A Salamanders Deal We Really Didn’t Expect to Win
We love those hobby moments that start with a casual scroll through the marketplace and suddenly turn into well, I guess we’re reorganising the entire collection now.
This time it was end3r who spotted something spicy: a painted Land Raider Redeemer in Salamanders colours. And not just any Redeemer — one that already looked great, with moving sponsons and an opening hatch. For a chapter like Salamanders, that’s exactly the kind of big chunky brick we want to see on the table.
The catch? Of course there was a catch.
The seller was only moving it as a full bundle:
- Land Raider Redeemer
- Invader ATV
- Adrax Agatone
- Vulkan He’stan
- 6 Bladeguard Veterans
- 10 Assault Intercessors
- 5 Terminators
- Terminator Captain
- 3 Eradicators
- 30 Infernus Marines
All for 1000 PLN plus shipping.
At first, this felt like one of those classic second-hand dilemmas. End3r really wanted the Redeemer, maybe also the Bladeguard and Terminators, but a lot of the rest was duplicate territory already. Another Adrax? Another Vulkan? More Eradicators? And 30 Infernus Marines is absolutely the kind of number that makes us laugh first and ask questions later.
Still, there were two big things working in this offer’s favour.
First: used Redeemers barely show up at all. Painted Salamanders Redeemers? Even less so.
Second: sometimes the hobby value is not just in the plastic, but in avoiding a project we don’t actually want to do. End3r already had an Impulsor waiting in the queue, and the idea of assembling a Land Raider from scratch clearly wasn’t winning any enthusiasm contests.
So naturally, the first attempt was the sensible one: ask whether the seller would split the lot and sell just the Redeemer with a couple of the more interesting units.
Nope. Still “whole lot only”.
A few more people asked the seller the same thing, apparently. Still no split.
And then came the move that somehow worked way better than expected.
End3r threw out an offer of 800 PLN plus shipping — basically as a negotiation starting point, because at that level it would already be a very strong deal.
The seller’s response was more or less: whatever, if you’re taking the whole lot, take it.
And just like that, the deal was done.
So what actually makes this such a good pickup?
Honestly? Quite a lot.
GW retail value for the plastic alone was estimated at around 1700 PLN, so even before we get into paint quality, convenience, or the rarity of the Redeemer itself, this already looks excellent.
On top of that, the bundle fills some real Salamanders gaps while also adding room for list experimentation. Once the Impulsor gets built, there should be enough here to comfortably play around with different Warhammer 40k lists, and the whole thing should add up to around 2000 points without much trouble.
There’s also something very funny about the duplicates. End3r mentioned that he still has Vulkan parts in foil from a China order, and now he’ll also have a fully assembled original. That’s the kind of hobby plot twist we can respect. And yes, apparently this will also bring the Adrax count up to three.
Which is, objectively, too many Adraxes.
But also somehow exactly the right number.
The real endgame: making room for proper Salamanders
This purchase also kicked off a wider collection rethink.
End3r summed it up pretty well: if there are already a lot of Salamanders across Warhammer 40k, Kill Team, and Necromunda, and Warhammer: The Old World is also happening, then something probably has to give. That “something” may end up being Age of Sigmar.
Not in a dramatic burn-it-all-down way — more in the very familiar hobby sense of: we only have so much shelf space, so much budget, and so much brain bandwidth.
The current idea seems to be keeping the first Spearhead as a souvenir piece, much like the first Votann Combat Patrol, and potentially moving on the rest of the unopened AoS pile. There was also some discussion about whether AoS 5th edition might be worth waiting for, since GW seems to be on a three-year cycle and summer 2027 would be the likely window.
That makes the timing awkward in a very hobbyist way. The models themselves might still be worth keeping, but battletomes and cards lose value fast once a new edition lands. So if the plan is to sell, doing it sooner rather than later makes sense.
Meanwhile, the Votann Combat Patrol box with Codex sounds like one of the first candidates to leave the shelf, because clearly we need to make room for the rightful Salamanders expansion programme.
And yes, the Infernus meme is alive
One of the funniest side notes in all this was the thought of showing up for a game with 40 Infernus Marines just to see the opponent’s face.
Sadly, reality intervened: in 40k, Infernus squads cap at 10 models, and you can only take three units of the same datasheet, so the practical limit is 30.
Which still leaves one obvious conclusion:
one ten-man squad may have to go.
But even then, getting “too many Infernus Marines” as a side effect of finally landing a painted Salamanders Redeemer is exactly the kind of problem we’re happy to have.
Final thoughts
We really like stories like this because they capture a very specific hobby feeling: starting out focused on one dream model, getting blocked by an annoying “bundle only” listing, making a cheeky offer anyway, and somehow ending up with a deal that reshapes the whole army plan.
So yes — this was supposed to be about a Redeemer.
Instead, it turned into a major Salamanders reinforcement wave, a possible collection cleanup, and a reminder that sometimes the best purchases are the ones we almost talked ourselves out of.
And honestly? We get the excitement.
A nicely painted Salamanders Redeemer doesn’t come around often.
If we were in that situation, we’d be buzzing too.