Monday 15 July 2013

Bryan Ansell's Rogue Trader Space Marines: part 1

Looking at my blog archive, I can't believe I haven't written anything as yet in July, despite the fact I have a ton of photos. Time does slip away. I'm aiming to make amends for that over the next couple of weeks with several pic-filled posts for your delectation. I shall start with a subject which I don't recall having addressed to date with my blog posts, or indeed in my Bryan Ansell gallery: Rogue Trader Space Marines. Bryan has a wonderful collection of these, and it will take me several posts to cover them all. I promise you though it will be worth waiting for; hang around and you'll get to see some female space marines as you've never seen them before!

Now, although I still buy White Dwarf and attend the occasional event at Warhammer World in Nottingham, I have to confess I'm not entirely clued-up with the modern era fluff. I couldn't for example, give you a detailed breakdown of how many of the original Rogue Trader Space Marine chapters have survived to today. Ultramarines, Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Dark Angels - hard to miss the likes of those of course. But what of chapters such as the Rainbow Warriors? Do they still exist in some footnote in a contemporary codex? Given that a number of figures I'm about to present bear colour schemes which may not be familiar to some readers with more contemporary tastes, I thought it might be worth revisiting some of the chapters that were illustrated in the first edition of Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader:

Above: from Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader 1987.

Above: from White Dwarf 101. Depending on your inclination and possibly your age, chances are you are looking at the above colour schemes with either absolute delight or abject horror. Personally I opt for absolute delight - I may well go for one of these schemes at the forthcoming Oldhammer weekend.
In this post, I'll illustrate some figures based on appearances in various White Dwarf adverts, and include the adverts themselves. First we have the C100 Space Marines, the range that kick-started it all, designed by Bob Naismith and appeared in the Citadel Journal of Spring 1987 and White Dwarf 80. For those pedantic types among you who are currently clenching their fists and gnashing their teeth by I am of course referring to the first range of Space Marines for WH40K, not the "first ever Space Marines" (so I'm discounting the likes of Asgard, Citadel Spacefareres etc).

White Dwarf 80







 White Dwarf 93





White Dwarf 96


 Back in my day Space Marines got drunk AND celebrated Christmas.


White Dwarf 99









White Dwarf 100






White Dwarf 102






I dont think this is the exact same figure as in the advert above.

White Dwarf 108





White Dwarf 112





That's it for today, plenty more to come.

12 comments:

  1. This is really good stuff. Great to see old RT space marine from WD in good photos. Thanks! More please :)
    /Hans

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks. I've just had another look at that last Death Eagle SM. Its probably the angle of the pic but does he (?) look a bit "chesty"?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmmm he does seem to have Power Armour Air Bags thats for sure :O

      Delete
    2. When you mention it - very chesty. Definetly a woman SM

      Delete
    3. Either that or the influence of Slaanesh creeping in. :)

      Delete
  3. Lovely stuff, thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  4. love those medics , they were probably my first warhammer 40k infatuation cheers.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Great stuff!
    I have just talked myself into re-painting my Eagle Warriors A-La Rogue Trader. Wish me luck!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Most of the marines in the White Dwarf 99 advert are named after the cast of the old 1960's "Batman" TV show: Adam West, Burt Ward, Frank Gorshin, Burgess Meredith, etc. I guess we know what the studio ladz were watching back then!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I haven't seen the guy with two power fists before, talk about menacing!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you very much for these. Its so nice to see them photographed so well.

    ReplyDelete