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I don't understand why in boxes for marines they give you the option for helmetless models. Or characters in finecast come helmetless. Where is the advantage in that? A tau pathfinder or some type of poison gas could easily kill Marneus Calgar, Or Kaldor Draigo to name a few. You lose protection, and respiratory systems when you dont have a helmet. So can someone please explain it to me. I just find it silly.

Looks cool

Because it looks good. That's it and allot of times they give you way more extra bits to model it with a helmet so it's your choice if you don't like it. Draigo in particular come with a helmet option. For actual game play it makes it much easier to differentiate key characters that is beneficial for both players.

Yeah I often wondered that, especially when it came to the sergeants in Imperial Guard.

It just shows they are harder though!!!

rule of cool wins the day, plus table top wise, ot maes your leaders different and looking brave.

Fluff wise: first off poison gas does not bother space marine since with there super bodies and I forget wich organs neutrelize all but the worse of Nurgles flu's. And there various reason why character don't wear helmet, usaly boils down to either wanting to see there enemies death with there own eye's or give a sense of fearlesness to his troups

I agree. That's why I never use helmet less models, or convert them to have helmets if necessary.

Yeah. I did the same thing to my librarian. Thing is he looks so much cooler with a paladin helmet

 Ma55ter_fett wrote:
Looks cool

/thread

 prophet102 wrote:
I just find it silly.

Because you're not actually bothering to really think about it. If you'll note, the models without helmets are the ones that tend to be characters, upgraded models, or otherwise individual from the rest of the squad, and lack of helmet helps the models stand out separate from the rank and file. Who's the sarge with the better leadership, potential special weapons? That guy, right there. You also seem to be thinking that just because the model is depicting a character without a helmet, that that's their permanent state, that if the battle were somehow to be acted out, that those models never ever wore a helmet at any point at all. You could go for a fancy helmet crest, paint scheme, or iconography to make a character stand out from the squad, but being bareheaded makes a model immediately identifiable as being different.

This is one of those weird things that people seem to obsess on, to the point that it's not infrequent to see people makes threads that models sans helmets should suffer some sort of game play penalty, like a worse armor save. It's like saying that a model posed to be leaping off a rock and swinging a choppa shouldn't be able to shoot, because look, he's in midair holding onto the weapon with both hands. At some point you have to remember that part of the role of the models is to look good on the table, and not to be illustrate every moment on the battlefield with excruciating fidelity.

40K is a science fantasy game where genetically modified supermen fight against an array of spaceified Lord of the Rings creatures, where technology is worshipped and where hitting someone with a pointy stick is seen as just as viable a battle tactic as shooting them with a battle tank or nuking them from orbit.

In that context, characters run around helmetless for much the same reason as everything else happens in this game - because visual aesthetics is more important to the game than real-world battle strategy.

Or, for the short version - Looks cool.

 insaniak wrote:
40K is a science fantasy game where genetically modified supermen fight against an array of spaceified Lord of the Rings creatures, where technology is worshipped and where hitting someone with a pointy stick is seen as just as viable a battle tactic as shooting them with a battle tank or nuking them from orbit.

In that context, characters run around helmetless for much the same reason as everything else happens in this game - because visual aesthetics is more important to the game than real-world battle strategy.

Or, for the short version - Looks cool.

/thread
... again

People have different ways of looking at the same thing.

The original poster looks at a helmetless Space Marine character, and sees the issue with not wearing a helmet on a battlefield from an in-universe practicality standpoint.

I look at a helmetless Space Marine character, and see a way to make the squad leader more easily recognized as such from a gaming standpoint.

Someone else looks at a helmetless Space Marine character, and sees a badass who's too brave to wear a helmet into battle from a rule of cool standpoint.

There are probably more ways to look at it, but the point is that they're all legitimate.

Some of my models are helmetless. One of my most recent creations is an Assault Marine Sergeant made with pieces from at least 4 different kits from different armies, and he's wearing a helmet because it looks awesome on him - and he's already very distinctive, to the point where he looks like he should be a Chapter Master or a Captain, or at the very least a Vanguard Veteran Sergeant, instead of a lowly Assault Marine Sergeant.

Edited to comment on:

 insaniak wrote:
...or nuking them from orbit.

Well, to be fair, it IS the only way to be sure. : P

Helmetless Models look lame and no one should use them.

Really it is a disappoint when my opponents helmets are missing.

Not going to not get a game in because of it, but it just looks bad.

 DeathReaper wrote:
Helmetless Models look lame and no one should use them.

Really it is a disappoint when my opponents helmets are missing.

Not going to not get a game in because of it, but it just looks bad.

That's nice and all, but I don't think you're going to get me to mod my solid metal Sisters of Batt...

Wait, this thread is about Marines, so nevermind.

insaniak owned the thread.

 DeathReaper wrote:
Helmetless Models look lame and no one should use them.

Really it is a disappoint when my opponents helmets are missing.

Not going to not get a game in because of it, but it just looks bad.

Using only models with helmets can be a way of hiding the fact that one is not confident about or good at painting faces. That's certainly why I did it on my first two armies.

But seriously, faces are an excellent place to display painting skill (especially in contrast to power armor, which is otherwise full of smooth, regular shapes) and can look really great.

 Mannahnin wrote:
insaniak owned the thread.

 DeathReaper wrote:
Helmetless Models look lame and no one should use them.

Really it is a disappoint when my opponents helmets are missing.

Not going to not get a game in because of it, but it just looks bad.

Using only models with helmets can be a way of hiding the fact that one is not confident about or good at painting faces. That's certainly why I did it on my first two armies.

But seriously, faces are an excellent place to display painting skill (especially in contrast to power armor, which is otherwise full of smooth, regular shapes) and can look really great.

I'm pretty terrible at painting faces, but I'd be lying if I said that using helmets wherever possible hadn't occurred to me.

Well, not having a helmet is cool and heroic looking. Plus helmets can get lost in the middle of battle. They get hit by enemy fire and get trashed.

Of course I model all my marines with their helmets on.

Personally, i find that helmetless marines kinda look dorky cause of their armor. On the other hand though, Imperial guard without helmets kinda makes sense, i mean, you're expected to die a horrible death if your facing shooty armies like tau or other marines. A clean shot to the temple will put you out of your misery. Also, helmets are heavy, in the midst of battle, the first thing you want to go for is the piece of toilet paper that protects your knogin from a bolter

Marines do get unhelmed a fair bit, half the novels out there like to have their protagonist's helm get trashed by enemy fire that they survive.

I have few unhelmed models, but I feel there's at least some mild justification for all of them.
Space Wolves have a pretty good reason, due to superior sense of smell.

Plague Marines don't care since face, armour, it's all the same to them where they get shot.

I figure some Librarians also find it easier to channel their powers without a helm in between their skull and psychic hood.

All that said, I find unhelmed Terminators amusing. That right there is why sometimes you lose them to lasguns.

I keep it that way because I enjoy painting faces, and it identifies my gritty sergeants easily.

It's fairly easy to lose a helmet in the chaos of battle, or you may want your troops to immediately recognize you as their superior officer.

My standard infantrymen have helmets, special weapons and officers go unhelmeted or have something special, to denote their status.

Really, there are a ton of possible reasons. I go for "it looks cool and it's fun to paint"

It's a pet peeve of mine to have models without a helmet, it really bothers me. I am ok enough to accept it for some models. I have a librarian in terminator armour, I could carve out his head and replace it with a helmet, but it doesn't bother me enough to go through the inconvenience of carving the head out. Another example is I have Brother-Captain Stern, his model is supposed to be helmetless so I leave him that way.

I was really happy that they gave Draigo the option of helmet or not.

 DeathReaper wrote:
Helmetless Models look lame and no one should use them.

Really it is a disappoint when my opponents helmets are missing.

Not going to not get a game in because of it, but it just looks bad.

That's clearly a matter of opinion. I completely disagree.

How are you supposed to know how angry your space marines are if you can't see them scowl?

As a counter point, I hate the TDA helmets. I think they look like a mix between stormtroopers and japanese puppets. All of my termie models rock faces because I refuse to model, paint, or field helmets.

 Nerobellum wrote:
How are you supposed to know how angry your space marines are if you can't see them scowl?

That's why they should wear Mk VII. It has built in scowling.

I model dudes without helmets for the same reason I have all my tank commanders leaning out of their hatches waving swords and flags. I model my tanks with my commanders exposed for the same reason why my ork warbikers are popping wheelies. I model my ork warbikers popping wheelies for the same reason I like to model guardsmen smoking, relaxing, or other generally inappropriate activities in the middle of a battle.

Because it looks cool, and because if an opponent spergs out at the sight of them I know what kind of game I'm in for

Warlord's Bolt Action Rulebook does a great job of explaining why a person would have models doing activities that would be stupid/dangerous in an active battlefield. A tank commander would obviously duck down into his turret the moment gunfire erupted. Likewise, an infantry model that is reloading is obviously not stuck reloading forever. They're placeholders to represent a soldier on an imaginary battlefield. What that model is doing on it's base is not the only thing it's ever allowed to do, nor is it frozen in that position. It is for all intents and purposes no different than if I put a penny down to denote a soldier was there. The model just looks cooler.

TL;DR: If I want to model all my guardsmen with no helmets doing handstands while smoking cigars, wearing monocles, and shooting their lasguns with their feet, I'll do it, because like it or not, they're still guardsmen, and they're still WYSIWYG.

a. Looks cool

b. Marines loose their helms all the time in the fluff. No helmet-less models would be unfluffy

c. Cinematics. When (super-)heroes loose their helmets, rip their shirts or costumes, etc.., it's smack-down time.

Easier to issue commands.
Also in Deathwatch marines gain bonus reputation for being ballsy enough to go without their helmet.

do note that a space marine is tough, especially the hero type guys, like librarians, captains and characters. ofcourse the chance of being killed is smaller when wearing a helmet, space marines can easily do without one - I bet that many marines can handle a shot in the face

furthermore, it gives character to your models, they aren't the numerous nameless soldiers but your personal heroes

We learn as a baby to recognize people by their faces. So seeing individual faces is what makes characters individual. A helmet with an extra white stripe is not equally impressive.

Depends a lot on the circumstance but majority is always 'looks cool', sometimes i use plain heads to tell the difference between 2 otherwise similar models with same wargear but some subtle differences.
Space marines do not require a helmet, however it would be stupid for them to not use one if there was one at their disposal.
ultimately its not a question you will ever get one right answer for, more likely a long flame war ultimately getting locked due to people's very personal opinions.