There is a certain elegance to the simplicity of these older sculpts which is still find very appealing; and all the more so with your very clean paint job. Great work!

Everything in this video is well thought out. The subject, the miniatures, the presentation, the synth-heavy music, the retro-style editing, and the deep voiceover with UK accent. It successfully threw me back to the old Warhammer 40,000 days and I love it. Well done, sir. Well done!

Oh, and great video btw. I have a very soft spot for this kit. I always wished they had done weapon variants for the special, heavy, and sarge that fit this kit/style. For me selfishly, I think of the hobby as three parts: modeling, painting, and gaming. I’m just not a fan of modeling, especially basic modeling - if it’s a conversion, that at least makes it a little enjoyable for me. As such, I loved how simple and straightforward these were to assemble (along with the Orks and Gretchin from the 2nd Ed starter set). I also loved that statue-like pose too. I know the pose is more for ease of casting and assembling, but to me the whole nature of Marines as stoic defenders of a crumbling and overwhelmed Imperium kinda makes that static look more suitable somehow - kinda like how the Rogue Trader era Marine artwork was primarily of them in groups in last stands or being ambushed, or as lone Marines peering out gun nests or hiding spots from amidst city ruins or jungle cover.

the khorne berzerkers , plague marines and ig stormtroopers from this era are some of my all time favs

My favourites too… I’ve still got my childhood marines. Since I dug them back out and started to repaint or in some cases paint for the first time as Aurora Chapter I’ve bought more and more of them. Listening to you mention “the great purge of 2010” had me thinking. That’s around the time I had my great purge to travel Australia. I sold my beautiful Dark Angels army and my beloved Death Wing terminators. Still haunts my dreams

I use these as beater marines. Test paintjobs, give them to the kids to paint. Love em

That statue at Warhammer World used to be at Bluewater in Kent back in the day, you could see this huge Space Marine towering over the whole upper floor. I remember my old man taking me there in my early teens to buy a metal Bloodthirster for my birthday

These were my first Warhammer miniatures, as well. I love this video so much.

They are just iconic when painted well

Definitely brings back the memories. I started with the original box set of mk6 'Beakies'

I do miss those banner poles on the backs

I have a set of ten fully painted with a rogue trader chaplan as an hq they are old and awesome just like most of us

Man, I love old school warhammer. Soo much Nostolgia for the 90's. Great Vid as always brother!

Saw the pics you uploaded prior to this video, look amazing as always.

background music i like so much, it doesnt got in front, but is a niche ambiance to that theme

I was never as keen on these as a kid, getting them with my 3rd edition starter box in that later paint set, but I appreciate them a lot more as an adult and think the sheer durability is awesome.

I stumbled onto this video randomly at 1 am. was drawn by my freshly blooming fascination with oldhammer, stayed because the video was... something else. I don't know how to describe it, but it feels special. almost surreal. though this could just be the mix of being tired and that funky music. anyway, will be staying as a subscriber

My first ever model was the medal 2nd edition Chaos Sorcerer with power sword and bolt pistol which I bought for 4th edition I repainted it recently and I have to say painting older models is so much more fun this channel has inspired me to go back and try and get as much as the old CSM stuff to do a playable 4/5th army as difficult as that's gonna be 😅

A thing of beauty 👌🏼

still got loads of these,love them and the weird 1 piece terminators with a police siren above their helmets that i got

i luv these guys, very cool video, well done on the 2nd edition army as well :)

Lovely stuff!! 👌

My first ever conversion was a chainsword to powerfist swap on my veteran sergeant.

I still remember the first game of 40k i played back in 1998. Now i am getting gray and older. But i still cherish a few squads of those old and simpele space-marines...... This video smacked me right back to those years i was blissfully ignorant of the shit going on outside of my bubble, thank you!

These videos are pretty addictive 😂

Still got my two tac squads from the second edition starter. I painted em with my late father, and although I haven't played the game in years, they are something I will never get rid of.

Great paint job, and what more fitting decor for these old chaps that veterans. I retired mine from service when the 3rd edition tacticals made their debut, but never discarded them - I still have the 20 that came in the 2nd edition box, and one of them's even been 'promoted' to the worship of Slaanesh thanks to a new paintjob and chaos backpack; bit more subdued in its posture and detail than the modern legionaries, but doesn't look at all out of place among them. These old sculpts have stood the test of time, quite literally.

Love the older GW stuff, so much fun. That's why I'm current bring a Citadel Miniatures Mighty Fortress to its proper glory.

This was my first squad. I still have a few of them (scattered in the back of my grand company line-up)

Your channel has inspired me to work on a 2nd ed Dark Angels Army with my first 500pts being a Chaplain, Apothecary, a Combat Squad, and Scout Squad. So far I’ve gotten my hands on 20 more tactical squads although I’m missing quite a lot of the bolters so I’ll have to do more tracking down for those.

Loved the starter set back then, used to go round my friends to play the game using his space orks, had the paint set at the time as well memories, I really should get some again but to many goblins to paint!

Love these. I remember this sets sgt. ! Great stuff

I'm gonna have nightmares after seeing those moldlines.

I remember tapping the hell out of those pots to break the hardened paint so I could unscrew them. They have never done better than the original Citadel flip top pots.

Those are my favorite

I've been building up an army of these old monopose marines. I think I have around 40 of them now.

I've got one ten man tactical squad from the 2nd edition starter box and a couple of spare monopose bodies that are just in my bit box not doing much. Might dog them out and jazz them up

My first 40k minis were from the 3rd edition box set. The best of times for the hobby!

I just bought a squad of these, they're so annoying to paint but I love them.

Not the best set ever, but perhaps the most iconic. They set the aesthetic that has lasted ever since....Regarding the tall and easily-breakable banner poles, I ended up cutting the poles off of all my sergeants, and then shortening the pole and re-gluing the pole-cap. The result was a banner pole that was only a half-inch tall, but with the aquila cap. Enough to stand out from the rest of the squad, but small enough to store easily and to not break.

So much love❤❤❤

They may have been well before my time but I can't help but be enamored by Oldhammer models. The simple poses. The proportions. There's just so much charm to them.

Had me dead the moment the skull white got sploged on 😂. I still have my 1990 space crusade and advanced space crusade. Very similar mini's.

man you spoil me with that awsome content

And now, after years of fully modular models that can be posed any number of ways, we're back to mono-pose plastic models :D

Great video! I got that original 5 with the paint set, although without any instruction, I painted them very badly! Cool thesis, definitely not my favourite models - I feel they're missing a bit of neck - but they were a significant development in the range!

So nostalgic and not to mention "universal" beginner mistake as a kid. Also I used nail cliper to remove the remaining tag

I laughed multiple times during this. Well done.

You know. I also painted like you did back when I started. Man what a blast from the past. Now I am better.

They were designed to be playing pieces in a boardgame. So they were durable and easy to decode visually. A bit like chess pieces. It's super easy to quickly see who is a grunt and who is a sergeant or heavy weapons. Especially with the very bright paint style from back then. Modern models are way more detailed, but they tend to blend together into one big blob on the tabletop.

I can smell the first time I walked into my lgs. They had a display for the 2nd ed box and several months of white dwarfs. I picked up a random white dwarf with bridge of death. It was over after that.

100% agree. They where allways the best for me. Nothing else ever never before and after. Even This Astartes movie present 2nd edition Spacemarines armor. PRIMARIS ARMOR AND PRIMARIS THEM sElVES iS A HERESY !

I bought tons of these on ebay. Along with enough various metal edition miniatures, it was as if I was making up for lost time or grabbing those armies I couldn't afford back in the day. Still not painted them all but a few are started as samples of various Chapters.

Technically, IIRC, the option in the Ultramarines codex for upgrading sergeants to Vet Sergeants specifically included Tactical Squads but doesn’t mention Veteran Squads (I think Assault and Devastator Squads could also get them). Obviously the sergeant of a Veteran Squad is already a vet, but unlike the default Vet Squad sarge, the upgrade option version can also take a wargear card. I suppose that would be one selling point for taking a Tactical Squad over a Veteran Squad, in case you wanted to use the Vet Tac Sarge instead of your main character models to carry something like a Virus Grenade. (Admittedly, I assume that loophole was an oversight and I don’t recall if they ever FAQ’d it in a later White Dwarf). Otherwise, I recall Marines in general being expensive enough points wise that, even at the standard 1500 or 1850pts game sizes, that 30 point difference could be crucial given you couldn’t (originally) take Marine squads in anything other than the full 10 man size (I do seem to recall a WD rules update that eventually allowed you to buy combat squads for half the points).

I have all 20 still unpainted from the 2nd edition boxed set, bought in 1998 just before 3rd dropped. Like you I also purchased the 6 man Warriors of the Imperium squad. Now I've almost completed the Rogue Trader / 2nd edition army that I always wanted as a kid... weird how many of us are doing this now haha

Still have some of these space marines knocking about

I'm of the opinion that they can still have the Tactical Arrow as Veterans and its the white helmet thats more important since its better for grabbing your attention to remind you what that unit is when playing. But it you wanted to you could always add another veteran cross decal on top or with in the arrow.

i got mildly into warhammer as a kid and if i recall my first set was Gorkamorka, i also had a few boxes of marines that may have been these though based on your dates. May have been a later rework. Recently started modelling again at 40 and damn they are expensive now!

Nice on Matthew. I'm looking forward to seeing them in action real soooooon 👀👀👀

From my experience at the time I greatly preferred the set that had 15 models with metal bodies and plastic arms, pads, weapons and backpacks.

Hey Matthew, really liking your content so far. I've been watching your videos for a little while now (subscribed and everything already it goes without saying lol), and so this is my first time calling into the show for lack of a better term. While i got my start slightly later, early-to-mid 3rd edition to be more precise, and therefore my marines have predominantly been the 3rd ed. Starter set multipart ones with the land speeder and the dark eldar and all that jazz or later, and risking being particularly heretical, i wanted to share my own take on the 2nd ed. Plastic Marines and how i use them lol. So while i respect the iconic look, they don't mesh very well with 3rd. Edition and later firstborn kits, and since i only have maybe 6 of these older models, i did something that i don't know if anyone on either side of this argument would approve of but here goes.... recipe of sorts is as follows (btw this also works for the older bike squad torsos if needed, which in my case was also necessary): 1. Cut off the heads with a straight horizontal cut, trying to remove as much of the helmet as possible but leaving the neck guard as close to intact as you can, then hollow out the torso to leave a similar concave space for the newer balljointed heads. If while carving, the neck guard gets nicked or damaged you can fix that with green stuff or anything similar fairly easily, or cover it up with the backpack later. Attach the new helmet or bare head afterwards in any direction you want adjusting as needed, the depth of the cavity should be deep enough to cover the half-circle and first ring of the neck joint roughly but no deeper, if you go too deep you can just use little bits of sprue cut to size to slightly rebuild the gap and it wouldn't even be visible afterwards (this also works for marines from the later starter sets for folks like me who mostly built their marine army off of 4th-6th edition starter set marines. It is possible to salvage the helmets to use them again, but this is never easy and does require some further green stuff repairs to the bottom and back of the helmet, best to save this extra effort for particularly unique helmets like the ones found in the 5th ed. Starter set's Tactical marines for example). 2. Cut off hands but leave wristguard rings on (i.e. you can now glue on the smaller hands off of the multipart kit with a newer bolter or flamer, and theoretically this could also be sourced from newer starter set monopose marines even if i haven't tried it myself), you can also separate the left arm from the torso entirely and reattach it at more of a diagonal angle, a couple of millimetres apart at most will suffice, so it's sticking out a bit further and looks more natural that way, especially for poses where the marine is firing over his left shoulder (replacing that arm with a new one in its entirety is also an option but i haven't tried it at least). Alternatively, you can leave the original hands and bolters on and it would look fine, I'd argue. 3. Optional - replace old backpack with newer ones, this would require little to no modifications really, but old backpacks look fine to me at least, even on newer marines for a slightly more vintage look, or just for variety even, same goes for using older bolters (i haven't figured out how to make those two-handed yet, and yes i am working on that lol, but on veterans or characters who may be carrying older master-crafted bolters or combis one-handed they look pretty cool as-is) 4. To make them look about the same height as the newer ones just add a little rubble or something tactical-rocky looking to give them those extra couple of millimetres they may be lacking otherwise (on this last point, and as some sort of redeeming act, i will say that i have kept the 2nd. Edition pewter marines i own largely intact and just gave them newer arms and elevated them ever so slightly off their bases to great effect, they make for exceptionally nice sergeants, veterans, and other characters. For example, i have about a dozen or so 2nd. Edition pewter space wolves in power armour and a handful of wolf guard terminators, and with some very minor modifications to a few very wolfy chest emblems, they have become amazing veterans and lieutenants etc. in my dark angels of all the possible chapters lol, and yes, I know that's also another display of heresy right there for those of us who go back to those earlier editions of the in-game rules representing the lion and wolf feud and so on, but like probably most of us here, a lot of these were unknowingly obtained through job lots and such, and sometimes the listings don't have everything outlined, hence how i ended up with a very small space wolves detachment that is slowly being turned into a number of green and bone dark angels veterans and the like). I am looking forward to seeing more of your collection in the future, great videos all around once more, and keep being an inspiration to the rest of us, cheers!

These were the first space marines I ever bought in 1996, age 16. I cannot stress how much I *dispised* this kit. They were so difficult to make look good. I celebrated the day I replaced them all with metal versions, I literally chucked them in the garbage. To add insult to injury, I bought Blood Angels Blood Red spray and turned them straight up orange! Ugh! They were so bad! You managed to make something wonderful out of them and I applaud you for it.

Yes brother 🙌

I am currently in the process of painting the rest of my SM pile of shame before I begin to build the AoD box from HH. On my painting table is now a Death Company squad from 2nd 40K although they will receive a IH paintjob instead. Role of the squad will be a close assault veteran squad.

They look great! I still have the original squad of 10 without the banner and box. Any idea what they're worth?

They were also recreated in Chaos Gate (The original) as basically the default sprites. But with more weapons options in the mix.

I love them 👍 And the tactical symbols on the shoulderpads aren't actually wrong, you've just poured over that codex for way longer than is sane 😋

Clippers? Man as a kid I used nail scisors to took those off the sprue.

night lords? paint them midnight blue!

Something about the uniformity of the poses make it look boss

technically those Veterans earned their status in their company but have to be induced in 1st company yet. they are the Company Heroes, a good Command Squad for their captain

2nd edition was my entry point in WH40K. Today, i still think it is the best edition ever made

2nd Edition is by far the time 40k was best. Had the most fun armies and coolest minis

Feel old now, I've 2 sets of these in my UM 2nd company.

I have fond memories of that kit, but the 30 man box with all the knives, regular and chainsaw bayonets, needle pistols, flamers, missile launchers, power fists, etc. was much better. The details weren't quite as good but the customization and flavor was what started it all.

I miss the old metal Eldar with mohawks.

Dude you can get the decals off easy with decal softener

Speaking of GW perhaps aiming for a younger audience with these. I remember physically playing with these exactmodels when I was 8-9 years old with my friends. We didn’t know how to play the game so they were like cool looking toys for us. I think we even had some more or similar models from the space hulk game. Or whatever it was called back then.

3d had veterans, they were an elite choise and had terminator honours, giving them 1 more attack than tactical marines, but the cost was insane.

Beakies are still my favorite.

Hey mate, lovely video 🙏 This night sound stupid, but do you think you'd be willing to part with one marine? I can't seem to find one in Sweden. Cheers!

100% AGREE

Still have mine in a box, waiting for the call to battle.

The only reason I like those models is because they were the "old" and free models by the time I was a little kid who could understand what he was seeing. And I wish I could be that age again, because I hate my life as it is.

I have a bunch of just do dads somewhere of these guys

Monopose best pose

They didn't have that effect on me like the RTB01's did. Still a great model, but the original Rogue Trader models were special.

If you have one of these old boxes still sealed, are they worth much?

I love monopose marines :3

imo the greatest miniatures ever

It’s almost like they were game pieces, designed to be used in game rather than a delicate gossamer confection that can be advanced across the battlefield leaving spindly body parts behind in a trail of disappointment. Glue for the Glue god, Missing bits for the Missing bits throne!

when 2e launched, I ended up with so many of these guys. 20 from the Starter, 20 more trading off the orks half, and then buying off peoples Marines who were only wanting orks. I ended up with about 140 in total. I made 20 Veterans, 60 Tacticals, and 20 Devastator Squads from them. Sooo many Missile Launchers lol! One of the Veterans ended up with a Plasma Gun and Heavy Bolter, and one of the Devastators got a Heavy Bolter as well. A lot of the extras ended up sacrificing their helmets to be given over to the sergeants, as I sucked at painting faces. The work cutting them off, and then carving the helmets to fit and not look like total crap, was still better than painting faces lol Still never had an army as big as that 2e force. Not even my RT Beakies army was that big. My 6e Dark Angels are close, but they are hardly painted sadly. I've probably got this many in Primaris now, but they are still mostly on sprue. One day, they'll get done, maybe with 20e lol

What's the book at 5:42?

They aren’t technically the best but they represent a much lower bar to entry for people new to the hobby. With even the most basic painting skills they could be made at least presentable.

The correct assembly time for a wargame minature

You do sound like the Howard Boon …. Of the 40k universe…lol sorry. Your work in fantastic.

I so miss 2nd edition.

I remember my rubbish painting of these back in the day. Nevermind youtube video tutorials - these guys predate the launch of any mainstream web browser. Back then as a kid, it really wasn't obvious these things needed to be primed, or the paints should be thinned down, or the use of a painting handle, etc.

Somebody recast these in 32mm and use them for primaris 😅

Put wash on them and they'll be painted great 😂