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Just wanted to get a general opinion...how many people would accept (i.e. happily play against) models that are not WYSIWYG if the opponent didn't like the appearance? How many tournaments would accept this?

For example, I don't really like the way Devourers look on Carnifexes or Hive Tyrants. Even though I have the bits, I prefer to use other weapons to represent the Devourers. I just think the other options look better.
Or take a BA player, for example. My friend uses Infernus Pistols instead of meltaguns...same reason. He has the meltaguns to use, but he prefers the look of the Infernus Pistols.

Would you be fine playing against those models? It's not modeling for advantage in any way. It's not "being cheap", like refusing to buy an upgrade kit. It's just preference.

Well, when it comes to Tyranid weapons, most people won't know the difference! Oh, that looks like a meat tube that I don't want shooting at my dudes. Okay, I'll accept whatever rules you tell me it has.

If I played against someone who didn't like the way flamers looked and replaced all the flamers in his army with a different counts-as model, I'd accept it as long as it was consistent. If it started to get confusing (these scratchbuilds are flamers, while actual flamer models are meltaguns!) I'd have a problem, but counts-as stuff is fine as long as it's consistent.

Siphen wrote:
Just wanted to get a general opinion...how many people would accept (i.e. happily play against) models that are not WYSIWYG if the opponent didn't like the appearance? How many tournaments would accept this?

For example, I don't really like the way Devourers look on Carnifexes or Hive Tyrants. Even though I have the bits, I prefer to use other weapons to represent the Devourers. I just think the other options look better.
Or take a BA player, for example. My friend uses Infernus Pistols instead of meltaguns...same reason. He has the meltaguns to use, but he prefers the look of the Infernus Pistols.

Would you be fine playing against those models? It's not modeling for advantage in any way. It's not "being cheap", like refusing to buy an upgrade kit. It's just preference.

Sometimes you don't like the look of the option you really want to use.

So, you act like a grown-up, and you choose. Do I want the one that looks good, or the one that is kickass?

You don't just take the good looking one, and say it's the other one.

As long as its close and you make it clean/dont pull hyjinx its cool... just dont say your jetbike is a avatar,

Clear and consistent is all I care about. I don't want to have to ask every turn what something is. Or worse, get told that an unremarkable lump is a super-ultra death killer (even though it looks like every other unpainted lump in your army)

None of the things in the OP bother me. I might be irritated if someone was playing a shooty bug modeled with all claws and fangs. Because when I look at it, I think "CC monster" and don't worry about its fire lanes.

I'm a WYSWYG, everything on the table painted guy, but I recognize that not everyone is like that. And there are parts of my army that are kit bashed, not using the official GW part. For example, my Typhoon speeders have a cyclone missile launcher mounted on the top, not the door pod things. But people can tell at a glance what they are.

I try to keep fairly WYSIWYG simply because it's easier. That said, not everything is done perfectly. When I was playing Tyranids I never really modeled all of the biomorphs, but I did try to keep all of my broods the same unless they happened to be WYSIWYG. I'm also fairly lazy about things like grenades or anything which is too small to see on the table without getting real close. I figure if you need to get my mini right in your face to see the detail, it's probably easier to just rely on my army list or ask me. Then there comes stuff where there isn't enough of a particular piece of wargear in a box to equip everyone. I attempt to keep things reasonable and do a bit of conversion, but mostly I just rely on being consistent and having everything in my army list to fudge over WYSIWYG. A recent example is I put together a small Paladin squad. I wanted two Psycannons but the box only comes with one, so I chopped the ammo box off of a storm bolter to glue onto the Psilencer and called it close enough. I don't plan on fielding any Psilencers so I'm not too worried about confusion.

I often use plasma pistols on my models because they look cool, but won't have plasma in the list. My speeder has a melta and a heavy bolter modeled but often times take 2 melta on it. If I use plasma in my list then I put the plasma pistol guys in the grey hunter squads as a plasma gun... Again those will be the only plasma model infantry guys on the table. In a tournament I will never use a plasma as a melta and always keep consistency, for example would never use 3 melta guys but say 1 is a plasma... That's wrong and confusing.

I'm pretty close to wysiwyg to the point of having actual wulfen models and actual banners. As far as my opponents go w/e just explain it to me and keep it consistent.

I'm laid back about it. I paint all my stuff and make sure it's wysiwyg but I'm not to strict for everyone else. Their are some very strict individuals here on dakka though.

It's more or less there to stop it from becoming annoying or confusing. Sure you can model them differently in order to get a mix between something you like the look of and the use of; but you need to stay consistent throughout the army.

The more annoying things are stuff like Daemonic Gaze or Transfixing Gaze. No real way to show it besides painting the eyes a certain way.

I prefer WYSIWYG, but my tolerance for the lack of increases with how much I know my opponent and how friendly he is.

I prefer WYSYWIG, but I do play exceptions - for example, mostly owing to the relative difficulty of acquiring Battle Sisters armed with Storm Bolters, and Battle Sisters armed with Heavy Bolters, I've simply declared that my Sisters use special "Deathwatch Pattern High Explosive rounds" - IE, all my Storm Bolters are "counts-as" Heavy Bolters.

Of course, I then take zero Storm Bolters, and only field one actual Heavy Bolter model - the Heavy Bolter is still a Heavy Bolter, it's just personal preference on the part of Sister Schola to use the larger gun rather than the "special ammo".

I haven't yet faced an opponent who had had a problem when I declared, "Oh, all infantry-carried Storm Bolters are actually Heavy Bolters."