Warhammer 40,000 – Chaosbunker Classics
If you have followed my Imperial Fists project log over the last few weeks, you will probably have read about the CHAOSBUNKER CLASSICS. But let me give you a brief introduction.
In autumn of last year, I moved forward with my idea of hosting a small get-together to play some Warhammer 40,000 2nd Edition, mainly to provide a proper deadline for an army project - because you have a motivational problem until you have a time problem. What initially started as a simple “let’s see if we can get 4 to 6 people committed” quickly gained momentum. More people joined (and some unfortunately had to cancel due to time constraints), but we still ended up with ten people fully committed to painting a 1,500-point army for a weekend of retro gaming.
The idea behind the Chaosbunker Classics is to bring back the aesthetics of the old games and recapture some of the magic of Bring Out Your Lead here in Germany. The events won’t be limited to 40k 2nd Edition - this one was, but future events will explore the look and feel of classic games and miniatures, possibly using different rulesets to recreate certain settings. Since 1,500 points of 40k was already a challenge, I don’t see 2,000-point Warhammer Fantasy Battles armies as a viable scope for upcoming events.
These are narrative events, not focused on meta-gaming or a tournament mindset. The first Chaosbunker Classics featured a narrative story arc, which I’ll cover in a separate article.
Over the past year, the idea became more and more tangible. With people like Zigor already hosting 40k 2nd Edition demos at Rhein-Main-Multiversum, and support from Tobias and Evi of Team Würfelkrieg (who also support Torsten with CONflict Rhineland), things really got rolling. More people joined: Holger / Indigo, Florian / Celebration Parallax, Christian / Fritz, Tom / Rekrom, Flip, and another Christian - each with a fully painted army.
I looked for a suitable location, and the local parish centre turned out to be perfect. It offered proper infrastructure: parking, a small kitchen with a fridge, plenty of tables, and a central location between Cologne and Frankfurt, just minutes from the Autobahn - which was especially convenient for players coming from Franconia and even Berlin (!).
Warhammer 40,000 – Imperial Fists Call to Arms Pt 4
It is time to start some painting. But I still need to paint a tester model, to check if the colour scheme is working, if I need to replace a paint or go a different route.
As mentioned in the first article, it makes sense to do some mock up of the poses, to ensure that all pieces fit together. I really like these heroic poses of the Space Marines. I mean look at this guy: he means business!
To move on, I split the prepared miniatures into two lots - main colour yellow and others. I am going with TITANS HOBBY Imperial Yellow Matt Primer and all those who get a white primer, if the majority of the miniature is not yellow. For White Primer I either use Army Painter or Titans Hobby / MIG.
Among the miniatures primed white, were the scouts and two of the characters. Yes, I saw that mould line that I missed before and I'll take care of it.
Warhammer 40,000 – Imperial Fists Call to Arms Pt 3
I meant to post this two weeks ago, but I got caught up. Never the less, it is time to give you an update, as I have been busy behind the scenes. We left of in part 2 of the Call to Arms with setting the tone and giving you context on the scope and that this project will depict a Space Marine force of the Imperial Fists' 3rd company. I did a quick check if I had everything that I needed to move on and for stock taking, I still wanted to clean some parts to inspect them closer, so I setup another jar for paint stripping.
These were mostly some bits and pieces, weapon options and spares for Terminator and Assault Squads. Not necessarily part of the core army project. But now everything - with the exception of some vehicle parts - is stripped.
Among the "strippers" was this goofy mystery guy, who had such a thick coat of paint, that I actually could only properly identify him once the paint was off. And he's a Blood Angel Death Company miniatures in Mk VI armour.
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.
Warhammer 40,000 – 2nd Edition Dark Millenium Expansion Set
A year later after the release of Warhammer 40k's 2nd edition, in 1994, a large boxed expansion was released, as was common for Games Workshop systems in the '90s, to add more gear, psychics and vehicles to the game. Just as we did with the starter set, we want to include this unboxing in our coverage as a guideline or checklist for your collection.
These supplements usually covered card decks and advanced rules, but never miniatures. Dark Millenium did the same for Warhammer 40,000, adding almost 100 cards for the sci-fi magic called psi, 24 vehicle datasheets, and lots of new gear for all kinds of armies. It also came with a 48-page rulebook.
Warhammer 40,000 – Imperial Fists Call to Arms Pt 2
You read the introduction to the Imperial Fists. I provided an overview of the first 'MVP' of this army, and now I want to offer some additional insight into the lore behind it. Rather than simply painting these Space Marines as Imperial Fists, I will allocate them to the 3rd Company. I will explain why below.
As loyal Space Marines, we are going to recognise the Codex Astartes. As mentioned in the first article, we will use the Codex: Ultramarines for this project. And I will provide a brief overview of how Space Marine Chapters were organised after the Horus Heresy and before the Rubicon Primaris.
Back in the Age of Darkness, the Adeptus Astartes were organised into Legions known as the Legiones Astartes. There were 18 of them, each following their Primarchs, and they were much bigger than today's Chapters. These legions comprised between 100,000 and 250,000 armed Space Marines, and sometimes even more, as in the case of the Ultramarines and the Word Bearers. These legions were organised into Chapters, Companies and Squads. However, after the Horus Heresy, such concentrated power was deemed undesirable, so the Legions were broken into smaller Chapters of around 1,000 Space Marines. This explains why we talk about Chapters in 40k and Legions in 30k, and also why Chapters are more distinctive in 40k than in 30k (and less flexible).
Warhammer 40,000 – Imperial Fists Call to Arms Pt 1
Ladies and Gentlemen. Friends of the middle aged metal miniatures. I am happy to announce - We are starting with the first full project into the Warhammer 40k 2nd Edition!
We have a deadline, everything has to be battle ready on April 18th for the Chaosbunker Classics! We have an army, the Imperial Fists! And we have a rough scope for our Call to Arms! I do not have to paint my entire collection of Space Marines for this, but around 1,250 to 1,500 for our narrative event, which makes it more reasonable for a 3 month time frame.
Fortunately the hunt for this project is done. Meaning my earlier article series on sourcing old models, and I can concentrate on preparing, building and actually painting the miniatures. First beginning with sorting out roughly the amount of miniatures that I will need to fill the army.
But before that I grabbed a jar, filled it with paint stripper and separated the miniatures from their bases and plastic parts, to just strip the metal. You can strip metal with acetone or turpentine, but plastic and most kind of resins will be dissolved or turned into a gooey mess. Therefore if you have plastic or resin parts you want to clean, go for Isopropanol / IPA and moderate length, as you do not want the material to become brittle.
Warhammer 40,000 – 2nd Edition Starter Set
Today, we will provide an overview of the contents of the 2nd Edition Starter Set of Warhammer 40,000 (1993–1998) for collectors and those about to enter the realm of retro-gaming. You can use this article as a checklist to see if your set is complete, or to identify any missing items.
This edition was accompanied by White Dwarf (UK) issues 166 to 225, Citadel Journals 1 to 28, various codices, and a supplement called Dark Millennium (which we will also cover).
Warhammer World Championship Preview 2025 – Part 1
After the Big Summer Preview Games Workshop included a Preview Live show into the World Championship, held in Atlanta, to give us a teaser on what's to come.
And this preview got a hilarious teaser, with lots of easter eggs and humour that kept us excited for this nights show.
The previews covered the main systems of Warhammer 40,000, Warhammer Age of Sigmar, Horus Heresy and The Old World, along with the side ranges of Legions Imperialis and Necromunda, and the latest stand-alone release for Warhammer Quest.
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