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Why doesn't he wear any armour on his left arm? This seems to me like a terrible idea.

Good question. Although, I honestly don't think that it's a matter of fluff, but a matter of producing the model. The bare left arm, in my opinion, makes the model look more savage and cool.

-Wolf Guard 252

I'll be the other side to that arguement and say it makes it look silly and too comical to take a blood crazed murderer seriously.

That said, I don't think there is a real reason.

He is the chosen of Khorne...Why would someone so steeped in bloodlust be worried about personal safety xD

Ignatius wrote:I'll be the other side to that arguement and say it makes it look silly and too comical to take a blood crazed murderer seriously.

The model and concept comes from 2nd edition, home of the old comical grimdark. Now it's more serious grim grimdark, and doesn't quite fit as well.

Ignatius wrote:That said, I don't think there is a real reason.

Also this. The concept artist and sculptor thought it would look badass with a bare arm, so they did it. Remember, GW models are always produced on the rule of cool.

Isn't that his axe arm?
If so, it's to show that he doesn't need armour or reinforced strength to brutally dismember your army.

This is a universe, where we see seven foot tall warriors wear Bright Blue Armour into battle, they care little for practicality.

One of my big peeves is guys without helmets... i mean that's a far more pressing matter, they could get shot in the face!

Its just for the rule of cool, no fluff relevance as far as i know.

khaosspacemarines wrote:This is a universe, where we see seven foot tall warriors wear Bright Blue Armour into battle, they care little for practicality.

One of my big peeves is guys without helmets... i mean that's a far more pressing matter, they could get shot in the face!

Its just for the rule of cool, no fluff relevance as far as i know.

Helmets do not protect you from being shot in the face. If a shell hit someone in the helmet, they are still going to die. Exception MAYBE for the lasgun but even that would propably penetrate the helmet.

The point of the Helmet is for the HUD for a Space Marine, the ability to breath in areas without oxygen, and to protect from debries hitting your head (the last one is what helmets do for everyone else)

Galdos wrote:

khaosspacemarines wrote:This is a universe, where we see seven foot tall warriors wear Bright Blue Armour into battle, they care little for practicality.

One of my big peeves is guys without helmets... i mean that's a far more pressing matter, they could get shot in the face!

Its just for the rule of cool, no fluff relevance as far as i know.

Helmets do not protect you from being shot in the face. If a shell hit someone in the helmet, they are still going to die. Exception MAYBE for the lasgun but even that would propably penetrate the helmet.

The point of the Helmet is for the HUD for a Space Marine, the ability to breath in areas without oxygen, and to protect from debries hitting your head (the last one is what helmets do for everyone else)

Actually in alot of the BL book (Battle of the Fang for one) They make reference to not wearing the helmet. The helmets have protected SM from some heavy shots bit according to them lasgun don't ever do anything to SM armour.

Not sure why Kharn doesn't wear armor on his arm. Probably just to make him look "cool" even though it looks foolish to me. Or maybe so his swinging arm is less restricted? I don't know.

Think its just rule of cool.

However the old tribes of England met the Romans painted in all kinds of colours screaming and flashing their junk it certainly scared the crappy out of the Romans despite their training and equipment.

Sometimes intimidation means you don't have to worry about halm lol

It's likely because the armour got broken in some battle and Kharn being Kharn, he decided it made more sense to get rid of it so he wouldn't have any extra weight on his axe arm.

By the way, what about the chains? Maybe he was improsoned some time and escaped? By 'escaped', of course I mean 'murdered everyone'.

The really old (Dark millenium era, I think,) Bezerker model had a bare arm AND leg, It's an old mini throwback, plus rule of cool and whatnot...

Durza wrote:It's likely because the armour got broken in some battle and Kharn being Kharn, he decided it made more sense to get rid of it so he wouldn't have any extra weight on his axe arm.

This, probably. That, and it may be that, being Khornate and all, he doesn't much care about his own personal safety.

Actually I'm sure there was an old piece of background about the marine's bodies flexing and expanding wildly when they went into a berserk rage - the chemicals and hormones flowing through their body (released by their cortical implants) meaning that the marines who hadn't loosened their army being wracked with agony because of their expanded musculature.

I can't remember where I read it for the life of me though..

There is a new ebook short story about Kharne on the BL website, maybe that explains something about it? http://www.blacklibrary.com/all-products/the-weakness-of-others-ebook.html

IIRC, friend coolio, World Eater Berserkers have their power armor fused to their flesh to an extent where it is almost useless, they have nerve endings and even blood vessels in it. He might have torn it off in a fit of rage.

Or it could he his 'personal activities' hand...

Actually, he removed the armor so that he can pet kittens more easily. One doesn't have much tactile sensation in a power armored gauntlet, after all...

optimusprime14 wrote:

Galdos wrote:

khaosspacemarines wrote:This is a universe, where we see seven foot tall warriors wear Bright Blue Armour into battle, they care little for practicality.

One of my big peeves is guys without helmets... i mean that's a far more pressing matter, they could get shot in the face!

Its just for the rule of cool, no fluff relevance as far as i know.

Helmets do not protect you from being shot in the face. If a shell hit someone in the helmet, they are still going to die. Exception MAYBE for the lasgun but even that would propably penetrate the helmet.

The point of the Helmet is for the HUD for a Space Marine, the ability to breath in areas without oxygen, and to protect from debries hitting your head (the last one is what helmets do for everyone else)

Actually in alot of the BL book (Battle of the Fang for one) They make reference to not wearing the helmet. The helmets have protected SM from some heavy shots bit according to them lasgun don't ever do anything to SM armour.

Possible that a lasgun wouldnt penetrate. Once in a blue moon while the planets are aligned a helmet maybe strong enough to block something above lasgun grade weapon but if the TT is going to give in an AP value, it is strong enough to pen a helmet no problem. Ive read a lot of those BL books also including Battle of the Fang and im simply saying that helmets dont make SMs immune to headshots, it just protects them from hitting their head or the stray light arms shell

Galdos wrote:

khaosspacemarines wrote:This is a universe, where we see seven foot tall warriors wear Bright Blue Armour into battle, they care little for practicality.

One of my big peeves is guys without helmets... i mean that's a far more pressing matter, they could get shot in the face!

Its just for the rule of cool, no fluff relevance as far as i know.

Helmets do not protect you from being shot in the face. If a shell hit someone in the helmet, they are still going to die. Exception MAYBE for the lasgun but even that would propably penetrate the helmet.

The point of the Helmet is for the HUD for a Space Marine, the ability to breath in areas without oxygen, and to protect from debries hitting your head (the last one is what helmets do for everyone else)

Actually in the fluff, PA helmets usually seem to be capable of deflecting bolt pistol rounds. In fact, I think Jurgen's carapace armour helmet deflected a bolt round from a full sized bolter...

The whole helmet off thing is, other than for the rule of cool, because, as mariens have said in the novels before, to get a better "feel" for the battlefield, or, in one instance (forget which novel) because it was easier to spot snipers, though I think the auto-senses would probably be better for that...

Galdos wrote:

khaosspacemarines wrote:This is a universe, where we see seven foot tall warriors wear Bright Blue Armour into battle, they care little for practicality.

One of my big peeves is guys without helmets... i mean that's a far more pressing matter, they could get shot in the face!

Its just for the rule of cool, no fluff relevance as far as i know.

Helmets do not protect you from being shot in the face. If a shell hit someone in the helmet, they are still going to die. Exception MAYBE for the lasgun but even that would propably penetrate the helmet.

The point of the Helmet is for the HUD for a Space Marine, the ability to breath in areas without oxygen, and to protect from debries hitting your head (the last one is what helmets do for everyone else)

And how many lasguns around the universe? hundreds of billions?

'Though the Space Marine sergeants are seriously impractical. (gee, I'll just walk through this deathworld without a hat)

Im not saying its not a big deal that they dont have helmets. I agree it is stupid. Im just saying that helmets dont make SMs immune to instant kills like people seem to think.


Ya Carapace reflected a bolt round, to me thats like saying their are recorded incidents of Kevlar body armor deflecting a 7.62 from an AK. Of course that is true, it happens. However if you think that Kevlar body armor is going to protect you 100% from an AK you are dead wrong (I did not realize I was mkaing that pun as I typed that)

Should they have helmets, feth ya they should.

Can a helmet save them from a bolt round, ya it can.

Will having a helmet on save you from a one shot kill, feth no it wont.

There are also stories of SMs firing a single bolt at the forehead and killing his Chaos opponent. There are more factors at play then "did it hit the armor" everything from distance to if it was slightly windy and which direction will effect penetration abilities.

feth even Flak Armor is recorded as saving a Guardsman from a bolter round before and NO ONE is going to argue that Flak armor is effective against bolters.


All im saying is that Helmets CAN save a guy but most likely they will not. That is the whole point of rolling an armor save, to see if the shell hit a weak point like the helmet

feth even Flak Armor is recorded as saving a Guardsman from a bolter round before and NO ONE is going to argue that Flak armor is effective against bolters.

SOURCE PLZ

All im saying is that Helmets CAN save a guy but most likely they will not. That is the whole point of rolling an armor save, to see if the shell hit a weak point like the helmet

Weak point like the mouth grill or a joint, maybe.

Most likely the PA helmet will save you. Anything strong enough to penetrate it wouldn't have been stopped anyways (plasma, lascannon etc.)
It is more or less proof against small arms.

It's rule of cool on the minis, even in the old Space Wolf novels, the blood claws wore their helmets most of the time.

Je suis2 au hazard wrote:

feth even Flak Armor is recorded as saving a Guardsman from a bolter round before and NO ONE is going to argue that Flak armor is effective against bolters.

SOURCE PLZ

All im saying is that Helmets CAN save a guy but most likely they will not. That is the whole point of rolling an armor save, to see if the shell hit a weak point like the helmet

Weak point like the mouth grill or a joint, maybe.

Most likely the PA helmet will save you. Anything strong enough to penetrate it wouldn't have been stopped anyways (plasma, lascannon etc.)
It is more or less proof against small arms.

Ciaphas Cain. Im not saying it happens all the time, Im saying once in a blue moon when all the planets align. The person wasnt okay, he took massive injuries and was out of the fight so maybe thats not the best example.


Im talking about Bolt rounds penetrating the forehead, yes that has happened multiple times. Ya a lasgun isnt going to penetrate that I know, but that doesnt mean that this thing will stop bolters 24/7. If they were THAT GOOD then it wouldnt even be up for debate. Hell even in the books like Battle of the Fang the Captains comment that yes they are lossing some protection but its not a big loss. The weapons he is worried about hit himming are going to pen him if he has the helmet on or not, thats why he doesnt care about the helmet. If the Helmet could stop bolter rounds and he knows that the enemy will be carrying bolters, you bet your ass he is going to have his helmet on.


I dont understand why you guys believe power armor is this magical ability that nothing short of a lascannon can penetrate. I would say most likely the helmet would NOT save you


You know Im probably going to give up on this conversation. Its not even worth it.

Not sure if you guys have read the Horus Heresy but if you do it becomes quite obvious that those helmets weren't made to protect from serious firepower but to be used as a breathing apparatus and to protect from light damage as a previous author has declared. In those books nearly every battle resolved in a sentence portraying some kind of gun or other kind of weapon blowing right through that helmet. Thus keeping in line with the way helmets work today, it's a freak of nature to see a helmet actually deflecting a shot hitting a helmet straight on rather it's created to protect the user from falling rubble.

I don't know about the armor but the guy got impaled by a spike on a tank during the Isstavan campaign, perhaps that is where the damage to the armor was suffered.

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:

Durza wrote:It's likely because the armour got broken in some battle and Kharn being Kharn, he decided it made more sense to get rid of it so he wouldn't have any extra weight on his axe arm.

This, probably. That, and it may be that, being Khornate and all, he doesn't much care about his own personal safety.

if he wore that arm armour then he'd hit his opponents on a 3+ instead. then he won't be able to hit something with every single attack he makes.

Je suis2 au hazard wrote:

Actually in the fluff, PA helmets usually seem to be capable of deflecting bolt pistol rounds. In fact, I think Jurgen's carapace armour helmet deflected a bolt round from a full sized bolter...

The whole helmet off thing is, other than for the rule of cool, because, as mariens have said in the novels before, to get a better "feel" for the battlefield, or, in one instance (forget which novel) because it was easier to spot snipers, though I think the auto-senses would probably be better for that...

We all know that the marines not wearing helmets is for artistic merit only - it makes absolutely no sense in the context of a real life combat scenario. Even if there was only a 5% chance that a head shot would be deflected by wearing one, the marines would be forced to wear one by their commanders.

There is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek section in one of the Night Lord books by ADB..

He stopped to take his helmet of, distracted he fell pray to the bolter-round. Little to do with the helmet, more to do with the fact that the marine wasn't prepared.

Galdos wrote:

Helmets do not protect you from being shot in the face. If a shell hit someone in the helmet, they are still going to die. Exception MAYBE for the lasgun but even that would propably penetrate the helmet.

Actual fluff contradicts this pretty hard. There's even an entry in the Chaos 4E codex where a marine gets shot in the face several times by a bolt pistol and his helmet shrugs off most of the damage.

Thank you Reality-Torrent, im glad to see im not the only one who thinks that helmets are as strong as the chest plate of a Space Marine.

Blaxican you said that fluff contradicts it pretty hard, I say that the fluff contradicts your statement pretty hard by having Marines get one shot all the damn time.

The HH is the best source for these incidents but they exist in other sources too. Personally I havnt ever heard of this entry you are talking about but ill take your word it is there.

In that case we have to contradicting sources. Ya Im willing to accept that the SM helmet is simply a device to help a SM breathing apparatus, a HUD, to help heighten their senses, and protection from very light arms and debries.

Judging by the size of the helmet, the appearing light weight of it, and how it is filled with very sensitive technology and electrical equipment, im going to say that it makes sense that the helmet would NOT be a reliable source of protection from a weapon with the caliber of a bolt shell. That doesnt mean it CANT do it but that is more of luck then anything else.