War in the 30th Millenia

[Steel Penguin]

many of the other company's still do 1 piece metal minis, its just that GW have decided they were going to move away from white metal due to cost / safety/ production reasons.

[Mossie]

I know. 

[Charlie_c67]

Gah! Stupid phone lost my message 

Personally I think they hit the sweet spot back in 3rd edition with their multi-part model design. Much easier to swap parts about, much easier to kit bash, much easier to make your models your own. Nowadays they're heading back to monopose in the name of "detail", otherwise known as "stopping 3rd party bits being used", to the detriment of the hobby in my opinion.

Below is a pic of the evolution of the Space Marine. From left to right: An old RT model, a late RT/2nd edition space wolf (afraid I didn't have an old starter set model to hand), a 3rd-7th edition multipart models, the new Horus Heresy Mk 2 which is the same size as all new marines.

Up to you which you think looks better for a 7-8ft tall superhuman!

[Steel Penguin]

the one on the far left looks like one of the pre 40K space marines , single piece cast metal , before they were made into the gene engineered, extra bio parts added post humans,  the knee joints and feet are both markers as is the rifle / bayonet weapon, its more laser burn style. ( i am fairly certain my memory is working correctly on this one)
but the slow scale creep showing here is why im no longer getting new figures, they now tower over my RTB01 plastics,  still at the moment, plenty still show up 2nd hand at wargames shows, and places like local car boots, or school fairs, when i can get to them, and have the money energy and mojo.
the trend back to mono pose when assembled rely erked some of my co-players, as it meant that they ended up with easily identifiable copy's in units,  one of the chaos marine jump troops were particularly bad as they had at least 1 or 2 that ( as the player put it ) they looked like they were doing interpretive dance 

[Charlie_c67]

Came out in 1988 as "Marine Firing" according to here. I also got the "Heavy Laser" and "Marine" in the same blister pack. Looking at the price on the page certainly brings a tear of nostalgia!

Whilst there was a small degree of repetition in the older sets, it wasn't nearly as bad as current sets. The biggest culprit is the fact the torso is now fixed to the legs and separating them can result in the loss of one half or the other. Not ideal when one considers the cost of the base set! I am looking at whether I can cross-kit the Mk VI torso with the Mk II legs to get a Mk V Marine (Seen below).

[Mossie]

If it works kit-wise, you're good. Lore-wise, you can get away with all sorts for Mark V. 

[Charlie_c67]

Woohoo! Photo update! 

So, one pic shows the start of my 30k scout. Incursor/Infiltrator body with an older backpack trimmed down and stuck on flush with a few judicious shavings. The next step is to mix up some green stuff to tidy up the  appearance. I'm hoping it will be successful!

The second picture shows my lash up for the DA only Plasma Incinerator. Take one 30k plasma gun, one 40k flamer, trim as shown and stick together as seen on the right. Next step is a little filler to make it look better and a small piece of plastic strip to give the proper look. May seem a bit wasteful, but it's cheaper in the long run as I only need two and the FW ones are quite expensive.

First tray has also received it's first undercoat, once dry I'll do the "back" and some painting can start