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This one is for...basically everyone but Tyranids and Orks.

What do you prefer, using helmeted heads for your miniatures(if available) or a helmetless head?

I have avoided helmeted heads on my Crimson Fists (only my scouts and my LSS occupants have bare heads). For my small force of Space Wolves, I have mostly bare heads. A couple of my Grey Hunters have helmets, but the Wolf Lord Terminators are all bare headed. For my Blood Angels, I haven't totally decided. I love the look of Space Marine helmets, and I hate painting eyes (Read: Can't paint eyes), and the hair on Blood Angels is growing on me. I know I am going to get a Scout Squad or a Biker Scout Squad for this army, so I will probably get rid of all the buzzcut heads and put the mop heads on them.

I know I was dismayed to see that the Sanguinary Priest and Dark Eldar Archon lacked a helmeted option, especially the Archon since I love the look of the Eldar and Dark Eldar helmets(Seriously, there is an Archon on the cover of the codex, but they didn't give the Archon model a helmet!). I am probably going to take a helmet out of the Tactical Squad and give it to the Sanguinary Priest so there is more white on him.

It depends on the rest of the model more that anything. Sometimes, a helmet looks better, sometimes you need the bare-faced and scarred Marine yelling a battlecry.

For my guardsmen, I prefer Helmets *and* masks. Basically, anything that means I don't have to look at (or paint) their stupid, gormless faces, which look like constipated-potatoes.

I do like bare heads for characters (even if it is blisteringly idiotic).

Y'know I don't think I ever gave it any thought, but now that I do, I guess it depends on what I'm going for.

-Helmeted seems the way to go for various rank and file, heavy weapons guys, and pilots.

-Bare-head seems like something a veteran would do; see with his own eyes, smell with his nose, hear with his ears, etc. It's commented that Space Wolves feel this way about wearing helmets given their keen sense of smell.

-I think that scouts don't wear helmets is sort of odd, you'd think that would be something they'd cover right off the bat - don't want to waste time training you so that you can get your melon popped two days before you get your armor.

I prefer realistic Look.
Walking bare headed in an apokalyptischen battlefield...

My IG are Steel Legion so they all have masks and helmets. Most of my Space Marines have helmets, fluff wise the helmets have targeters in them so it would just be silly not to wear your helmet into battle. My Space Wolves are my only SM army that have models with bare heads simply because screw fluff when your models look that BA.

I always thought it was extremely stupid for SM's to not wear their helmets. Their brain is the one Organ which is utterly crucial and doesn't have a backup in a Space Marine's body. Hell, they even have two hearts to reduce the chance of dying from one shot...

How stupid would it be to have your extremely tough, genetically enhanced body which is encased in effective armour to be removed from the war simply because you took a bullet to the face.

Hey OP, what about Daemons?
They don't get helmets either...

Although I'd love to see someone try to model helmets onto Khorne's troops, or Daemon Princes using Dreadnought bitz as helmets.

 Frankenberry wrote:
Y'know I don't think I ever gave it any thought, but now that I do, I guess it depends on what I'm going for.

-Helmeted seems the way to go for various rank and file, heavy weapons guys, and pilots.

-Bare-head seems like something a veteran would do; see with his own eyes, smell with his nose, hear with his ears, etc. It's commented that Space Wolves feel this way about wearing helmets given their keen sense of smell.

-I think that scouts don't wear helmets is sort of odd, you'd think that would be something they'd cover right off the bat - don't want to waste time training you so that you can get your melon popped two days before you get your armor.

I like your point about the Scouts. Sending a man out with nothing protecting his head other than a buzzcut just doesn't strike me as all that bright. Black Templars and Space Wolves seem to be the only ones that have it right.

As for me, I think most of my Power Armored Blood Angels will have the full helmet, but Terminators will have a few bare heads. I did just spend a few bucks on paint so I could paint Karlaen, might as well use it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Talon of Anathrax wrote:
Hey OP, what about Daemons?
They don't get helmets either...

Although I'd love to see someone try to model helmets onto Khorne's troops, or Daemon Princes using Dreadnought bitz as helmets.

Damnit, I knew I forgot one!

Helmeted marines make up vast majority of my plague marines. Mine are the forgeworld conversions.

I prefer helmets, but can't really manage it - only a quarter of all Sororitas sculpts have helmets.

That said, when I run my Chaos Cult, I use helmeted models to represent Armour Wraiths (Rubric marines) and bare-headed models to represent Sorceresses (Aspiring Sorcerers, HQ characters) because it makes for an easy visual distinction when playing against a physrep army.

As a former Tau player, you get bored with the Fire Warrior helmets for a while. I like both helmets and bare heads for different reasons: Helmets because they might look cool and thematic, bare head because it adds to the feel and character of the model. Problem with this is that there are no way to make Tau helmets look different or unique, and the faces has barely any character to them. The Pathfinder heads are pretty good, but I'm still lusting for a proper helmet with extra techy-bits, with extra ornamentation or with some sort of damage to them, rather than the egg-with-lights on them we have now. Bear in mind that they are cool in themselves, but hardly so that every model can do with them alone.

But how hard can it be to make a face or two with battle-scars, with some character to them? What about one with high-tech augmentations? A female head, maybe?

For my Orks, helmets are a part of the character - I see the helmeted gits as reserved and hardy, the helmetless as wild and reckless and the helmet-with-jaw ones as leaders.

For my future Grey Knights, I'd put on helmets on anyone but a Librarian (Glowing Eyes!!!), and add glow-effect to the eyes for the rest (Glowing Eyes!!!). I happen to really like the knightly look of those heads, so it's not much of a problem.

My Tau have white helmets to denote importance. I think helmets should be worn but in occasion they take them off to use binoculars or the mobile phone thingy they have.
If I did marines again I would give them all helmets. I find it stupid that anyone would not wear a helmet in war when it has all the things in it i.e. Comms, targeters, respirators, protection, night vision flash protection.

Wasn't there an old rule that penalised helmetless models in certain situations?

As for scouts not having helmets, I think it comes down to their need to be light and fast and have good vision.
Also bear in mind that shooting someone in the head is probably quite difficult, most professionals are likely trained to aim for the largest surface. Also with marines their head is teeny-tiny compared to the vastness of their armour.

I prfefer helmets. The bare heads are usually as large as the helmet ones and the model just looks like some bobble head if it doesn't have the helmet on.

Speaking of which, does anyone know any good helmets for SM scouts?

 Earth Intruder wrote:
I prfefer helmets. The bare heads are usually as large as the helmet ones and the model just looks like some bobble head if it doesn't have the helmet on.

Speaking of which, does anyone know any good helmets for SM scouts?

Couldn't you maybe use the helmeted Cadian heads?

Helmets.
Always helmets!

Voted "Bare Head" on this occasion.
For me it's purely aesthetics.
I've tried to put as much bare skin on my DE as possible.
I want a single colour on the armour and it will be an additional unifying colour that will run through the army and I'm not that bad at painting skin.
Irl, I'd be wearing a helmet, goggles, knee supports, wristguards and oven gloves.

No helmets on the space battlefield seems like an odd choice.

What are the odds EVERY planet you fight on has breathable air for your race? there are only a handful of such in reality in the entire galaxy.

 BoomWolf wrote:
What are the odds EVERY planet you fight on has breathable air for your race? .

By the time that the armies engage such things must (hopefully) have been established.

For Eldar, the vast majority of non helmet heads are just horrible, so that's easy.

Terminators without helmets look ridiculous by the way.

Hey look I'm wearing tank armor but no helmet.

Oh, feelings on helmets in general for models. Right.

I like helmets, but to me, it doesn't need to be overly realistic - If the model is cooler with a helmet, i'll choose it, and if otherwise, I won't.

It lends character to the model if it has a bare head, and make him/her sorta a hero I can recognize. I have this Ork Boy who's looking like he's charging with a chainblade and a slugga, with wide open mouth, a blind eye and red paint over the eyes to really make him look barbarous. I think I'll call him Chuk da Madboy. He dies every game, but he's fun so I don't mind.

Some cases it come down to how the overall model looks. I. HATE. Terminator helmets - They look like, fething, dogs or something. Ain't havin' it. Therefor I usually use something else or helmetless heads, just because they look better. GK Terminator helmets are cool, though.

Mostly helmets with a few not for the "rule of cool", never really got the "realistic" argument, 40k is all about crazy unrealism and idiots, especially Space Marines running around in bright coloured armour.

Its also possible that your miniatures are mid battle, so some of them might have had their helmet damaged so have had to discard them to continue to fight at their best.

Depends on the army and how good or bad the helmet looks, but in general I prefer them.

The exception might be Eldar simply because I hate the cone heads, if they had non-coneheaded helmets, then I'd probably prefer helmets.

Oh and Orks, a lot of them have helmets but I prefer them without, mainly because I like to see more green.

But Space Marines and Guard, helmets. Even my Space Wolves I prefer helmets on all but the characters and squad leaders. For my next iteration of Space Wolves I'm making all their helmets identical with more of a knight looking helmet design, simply because I think it looks heaps meaner when they all have the same simple helmet on instead of all being different and some being helmetless.

The codex astartes dictates helmets for all.

If it's not a cultist, I always go helmets. CSM offer enough variety on their own (and even more with conversion) that I never get tired of it. While there some decent exceptions to the rule, I've never much been a fan of the face sculpts that are offered. Just personal preference [shrugs].

I usually try to do as many 'unique' guys as I can without helmets, but it never ends up being that many because of the lack of variety. Space Wolves have a good variety of unique heads, but very few of them suit other chapters. I used a few of the SW mohawk heads for my BA Assault Marines, but I don't really dig whiskers on angels.

I really dislike the BA heads for some reason, they all look too similar. The faces are good, but the hairstyles are a bit too 'pretty boy' and they don't look hard enough. I file the hair shorter so they look a bit more military.

With helmets, Salamanders are just SM in green armour. You need to have a few without helmets to show the monstrous appearance beneath (plus it lets you show the honour brands the longest serving Fire-born bear).

 Carlson793 wrote:
With helmets, Salamanders are just SM in green armour. You need to have a few without helmets to show the monstrous appearance beneath (plus it lets you show the honour brands the longest serving Fire-born bear).

This man speaks my language. I have as few helmets as possible in my Salamander army. Gotta show off the glowing black eyes and onyx skin that terrorizes planets into imperial submission without a bolter round loosed.

On the other hand, look at the Space Wolves. Warriors of Fenris don't wear helmets as a matter of pride, but I think it would be awesome to paint up a Space Wolf army and give everyone helmets and make you opponent do a double take at what army he's fighting.





Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Necrons without helmets... make it happen.

I like both looks but use bare heads sparingly, for aforementioned reasons of realism. I'm modelling approx 1 guy per 10 man grey hunter squad without a helm e.g.squad marksman (because he thinks it interferes with his aim, and would be standing back away from the worst of enemy fire). Some flamer or melta marines might go bare too (they gets too hot in a full face helm). Might likewise model devastators without helm because they're not front-liners. Some ICs will be without them, for the sake of making them look individual, but might have the helm in their hand or otherwise attached to their person. Scouts are fine without helm. Also wounded marines with heads bandaged is another good opportunity to use bare head. All said about 80-85% of my figures will have helms.

On a related point I haven't given my tank crews any armour whatsoever (armour in heavily armoured confined vehicle =unneccessary encumbrance).

Terminators, absolutely have to have helm in my army. One does not don the most protective suit in the galaxy and leave he most vital target unprotected. It is folly I say! Folly!

...I probably think way too hard about this stuff

Tank crew may have to exit to fix somthing, PR if a breach in hostile environment still safe from it.

Also if you have to man the pintle mounted weapons you will need armour.