Not strictly Deathwatch, but hopefully of interest! There are not many of you, if any of you, who will remember this figure; this was the second version of the Terminator suit that came out, and the last before they settled on the design that has remained the standard (with some minor alterations) since 1989.

I found this in one of my bits boxes, which are laden with stuff from when I worked for GW back then. I put the parts on with Blu-Tack to keep them in place for the pictures. Without further ado, I present the rarely-seen Tactical Dreadnought Armour Mk. II:

At this point the Terminator design was approaching the model we know today, but with some significant differences. The shoulders were very small, and there is no sign of the Crux Terminatus. At this point in GW history, Space Hulk was in development, but no model work had been completed, nor had the Terminator lore been finalized. The face on this model is much more dramatic than on the Mk. I, which had a tiny little head tucked down between massive shoulder pads. It's possible that this face design ultimately evolved into the facemask of the Mk. VII armour, which at this point had not yet appeared (all marines were beaky marines, and they liked it that way).

The storm bolter on the TDA Mk. II was tiny compared to the previous model, and to the final design. It was also worn on the arm and not hand-held.

By far the most distinct feature of the TDA Mk. II is the massive carapace that forms the back. Instead of the vertical exhaust vents of the Mk. III, there are six downward-facing exhaust ports near the bottom of the trilobite-like shell. This piece was not part of the body casting and must be attached to the mini.

I tried many times to get a clear shot of the left side, but my camera flatly refused to focus properly. The power glove is nothing unusual, except that design-wise there are no external cables or hoses at all (the storm bolter has an external ammo feed, but no other power feed lines).

It was never clear what the four ports across the top of the carapace were intended to be; they did not include any painting guide notes with this model as they usually did. I took them to be air intakes, but they could be recessed floodlights.

Hope you enjoyed this blast from the past! If anyone is interested, I will try to find the Mk. I Terminator as well. I don't have any of those unpainted; I only have one, and that is the only one that we received for display painting. It's not my best paint work, but I'm willing to display it for nostalgic and informational purposes.

Those four holes could be the old grenade pack.

Direach said:

cool mini. he definitely looks *angry* compared to the current style terminators. in a way, he reminds me of the hulkbuster iron man armor a bit. are you planning on using him for a deathwatch 1st company veteran character? the consecrators dark angel successor chapter would work as they're outfitted with ancient armor throughout the chapter.

I vaguely remember this mini. What I didn't remember was that it was of the Angry Marines chapter, lol. At least you now know how to paint the right shoulder pad.

Alex

I was mistaken: there were THREE terminator models that came out prior to Space Hulk and the familiar Mk. IV design that has gone mostly unchanged since then. Not sure how I forgot the Mk. III, I have a bunch of them still. It's very similar to the Mk. IV overall, but the head looks more like a Mk. VII power armour helmet.

Direach said:

Yeah.

www.solegends.com/citcat89/c894106marines-h.htm

I really only remembered #410609. #410611 looks a bit Khornate.

Alex

ahh back in the days... When the Miniatures where almost made of lead, you could smoke veryweher u wanted, when you could eat anything you wanted without everyons tellin´ you it is bad for your health. good old days...

This figure's back has to be killing him...

Adeptus-B said:

That's why he looks so angry.

-=Brother Praetus=-

We have an ancient dreadnaught with no arms we occasionally use, I'll put up a snippet of him when our minis are back at my house, our GM has them ATM.

Wow! Thanks for sharing those pics. It's great to see good clear pics for the first time. so much better than the blue-painted ones on the bottom of the box for 1st ed spacehulk which along with the wormy-headed genestealers were pretending to be the games plastic components

You can really see the influence of the Imperial Rottweilers from 2000 AD (from an ABC Warriors sotry i think it might have been?) in the design for terminators in this version.

Awesome.