I got the original Space Hulk (£20, currently £150+ second hand) when it first came out, along with the expansions Deathwing (currently £100+ second hand) and Genestealer (£140+ second hand) which followed over the next couple of years. I also picked up a copy of the second edition as remaindered stock from The Works for £5 (currently £130+ second hand). It's probably the game I played most in the late '80s and early '90s, and it's always been a good one to pull out for our Scout games days. I also have all the various extra rules that were published in White Dwarf, and in the picture below, you can see at least a couple of additional room tiles from White Dwarf that I glued to thick card and cut out. Back in those days, WD would regularly have extra rules (Pitfall special rules and psychic abilities for Space Hulk both appeared in WD before getting incorporated into the later expansion boxed sets) and often counters/map pieces (often drawn by the original game artist) that you could glue to sturdy card stock and cut out to add to your game.
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| Space Hulk |
There are a couple of Cyclone Terminators and a couple of Grey Knights there, but I couldn't find most of my Terminator marines when I got the game out for the kids to try. A rummage in the loft while they were getting ready for bed allowed me to find the little box containing them. They were packed up ready for stripping and repainting.
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| Terminators |
The plastic Terminators from the 2nd edition game were far better than those from the original game. Proper multi-part poseable models with distinct weapons (though the clip-on flamers for the 1st edition were a neat idea). These just need gluing and painting, maybe a bit of cleanup on the mould lines.
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| Plastic Terminators from 2nd edition |
My first metal Terminator (bottom, centre) was packaged as a free gift with my copy of Space Hulk in 1989. He came equipped with a Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield, but it was several months before the rules for these new weapons appeared in either Space Hulk or normal 40K. Flanking him are 2 Terminators with Lightning Claws to round out my close combat specialists, these are from when they were £2.99 for a blister pack of 2. The one on the left is the only Terminator I ever completely finished painting. The top row includes a couple of Terminators with Chainfists, bought from the fantastic but long-vanished games shop Games Inc. in Plymouth, which used to split blister packs and boxed sets and sell the individual models. They were lined up in a glass-fronted cabinet under the counter, blu-tacked together so you could choose the individual figures you wanted. These two were something like £1.35 each, being split from the Terminator Squad boxed set (8 Terminators for £9.99: Captain, Librarian, 2 with Storm Bolter & Power Fist, 2 with Storm Bolter & Chainfist, Assault canon & Powerfist, Heavy flamer & Powerfist). As you can tell, I'm fairly astounded how much these games/models are going for now! I see that the new Terminator squad is advertised at £35 for 5, inflation calculator reckons that the original metal Terminators would work out £3.50-4 each at today's prices but current plastic ones are about £7 each! I have my old "beaky" marines from the original RTB01 boxed set that were £9.99 for 30 marines (inflation calculator says £26 today), but the current offering from GW is £37 for 10 marines. Yes, today's are more detailed and higher quality, but are they really worth 7 times as much as the earlier ones? I recall GW stating that they were trying to switch to plastic to reduce costs and make the models "more affordable". It may have reduced their costs for bulk production, but they still charged the same or more for the models, so it was very rare that and of that saving made it to the end user. Anyway, enough of my grumbles about GW's current pricing policy and back to the models...
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| Metal terminators |
The bottom row has the most recent additions to my force. I'd forgotten I even had these, I can't remember when/where I got them. There's the original Librarian with Force Axe, an original Terminator body with a newer set of arms (Assault Cannon and Chainfist) and an original Assault Cannon and Powerfist. Somewhere I have a Terminator Captain, but he remains elusive at present.
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| Metal terminators |
Several of these marines were partly painted by me some 20-30 years ago. I've disassembled all of them, a few will need a soak in paint stripper, some will need a bit of cleaning/sanding, then I can re-assemble and paint.
I also have 50 Genestealers ready for painting, for those I am planning a black undercoat, white highlight, then painting with blue and purple Army Painter Speedpaints and/or Vallejo Xpress to get them finished quickly.
