Monday 13 February 2017

Epic Memories



I don't spend much time online now, not like I did a few years ago. Social media, for me at least, has descended into a morass of uneducated, moronic swathes endlessly spouting their 'opinions' as the only obvious truth. And having grown tired of clickbait, sensationalism and pathetically fake news spamming up my feeds, I must confess to having returned to print media and the 'enrichment' educational course. 

As part of this, I brought my impressive stack of old school White Dwarfs out of storage and stashed them in the old cabinet in the parlour room. This has given me easy access to plenty of old school reading materials to go alongside my other interests. 

Flicking through an issue the other day, my eyes fell upon an advert for the original Space Marine game and 'whoosh' a series of memories came flooding back to me. It was 1989, I was sitting in the lounge of my childhood home in Dorset, and I was reading 'Culture Shock' in White Dwarf 114. Underneath the very '80s looking photograph of Paul Green was a snippet of news mentioning the brand new boxed game. This lead me to the competition page further along in the magazine and the exciting realisation that this new game would contain (and I quote); '320 marines, 16 land raiders and 32 rhinos.' 

My interest was most definitely piqued by the number of models (which I assumed to be 28mm in scale) and when I later found out the game would retail at £19.99 I was amazed! For a while, I imagined myself the owner of this gigantic force of models and the envy of the other boys in school. My dreams of 28mm scale dominance would not last of course, when this advert fell into my hands a few months later. 

Epic gaming had arrived in my life.  

                    

I am primarily a '80s fantasy fan. Why? Heaven knows, but my interests back then were largely goblins, elves and chaos and that remains true to this day. Rogue Trader fired my imagination in the things I drew, but I never seriously contemplated collecting any of the models. Space Marine changed that and it became my first sci-fi game. But the tiny models proved to be my undoing. 

My painting skills back then were very limited indeed. I sprayed undercoated a mass of models, painted them a base colour and then washed over with a black wash. While the wash was still wet the effect was magnificent and all of the detail was brought out in striking depth (at least to me) but as the wash dried the effect faded into dusty, drab smudges. Occasionally it worked very well (I was then unfamiliar with the concept of a quality wash) but on the whole, I wrecked more models than I ever finished. 

My dad's brake fluid pot nearly always came to me aid and my abused figures were stripped of their paint and the process continued afresh. I doubt that I ever really finished anything back then, I was trapped in a cycle of endless renewal. The trouble with the models from Space Marine was they were plastic and the brake fluid left them strangely soft and stained. Even though the change in the models was minimal, the loss of detail was an annoyance to me and if truth be told, I wrecked a goodly number of the land raiders before I had even started! 

                 
  
Looking back, Space Marine really fired my imagination and studying the photographic material printed in White Dwarf just deepened my fascination. The hundreds of tiny figures, the long chains of vehicles and of course, the monsterous, towering titans that strode above them became iconic visions to me long before I discovered Tripods or War of the Worlds. When I finally got my hands on the game at Christmas 1989, I devoured the rulebook over and over, absorbing the dystopian world of the Horus Heresy and marvelling at the brilliant illustrations throughout. 

Over the next few months, brake fluid aside, I gradually built up a painted collection of models. I choose the armies of the Blood Angels and the Emperor's Children and unlike my efforts with fantasy, I managed to complete each and everyone of the miniatures, even going as far as attaching all of the associated flags to the tiny poles on the infantry stands. As I type these worlds, I have realised that these two forces were my only finished army until my Khorne Realm of Chaos force from several years back. I was trapped in that cycle of the brake fluid for many, many years. 


I have many happy memories of playing Space Marine. Far more memories than playing Warhammer actually, and through the early 1990s Space Marine saw a great deal of action. After the early years of fighting the Horus Heresy, I learned the hard way that using the floor was not the best option for fighting battles. Casualties were high amongst the infantry stands, with several of them being trodden on and the green plastic figures being snapped from their legs. Eventually, I cannabalised a wooden table my father had constructed for his model railways into a proper gaming table - the trouble was, the only green paint I had was a rather pastel shade my mum had used to paint the walls in the downstairs toilet - but it did the job. I even mixed sand into the table to give in a rough texture. 

As second edition appeared on the scene, I had moved to a different village and had access to new friends who enjoyed Games Workshop games. Robin Tilbury and Adrian Taylor were their names, and for a period of about a year we collected a great many of the new plastic kits that were produced. We had orks, tyranids and even some chaos units - backed up of course with two reaver titans. The battles we fought were, of course, epic and exciting. 

So frequent were we gaming, that my Space Marine set gradually fell apart. The figures and vehicles had been painted and repainted so many times that they resembled blobs of blu-tak. After one final game where were used everything, we boxed the lot up (including the collection of Rob and Adrian) and stored it in my spare room. We moved on the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. 

That epic collection of war damaged models lived in my mother's house until I left university, and during a clear out I sold off the surviving pieces of the game, including those models that once belonged to my gaming friends. I seem to remember that the card and plastic buildings got the highest price, but they were the only things I didn't mangle with my painting skills!

Seeing these old adverts took me right back, as the best nostalgic items always do and I must confess to visiting eBay this morning. Trying to work through the many listings of later epic scale models, I was looking for the original mk6 plastic space marine infantry models I can remember crushing underfoot. They came in dark blue and green plastic if memory serves me right. Anyway, after searching for a while I found a few lots of 'pre-loved' models that look to have once graced the inside of the Space marine game. They didn't cost much and I am strangely excited about restoring them in the near future. 

I think working on them is going to be epic! 

Orlygg

25 comments:

  1. I remember that competition. My friend and I entered - we got a £5 voucher and split the box between us (not bad value for £7.50 each). I never actually played it much, but the scope of 6mm for really big battles certainly fired my imagination. I decided to paint mine with desert bases, probably inspired by some of the WD photos. Still got the models - for example the beige rhinos in the last picture on this page: http://www.warfactory.co.uk/wp/2015/08/18/epic-armageddon-battle-part-1/. I did the marines as black Dark Angels because that was my 28mm chapter. Not a particularly clever choice as black isn't good for 6mm blobs and the winged sword shoulder pads are a real faff at 6mm. Plus most red paints don't cover well on to black, so I had to do them orange first and paint red over the top. Unsurprisingly I didn't get through all of them!

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    1. I seem to recall that my final paint through of the models was also black - as no other colour would have covered the previous attempts by that point. I am fairly sure that I opted for the Sons of Horus and endeavoured to painted on the eye symbol in white. The finish looked like it had been carried out with Tippex. Still, I thought they looked the dogs.

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    2. The Space Marines in my -- second edition -- set were done in a dark green plastic so I was super lazy and decided that they were post-Heresy Dark Angels. I didn't paint a single one!

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  2. i'm having that retro-feeling hunger in these days ,contemplating the Space Hulk 2° edition box on ebay. Only God knows how many afternoons saved that game in my 12y old moutain-hollydays with my brother .
    tO ME, Oldhammer is 70% feelings 30% collection. Mixing up this, i declare myself as a proud "Fellings Collector" :).

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    1. The 'smell' of a big boxed game as you first opened it was a moment indeed. Awe, excitement and a slight sense of intimidation all mixed into one. "How the hell am I going to paint all this?" was the feeling I usually had!

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  3. The second edition of Space Marine with the SM, Orks and Eldar was my edition, had all the boxed expension sets, all brought back in the day when GW had money off vouchers in WD! :O

    Sadly though, nobody at school would play it, as they were all die hard WFB fans, still not sure what I did with them to this day......

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    1. I remember picking up Ork Horde around 1993 and painting the contents in a single weekend. They must have looked dreadful and I used bilious green to finish their bases! So idiot bought them around tens years later though. Then again, people bought anything on eBay in those days.

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  4. Orlygg...... can you get these painted up in time for BOYL 17?

    If so I'll give you a game

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    1. The challenge has been laid down. I am already feeling the pressure. (:

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  5. I have similar memories of 2nd ed - played loads of games with my brother back in the day. Since then 1st ed has drawn me in and me and Steve Casey had an awesome game of it at last year's BOYL where we also combined the Adeptus Titanicus rules. Still have an ambition to paint up a legion of all the Loyalist and Traitor Chapters pictured on the box sides!

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    1. I remember that game. It fascinated me and brought back loads of memories of my own carefree days. Steve's plague titans were fantastic too.

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  6. Great article - I remember being really captivated by Epic as a kid. There was an article in a White Dwarf where an ork and goblin force take on Marines with a Capitol Imperialis, I loved it. The art work for early Epic and Adeptus Titanicus was fantastic as well.

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    1. Ahh! The Capitol Imperialis! How I wanted that model. In fact, I wanted all of the vehicles as I saw them painted up in 'Eavy Metal. Though I was never a petrolhead myself in my youth, I really loved the development of all of the metal vehicles, though sadly I never owned any of them. Perhaps that needs to change? (:

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    2. White Dwarf #136, I believe. It was one of the first WD issues I'd read -- #134 was my first, lured in by the big HeroQuest logo on the cover -- and I was fascinated by the tiny infantry models and the large scale of the battle.

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  7. I adore Space Marine and it is probably my favourite miniatures war game; it's by far my favourite GW war game. I was lucky enough to find a couple of people at school who played it and so I fought many, many battles over the next few years.

    There's something grand about the scale, with the titans stomping past skyscrapers as teeny tiny infantry and only-just-bigger tanks scramble underfoot. I loved how artillery felt like real artillery, with shots fired at one end of the table raining down at the other end. I liked the objectives system and even the way orders worked; the slight disconnect gave the feeling of commanding distant troops and made the game feel huge.

    I can understand the visceral pleasure of having big squads of 40K scale tanks on your table, or even a Titan or three; it's impressive to play with models of that size and units of that scale. Even so, it doesn't look quite right. At 28mm the game looks cramped, less like the sweeping battles of Space Marine and more like busy supermarket car park.

    I miss Space Marine -- my armies are long gone, thrown out by my Dad while I was at university -- and there's nothing quite like it out there. Dropzone Commander has something of the same aesthetic, but there's something about the Titans that makes Space Marine stand out.

    Adeptus Titanicus is coming back this year, but rumour has it the scale has increased to 10mm. I fear that even that is too large a jump and the same overcrowded feel will permeate the game, but I hope to be wrong.

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    1. I too have heard the rumours about the scale change - but it makes sense as it will cut out competition from the still very healthy second hand market. You say that you miss Space Marine, and I can honestly say I can feel that pain - it is one of the few big boxed games that I don't own! Which is why I have just bought a partial copy on eBay in the hope of restoring it up to glory and producing painted models I would never have been able to achieve back in 1989.

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  8. My 2ed copy of space marine survives and I rifled through it the other day. The rule book including artwork always reminds me of buying it. I'd been told models my mate had at school were "space marines". Obviously 28mm but it didn't stop me saving up and being a little shocked as I opened the box. WD184 was my first and I recall rereading the battle report endlessly. The infantry stands all have so much sand on them it obscures half the figures. I was so proud of my titan paint job.

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    1. God, I remember obscuring the figures with sand in the way you describe too! In fact, I spent some time this morning working out how best to avoid this happening with the few plastic stands I have bought from eBay.

      Oh, those carefree days when such things did not worry the young gamer.

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  9. I lashed out and bought this last year as it was the only GW game that saw any table time when I was in high school. And it saw heaps as a number of my high school mates also played it. Ditto Adeptus Titanicus as we played combined games of both.

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    1. I must confess to having just taken the plunge and bought a copy myself, mostly as a restoration project. I am quite excited about its arrival!

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  10. Space Marines 2nd was my start into GW. I had played Fantasy Warriors before that and come to love the hobby, but when I saw two guys playing a huuuuge game at a local convention, I was hooked. Next Christmas there was one thing I wanted: Space Marine. I did play it quite a lot and from my memory it was one of the best rulesets GW ever produced.

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    1. I cannot recall anything much of the rules - though I suspect that we played a version of the game we 'thought' correct at the time. For me, its the models, components and background that really interest me about any given game. The rules are the final thing I concern myself with.

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    2. True. But it's nice when the rules don't stand in your way enjoying the fluff.
      And fluffwise Space Marine was truly epic. I really felt like the commander of a legion ordering whole tank squadrons through artillery barrages and conquering cities with marine flown in by gunships. I still have a large (mostly unpainted) collection. Maybe you'll inspire me to start painting them:)

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  11. Great article! The artwork on that box has always stuck with me, it has a gritty realism that the second edition version didn't quite capture. I think there's a fair few gamers out there with both mental and physical scars due to standing on those infantry stands! I'm currently painting some epic Eldar up for a friend and it's been a blast to work on something smaller for a change. Looking forward to seeing what your marines look like!

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    1. You will see them soon enough, test pieces mind you, I don't think I am brave enough to attempt anything more than a stand or two for a while.

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