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How do!

It’s a chit-chat-chinwag type thread. And it’s been inspired by my indecision over how I might want to represent Inductii if/when I end up adding a squad or two.

See, my Dark Angels right now have all Power Armour (outside of characters) as MkVI. Taccies, Tac Support, Assault, Heavy Support. All MkVI. And the MkII I’ve picked up from my Saturnine boxes are earmarked as Veteran units.

This is a choice largely informed by my purchases, but also a bit of head canon. The Dark Angels are the Original And Best Legion. Canonically noted for being given toys nobody else was trusted with, and being typically well supplied in terms of more regular gear. They also sat out much of the most brutal fighting, as Horus ensured they were well out of position to play a more major role.

So I figure that compared to other Legions (on either side) that were involved in the heaviest and more numerous engagements, the Dark Angels would look pretty uniform. In short, they’ve just not suffered the same rate and level of attrition as the others. That means I don’t want a big mix of armour marks within the same “rank”.

I’m also a player that’s keen on Visual Distinction between units. Hence MkVI for rank and file, MkII for Veterans. Even in the heat of a game, my opponent and I should be able to see what’s what in my army pretty easily, even if two squads are otherwise armed the same. So if it’s MkVI with a Bolter? It’s a Taccy. MkII? That’s a Veteran. MkIII with Volkite Charger? That’s my Inductii.

And in terms of why those marks from a background? MkII is the venerable armour. The one all the Legions began the Crusade with. Hence in my little corner of the wider Dark Angels, it’s an honoured Mark reserved for Veterans. The MkIII is issued to Inductii to offer that little bit more protectyness which, whilst not reflect in game rules does exist in the background.

Though if we do get MkV Heresy Armour as a plastic set, that would of course make more sense for the Inductii, cobbled together as it is from odds and ends and gubbins found in the sewing box.

On my armour? I’ve not bothered with Weathering or battle damage. I see my Dark Angels as fastituduous there, keeping them and their equipment clean and as well maintained as possible between engagements. And, being Dark Angels, having enough spares in storage that major repair jobs just see a replacement pulled out of storage whilst the other is fully repaired and that.

But, that’s all just head canon. And I’ll freely admit a fair amount of it post-hoc. What’s your approach here for your Legion of choice?

My answer will be boring, but my Death Guard is just MKIII with a bit of MKII sprinkled in. This is mostly based on just me finding MKIII the best looking SM armour and fluff supporting DG being into MKIII because of rather short ranged fighting style and being heavier armoured. They're also rather uniform because every DG Marine can do every fighting style. Also, I'm talking about my 40K DG that will be supported by 30K kits, but even the 40K Plague Marines feature MKIII, so it will be great mixing the two I think.
Yeah, MKIII just looks awesome. And they even gave the new MKIII Marines the DG Pickelhaube, there's really no way around it.

I'm going with MKVI and MKIV as my main IXth legion / veteran marks. Just waiting for MKIV resculpt so I can start springking in the veterans to the rest of the demicompany.

I hope there will still be a few MKVI kits coming. I know the HH setting moved from AoD 2.0 timeline so beakies aren't dead on in the timeline anymore, but it would sting getting bikers and land speeders with other marks than MKVI. I fear they could come with MKII now.. MKIV could work for me in a pinch if not MKVI

Whatever models I have are whatever models get used.
I play Iron Warriors, Iron Hands, Salamanders, Sons of Horus, and Militia. I very rarely purchase new things unless I'm in desperate need of gubbins.

My 30k answer is extremely boring.
There is no plan. No backstory.

Just 2 boxes of AoD, 2 converted jump pack/disintegrator pistol Moriats, a 7 tanks, 3 jet bikes, & a dozen Dreadnoughts of assorted types (most of wich i already owned before AoD arrived).
10 of the Marines are armed with rotor cannons, 10 more wield melta-guns.
All base coated IW silver - the beginning of an eternal WiP. Maybe they'll get some hazard stripes in 2026....

I also have a box of Saturnine stuff on the to-do pile. But 50some parts per termie just saps my will to assemble them.

I have 3 legions of choice so far - Sons of Horus, Ultramarines and Dark Angels (my Space Wolves got shelved when 3rd Edition nuked the army list). The SoH and Ultras are actually 'in progress', while the DA are a future project for which I am stockpiling bits and ideas.

Sons of Horus: these started as an excuse to build a few of the OOP Mk III models, simply because the seemed to represent an iconic Heresy look. I decided that there would be no bare heads, partly because it tends to accentuate the fact that the previous Mk III models are on the short side. They were intended to represent a SoH force early in the Heresy, with minimal Chaos influence. This little project expanded into a Dreadnought and a couple of vehicles, and is now an army - all modeled on the old Mk III (apart from some Cataphractii). Which was inconvenient when 3rd Edition arrived, because replacing and modifying the models to make them legal involved acquiring another (expensive) Mk III kit. So the modelling choice here is simple - they're a Mk III army, which means they are very uniform and have a brutal, faceless appearance. As I've gone along I've added some topknots and other decorations to mark out special models, but kept it fairly minimal. They will have a drab, rust-streaked look - stereotypical Heresy really.

Ultramarines: this was always going to be my 'main' Heresy army. I like painting blue, and I wanted to fully embrace the Roman vibe. I have used Mk VI predominantly, simply because they were the first models available, but have added a sprinkling of Mk III. The idea is that, in the course of replacing losses they have not been able to maintain uniformity of armour types - if the Mk V is released then I will want some of them too. However, being Ultramarines, they are all using the same pattern of bolter. I haven't really restricted myself otherwise, although my heavy support squad has missile launchers as a callback to the old RTB01 beakies.

Dark Angels: these guys will get lots of volkite weapons, and probably the Saturnine stuff as well (nothing original in this - Mad Doc took the same approach). I suppose I will use a lot of Mk II. I'll lean heavily into the knightly vibe (BT heads are good for this), with plenty of tabards and swords. I will also go for more elaborate bases, with cracked brickwork suggesting ruined stone fortifications. The vehicles will be more obscure types like the Sicaran Venator, and heavily decorated with embossed DA symbols.

Since Mk VI was the only armor mark available at the start of HH 2.0 I decided to lean into the shiny new equipment idea.

The Iron Warriors may not have liked Mk VI as a whole, but as a legion favored by the Warmaster they'd get the new toys. So uncharacteristically my grand company has a lot of energy weapons, jetbikes and other hard to maintain cutting edge pieces of equipment. And to maintain this equipment they have a larger than average Mechanicum contingent to their fleet.

All my marines are Mk VI with the only exceptions being power armor characters and sergeants who have a few bits of older marks, both to stand out and to represent bits that may have been stashed away in lockers, relics of the company or components undergoing repairs that weren't taken when the company re-equipped.

Thematically I wanted this to be an army at the Crusade's highwater mark - with all the technology and strength the Imperium could muster, and just the beginning of a darker turn on the horizon.

Has anyone played around with mixing and matching arms and armour in their units?

I appreciate the modern kits make this less straightforward, as the legs and torsos aren’t separate pieces. But I think the arms are intechangable*, the heads and shoulder pads most certainly so.

Did it look any good? Or more that you’d lost the instructions and weren’t sure what part went with which mark?

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Has anyone played around with mixing and matching arms and armour in their units?

I appreciate the modern kits make this less straightforward, as the legs and torsos aren’t separate pieces. But I think the arms are intechangable*, the heads and shoulder pads most certainly so.

Did it look any good? Or more that you’d lost the instructions and weren’t sure what part went with which mark?

The Mk III and Mk VI arms are quite distinctive, so I don't mix and match them - also, I think some have dents in them so they fit the body of the armour they're intended for. I haven't built any Mk II yet, but I think the arms are very similar to the Mk III's.

The annoying thing once you've removed arms from the sprue is working out which ones should be paired with each other...

I'm experimenting with MKII arms on MKVI Assault bodies, and like the look at the moment. Since the Assault squad battleplate is a heavier one, the chunkier arms kind of fit and make the silhouette a bit cooler IMO. But early days, have yet to check just how difficult two handed weapons will become with this approach before fully commiting to it..

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Has anyone played around with mixing and matching arms and armour in their units?

I appreciate the modern kits make this less straightforward, as the legs and torsos aren’t separate pieces. But I think the arms are intechangable*, the heads and shoulder pads most certainly so.

Did it look any good? Or more that you’d lost the instructions and weren’t sure what part went with which mark?

Not mixed any of the new stuff though it will work as the mounting points are all the same, however, all of the Bolters and Special Weapons actually fit perfectly in the hands of the pushfit Marines from Black Reach and Dark Vengeance.
The Bolters that come with the Mk2 kit look especially nice.
I've also used the Mk6 arms without shoulder pads for my Iron Hands Scouts to make them into sort of Haz-Op Scouts with enclosed armour (Skitarri Ranger heads as well).

I've just finished planning my armylists, for ultimate Traitor army, and my pick was Iron warriors. I like the feel of classic villain, plus the model for Perturabo seems a good centerpiece model. I found 3d stl files from dakkadakka store for most of the Infantry models, which are absolutely amazing. I'll try to paint my armies with main colour scheme of greys, black and dark blue, with gold and brass as detail/contrast. My overall list is this;
- Iron warriors (Primary army, colours silver, black, gold)
- Traitor Auxilia (selucid thorakites, colours silver, black, gold)
- Traitor Militia (represented by death korps of Krieg, colours dark blue, grey, silver)
- Traitor levy (represented by Valhallan models, colours grey, silver, black)
- Dark Mechanicum (colours black, silver, gold)
- Knight House Lucaris (colours dark blue, silver, black, gold)
- titan Legio Mortis (colours dark blue, black, silver, gold)
- Ruinstorm Daemons (colours various/undecided)

Also, my first warhammer novel was storm of Iron

Interesting! I quite like mixing different marks in to be honestm, though I totally get the idea of using different marks to differentiate between different squad types.

My Thousand Sons are primarily MkIVs, but I have a handful of (old) MkIII mixed in (one tactical sergeant and a couple in a plasma support squad). I also used a couple of the MkIII bolters on MkIV marines - I like the idea of a sergeant who got a new suit of armour but wanted to keep his old bolter, that kind of thing.

Similar approach to my Iron Warriors, all new MkIII at the moment but I acquired 10 of the MkIIs which I'll build as a new tac squad but they'll get sprinkled in amongst all the MkIIIs once finished.

I think if I did a second Legion, I’d go for a Traitor one, and mix up the Marks in a squad.

The way I see it, they were naturally at the forefront of the fighting. And whilst Horus did redirect supply lines to suit? There’s still going to be wear and tear and constant attrition.

I think I’d also want to hint at what is to come - a Traitor Marine’s equipment being only what they’ve been able to take by force.

So a mix of Bolters, Helmets, Shoulder Pads etc. Possibly have the odd bit here and there as having been hastily repainted from another Legion’s scheme, like its battlefield salvage.

That would suit Iron Warriors and Death Guard in particular I guess. But also Sons of Horus to a lesser but not insignificant degree.