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As long as it is very clear what a model is, and it can't be confused for something else almost identical in your army, it's okay in my opinion.

I try to have every model in my army be some sort of conversion, and I make sure all the weapons are appropriately modeled.

With my own army I'm keeping it as close to WYSIWYG as possible. I am proxying a terminator captain for a terminator librarian, but the weapons are all correct. I'm also saying my sergeant's bolt pistol counts as a storm bolter, but I'll be painting it as such so hopefully it won't be confusing.

Personally if I'm playing against SM I'd want them to be SM. From an immersion point of view a hammer representing a lascannon isn't great. And if you're a fan of the SM aesthetic, not actually using SM miniatures kind of ruins that too. To me WH40K is as much about the miniatures as the rules.

Throwing hammers around counting as lascannons is taking it too far IMO. I can easily accept those models as SM equivalents but the weapons need to look the part. It gets really confusing really fast if melee weapons represent ranged weapons.

If you play CSM it is hardly possible to build a proper army without using 3rd party minis or at least Bits. Even the new Death Guard would be pretty lame if you only used those monopose Poxwalkers and plague Marines.

I'm using around 20 Dreamforge Valkir Heavy Troopers with GW Black Templar conversion parts as Black Templar Crusader Squads and 20 Dreamforge Eisenkern Stormtroopers as Tempestus Scions, with Forgeworld Volkite Weapons as Plasmaweapons.
So, I quite like 3rd party minis xD
I'm mostly playing balanced games, but I still made up a narrative for my army. It's an Ordo Hereticus Warband/Warhost, led by an Inquisitor (Inquisitor Lok Model with energy sword and Anvil Games belt-fed Boltpistol). Main force are my Deathkorps Grenadiers in Stormchimeras, but if necessary I can field the aforementioned Black Templars (in inquisition provided specialist Powerarmor, hence the dreamforge models) or inquisitorial Stormtroopers (again, specialist armor provided by the inquisition).
The only problem I have is, that the dreamforge models use slightly larger bases, so I'll have to get some right sized bases at some point in the future to prevent any advantages for me or my opponents ^^

 Weazel wrote:
Throwing hammers around counting as lascannons is taking it too far IMO. I can easily accept those models as SM equivalents but the weapons need to look the part. It gets really confusing really fast if melee weapons represent ranged weapons.

Honestly I agree. It is a weak justification...I really feel they should be a "Heavy Support" option...just not sure what kind however (not many choices)

Some great 'counts as' and proxies I've seen:

"Imperial Guard" that was actually traitor guard models. They were a 'highly organized group of heretics' and modeled to be very 'chaos', but the guy just used the AM Codex. He actually had a Chaos Baneblade done very well.

Various Necromunda models as "Chaos Cultists". Alpha Legion Operatives, to be exact.

Classic old-school Storm Troopers and Kasrkin as Tempestus Scions.

A Minotaurs Chapter (because there's not a lot of 'Greek' options unless you go third party).

My own Alpha Legion, which substitutes everything possible out with its Horus Heresy equivalent- outrider bikes, Mk 4 armor, Headhunters as Chosen, etc.) And believe it or not, I've had people throw tantrums about this.

 Cyprien wrote:
I'm using around 20 Dreamforge Valkir Heavy Troopers with GW Black Templar conversion parts as Black Templar Crusader Squads and 20 Dreamforge Eisenkern Stormtroopers as Tempestus Scions, with Forgeworld Volkite Weapons as Plasmaweapons.
So, I quite like 3rd party minis xD
I'm mostly playing balanced games, but I still made up a narrative for my army. It's an Ordo Hereticus Warband/Warhost, led by an Inquisitor (Inquisitor Lok Model with energy sword and Anvil Games belt-fed Boltpistol). Main force are my Deathkorps Grenadiers in Stormchimeras, but if necessary I can field the aforementioned Black Templars (in inquisition provided specialist Powerarmor, hence the dreamforge models) or inquisitorial Stormtroopers (again, specialist armor provided by the inquisition).
The only problem I have is, that the dreamforge models use slightly larger bases, so I'll have to get some right sized bases at some point in the future to prevent any advantages for me or my opponents ^^

I bought some Eisenkern Stormtroopers to use as Space Marine Scouts. I don't care for those particular GW models.

FYI-I did start a new thread about what to use the one unit for, to help declutter this thread