*UPDATED 24/01* The Scouring of Ahntiok VII- 3rd Edition 40K Revival

[Iain R]

Recently, while I should have been concentrating on Hoplites (long story, best forgotten for now), for some reason I went off on a tangent of rescuing my old 3rd Edition Space Marines. I'd made a start on stripping them a couple of years ago, again with a view to painting them up to a reasonable standard and selling them on. However, as was the case with the Bretonnians, I sorta got sucked into the nostalgia of it all, and after discussions with one of my usual opponents, who also happened to have a pile of unstarted 40K bits that he was loathe to throw out, I decided to keep them, in the expectation that we could use them for something, be it 40K based or otherwise....

They were orignally Ultramarines (predictably), however, in the interests of coming up with a decent looking paint scheme that would be quick to do, they became the Legio Hospitalia, a crusading Chapter, based on the arid desert world of Mahltaar. Taken as we currently are with skirmish level gaming, I decided that any actions fought would be small unit based rather than massed armies, and as such, opposition for them should come in the shape of (for the most part) Chaos Cultists, backed up with a small number of Chaos Marines. This was also partly based on fond memories of the old Chaos Gate PC game, which provided much of the soundtrack to th painting of the following miniatures! this would also allow me to shoe-horn my old Cadian Imperial Guard into the mix as well, swapping their temperate look for multicam and hastily desertised vehicles...

Anyway on with the toys.

First to be finished were the standard bearer and 4 tactical marines. I've deliberately left the standard off the pole to display the figure better for the time being. I must apologise for some of the, umm, eccentric poses; 12 year old me was not for patiently planning out how I wanted these guys to look, but all about making full use of the possibilities offered by these miraculous new multipose figures...









Nearing completion, the Apothecary and a tactical Sergeant






As with the Bretonnians over on the fantsy board, this will probably progress at a snail's pace, as I get distracted with various other things over the coming months (I'm already leaning back towards Cold War, despite trying to get some mediaevals done in the meantime...)

[Elbows]

Wonderful work.  Not a fan of 3rd myself, but I can appreciate the retro/nostalgia kick you must be enjoying!  I'm priming some Howling Banshees tomorrow myself...

Also, like the tongue in cheek Malta reference.

[Pictors Studio]

They look great.  I especially like the Apothecary.  We've been doing 3rd again here too.  I got out of 40K mostly around 4-5th edition and looked at 7th and balked at all the rules.  I really wanted to play HH so after a couple of different attempts we went back to 3rd edition and are having a blast with it. 

[dijit]

Nice looking stuff! The colour scheme works really well. Although I love RT and 2nd, 3rd is probably the most complete, yet still before things got really mad.

[tomek917]

Those look great!
The red and white works really well together with the dark metal.

I've recently gotten in to a 3rd edition nostalgia trip too, ordered a bunch of miniatures on ebay that I never could buy when I was a kid. Dug up the old codexes and rulebook too (for some reason I spent a lot of money on codexes when I was a kid instead of buying miniatures...   ).

Off topic but is 3rd edition considered "oldhammer", or is that just RT and 2nd edition?

[dijit]

Off topic but is 3rd edition considered "oldhammer", or is that just RT and 2nd edition?

Think Oldhammer is whatever you feel like But, personally I'd say yes it is.

[Pictors Studio]

I kind of think of oldhammer as more of a nostalgia thing in terms of what people are doing.  I think we are playing 3rd not to recapture or relive something but because it is the version of the game that we liked best and we want to play 40K, or rather 30K.

[Elbows]

The only thing I've seen to really suggest Oldhammer is "in the 90's" and predominantly metals instead of plastics.  I think some people consider late 2nd and 3rd as "Middle Hammer".  3rd definitely heralded the change (as 7th is still now running on the underpinnings of 3rd).

[Major_Gilbear]

Lovely model painting, and I like the poses just fine too. Funnily enough,  I'm alsom on a Space Marine painting nostalgia trip right now as well!

I did like 3E too (using the 'get-you-by' army lists from the main rulebook anyway) as they brought a lot of game simplicity that would later be lost again. 3E is the "game engine" the current 7E is based on; 2E was quite different and much more complex.

Is 3E "Oldhammer"? Not sure as I don't really like pigeonhole-ing these things, but it *is* 18 years old!

[Iain R]

Thanks for the kind comments, chaps! It definitely is a nostalgia trip going through these old sculpts and breathing some new life into them...

My personal thoughts are that Oldhammer (as for as 40K goes anyway) is Rogue Trader, which is a bit before my time (I got into it just at the death of 2nd Ed), but then it's whatever makes you happy!

Also, like the tongue in cheek Malta reference.

I love a pun, me. Plenty more where that came from... 

[Legionnaire Bert]

Really, really nice!

[PatrickWR]

Very interesting. I'll be following to see where this goes. 

[Iain R]

Aaaaand back in the room!

For reasons unknown even to me, I've ended up back on this project...

Sergeant finally finished (I know, no banner, but my printer's goosed...)




Next three Battle Brothers coming on...




A little background on the setting I have planned...

The Scouring of Ahntiok VII

The world of Ahntiok VII is a Cardinal World, but one with a very special purpose; a Canting Planet. The manifold chantries, monastries and cathedrals on the world maintain a constant broadcast of Imperial Psalms, Hymns and Litanies across all channels in the system, to steel the hearts of Pilgrims and other Imperial shipping using the nearby Reacher’s Path. This is because at this point in the Segmentum, for reasons no longer understood, the light of the Atronomican grows weak, and must be assisted by the faithful of the Ecclesiarchy, in order to better light the path, and reinforce the walls of reality against the nightmares of the Warp which would seek to overcome them, and devour all which they found.

However, late in 985/M41, Pilgrims on the Way reported that as they neared the limits of Ahntiok VII’s broadcasting channels, instead of being greeted by the heartening word of the God Emperor, their senses were instead assaulted by a cacophony of blasphemies and noise too foul to record here. Attempts were made to hail the planet, but were met with the same barrage of heretical filth. The pilgrim fleet hurried on its way, fearing the Warp was about to explode around them, and on reaching their destination of the Shrine World of Jeren’s Ascension, they reported what they heard to the Ministorum. This troubling news reached the ears of the Inquisition, who duly dispatched two of their number, Inquisitors Sculder and Mully of the Ordeo Malleus to investigate. The Inquistiors reported making planetfall shortly after, but almost immediately all contact with them was lost. Clearly, something was terribly amiss on Ahntiok VII, and the local authorities appealed for the assistance of any nearby Imperial military forces…

The benevolence of the Emperor was strong on that day, and saw that the call was answered. At that point, a portion of the fleet of the Legio Hospitalia chapter of the Adeptus Astartes was passing through the segmentum, returning from campaign against heretics who had dared proclaim a new “Galactic Empire” in a far off galaxy. The transmission from the Ahntiok System was received on the Chapter Master’s Battle Barge “Armoured Saint”, which then made its way immediately to the system, accompanied by the Strike Cruisers “Steadfast Pilgrim”, “Blessed Inheritor” and “Blind Guardian”. The wrath of the Emperor was coming…

[Gibby]

Awesome stuff. Got the 3rd Edition ruleset and plenty of 40k figures. You've reminded me of that.

[blacksoilbill]

These guys look great!