Oldhammer Chaos Space Marine Terminators

Back in July 1996 in the English speaking market the Codex Chaos was released, and with it the poster-boy of Chaos, Abaddon the Despoiler. A bit later, in february 1997 in Germany.

The release was followed by the Chaos Terminators in blisters and a boxed set of 5 in August 1996, followed by the special weapon blisters a month later and the champion in october. For Germany that all came postponed, in march and april 1997. If you want to look up these novelties in the White Dwarf, that would be the german issues #14 to 16 or UK/OZ issue #199 to 201. The English magazine is much thicker and covers additional content.

Abaddon was 25 DM, the chaos terminator blisters were 15 DM and 18 DM a month later (yeah, released and instantly received a price raise) and 70 DM for the boxed set of 5. With inflation that would be 17,75 EUR for Abaddon, 10,65 EUR / 12,78 EUR for the single terminator blisters and 49,70 EUR for the boxed set.

That means be Terminators were more expensive back then, than the second plastic iteration of the new 2019 models of the Terminators (45 EUR). If I'd be up for modern take on this project that kit would be absolutely included. So how much of them do I need for this Oldhammer / Middlehammer project of the 1993 (second) edition of Warhammer 40.000?

Well, Abaddon as the warmaster of chaos is set, and he had a bodyguard / retinue. A regular squad of 5 and one of the regular Chaos Space Marine squads shall receive an Aspiring Champion in Terminator armour as a leader. That's four for the bodyguard, a squad of 5 and another single terminator as a champion, a total "need" of 10 Terminator miniatures.

I converted Abaddon a while back (2009) and gave him a stretch to fit in with the size of the 4th and ongoing editions. I combined the plastic chaos terminator lord with bits from Abaddon, so I needed an untouched miniature and managed to buy him for 5 EUR flat. Even added a bodyguard to him based upon the old plastic kit, with each of them carrying the mark of another chaos god, to show that Abaddon was blessed by all of the gods.

Chaos Terminators are incredibly cheap, you just have to check that they are complete and that you get all the bits you need. They go for roughly between 2 to 3 EUR per model on eBay. I got a squad of 10 for 19,99 EUR. I stripped them from the paint from the models, well as Abaddon was neatly primed he wasn't part of that step. Some of the layers of colour were more defiant, so a bit of residue is left in the crevices.

First of all, I took a look on the Citadel Annual pages, to see what parts were available, which of them I had and what I was missing. It is interesting to see the progress between the regular CSM Terminator, the Champion and then Abaddon. All of them designed by Jes Goodwin (middle).

As you can see I have an unproportioned amount of the second body, and am missing the proper pieces of the champion, especially the weapon options, as well as the heavy flamer.

So for that reason, I looked up another eBay auction, as it would be cheaper to simply buy a whole lot instead of looking for the 4-5 bits that I need. I found a matching auction for 14,99 EUR. With that lot I got a few of the champion bits and the heavy flamer. So the only thing that I am missing if the right trophy rack #2, but that seems to be a rare bit anyhow, as even the pictures in the White Dwarf mostly or very dominantly show the terminators with the trophy rack #1.

Oh and by the way, look how much cleaner these came out of the paint stripping process.

With the new pieces added, this is the setup I am going for. I actually forgot that I already have a terminator champion body, that I already put aside, so that will be used instead of the one pictured.

We have the regular Chaos Space Marine Terminator squad of 5, these could be between 3 and 9 large, but as the boxed set was 5 and they are a costly unit, I'll stay with that size for the unit.
4 CSM terminators are 204 Points excl. gear, +6 pts for the flamer, +21 pts for the heavy flamer and +25 pts for the reaper autocannon, +8 pts for the power fist and +10 pts for the chain fist.
The aspiring champion costs 30 pts, +42 pts for the Terminator armour with power axe, +12 pts for the melta gun. Thus giving the unit a total cost of 358 Pts.

Abaddon is 275 pts incl. gear, the bodyguard of 4 CSM terminators is 204 points excl. gear, + 25 pts reaper auto cannon, + 21pts heavy flamer, + 6 pts melta gun, +4 pts power mace and +8 pts power fist. This is a heavy unit at 543 points total.

And then there is the second aspiring champion, who will lead one of the regular Space Marine squads. 30 points for the champ, 47 pts for the terminator armour with lightning claw and another 12 pts for the melta gun. 89 Points for the squad leader.

As I'll field them as the Black Legion, no added points for marks of chaos on these. Still I am tinkering on how to recreate the idea of Abaddons retinue being a combination of different blessed terminators.

Terminators were, as well as Abaddon, put on a 25mm round base. But as those look cramped, I decided to be a bit more loose on that topic with my Oldhammer retro projects. For that reason I got myself some of the new 32mm round bases, that work just incredibly well with the Terminator bodies and a 40mm base for Abaddon, on which he was delivered in the later editions until his re-design earlier this year - Abaddon the Despoiler 2019.

Warhammer 40.000 2nd Edition 1996+ Chaos Army Project

• Models count: 11 miniatures
• Point value: 990 Pts (Characters 448 / Squads 542 / Support 0 / Daemons  0)
• Project costs: 39,98 EUR