Warhammer 40,000 – Space Marine Terminators

Today we are going to talk about the Space Marine Terminators fitting for a 2nd edition Warhammer 40k project. We did something like this for the Chaos Terminators on this blog as well, and want to pick that idea up again.

Yet, this grew to quite the article in research that I decided to split it into, the first one - the one you are reading now - about the miniatures themselves and in the second article on how to implement them in my Imperial Fists project.

If we want to keep it very era appropriate, we have four different sets to choose from. Terminators came as squad boxes of five in metal, as well as blister, as well as a later repack of the Space Hulk plastic miniatures. Three of the "big four" had their own Terminator metal sets, with the regular Space Marine Terminators for the Ultramarines (and other Codex Astartes chapters), the Wolf Guard of the Space Wolves and the Dark Angels Deathwing. The Blood Angels did not have a special unit in Terminator armour.

Why is the third edition Terminator Squad plastic box in there? These are a repack of the Plastic Terminators from Space Hulk's 2nd edition from 1996) and as such era appropriate. You could pick these up back in the day from the board game (30 miniatures, 10 of which were Terminators for 99 DM) or later as an individual boxed set for 50 DM, and as they were part of the 1998 battle force, their market value dropped further. So using that 3rd ed box still results in 2nd‑ed era models.

Prices of the Terminators jumped in the 90s quite a bit, the first releases in Germany were 10 DM in 1995 (5,11 EUR or 9 EUR incl. inflation), and in Summer of 1996 already 15 DM (7,67 EUR or 13,27 EUR incl. inflation), to 18 DM (9,20 EUR or 15,71 EUR incl. inflation) in 1997. With the boxes of 5 at between 70 to 85 EUR (35,79 to 42,25 EUR, or 61,09 to 74,19 EUR incl. inflation). Just to give you a comparison to todays prices of 55 EUR for the new boxed set. Prior to 2020 you were able to pick up metal terminators quite cheaply for less than 5 EURs per piece, with only certain types like Cyclone or close combat weapons for more. Those prices have gone up in the last years, quite noticeably through the nostalgia and are less accessible with the british market being outside of our trade zone.

We have talked about Terminator / Tactical Dreadnought armour on this blog before, multiple times in various reviews, giving you an insight on the development and lore. If you want to read that I recommend the following articles:

• Warhammer 40,000 - Deathwing Assault 2024
• Warhammer 40,000 - Space Marine Terminator Squad 2024
• Warhammer 40,000 - Leviathan Infantry 2023

While we keep a focus on the Indomitus pattern of the 90s, these are not the first Terminator miniatures produced by Citadel. The first Terminator marines were designed by Jes Goodwin and Bob Naismith in the mid-80s, with different designs, but the ongoing development with Jes' design marked as Indomitus pattern and branched out into regular Terminators, Inquisitor and Traitor armour variants in 1985. Goodwin's alternate design with the broad shoulders was later brought back into the lore as Saturnine Pattern Tactical Dreadnought Armour.

For this project, all the 90s Terminators we’re dealing with are Indomitus‑pattern, with Saturnine tied in as a lore callback to Goodwin’s broader‑shouldered sketch and reintroduced with one of the last Horus Heresy releases.

Jes Goodwin has been with Games Workshop since the late 80s and coined a lot of the iconic designs of the Adeptus Astartes and Eldar, as you can see in his artbook The Gothic and the Eldritch (2001). Artwork from 1990 (!) showing the Mark 8 Space Marine armour was used as inspiration to create the Primaris Mk X power armour. His daughter Holly is working with / for Games Workshop and created the updated artwork of the Map of the Old World along with Louise Sugden (former GW, now Rogue Hobbies). I was lucky enough to meet him multiple times in my own hobby journey.

With the first edition of Space Hulk from 1989, we got simple plastic poses of the Terminators. If you fancy them, they are dated sculpts but could be used. If you pick up metal terminators, those might be mixed sets, including poses and bits from the RTB09 Terminator Squad from 1989, therefore I prepared an overview of the parts you want to look for. In addition, there can be further metal terminator parts in such lots, or used for conversions, which maybe from Grey Knights, Traitor / Renegade Terminators or Inquisitors in Terminator Armour.

The RTB09 boxed set and blisters gave you 5 different poses for the Terminators, along with two character options for a Captain and Librarian. In terms of weapon options, you already had everything we would see in 90s, with the regular Stormbolter and Power Fist setup, along with several close combat and heavy weapon options. The Rogue Trader sculpts were released in 1989 ongoing, and were available through Mail Order for a longer time.

Beginning in 1993 we got new sculpts and poses. Three different bodies for regular Terminators you could mix with the different weapon options. Cyclone Missile Launcher weren't sculpted upon the body, but a part of their own. The targeter and storm shield arm had the tendencies to be mixed up in used lots. For the chapter specific sets, the main bodies got sculpt overs / added details. Mostly wolf skulls and runes for the Space Wolves, and wings and sigils for the Dark Angels. Depending on the chapter, you could easily use some of the parts from the Deathwing for your project (I don't see an issue with my Imperial Fists using the Deathing Power or Chain fist). The Space Wolves had a Runepriest in Terminator armour as well.

To give you a better understanding to identify these miniatures, I prepared some side by side comparison shots. As you can see the early Rogue Trader Terminators / RTB09 are a bit more rounded and have smaller/softer details. The miniatures tend to be a bit smaller in general compared to their 1993+ counter parts. If in doubt, the best way to identify the early sculpts from the later ones is by looking at the back, as the vents have deeper grooves for the vents.

Note that Grey Knights are easily mistaken for Rune Priests or Librarians and the either way around.

Regarding the weapon bits, the 1989 sculpts are a bit more tear shaped, with a tip on the bottom. The 1993+ sculpts are more like dome and have sharper details.

As mentioned above, the 1993+ sculpts had variants for different chapters. Here you can see the three different power swords of the Sgt / Captain next to each other (regular left, Space Wolves middle, Dark Angels right), along with the ornate force axe of the Space Wolves. And the different types of stormbolters, with Dark Angels, Ultramarines, Space Wolves and Imperial Fists bottom right.

With the release of the first plastic Terminator Squad for third edition, step by step further Terminator boxed sets were released - all of them in plastic. The 2nd Edition Space Hulk plastics got replaced by a multi-part kit that offered more dynamic poses in 4th edition, we had mono poses from different starter sets (Assault on Black Reach and Dark Vengeance), chapter specific releases for Dark Angels, Space Wolves and Blood Angels, another batch of Space Hulk poses, and even a Space Marine Heroes range (Series #2 full set of 10 Blood Angels Terminators), until the release of the Indomitus pattern first as easy-to-build in Leviathan, then as multipart Terminator Squad in 2024 and even added the Assault Squad in 2025.

This should give you a guide to identify the various terminators released over the last four decades. Of course focused on our 90s era project, but for Middlehammer or themed armies as well. If you just want a simple, era‑appropriate unit today, the easiest options to hunt down are the 1993+ metal metals and 1996 Space Hulk/3rd ed plastics. When buying lots, check for the following things to identify them:

• back vents
• shoulder shapes
• chapter icons on weapons
• in terms of plastics only these are era appropriate

In the second part to this article, I'll cover how to include the Terminators in my Imperial Fists project, what I have, what I need and what I intend to do.