GWpertinent: Old School Mini

GWpertinet is holding a old school 40K mini “contest”, looking for the oldest, painted GW figure in people’s collection.  This kicked off a trip to Stuff of Legends to see what I had in my collection.  I started playing in 1997, but most of my old school minis have been picked up second hand.  My oldest figures come from the Eldar command unit from the March 1988 catalog – including the harpist, Champion and both standard bearers.  I even have the back packs for the standards – I always figured they belonged to the harpist, not the meta gunner!

However – the contest calls for painted figure.  Once again, I was surprised to find the Space Marine Commander ranks with the oldest and dates to the 1991 catalog.  The figure was painted in 1998 or 1999 and was probably amongst the first 50 figures I painted.  Good to see I’ve learned something in the past 10 years – like how to high light and to always under coat metal with black.

Speaking of history.  In my collection, I found 3 beaky marines with 1987 stamped on the tab.  In only 4 years GW managed to jump from the bent over, scrawny proto Space Marine to the commander pictured above.  While the over all style has change a bit over the years, this commander shares more similarities with Marines of 2009 than 1987.  I don’t know if that’s a sign of a strong design or stagnation…..