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ah yes, the number of modeling mistakes covered up by those gargantuan pauldrons. . .

OTOH, there is a certain psychological impact to having your own mobile cover in any fight. something to cower behind, even if you are in the open. . .

 Otto Weston wrote:
Like this - shots hitting his pauldron aren't hitting his neck/head, EDIT - and chest too.

Spoiler:

Except of course he can't see over his own shoulder and is effectively firing blind. Cool pic though.

 Griddlelol wrote:
Huge pauldrons look cool.

Certainly isn't limited to 40K

Shoulders on Taurens and Orks always scale up to massive size compared to the other races. I like to show off my Tusks of Manneroth on my Tauren Pally, so my toon's wider than he is tall.

SJ

Anybody follow boxing? I imagine big, round shoulder pads would be good for deflecting blows by tucking the head down and rolling with the incoming swing.

 Frazzled wrote:

 Otto Weston wrote:
Like this - shots hitting his pauldron aren't hitting his neck/head, EDIT - and chest too.

Spoiler:

Except of course he can't see over his own shoulder and is effectively firing blind. Cool pic though.

Autosenses will be linked to the Bolter's targeting spirits (there'll be a gun-camera and crosshairs overlay that display automatically when the view is blocked.)
If you notice, the models, especially metals/resins/monopose tend to have cables that trail out of the pauldrons and connect to armour plates or wargear.
There's likely some advanced handwavium science going on in there, shielding the external links between the reactor and systems that draw more power, like power fists and so on.


Cassius' bolt PISTOL is connected to his pauldron by a cable- what the hell is going on there we can only speculate.

 Frazzled wrote:

 Otto Weston wrote:
Like this - shots hitting his pauldron aren't hitting his neck/head, EDIT - and chest too.

Spoiler:

Except of course he can't see over his own shoulder and is effectively firing blind. Cool pic though.

Honestly, the "eye" on the helmet wouldn't really line up with the wearers actual eye. They would be on the lower forehead. Same with Stormtrooper helmets and most sci-fi helmets. It's generally assumed that the user is actually getting visual feedback from other sources.

 Frazzled wrote:

 Otto Weston wrote:
Like this - shots hitting his pauldron aren't hitting his neck/head, EDIT - and chest too.

Spoiler:

Except of course he can't see over his own shoulder and is effectively firing blind. Cool pic though.

He's wearing his hat, therefore has a full-screen, 360 degree HUD that ignores all parts of his armor. He can even see through his backpack. Those "eye lenses" are decoration at best.

Sauce? I don't see and extra sensors.

Caution: Historical reference ahead.

The first thing I thought of when I read this thread (but didn't bother posting) was the Gladiator class known as the Retiarius, commonly referred to as "catchers", "net men" and "net pansies" (okay...maybe not that last one).



Gladiator classes were normally set up (very carefully) to match a heavy fighter vs. a light fighter --- often referred to by the size of their shields. The Retiarius seen here only had a large attack-side shoulder shield and minor leather armor on his support hand. By contrast his most common opponent, known as the Secutor (literally: chaser) was much more heavily armored.

How effective was the armour? Not sure. The Retiarius normally ran away from his opponent attempting to trip him or snare him with his net. If he got close in with the Secutor he was in serious trouble. The Secutor was far more likely to exhaust himself in his heavy armor attempting to catch up to the Retiarius. Retiarius were also normally selected from the most attractive men in a Ludus --- because they were one of the only classes which didn't wear helmets.

There's your minor (and barely relevant) history lesson.

EDIT: Upon looking at the photo I posted the above may actually represent a Laquearius --- an identical class to the Retiarius but using a lasso/rope instead of a net (can't tell from the figure as some of the Retiarius nets had a lengthy lanyard on them allowing the gladiator to throw and retrieve his net).

 Selym wrote:
Sauce? I don't see and extra sensors.

Warhammer 40000 Rogue Trader

The shielding of the head was the first thing that came to my head but I dismissed it imminently ( and perhaps too fast). There is a big difference between the shape of the gladiators armour and the typical marine shoulderpads at least in my opinion. Blows at the gladiators will likely result in stopping or deflecting the blow of a melee weapon. While the 40k variant doesn't seem to block blows at all, it might deflect them but any sliding weapon would likely result in cutting off the upper part of the head of the space marine vet/sarg.

And that is why you have the increase in pin-headed Space Marines...it's a self defense mechanism...slowly but surely creating a hard target to hit.