Homage

Yesterday i rambled on and on about our nostalgia for old systems and miniatures, wistful memories of glory days when everything seemed so much better, when it actually wasn't.

Today's topic is the homages to years gone by that are still shaping our hobby.

Like those nods and winks to older pop culture that we see in films and television, games and miniatures are full of similar. The most obvious is the Chainsaws. These began as references to Tobe Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Sam Raimi's The Evil Dead, but spawned miniatures with such, including Citadel's LE23, Chainsaw Wizard, and numerous models for Warhammer Fantasy and Blood Bowl armed with anachronistic chainsaws. It even spawned a game, Chainsaw Warrior. The homage's continuation should be fairly obvious, but for those who haven't had their coffee, there are numerous examples of chainsaws in modern sci-fi battle games, from the chainsword of 40k, to the chain bayonets on many of the guns in Gears of War.

Homages within the hobby, however, have gone far, far beyond references to pop culture.

From Citadel, in the current range, we have the Mistress of Repentance from the metal Sisters Repentia set, who has numerous nods to their ancient Fantasy Specials FS6, Torturess with whip. We have the Genestealer Cult Nexos, who's planning a nefarious infiltration of Games Workshop's head office in Lenton, the magus in the Broodcoven and the Clamavus, whose staff heads are references to the most famous of the original Magus models, the Clamavus being a reference to the one that led my cult, who is holding a microphone. We even have some special characters who have been with us for 30 years or so: Marneus Calgar, now on his 4th miniature; Commissar Yarrick, dragging his heals and staying on his staying with his second model, now 20 years old; Mag Uruk Ghazgkul Thraka, on his second named model (also 20 years old), the third model if you count the generic Warboss model that was used by Andy Chambers; Ragnar Blackmane, and Njal Stormcaller, whose models are hurtling towards their 27th birthdays; and many others.

It could even be argued that the Knights and Stompas and other Lords of War  that are becoming prevalent in 40k's meta are, by their very existence, homages to the glory days of the late 1980s and the original Adeptus Titanicus.

Speaking of which, Citadel's younger sister, Forgeworld, has a huge swathe of homages:
Carab Culen, the Red Scorpions special character, who's on his third model, is one of the most quoted characters from 40k first edition.
Their Fimirach are a reimagining of a race created in 1988 to distinguish Warhammer from other Fantasy settings.
Their Knights include some of the more specialist chasses from 1988.
The Deredo dreadnought references the Chaos Dreadnoughts from Space Crusade.
The Age of Darkness game includes Leman Russ, the first named portrait in Rogue Trader, and most quoted character in first edition, and the Aurox and Dracosan transports, and the Carnodon medium tank, which are nice nods to the olden days, when the Imperial Guard had Rhino and Land Raider transports and Predator tanks.
...and, of course, we have the myriad direct homages to older models of Land Raider, Rhino, Predator, Land Speeder, etc.

This post was inspired by my own desire to pay homage to years gone by in my squats, and especially in the following way:
Squats used to have Rhinos. I'm using the Astra Militarum as the army list for my squats. The AM don't have Rhinos, but they do have the Taurox and Taurox Prime. When the Taurox hit the shelves and Codex, a lot of marine players started whining that it wasn't fair that the Guard got a transport that's essentially an up-gunned Rhino, until they realised why Guard players came to refer to the Taurox as a glass box. The Taurox has a human crew and access ladders that are too high for squats. The modern Rhino has ramps. The Aurox is a Guard Rhino, but doesn't have 40k rules. If i was to pay homage to all the relevant references - Taurox/Taurox Prime, Mk1a "Deimos" Rhino, Mk2c "Mars" Rhino and Aurox - a) would the collage work, b) which elements from each should i use, c) where would I fit the guns, and d) would it just look like i was trying to save money by using the cheaper Rhino kit, rather than the Taurox, that's 20% more expensive or the Aurox, that's 140% more?

I'm wanting the Taurox stand in to be a clear homage to the limited range of yesteryear and the modern diversity of kits, while making it fit in with the Guard aesthetics, and trying to make it an homage, not a pastiche. It's a fine line to walk, and I'm wanting at least 5 of them, (one as a Prime, to carry my Huscarls/stormtroopers, and 4 to carry a trio of special weapons squads, a command squad and an officer, possibly more to transport a detachment of Nobles/Veterans) so a lot of work if it's to be uniform across the force, and the question thus arises of if i should just get a bundle of Aurox instead.

I know that my normal gaming group won't complain, since, over the years, they've used so many odd proxies, and a lot of people won't complain because there's a logic to it, and a lot of work will be put into it, but still, i have my doubts about my own homage.