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I was just thinking about bionic arms and legs fitted to IG etc
They must take a bit of getting used to, especially legs. They must weigh quite a bit (Maybe not) so you would assume the trooper would have to be taught how to walk again with their new leg by IG physios. A lot of time and expense so i assume they are only given to elite??
Also with the arms, i was thinking if they are quite heavy it must mess up your posture big time.
Anyway back to the real world.

Heavy yes, but your robotic limb is strong enough to carry its own weight. I wouldn't imagine the Guard giving out a lot of bionic replacements to replaceable assets, although someone will have to give more information on that.

Guardsmen can get bionics as replacements. They aren't pretty but they work. PDF have trouble getting them.
The higher rank you are overall the better your bionic replacement.

purplefood wrote:
The higher rank you are overall the better your bionic replacement.

So i guess your average grunts limbs would be pretty painful aswell, comfort for the user not being high on the docs prority

Barrington wrote:

purplefood wrote:
The higher rank you are overall the better your bionic replacement.

So i guess your average grunts limbs would be pretty painful aswell, comfort for the user not being high on the docs prority

Not painful just... not particularly good.
See Gaunt's Ghosts.
There is a sniper who has an augmetic jaw, it is noted for being ugly as hell and stuttery when he tries to talk.
Another guy has an augmetic shoulder which quickly stops working when exposed to seawater or water in general.
Augmetic eyes however seem to be fine as one Ghost has a pair and the only time when they start acting up is when they start getting wet.

I imagine the galaxy being a very, very large place, and the issuance of bionics, enhancements or any sort of prosthetic limb varying greatly depending on where you are. In Fifteen Hours, a Supply Sergeant had a bionic leg built from the damaged parts of a Sentinel (although that could have something to do with the situation on the ground, moreso than anything else). IG regiments with close ties to forge worlds probably have better access to bionics, maybe to the point of bionic replacements being a common occourance, and I imagine that in most IG regiments, the officers and very senior enlisted personnel get first dibs on bionic replacements or cloned grafts, as mentioned at one point in the Eisenhorn trilogy (again, some places this may be common, others the technology may have never been heard of). Regular grunts who get limbs blown off might get fitted with an el cheapo (compared to bionics) prosthetics and sent to the rear lines to charge lasgun power packs, sight tank barrels and do other make-work.

TL;DR: The galaxy's a big place and it varies from location to location.

Edit: In the interests of fairness, adding some spoiler tags.



Augmetic replacement is based more on available parts and trained personnel to install them than it is on the relative worth of the individual. On a wealthy Forge World, its population may enjoy higher-quality, and more-available, bionic replacements than an Imperial World or a Feral World, where such things are all but impossible to find.

I suggest you spoiler that...

Have just seen the Commissar Yarrick model, i know they are supposed to be lightweight but thats ridiculous! Looks like hes gonna topple over.

Barrington wrote:Have just seen the Commissar Yarrick model, i know they are supposed to be lightweight but thats ridiculous! Looks like hes gonna topple over.

Yarrick is the exception, he replaced his arm with an ork power klaw, which is not intended for human use.

Mr Nobody wrote:

Barrington wrote:Have just seen the Commissar Yarrick model, i know they are supposed to be lightweight but thats ridiculous! Looks like hes gonna topple over.

Yarrick is the exception, he replaced his arm with an ork power klaw, which is not intended for human use.

And why did he do that? Never read his story...

IronChaos wrote:

Mr Nobody wrote:

Barrington wrote:Have just seen the Commissar Yarrick model, i know they are supposed to be lightweight but thats ridiculous! Looks like hes gonna topple over.

Yarrick is the exception, he replaced his arm with an ork power klaw, which is not intended for human use.

And why did he do that? Never read his story...

Because he is choc-full of Imperial Creed insanity, and is one of the most bad-ass men in 40k. He also hates greenskins with a passion.

He tore it from a Warboss he killed himself and used it to replace his stump, to show the other Orks he was the big bad humie...

At first I thought bionic limbs would be heavy, but then I realized that in the 41st millenium they probably have super-light, super-strong materials to work with.


Except for orks

Space metal: Doing what not-space metal can't do.

Kerminsr wrote:At first I thought bionic limbs would be heavy, but then I realized that in the 41st millenium they probably have super-light, super-strong materials to work with.


Except for orks

It would be just as heavy as it is here, but 40k is a very, very silly place.

OTT weapon which should snap his shoulder every time he swings it?

In 40k, physics themselves bow to the rule of cool!

Chaos Lord Gir wrote:OTT weapon which should snap his shoulder every time he swings it?

In 40k, physics themselves bow to the rule of cool!

If it didn't bend (or break) the laws of physics, it couldn't even claim to follow the rule of cool.

Barrington wrote:Have just seen the Commissar Yarrick model, i know they are supposed to be lightweight but thats ridiculous! Looks like hes gonna topple over.

It's ridiculous because he has a lasgun instead of an eye!

Seriously, the 'bale eye' is supposed to be a small laser weapon AS WELL as a bionic eye.

In the first HH book, there is a character who is almost entirely machine (I think he's a distinguished general or something, and far to important to be allowed to die), so if they can produce a completely cybernetic body, we can build cheap and readily available bionic parts that don't cause too much discomfort.

To reiterate what others have said, I think its a case of YMMV depending on galactic location. At worst you will probably get ones similar to the bionic replacements being researched here on earth right now (seriously, google it, we are really making headway in artificial limbs, even down to a guy in Australia (i think?) who has a fully posable hand controlled by what is left of the nerves in his arm, it's really interesting stuff). At best, you get something like luke's hand in Empire Strikes Back, and only need a glove to hide it.

From a miniatures point of view, a nicely done, small, lightweight, almost-indistinguishable-from-real-limb bionic looks nowhere near as badass as an OMFG HE STOLE THAT FROM THE TERMINATOR 3 PROPS CUPBOARD bionic, and so it's fine to ignore realism for dramatic effect.