Space Marine “Warriors of the Imperium” (1992-3): Dauntless December ’18

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Space Marine "Warriors of the Imperium" (1992-3)

This model was built and painted originally over 20 years ago, when the “new” Mk7 Space Marines had their first multipart plastic kit released in 1992-3 or so following the metal Space Marine Strike Force (and long before the more familiar multipart kit from the 40k 3rd edition Starter box. It was known as “Warriors of the Imperium”

Space Marine "Warriors of the Imperium" (1992-3)

Anyway, I saw a converted model, essentially the same model – either in White Dwarf or converted by someone local. The original version had a metal head used, and possibly a metal torso and legs, but featured the same kind of converted skull-backpack, pointing finger and a broadly similar head. I made mine from the the aforementioned plastic marine kit, along with a plastic Imperial Guard head, and the skulls were taken from HeroQuest decorative Skulls, cut down and modified to become power armour vents.

Space Marine "Warriors of the Imperium" (1992-3)

What this guy is exactly, I couldn’t tell you. It kind of feels like a distant ancestor to the Deathwatch, and certainly GW of the day would slap different names onto random marines like Doom Eagle, or even as captions in White Dwarf, so it’s entirely possible that there was some relationship there. I (briefly) considered replacing the left arm and/or pauldron blinging him out as a modern DW marine, but I think he works better simply rebased on a 32mm, and with the rest of him as a kind of restored time capsule. I did tone down his bright yellow Bolt Pistol, though!

Space Marine "Warriors of the Imperium" (1992-3)

Since he’s a (late) Rogue Trader-era model, he also qualifies as “Oldhammer”, though not original-era RT. As for the current edition, he doesn’t really fit in well as anything. No matter, I can always use him to proxy as some kind of low-level hero. Perhaps a Lieutenant. I guess that makes him Dauntless!

There’s now only one more model to complete my December output – see you in about 24 hours for December’s exciting conclusion!

35 thoughts on “Space Marine “Warriors of the Imperium” (1992-3): Dauntless December ’18”

  1. Well that’s definitely a blast from the past, with a few flames painted on he could easily be Legion of the Damned , I think most of my squad was actually made from that box set

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  3. That’s a cool oldie! That Warriors of the Imperium box was one of the first kits I bought (don’t know where my local book/toy shop got it, as it must have been around 2002-3..), and I’ve still got some of the bolters, knives and backpacks left, plus I’m using the box as a bits box!

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    • They shared those parts with the metals of the same era, so I’ve also got a bunch of them left. I don’t know where the box is, unfortunately. Though I do have a couple of boxes of old GW boxes that I’ll be putting up to give away in a little while. I know people collect that stuff, so I’d rather do that than just recycle them.

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  4. Looking great. I remember the old hammer stuff with fond memories. My first ever marines were the original plastic ‘womble’ marines. It was my first foray into conversions. Long before I knew about Greenstuff so I used plasticine as joint filler. I painted them up as my own chapter ‘Snow wolves’ .
    The new plastics are definitely more detailed, but I don’t know I do miss the old style apart from the single pose plastic Terminators from Space Hulk.

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    • Those Space Hulk Termies were pretty awful, weren’t they? I’ve got a stash of the RTB01 marines for a retro-ish RT project that’s been on my docket for a decade or so now. I just want to get the existing Marine projects done to a point where they feel like “finished” armies before I start on them.

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  6. I like him too; especially your conversion of backpack skulls, which to my eye (if you hadn’t mentioned it) I thought worked so well that it was part of the production mini.

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    • Thanks Ann. I think the backpack is helped by the fact that they’re not the usual GW skulls we see all the time, so even to a more experienced eye, it’s not a series of familiar parts that we usually see.

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      • Yes, I agree. Incorporating parts that aren’t obviously part of a kit bash to a (semi?) experience eye helps to make it look more seamless.

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    • Thanks Pete. I never got the actual Strike Force, though I did end up with all of the sculpts once they had their shoulder ball-joints removed and were released in other boxed sets and blisters.

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  10. Nice work! Even being familiar with the line from back then, I thought at first that was just a LotD backpack and shoulder pad. Honestly, just reworking the flesh colour so he looks more sallow and gnarled would probably be enough to let him fit in with other LotD (sort of like Sgt Centurius).

    Also, the pointing finger makes me think that instead of the Bolt Pistol, he should just be pointing like that with his other hand, too, doing Fonzie-style finger-guns. Ayyyy!

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  12. Haha, what a cool blast from the past! The tweaks to the model would actually point towards the Legion of the Damned, although he’s looking way too healthy for that 😉

    Also, I didn’t even know that there were plastic Mk. 7 Marines available, other than those terrible starter box models, before the “proper” 3rd edition version. Cheers for that nugget of information! 🙂

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    • Yeah, though this was well after the LotD were shown. I had a look through a stack of old WD digital scans the other day to see if I could find him, too – without any luck!
      These ones were a step up from the 2nd edition starter models. Not amazing, but better. If they only had separate heads they’d have been a much better option. While they were/are easy to remove if you had a metal head, but hard to repose a helmet!

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  13. Nice! I like the looks of him. The older GW minis might look a little goofy (I’ve had a lot of the Blood Bowl ones), but they have a certain amount of character. Made especially impressive by your paints, and the sweet skull addition!

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    • Well, the marines were almost as good as the metals, and the old-school IG head was one of the better pieces of that kit, so he had all of that going for him. Far better than the 1-piece BB models of 2nd edition, and probably a little better than the 3rd edition ones. I should find those and paint up a human team!
      Still pissed off that I gave my 2nd edition Humans away years ago…

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