Models for my kids: eBay Salvage

I bought a collection of used and abused miniatures so my kids could have a bunch of models to paint and play with, without me spending hundreds of dollars. Here are some shots of what I got. They will all soon be soaking in the cleansing bath of the Emperor's light (aka Purple Power), ready to be reborn.

Everything came in a big bag. I dumped it out and this is what I had.

The main reason I bought this lot was for the space marines for my kids to paint.

It looks like mostly metal miniatures from Second Edition. There is an Assault Squad (metal jump packs!), Devastators (metal heavy weapons!) and a few random tactical marines, scout sergeant and characters. Those metal jump packs and heavy weapons make for some really unstable models, which is not so great for kids, unfortunately.

Bonus: four metal and one plastic space orks from Second Edition. Great memories here!

Some interesting chaos marines. Two terminators, four Deathguard, and three and a half Berserkers (a couple are missing their heads, unfortunately). 

The old Deathguard are actually really cool models. In some ways, better than the over-the-top new ones.

And a one-armed assassin. Another great model that is unfortunately missing pieces.

The Space Marines and Orks have obviously improved immeasurably in the last 25 years. But I really like the old Chaos and Assassin models and I think they have stood the test of time. Assuming the paint stripping works, I will definitely use that assassin as some sort of conversion. And I think I could use quite a few of the chaos bits for Horus Heresy conversions. My kids will enjoy painting the space marines. The only useless models will be the orks, although I may paint one just out of nostalgia.

WIP Pumping Station

I bought Shadow War: Armageddon to play with my son because I thought the smaller games would be better: fewer miniatures to collect and paint to start an army and quicker games. It's been quite fun and I am really impressed by the utility of the modular terrain so I have been busy cutting, scraping and gluing it together. I want to add to it until I have a truly multi-level table for small games instead of just a few platforms connected by a catwalk. So I am taking the opportunity to do some of the scratch-build projects that have been on my mind for a long time. But now I am making sure they have raised platforms that match the height of the Shadow War terrain so that it will all fit together.

This piece is a pumping/processing station. I have had the electrical box with the Legos on top and the tin cans rolling around together in a box for over a year, waiting to start building this until I had more bits for pipes and valves. This is a WIP shot and I still have more details to add, but you get the general idea of the piece: lots of pipes, hoses and ladders. I think this piece will work well as part of an industrial board with the other Shadow War terrain and could even standalone with the dessert terrain as a gathering station for the produced liquids and gasses from the extraction industries in the wastelands of Xhorik Prime.