Looking back the LE2 - The first ever Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine from 1985

Sculpted by Bob Naismith, this post tells the story of this most iconic of Citadel Miniatures

The iconic LE2 (‘LE’ meaning ‘Limited Edition’) sculpted by Bob Naismith and was the first of many Space Marines to come from Citadel/Games Workshop. Indeed, the unit would go on to become the iconic Warhammer 40,000 unit. So how did it come about? We shall find out here!

(Image - LE2. A side view of an armoured soldier holding a weapon with a bayonet. Source Lost Minis Wiki. An original can set you back £100-£800!)

So we know for sure that LE2, along with some other Space Marines, were released prior to Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader itself in October 1987. The earliest reference to it I’ve been able to find is from the 1985 September Citadel Flyer. The flyer would note, “Whoops guess we made a mistake with this one ED...Still there’s your last chance to buy this incredible Limited Edition Miniature of the Imperial Space Marine.” That clearly implies it was available prior to this point (indeed LE3 was advertised in the previous August 1985 flyer).

(Image - Detail of the September 1985 flyer showing the advert for LE2. Source: Stuff of Legends)

Here’s a draft section of the book documenting how LE2 came about:

So the decision came to get [Bob Naismith] to create a Space Ork (with a ‘k’ not ‘c’) - code-named LE1 and another code-named LE2, a Space Marine. Bob started working on these miniatures under a brief from Bryan. Bob recalls, “Again I was the person who was like wanting to do sci-fi wanting to do it and so I remember going to speak to Rick … he explained that what they needed was this figure which was like the basic soldier, the grunt who was going to be the core of the army …” LE2 was proving to be a tricker proposition than the Ork as Bryan had an image in his head of what he wanted, but had been unable to fully capture this in a brief (which flowed from Bryan to Alan to Bob). There had been a number of iterations based on the brief, none of which had captured what Bryan had in his head. A process of notes on requested changes, a new model design and then more notes was going on, not arriving at the final model.

Because LE2 was an SF and not fantasy, soldier, it allowed Bob to draw on inspirations from historical wargaming that he’d worked on in the past e.g. WW2, WW1 & Napoleonics etc. Bob wanted them to have a sense of realism in the design and there were little existing materials to draw from, so he would work into period inspirations such as a helmet that was Roman meets WW2 with an oxygen mask, SF over-skins of Doughboy backpacks (the nickname for the American infantryman during WW1) and ammo webbing inspired by WW2 soldiers. As the units were to be armoured infantry again Bob was inspired by the past, looking to the Romans and reimagining the segmented Legionary armour into shoulder pads. On one shoulder Bob put studs and on the other, an area was needed that people could decorate, so one shoulder pad was left clear.

From there, history was made!

Now I was lucky enough to be sent one of the 2016 reimagining of the LE2 by Philip Helliwell - so huge thanks to Philip for that! I plan to assemble him and take photos of him for the book! (Oh a slight mistake in the video below, I incorrectly gave the date of LE2 as 1986, whereas it’s actually 1985. Doh.) You’ll see from the video that it is also hard not to see him as a Crimson Fist, echoing the original Rogue Trader cover. Indeed, this is how the re-issued version is painted on the cover.

(If you have any space oldhammer miniatures from which I can get pictures of, for the book, do let me know! There’s some I’m very much after! Thanks)

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Thanks for reading!

Links of Note:

• Good starter video for Warhammer 40,000 11th Edition

• It is not Warhammer, but if you want to do some fun tactical combat, grab 2 Fights in 2 Tight Spaces

• The new Ciaphas Cain minis are cool - you should grab ‘em!

• I liked this; Auroch Digital developers have a play of the new CRPG Rogue Trader DLC

Note! There is more about this project here. The direct chat for this project is here. You can comment here or find me on BlueSky.

Also note! This book project is a personal one and not affiliated with any company that, in my day job, I work with or partner with.

(Image - The cover of the 2016 reissue of LE2. Photo by author.)