151 Down Memory Lane (2nd Edition 40k!)

I posted these on Facebook just a couple of days ago and was pleasantly surprised by the response.

These were my first taster of Warhammer 40k back in 1993..... I was 14. (please dont do the math!)

Before then I had mostly played the various "gateway" board games, Space Crusade, Heroquest and the like. I remember distinctly starting to use the models in those games to play on open tabletops and realising that boards were too limited.

The joys of using an old subbuteo pitch draped across stacks of books to form hills!

Then as now I spent more time reading and digesting the amazing fluff and imagining life in the setting than actually playing but hey I was that kind of kid.

I had been reading WhiteDwarf for a few years by then so when 2nd Edition came out and all the confusing Rogue Trader rules came together in one package I jumped at it.

The plastic Orks and Gretchin in their static mono pose and the statuesque Marines where a real challenge for my teenage self and rest assured that no evidence of my 14 year old painting survives!

I guess as a combination of my age and the newness of the game but 2nd Edition was something of a golden age for me. I dont recall getting as much satisfaction from any of the following editions as I did from 2nd. It was prior to the codexes, although they were quick to follow and you still had a lot of flexibility.

What are your memories of those heady days in the '90s?