30th Anniversary Imperial Space Marine

Limited edition miniatures are entirely my jam. Limited edition Space Marines doubly so. When Citadel produced this “Imperial Space Marine” to celebrate 30 (ish*) years of power-armoured super soldiers, I giddily hoovered it up.

30th Anniversary limited edition Imperial Space Marine
Speaking of hoovering, get a load of that pose. Wacca wacca wacca.

The miniature is an update of the very first LE02 Imperial Space Marine released in summer 1985. Loads of care was put into copying over the details, from the vacuum-cuffs on the calves, the ribbing on the elbow pads, the rivets on the helmet, and the noodly wiring on the weapon. Here are the two versions side by side.

LE02 original Space Marine Blood Angel alongside the 30th Anniversary Imperial Space Marine Ultramarines
Something old. Something new. Something red. Something blue.

So there I am, thinking that I’m on the cutting edge of Space Marine miniatures with this lad, and actually it’s been out 5 years and has already had his Codex entry deleted. And the modern range of Space Marines are as big again.

Imperial Space Marine and Ultramarines Lieutenant Calsius
Imperial Space Marine alongside Primaris Lieutenant Calsius.

And if you’re interested in learning the hands down best ever recipe and method for painting Ultramarines it’s over on the Ninjabread Patreon.

When the Marine The original LE02 Marine’s weapon was marvellously oddball. It’s classic mid-1980s Bob Naismith sculpting, where wiring and nozzles were de rigueur. This design of bolter was phased out by 1987 in flavour of the blockier designs that endure to this day. However, the 2016 Imperial Space Marine gloriously recreates the original noodle-nozzle weapon, reconceptualising it on the accompanying rules sheet as a “disintergration combi-gun”.

30th Anniversary Imperial Space Marine
The Mark of Calth will continue to run. Look at him run. Run Mark, run.

Ninjabread out!

*The Imperial Space Marine was released in Spring 2016, which was 31 years after the original from Summer 1985.

Curis

Curis has painted for Games Workshop, Forge World, Warlord Games, Mantic Games, Avatars of War, Wargames Foundry, Studio McVey and many others. He's won at Golden Demon and Salute. He publishes monthly painting tutorials on Patreon.

3 thoughts on “30th Anniversary Imperial Space Marine

  • April 26, 2021 at 10:26 pm
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    The rendition of the mini is wonderful, you did a splendid job. But you are right, you can never follow the path of updates of Space Marines!

    Reply
  • October 11, 2022 at 11:01 pm
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    Such a lovely sculpt and a lovely homage to the ‘Easy Metal style. I discovered this bad boi is pretty hard to come by these days, and realized I had bought one to paint and two to collect/possibly paint….some day. I need to get started on #1 using my own Chapter designs…

    I really love your work and it has inspired me for many years! Especially Project Change, naturally ;-)

    Reply

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