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Hello,

I am looking at getting back into playing at my local store, and possibly competively. I was listening to a couple of pod casts lately and they stated that a Legal model must be at least 80% GW.

So in the case of the IG, would i be able to swap out a body/torso on a guardsman and would it still be legal? Or would i be just limited to heads and weapon swaps?

Are hand sculpted models still legal models or does the 80% limit still apply?

I want to know what i am limited too before i get to invested in to building or created models or bits i can not use.

Local GW? Or local non-GW gaming store?
And do you plan on tournaments?

There's no formal 80% figure across the hobby (though some individual events might have chosen that number).

Warhammer World's rules are here: https://warhammerworld.warhammer-community.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2019/10/Updated-Model-Requirements.pdf

It's not 80%, but rather any cast parts have to be GW (but you can sculpt your own details in greenstuff or whatever).


For GW Stores, it's up to the store manager. Any independent events and tournaments, it's up to the person running the event.

I mostly play basement hammer, so we have tons of Wargames Exclusive, Victoria Miniatures and Kromlech models that are 0% GW and don't cause any problems since they match the general 40K aesthetic (sometimes better than the official model).

 Paymaster Games wrote:
Hello,

I am looking at getting back into playing at my local store, and possibly competively. I was listening to a couple of pod casts lately and they stated that a Legal model must be at least 80% GW.

So in the case of the IG, would i be able to swap out a body/torso on a guardsman and would it still be legal? Or would i be just limited to heads and weapon swaps?

Are hand sculpted models still legal models or does the 80% limit still apply?

I want to know what i am limited too before i get to invested in to building or created models or bits i can not use.

This is 100% up to your local, some are 3rd party friendly others are not. GW main stores try to have 100% GW models but many managers would rather you play and buy time to time than never play and never buy so they dont care, but the main GW headquarter stores can be very blunt about it even not letting you have 3rd party heads. For the US I have never seen a store or an event care if it was 3rd party or GW model as long as it looks right and is correct size.

Basically ask your local and events you go to.

Very much depends on the area and where you plan to play. Talk to your local group and figure out what the options are. Remember, people are a lot more likely to accept 3rd party stuff if its painted and done well.

Also remember the intention.

Yes there is an advert of “our event, so our models”. But, it’s also so your opponent can identify what’s what without having to constantly ask.

There’s also notorious examples of Bad Behaviour with proxies in tournaments. The one that springs to mind is very old, but it involved someone representing Blood Crushers (Bloodletters on Juggernauts) with Bloodletters plonked on LOTR Rohirrim horses, including the much smaller bases.

That sort of proxy is a cheat, as not only do smaller bases help reduce the unit’s board foot print and avoid them being swamped with chaffe, but whatever you or anyone thinks of True Line Of Sight, significantly altering the size and dimensions of a unit in that way only benefits the person fielding them.

Another example, again an ancient one, were proxy Trukks for Orks, with billboard type things, designed exclusively to block LoS in a way the proper model simply doesn’t.

Hopefully you can see why such behaviour is at best frowned upon, and why many tournaments can be exacting when it comes to conversions, proxies and scratch built.

As with many things in life, the golden rule is essentially “don’t take the piss”.

One of the principles behind GW games is consent.

X agrees with Y on Z before the game starts.

You (X) agree with your opponent (Y) that you/he can use a particular model (Z) before the game starts.

Y can be a local game store owner, some stranger you found, a tournament organizer, etc...

The standard by which you derive this principle comes from the rules, and the rules do not tell you that you MUST use Space Marine Tactical Squad models to represent a Space Marine Tactical Squad. Since there are no rules on model usage, this is left up to consent between both parties involved. If you looked at the Space Marine Tactical Squad rules and it said you must use Space Marine Tactical Squad Models to represent the rules, then you'd have no choice.

So coming on here and asking "what percentage of model does it need to be a GW sculpt to be legal" is irrelevant. Every single user here can tell you 80%, but when you play your friend bob, he might say no. Or you might tell Bob no if he brings a stolen, er, sorry, 3d printed replica of a space marine army.

Happy Premises!!!

Check with your store. Every venue has different rules and expectations. There isn't any hard and fast rule. I have two gw stores withing an hour of me, and both have very different takes on 3rd party/3d printed bits on gw models. Just depends on who is in charge.

There are zero rules on what constitutes a legal model beyond gentlemen's agreements (despite what places like Reddit might pontificate). When using something out there or a bit of a counts-as conversion you need to consider two things-

1- Can it be confused for something else?

2- Does it accurately represent what I am using it as?

The second one is more important IMO, such as with the piss taking examples MDG has cited I've seen a fair few in my day as well so am generally wary of extreme counts as (despite being an avid converter, I always keep those two mantras in my head when making something destined for an existing army). I lived through the players stomping their feet on here and Warseer claiming adamantly they could use Goblin wolves with Marines on them as Thunderwolf Cavalry as Wolfy McWolfface's TW mount was described as the "largest of its kind", because there was obviously a jump going straight from Chihuahua to Great Dane with TWC...

I did have the pleasure of playing against an Ultrasmurfs army that fulfilled both of those requirements. Heads on models were all replaced by smurf toy heads. Kingston, Ontario had such a lovely scene, not just the Ultrasmurfs fellow. The heads did have the side effect of increasing the vertical profile of every model, but treating them as if they were the 'normal height' wasn't a big deal in this case.

 Thadin wrote:
I did have the pleasure of playing against an Ultrasmurfs army that fulfilled both of those requirements. Heads on models were all replaced by smurf toy heads. Kingston, Ontario had such a lovely scene, not just the Ultrasmurfs fellow. The heads did have the side effect of increasing the vertical profile of every model, but treating them as if they were the 'normal height' wasn't a big deal in this case.

I know the army and the player! It comes out from time to time here at Nexus.

We are very lucky here in KTown.

I do miss playing at Nexus. But, the military life took me there for a few years, then sent me to the other end of the damn country.

Is Nexus the same shop that used to be in London (ON)?

If so, I miss them too- they were the store where I first saw Armour Cast models (pre-Forgeworld, possibly even pre-mainstream Internet- time gets blurry when I go back far enough).

The guys on that podcast were just giving an opinion on what they think is okay. Reckon you could just do whatever you think is ok, and remember the 'rule of cool'