By this point the weapon has started to mutate into something that might be a bolter, or a futuristic Pez dispenser...I have no idea. More crazy knee pads and note the layered armour on the feet of the mini, not sure what the advantage of that was supposed to be. Perhaps even harder to identify than the main weapons from this period are the sidearms that many of the marines carry. To me the thing on this marine's left hip looks like an autogun, but it really could be anything.
I've assumed that this marine is armed only with a bolt pistol and painted it as such. Perhaps he's just that hard he can dispense with the idea of a proper bolter or even a hand weapon; all he needs is his odd-looking pistol. The amount of variation in the depiction of weapons in this period stretches even the understanding of a collector like myself. Surely a company with so many talented artists could have come up with a standard design and held it under the noses of the sculptors in conjunction with a big stick?
I think that if this marine had been aiming anything larger than a pistol in this manner he might have managed to look somewhat intimidating, rather than a bit silly. I wondered if he'd lost his telescopic sights, but then I thought about the fact that in all the novels the marines have targeting a HUD built into their helmets, so is there really any reason for non-scouts to carry them?
The next post will, I promise be the one that I mentioned at the end of the last, but now with more marines as I have more rescued images to clutter up the web.
4 comments:
I think those early minis with the odd looking knees came about from using an empire warrior as the base (ie knees down look like from a great sword/Reiklander) and then they built on the marine above.
That's an interesting theory based on the close relationship between the races in the two settings during the RT era and the fact that the really early bolters look as though they were shaped like a polearm that could have been carried by such a mini.
Some of these guys are positively butt ugly! Great post!
Ah, they have faces that only a collector from the old school could love!
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