This March I am proud to present an Ultramarines combat squad deliberately contrived to conjure up a very particular point in time – November 1990. It’s March for Macragge.

Tactical Squad Rhenus. Their presence remakes the past.

In November 1990 Space Marine design saw a step change with the release of the RTB15 Strike Force boxed set. The new age of Warhammer 40,000 was ushered in with these brand new metal-plastic hybrid Marines.

It was the transition point from mk6 power armour to mk7 power armour. It was the transition from one-piece metal castings to metal torsos with plastic arms and accessories. It was the transition from Bob Naismith, Aly Morrison and Mark Copplestone designing Space Marines to Jes Goodwin.

There are two versions of each of the Strike Force torsos – the earlier verion had rounded shoulders which made them backwards compatible with the RTB01 plastic arms, and the later version had the shoulders flattened off to fit with the 1991 redesigned arm sprue. The 1990 arm sprue from the Strike Force box was curiously discontinued – if you know why, please enlighten me in the comments.

The 1990s would go on to see the mk7 range fully rounded out with more torso designs, special and heavy weapons, jump packs, and all new accessory sprues. But in November 1990 if you wanted any of that for your mk7 marines you had to use the old mk6 pieces – which is what I’ve done on this squad. The Sergeant’s powerfist and weeny bolt pistol, the rocket launcher, various ammo packs and binox are all pilfered from the RTB01 kit.

The RTB01 rocket launcher (below left) requires a bit of fiddly modelling to get it to work on a Strike Force torso – the arm toting it is a combination of the original RTB01 arm with a Strike Force shoulder pad, and some putty for the wrist armour.

The Ultramarines project means I’m painting three blue Space Marine armies concurrently. I’d be nice to have the three projects more visually distinct, but I’ve got strong emotional reasons for each scheme individually so I will just have to live with a big jumble of blue in the display cabinet. It’s like that Eiffel 65 song. Da Ba Dee. Da Ba Daa.

I’m bursting with ideas for other Ultramarines squads, and while I’m not going to collect the entire Chapter there are 99 other squads to explore with 1990s-themed collecting and modelling ideas.

This squad makes me feel as nostalgically 1990s my other hobby – standing outside derelict Global Video stores.

I’m putting together a full tutorial for Ultramarines power armour which will publish soon. If you head over to the Patreon, there’s already a wealth of tutorials for how to paint Blood Angels, Crimson Fists, Nemesis Chapter, an Apothecary, Deathwatch, gold power armour and battered yellow armour, as well as lots of skin recipes and special freehand walkthroughs.

Coming soon, more blue Space Marines. Ninjabread out!

Move over Penn & Teller, move over Siegfried & Roy – a new magical double act is in town.  Coming all the way from the pyramids of the Old World are twin brothers Lapis & Lazuli  – fantastical Wizards of Light.

Masters of the mysterious and occasional caberet performers.

This magical duo are going to be the Kairic Adepts in my vintage Silver Tower project – where I replace all the 2016 boardgame pieces with Citadel Miniatures from about 20 years previous.  Like the Brimstone Horrors I painted previously, 1990s era Warhammer didn’t have Kairic Adepts, but did have Egyptian-flavoured magic users in the form of Light Wizards. And the 1990s Light Wizards also had Acolytes, which are perfect for Silver Tower Kairic Acolytes.

These Light Wizards turned traitor from the College of Light alongside their Patriarch – Egrimm van Horstmann.  They have found sanctuary from the Empire in a Silver Tower of Tzeentch in my personal Warhammer canon.  Egrimm himself will be big boss of the Silver Tower, as he was Tzeentch’s favoured servant in the 20 years before Gaunt Summoners were invented.

Lapis & Lazuli supported by Blue Horrors in their Silver Tower.

Games Workshop originally released the plastic Light Wizard (on the right in the photos) as the High Priest in the 1994 Talisman expansion Dungeon of Doom.  He later appeared as one of the eight free wizard miniatures on 1995’s White Dwarf 186.  Getting a Warhammer character miniature in plastic was an insane novelty in the 1990s, as plastic was normally reserved only for the massed ranks of mono-posed regiments.

Here’s Lazuli with the other classic 3rd edition Talisman miniatures I’ve painted to date.

Lazuli and Pazyryk Banefire in the ruins of a non-metallic tower.

Coming soon on Ninjabread: more vintage lead miniatures to populate my time-warped Silver Tower.