in the group.  They are my last old plastic marines from the eBay score I made two years ago…

Painting these old figures is a lot of fun, and highly addictive.  I'm hoping I can find a few more of these old figures on eBay, although it's getting a little harder every day. 

Being a big fan of Rogue Trader-era figures and models from GW doesn't mean all of the newer GW models are bad, and I'm a particular fan of newer line of Space Marine vehicles, particularly the Rhino APC and its variants. 

Space Marines may be genetically enhanced warrior nut cases, but like anyone else they still prefer a ride if they can get one. The Rhino APC is the workhorse of the Space Marine forces, ready to take a squad of 10 Marines into nearly any trouble. The storm bolter provides a little bit of covering fire for them.

One thing I like about using the newer model with the older GW figures is that the vehicle looks much more in scale.  I remember laughing about how the original Rhinos somehow held 10 Marines - the models were laughably tiny.  The Rhinos are a lot bigger now, but of course, thanks to scale creep, so are the Marines :) But combining Rogue Trader-era Marines with the newer Rhino gives the right look. 

The slow build-up of the Crimson Fists continues…

Fabulous work Greg. I especially love seeing those old Rogue Trader command figures again. I never understood GWs insistence on 'Librarians' in their command units when everyone knows it's the Archivists that do all the heavy lifting. Librarians, pfft, tres amateurs...

I also really like the mixture of the newer Rhino model with the older figures. The scale between the them seems to work way better than with the newer figures. Hey, didn't Forge World make a up-scaled version of the old Rhino? Or was that a Land Raider? I thought I remember Dallas selling a kidney and picking one up at Salute a few years ago...

This squad, its command team and Rhino will give Greg 100 points. Great stuff buddy!