WARHAMMER 40K COLLECTION

HISTORY

My journey into Warhammer began long before online shopping, algorithms, or instant access to global markets. It started in comic shops.

As a child, I collected comics obsessively, and over time my local shop began displaying tabletop games alongside them. Trips to Singapore opened that world further, where larger comic stores introduced me to dedicated gaming sections and systems such as BattleTech. Back home, the choices were far more limited, but Games Workshop’s early Warhammer ranges immediately stood out.

The first box that truly captured my imagination was Space Marine, the first edition of what would later become known as Epic. It cost around RM169, a significant amount at the time. I saved for it, and a friend helped purchase it when I could not travel to the shop myself. Opening that box became a defining moment. From there, we began playing and slowly drawing more friends into the hobby.

By 1992, I had begun experimenting with painting miniatures, but I only completed a very small number of models. When I paint, I tend to approach it with full attention, passion, and detail, which makes the process extremely time-consuming. Over time, I realised that my real passion was not painting armies, but collecting, preserving, and building coherent forces.

For that reason, I have generally preferred collecting unpainted miniatures. They allow the original sculpts to be appreciated clearly, and from a collecting standpoint, unpainted examples are often more desirable and valuable. That said, some miniatures came to me already painted, and when the work was especially good, I chose to keep them as they were.

My collecting began with Eldar, which is why my Eldar army remains the most comprehensive and complete part of the collection across both Rogue Trader and Second Edition. From there, I moved into Space Marines, then Orks, and eventually expanded into Rogue Trader Imperial Guard, Chaos, mercenaries, space pirates, Zoats, and many stranger early 40K oddities.

The collection grew steadily through local shops, special orders, and later through Amazon and eBay in the early 2000s, when second-hand collections became much easier to access from Malaysia. Looking back, I am glad I collected heavily during that period, when many miniatures were still relatively affordable. Prices have risen dramatically since then, and some pieces that once felt expensive now seem almost impossible by comparison.

Today, the main focus of the collection is Rogue Trader. I have assembled extensive representative ranges for Eldar, Space Marines, Squats, Rogue Trader Imperial Guard, and many of the more unusual early releases. Orks are more challenging because of the sheer number of models produced, especially in the Rogue Trader era, though my Second Edition Ork collection is far more complete. I have also focused only on Rogue Trader Imperial Guard rather than Second Edition Imperial Guard, as the earlier sculpts have far more character to me.

The Second Edition collection is also comprehensive, covering major Space Marine chapters such as Space Wolves, Dark Angels, Blood Angels, and Ultramarines, alongside large Eldar and Ork forces. Some Chaos elements are also represented, including a painted army I acquired from another collector at a special price. The paintwork was strong enough that I chose not to strip it, as it deserved to remain intact.

Because the collection has grown too large to catalogue miniature by miniature, this page is not intended as a detailed database. It is a simple visual record of the collection as it currently exists, mainly through box photos, group views, and selected highlights.