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I have seen alot of SM Characters over the years and one thing has annoyed me about the holstered Bolt Pistols.. They look like Las-Pistol holsters....So the real question is where is the Magazine ?

1. does a SM have to load Bolt pistol with a Magazine after unholstering his weapon? If so does he need to unload it before putting it in its holster?
2. If the Bolt Pistol is loaded then the shape of a standard SM Holster is wrong?
3. The size of the holster seems wrong?

Also on belt kit, why are grenades big and chunky yet when I read some BL books they talk about "Micro-Grenade Dispensers"?

This is one of those complete mysteries I cannot reconcile, I think that Bolt Pistol Holsters look wrong...

I've taken issue with this in the past as well, but am reminded that due to scale issues liberties must be taken by the sculptor. The holster is indeed too narrow and doesn't look like it accomodates the magazine at all. Of course, the holster looks much better than simply having a pistol glued to the hip of a marine, which could reflect a magnetized plate to hold the gun in place - a more appropriate and suitably technological development for marines in powered armor.

As far as grenades go, the fluff for 40K back in RT days indicated that most grenades were the size of an AA battery or in a disk about the size of a large coin. That's probably a micro-grenade. Again, I think the large and "normal" sized grenades that we see on marine models are to fulfill the visual expectations of customers looking for grenades.

mwnciboo, I'm glad you asked, for it has bothered me for years too!!!

I guess there's no suitable answer better than Gavin's : they just had to sculpt grenades / holsters, and they did.

I'm just sad they didn't take into account the size of a Bolt Pistol or the Micro-grenade clusters fluff... But, as I see it, it's already hard to find a large enough area to put the holster on (other than the lower leg / shin), so imagine if it were up to scale!?!

It's a polymer that expands when you cram the pistol in it.

duh..

Some display the pistol inside already...

If they used a properly scaled bolt pistol inside a holster on a marine, the darn thing would look like a backpack hanging off their leg!

There's also some older fluff that said that every Space marine was theoretically equipped with a Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Combat Knife, and Grenades. I think all that might make the models a bit busy.

well it wud make sense to have all that. main armament, side arm, grenades as standard and a close combat knife which is standard. just compare them to most armys or special forces these days.

Explanation for the holsters: 40k is 'heroic' scale, ie the head, hands and whatever is held in the hands is larger than it should be. Actually 40k should probably be called superheroic, or ludicrouslyheroic! Bolt pistols are nearly as large as torsos and chainswords are as tall as the model holding them. Holsters, though, are closer to the actual scale of the model. There's no way to make the sizes compatible without making one or the other look 'wrong' to our warped 40k-vision. The shape of the holster is probably because it is a standard, recognisable holster shape. If the holster was actually shaped to hold a SM bolt pistol, we would spend a minute looking at it before the penny dropped and we recognised what it was.

On a related note, one of the wierdest things about the iconic SM design is that they appear to carry almost no equipment. Gun, maybe a pistol and 2 grenades, combat knife if lucky. Even assuming that water and nutrients are internal to their armour, so is communications, they should have some other kit needed. At least some ammunition!

I-bounty-hunt-the-elderly wrote:On a related note, one of the wierdest things about the iconic SM design is that they appear to carry almost no equipment. Gun, maybe a pistol and 2 grenades, combat knife if lucky. Even assuming that water and nutrients are internal to their armour, so is communications, they should have some other kit needed. At least some ammunition!

And, most annoying, is that it's really hard to strap some additional gear on them!!!

Yggdrasil wrote:

I-bounty-hunt-the-elderly wrote:On a related note, one of the wierdest things about the iconic SM design is that they appear to carry almost no equipment. Gun, maybe a pistol and 2 grenades, combat knife if lucky. Even assuming that water and nutrients are internal to their armour, so is communications, they should have some other kit needed. At least some ammunition!

And, most annoying, is that it's really hard to strap some additional gear on them!!!

But then they wouldn't have enough room to fit all those purity seals on!

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/238097.page
Moved to the 40K section.