Bring on the Beakies

"As you know, you have to go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want." -Rumsfeld

Ground zero of my weekend was spent at the best workbench in the house; the kitchen table! The above atrocious quote got me thinking too, well not thinking, but it was a poignant reminder nonetheless. We kicked around some 5th edition 40k last Thursday (I'll get around to posting that) and it was fun. Well I've been sitting on a huge Tau army for some time, I'm proud to say I painted every model of it too (yeah, that's a pic of my army), and that's what I used last week, but I also have some Dark Angels, not a lot, but some. I have just enough to add an extra squad or two and I'll have a full sized, fully functional army, so I thought 'why not'?


All the beaky material my bits box has left...

I went with Dark Angels for a couple reasons, both had to do with money. You may recall my Chaos Marine writeup (more to come on that as well, ahem). Anyway, I was building up fluff to launch a 5th edition Chaos Marine army, but to what end? I'd literally be starting from scratch, both with models and budget. With Dark Angels I already have a big step forward, painted too, but still don't have the money to pick up another squad or two, or even a Dreadnought.

A recent article in a new White Dwarf magazine got me thinking though. It was talking about the invention of the Space Marine, and its humble beginnings with the RTB01, some even consider this boxed set 'mythical' or at the very least 'historic'. Well, heck, I had that boxed set, I remember when I got it, and it came shrink wrapped with a copy of the original 40k rules, Rogue Trader. For me it seems no big deal, but looking back, it did come out a whopping 21 years ago, so I guess that is impressive!


I needed a ten man tactical squad, and I had just enough parts left in my bits box to not only put one together, but it's about 97% vintage Rogue Trader. Sure, they're not the super sexy, ultra detailed, mega multi-part plastic that you can get now (and at $3.5 bucks per fig not a bad buy either), but they are classic, and that might make up for them being dated. Most of my pieces still had some paint on them, but back in the day I didn't even use an undercoat, so I'll just spray over the top of them. I also found a dated Space Marine Captain I thought I'd have to use for my Sergeant, but luckily I found one last beaky in the bits box. "Beaky", of course, is Ork slang for Space Marines who once sported the vaguely pig-faced bassinet helmet of the Mark VI Corvus power armor. My ten man squad was rounded out.


I did have to supplement a couple of arms and a bolter or two. I also swapped in some backpacks from later versions. Frankly I still had original backpacks on the sprue, but I like the idea of mixing different styles in there. Check out the old style flamethrower!


Here they are, Squad Antiquis, ready for action.


As a completely random bonus, I found these guys over the course of the weekend in various bits boxes. I had to replace a couple of hands and knives, but for the most part they are complete. My brother-in-law has some painted as Ultramarines and they look great, hopefully mine will look half as good as his. They're Scouts from the almost as vintage game Advanced Space Crusade. Scouts in 5th edition seem to have a bit more punch as well, so since I've got 'em, I may as well use them, right?