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He dakka, I was wondering on what the etiquette is for using regular tactical marines as sternguard. They would be painted up as veterans in my army which will look like this http://www.flickr.com/photos/66936279@N00/2497363906/ (these are not my marines but i liked his paint job to use with my Crimson Fists). Additionally I would have almost all of them be beakies to further differentiate them from non veteran non sternguard marines. Would this be acceptable?

Yes because you can distinguish them anyway, and a guy at my lgs uses regular guardsmen as stormtroopers so there is no problem as long as you tell your opponenet before the game that they are counting as sternguard.

Sternguard are veterans using special ammo. Model wise they could look just like regular Tac Marines. But you have already done enough to make them stand out, nicely painted BTW.

Id like some type of difference. I dont like it when I am suddenly reminded that that tactical squad I ignored because they are harmless can actually rapid fire ap3 rounds at me...

Jaon wrote:Id like some type of difference. I dont like it when I am suddenly reminded that that tactical squad I ignored because they are harmless can actually rapid fire ap3 rounds at me...

They'd be painted as veterans, so you could distinguish them anyway. I think as long as there's a notable difference, like paintscheme then its fine.

cyorysh wrote:He dakka, I was wondering on what the etiquette is for using regular tactical marines as sternguard. They would be painted up as veterans in my army which will look like this http://www.flickr.com/photos/66936279@N00/2497363906/ (these are not my marines but i liked his paint job to use with my Crimson Fists). Additionally I would have almost all of them be beakies to further differentiate them from non veteran non sternguard marines. Would this be acceptable?

Just make sure they are wysiwyg. You might also consider painting the sternguard bolters a different colour to the bolters of your other marines to further differentiate them.


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The actual gw sternguard models are there for people who want (and can afford) really flash looking marines, you don't have to use them.

Long as your opponent can spot the difference at a cursory glance, and you've told him what the difference is, then I see no problem with using regular marines.

I personally use CSM for Sternguard for my Relictors army. No one's complained yet.

I use Chaos bits for my Sternguard, but regular old tac Marine bodies. Any sprucing up will do, really, to make them stand out. You should be fine.

I assume these are vanilla,not BA?Painting the shoulder edging silver or white is a good idea,as this is what the codex astartes dictates.

Sternguard are simply tactically equipped veterans. In an Ultramarine army, they'd simply be recognisable by their white helmets. The only instance where they'd have to look different modelwise would be where no such markings exist.

If unpainted, that might be a bit difficult. Giving them those stormbolter magazines for their bolters might do the trick even then, though.

Ugavine wrote:Sternguard are veterans using special ammo. Model wise they could look just like regular Tac Marines. But you have already done enough to make them stand out, nicely painted BTW.

Those are not my marines, I am just using that scheme as inspiration for my veterans.

Crimson fists fluff doesn't seem to mention how their veterans differ from normal marines aside from painting both fists red. I was planning on painting any metal decorations gold instead of silver. Additionally I was planning on painting the red stripe down the middle of their helmets.

For the guns i am going to have to convert some combi-meltas which is more work than I am used too but that should at least make them look different enough.

Absolutely acceptable, same with using assault marines for vanguard.

In an Ultramarine army, the shoulder guard borders are going to be white, the helmets will be white, and the sergeants will have red/white helmets (In my case, a white helmet with the "mohawk" colored red.)....stands out quite a bit from the blue helmets and gold trimmed shoulders of the tacticals.

In the case of sternguard, all those extra magazine pouches and misc. bits you have from the tactical box? Yea. Use those. A guy walking around so loaded down with spare mags it looks like he is carrying the entire squads ammo will definitely perk the opponents "Wait...something is amiss..." radar...plus it looks a bit fluffy to see the dudes presumably magswapping like mad to have a few pouches to put empties/grab reloads.

Mess with their bolters. Stuff some scopes on, or bayonets, or convert some belt feeds, stormbolter magazines, etc.

Just make them stand out at a glance. If you have neon signs, use neon signs. (Also, don't the crimson fists only have one fist painted crimson for tacticals, two for veterans? This may not stand out much alone though.)

cyorysh wrote:

Ugavine wrote:Sternguard are veterans using special ammo. Model wise they could look just like regular Tac Marines. But you have already done enough to make them stand out, nicely painted BTW.

Those are not my marines, I am just using that scheme as inspiration for my veterans.

Crimson fists fluff doesn't seem to mention how their veterans differ from normal marines aside from painting both fists red. I was planning on painting any metal decorations gold instead of silver. Additionally I was planning on painting the red stripe down the middle of their helmets.

For the guns i am going to have to convert some combi-meltas which is more work than I am used too but that should at least make them look different enough.

If you can afford it,why not consider the FW old bolters,the ones that came with old marks of PA?

Be awesome and convert them from tac Marines like I did:

100% acceptable, as long as they are different in some way.

The paint scheme should be different for veterans anyway.