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I am brand new to all things mini and WH40K. Have my first box of models (Tactical Marine Squad) and figuring painting out. Here's my question ...

Let's say I do not want 3 mostly or near identical heavy weapon figures. Can I find something unique and turn that into my heavy weapon model?

I sort of like the Iron Hands; tech savvy; somewhat rogue and equal parts metal/person. It could stand to reason they could figure out a small weapons platform to serve in place of a marine in a squad.

Could I do something like this? All the rules and game functions would apply to the stand-in model. All that changes is the look.

Any help appreciated

RAW as long as you are using the correct model for the datasheet then you are good. It doesnt matter what they have in their hands. Paint color does not matter either.

Some tournaments require you to have the correct weapons on your models, or what is known as WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get).

FWIW many (Dare I say most) games/opponents, as long as the heavy weapon guy is clearly different, will not have a problem with a unique weapon as a heavy weapon, as long as all of that weapon is that same unique thing. (And as always rule of cool usually applies as well, meaning if the model is cool enough most wont have a problem with a weapons platform as a Proxy Lascannon Marine).

There are different levels of how pure people want an army, so part of the answer is a qustion, what is your goal? Playing with your friends in the basement over some beer and pizza, all you really need is to have them agree that yes, this is what that model represents.
Going to tournaments, its often a slightly different standard. Did you model it with the correct weapons and wargear loadout, so that a person NOT intimately familiar with it is going to look and go "oh, that's a medic .. nice proxy model!" Part of that set of "rules" (which often boil down to telling the tournament in advance and getting their blessing) is a requirement that no OTHER model in your army be the same-model-but-used-as-differnt-unit-or-type.

In this example, lets say you use an tech marine to replace the sarge in each squad, cause you are playing iron hands and its cool. But then, you give your army an ACTUAL tech marine who is the same right down to his little poweraxe, except in a different color scheme. I as your roudn 3 opponent could get quite confused by it. But! lets say you replace his existing head with a standard marine head, and his axe with a pwoersword and combimelta. He is now a different model .. and in the paint scheme of the marine group of tac marines he is part of, nobody SHOULD have a problem. especially with what is obviously a tac marine head.

Concrete example. I have some astropaths who are made out of comissar models by changing the head (to a scion spaceman helmet) and the arms to a laspistol in one hand and sort of small staff/rod thing in the other. Commisars have a fairly generic commisar paint scheme, but every astropath in my army has his own unique and wierdo paint scheme. A long range glance is sufficient to show that "oh, that's the gu in the brown coat" and a detailed glance "and its the astropath stuff he holds." I have an entire army of elysian soldiers who were made different from the otherwise identical cadians by adding a space marine backpack (since they droptroop) to each cadian body, and then painting the army of drop troopers a very different color scheme. Nobody has complained about any of them yet, because they are not only actually different on closer examination, they are VERY obviously easy to tell apart. Elysians in my forces being blue and a near white khaki, and normal cadian infantry being either black/red/copper or green/black/camoflagey.

Tournament players will be sticklers that you don't "model for advantage" by changing the size of the bases, the heights of the model, allowing you to pack more of them into a smaller area or to hide them behind shallower terrain. A larger base can be simiilarly a foul, because a six inch aura becomes slightly! bigger on a slightly bigger base.

Were I in your shoes, I would make it the way I wanted, and then let the chips fall where they may. If the heavy weapon marines in your army are really tiny, tiny dreadnaught like walkers that just happen to share the dimensions of a normal marine with a missle launcher, and its got a missle launcher, AND you have made that all clear to your opponent and any overseeing tournament organizer, you should be on pretty firm ground. If your tac marine is half height and twice as wide, people may look at it funny, but if that is still less broad than the base its on, and you put alittle marine looking flag on the missle walker marine guy/robothing, that just happens to bring his high point up to standard height, they probably won't make any fuss.

Does that all make sense?

Awesome and thank. This helps a whole bunch.

This is one of those things you have to kinda weight up with experience as to if it makes sense both fluffy and from a gaming perspective. Sounds like what you are suggesting will be ok so long as the platform you make is clearly the weapon you are saying and does not change the base of the model (you'll get some funny looks if you make a bigger base)

As an example in my Iron Warrior's chaos army I have a Warpsmith who comes with a flamer and meltagun, i decided to convert mine with two 'reprogrammed' tau drones on separate bases with a flamer retrofitted on one and meltagun on the other. They just go where he goes don't get in the way and no one has ever spoken up against it because its fairly clear and it's kinda fluffy as a tech savvy legion would do this sort of thing on captured tech

@Latro_ .... Thank you very much

Another new guy question ...

So my understanding is the standard tactical Space Marine has sort of been upgraded with other units/models. With that ...

Do I continue to paint my 18 basic, tactical marines or am I better off buying Intercessors or Infiltrators?

Any help here appreciated. I know I can still field the tactical marines. It appears, through my lens .... NEW ... , they have been minimized a little bit.

That and the Intercessor / Infiltrator models are, well, higher on the cool scale.

Spoons71 wrote:
Another new guy question ...

So my understanding is the standard tactical Space Marine has sort of been upgraded with other units/models. With that ...

Do I continue to paint my 18 basic, tactical marines or am I better off buying Intercessors or Infiltrators?

Any help here appreciated. I know I can still field the tactical marines. It appears, through my lens .... NEW ... , they have been minimized a little bit.

That and the Intercessor / Infiltrator models are, well, higher on the cool scale.

Sadly GW seems committed to Soft Squatting old marines at best and outright Hard Squatting them at some point in the future at worst.

You can use your basic Tactical Marines to practice painting but at the end of the day, GW will force an upgrade to Primaris. You could, in a pinch, use them as "Counts as" Intercessors (though that isn't permitted, RaW).

My Suggestion is to keep what you already have, but not to buy any more OldMarine models. Having two squads of Tactical Marines as back-line objective grabbers isn't the best thing in the world but it's better than a kick in the teeth, putting them in a ruin can help with survivability a shade.

@BaconCatBug ... YES!!!!! Thanks for the quick reply. This confirms what I was starting to understand and excellent point on practicing with the models I have.

In my honest opinion, I would definitely keep what you have and use them to practice painting and basing as BaconCatBug said as well as lock down the feel and color scheme you want for your army. Having seen what GW is capable of in terms of messing with existing armies and in extreme cases completely nixing them, I also agree to hold off on buying new non-Primaris models unless you get them extra cheap. Certainly don't if you plan to play in official games, but if you just want to build an army and have fun then don't worry too much about it. I've looked at the new Primaris Intercessors squad on GWs web store and besides the odd double barrel Boltgun (maybe just a new twin-linked?) that one model has and the updated armor, they look no different from an old Tac Squad. When GW inevitably make Primaris the only option, anyone that gives you gak for using old Tac Marines as Intercessors is not someone you want to be playing with anyway. Hell, I'm considering acquiring an old IG Griffon and using it as a Basilisk. If anyone tries to argue using Tac Marines as Intercessors, point them to people still using 25mm RT models in modern armies and walk away. In my mind Primaris is just the updated sculpt for SM with new rules and that's that.