The true meaning of X-Mas … erm Warhammer

While I was looking for some special interest content / ideas, I browsed through my copies of the Citadel Journal and some of the articles, especially the conversions, reminded me of something, that often gets lost in the nostalgia of Middle- and Oldhammer.

I am looking online for the last missing pieces, a few poses to give my squads more variations and such, and I came across people who are collecting boxed as new kits and blisters (sic!). And while I can absolutely understand paying an extra dime for untouched and especially complete miniatures (just calculate the effort to strip painted miniatures and the time, costs and chances to get your hands on that missing bits), I honestly don't understand the appeal of collecting sealed blisters (unlike let's say action figures, you're just looking at a few grams of metal, a base and a sponge), to a degree keeping the boxes (they have the original artwork, are nice to look at, but keeping them sealed? yeah ... no).

Why does this feel so weird to me? Well, back in the day, when miniatures were mostly metal, Games Workshop offered a bit service and you were actively animated to build your own miniature, this was actually a quite common thing. Named characters were cool, for sure, and still are, but most people had their own Space Wolves Yarl, Dark Champion of Chaos (especially with some mutations) or other reason, to show their own story and narrative on the table.

And this is something that got lost pretty much across the board with this holy grail stylisation of OOP miniatures. You can't just "destroy" an out-of-production value. Well, they're toys and meant to be played with. And I honestly already don't do them justice by having them sit in shelves unpainted and not being painted or used in games.

About the last point, I can do something about (slowly, but yeah) and for the others, even picking up damaged or incomplete miniatures, for your bit box is something nice, especially if you have plans.

What plans? Well, for example, for my 2nd edition armies, like the Imperial Guard, I am missing some poses. But that's not a question of money, these poses or functions were never produced, like com-casters or specific special weapons for different Imperial Regiments. Along with of course, the endless supply of ideas for the corruption of Chaos.

As I just defined what I keep for my Imperial Guard project, two platoons of the Regiments of Tallarn and Valhalla, I decided that I want to give them a proper command structure and matching vehicle crews. For each HQ squad, I wanted a standard bearer (as I do like flags and banners), but those aren't covered with the poses. So, I looked out for those with an exposed arm or pose that would be fitting for conversion, and found the Tallarn and Valhallan Sgt, as well as the Missile loader as a fitting base to start from. The only three regiments having Comm-Link operators are Cadia, Catachan and Valhalla, and those are already rare, so unfortunately no fitting poses for Tallarn. I thought that the mortar loader would be a good pose to begin with, giving him a backpack and replacing the left hand with one with a vox caster (should be easily sculpted, or repurposed from one of my Bolt Action miniatures).

Special weapons are the next thing, not all regiments have all special weapons, so that is general topic and I thought that the Tallarns could need a flamer, and with a spare Valhalla or Catachan specialist, that would be easily fixable. And to be true to the project, I would need of course, matching vehicle crew. As for example, the Griffon has a Cadian crew, that would stand out and would need a fitting replacement. I have a spare Valhallan comm-link operator, who donated the backpack towards the Tallarns, and him using the vox cast would make sense inside of a mortar tank. Just need a second guy to accompany him, like the lascannon crew member.

And of course, these ideas don't just work with the Imperial Guard or Warhammer 40,000. Why not go for your own Chaos Lord on Dragon, based upon Egrim van Horstmann, a more personalised Waaagh!-Boss based upon Morglum, or even a Bretonnian Blood Bowl Team using the late 5th edition models, to begin with. Don't be afraid, they are your toys, you paid the money for them. Have a good time and share it. (Almost) everything is better than just box pictures.