Beakie! Beakie! Beakie!

Yes, I know the Robot's name was actually Twiki, but allow me some poetic licence

No this is not a mispronounced exclamation of support for the Robot from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, although if you want I could totally do a blog post on that!? No, oh OK... I'll carry on with this post about the Oldhammer Community's Beakie Week then.

For those who didn't know this last week saw the 30th Anniversary of the launch of the iconic Space Marines from GW. Now, love them or loathe them for what they came to represent in terms of the Grimdark takeover and the narrowing of the range of GW games and models, their success and appeal is undeniable, and for me, like many, the Mark VI or 'Beakie' Power Armoured marines of the original releases are the still the best. 'Beakie Week' is a celebration of their 30th Anniversary and all things Beakie!


This is my contribution. The painting is strictly table top standard only, but here are some of my MkVI Fire Angels (veterans of the Badab War, first seen in Rt Compendium).

Glowing LED fire/smoke thing by AVP Shaun

Ruins by my mate Big Dave, the Scenery Savant.

Their 'Manta' class Speeder Gunship has been shot down by enemy fire! Techmarines are trying to affect repairs, while Apothecaries from the 1st and 10th companies scan the surrounding area using auspex and photon search light. With typical discipline and tactical acumen a combat squad of veterans prepares to defend the crash site - but what brought them down?

The pilots are from the Fire Angels 8th company Test Pilot corps. The models are the crew from the RT Land Speeder. Let's not talk about what happened to their legs to fit them into that cockpit, but please don't ask them to stand up.

The Apothecaries are from the 1st Company (on the right, converted with a simple backpack swap with the later Mk VII Apothecary, which I think works really well with the pose of the older sculpt)

The techmarine in this pic is a conversion from RTB01 legs and the body of the techmarine jet bike rider. The Giant drill is from the Orc Battle Wagon set I think?

Veteran marines adopt defensive positions, covering the specialists at work.

Turns out it was some Traitor scum! Squads of Black Legion and Alpha Legion advance, while a seditious Word Bearer lurks in the cover of the nearby ruins...

Traitor Marines spring their ambush, luckily the heavy weapons that downed the Manta are nowhere to be seen (because they are carried by Mk VII marines, who are keeping respectfully out of sight).

Alpha Legion marines move out from behind cover to engage the Fire Angels. The Word Bearer seems less keen, but shouts encouragement from the ruins.

Black Legion/occassional Traitor Flesh Tearers eagerly charge into combat with the hated loyalists

I painted up a number of small squads of traitor marines for use both as part of a larger Chaos Marine Army, and for GMs use as enemy 'crews' in our currently lapsed multi level 40K/Epic/Inquisimunda campaign 'Vortigan V'- many of which are rescue and repair jobs from other half finsihed and terrible paintjobs and conversions either from e-bay job lots, donations from friends over the years, or my own bits box. I've only shown the Mk VI ones here but there are some Mk VII examples too, traitor Blood Angels and Successor chapter marines who have been tempted away from the light of the Emperor by the perniious scheming of the Word Bearer you can see skulking in the background in the pictures. We also have some Alpha Legion tactical marines, and a close combat squad of Black Legion (who sometimes double as Traitor Flesh Tearers). These were converted with a nod towards those early Mk VI conversions from the modelling section of the Rogue Trader book.

A slightly better shot of the Manta Speeder-Gunship (there is a solitary MK VII marine in the turret, but we wont mention him)

The Fire Angels' 'Manta' class Speeder-Gunship, as some of you will no doubt recognise, is a conversion of an old 1980s plastic toy from the Manta Force range.

Manta Force, in all it's 80s glory!

This is what it looked like all neatly packed away, which must have been a very rare sight indeed. I can see why someone's mum marked the occassion with a photo.

A conversation with a fellow Oldhammerer on fb led me down memory lane with Manta Force and reminded me of previous plans to gather more examples from the range to convert for use in RT/40K. Hopefully my ebay bidding does not get out of control!

Thanks for visiting! There will definitely be more posts about my Fire Angels in the future, and hopefully some more Manta Force conversions to show you, so I hope you come back :)