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Hey Everyone,

Where should special weapons be applied to space marine bikes?

a) Since they come stock with bolters that cannot be removed in terms of points, do you just replace the bolters with a special from a TAC squad?

b) Do you put it in the Marine's hand so he's driving against California hands-free laws?

c) Do you put it on his back, in true Mad Max style?

What's the best way to do this? my personal preference would be to put it on his back, or low on the bike.

One hand for the bike, one hand for the gun. Although some of them are the old metal torsos from the depths of time.

Parts are from my bits box, probably a tac squad. Magnetized at the wrist.

Just to clarify the bolters on the bikes themselves never get replaced. It is always the Marine holding the weapon, correct?

 Vash108 wrote:
Just to clarify the bolters on the bikes themselves never get replaced. It is always the Marine holding the weapon, correct?

Yes for loyalists, Chaos get the option to either replace one of the rider's weapons, or the bike bolters instead.

Not that that stops you from replacing the bolters on the model just for modelling purposes (i.e. not rules wise) if that's the route you want to go down.

 Vash108 wrote:
Just to clarify the bolters on the bikes themselves never get replaced. It is always the Marine holding the weapon, correct?

While there might be some debate, yes. The marine is the one that swaps out his gear for the special.

At least for vanilla codex marines. I’m pretty sure Chaos does it different, and am not sure about the DA ravenwing. (Although that’s a little redundant. )

 Nevelon wrote:

 Vash108 wrote:
Just to clarify the bolters on the bikes themselves never get replaced. It is always the Marine holding the weapon, correct?

While there might be some debate, yes. The marine is the one that swaps out his gear for the special.

At least for vanilla codex marines. I’m pretty sure Chaos does it different, and am not sure about the DA ravenwing. (Although that’s a little redundant. )

I think I saw one of the Black Knight bikes changes out the Bolter for a Launcher and Plasma?

Edit: Yep! https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Dark-Angels-Ravenwing-Black-Knights

 Vash108 wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:

 Vash108 wrote:
Just to clarify the bolters on the bikes themselves never get replaced. It is always the Marine holding the weapon, correct?

While there might be some debate, yes. The marine is the one that swaps out his gear for the special.

At least for vanilla codex marines. I’m pretty sure Chaos does it different, and am not sure about the DA ravenwing. (Although that’s a little redundant. )

I think I saw one of the Black Knight bikes changes out the Bolter for a Launcher and Plasma?

Edit: Yep! https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Dark-Angels-Ravenwing-Black-Knights

That's because they are not the same as regular Ravenwing bikers. Black Knights come with the Plasma Talons as standard and can take a Grenade Launcher, and all the parts for these are included in the Black Knights kit. They can't take other specials at all other than different melee weapons.

A C:SM special weapon biker doesn't lose his boltguns, he gets the special in addition to it.

So if you removed them from your model and placed the special in that spot, RAW he would still have the boltguns.

There's 2 sides to it I suppose. WYSIWYG you should be fine from a tournament standpoint as long as the special weapon is physically on the model, right? So gluing it to his back would be permissible? And, the other side, is that even if the boltguns are removed, from a tournament standpoint he still has the boltgun. Like if i don't put frag/krak grenades on a marine, it isn't an option, he has them, no matter what.

I just chop off one of the biker's hand and glue the special on. Or just replace it the arm entirely. I like to imagine that Space Marines also like to turn it sideways when doing their drive bys to look the most gangsta. /

Ex:

 TheCustomLime wrote:
I just chop off one of the biker's hand and glue the special on. Or just replace it the arm entirely. I like to imagine that Space Marines also like to turn it sideways when doing their drive bys to look the most gangsta. /

This is a hilarious idea, i love it.

 Marmatag wrote:
A C:SM special weapon biker doesn't lose his boltguns, he gets the special in addition to it.

So if you removed them from your model and placed the special in that spot, RAW he would still have the boltguns.

There's 2 sides to it I suppose. WYSIWYG you should be fine from a tournament standpoint as long as the special weapon is physically on the model, right? So gluing it to his back would be permissible? And, the other side, is that even if the boltguns are removed, from a tournament standpoint he still has the boltgun. Like if i don't put frag/krak grenades on a marine, it isn't an option, he has them, no matter what.

Generally WYSWYG does not apply to stock gear. So you don’t need to put all the grenades, bolt pistols, etc on every member of the squad. But if I look at a bike squad on the table, I should be able to match the minis with the “3 man bike squad, 2 meltaguns, c-melta on the sarge” that’s written down on your army roster.

If you wanted to remove one of the bolters and replace it with a melta, I’d still get the point. Although from a strictly WYSWYG POV, it would be slightly off, as the TL bolters on the bike are no longer present. You could just stick a spare bolter on the back of the bike I guess. I suspect that most TOs/players would be fine with it though. He’s obviously a SM biker, with the stock gear, plus a melta.

The safest WYSWYG option is to leave the bike intact, and add the spare special gun somewhere on the model. Either in hand, or attached somewhere to the bike. But frankly it’s such a minor point, most options fall under the Rule of Cool and wound be fine on the table.

I'm toying around the idea of skipping their backpack altogether,cutting off the bump and gluing a gun on their back.

Or, mounting it on their leg, like it was a holster similar to T2 judgment day.

I grabbed a bunch of the Dark Vengeance Bolt Pistol bikers and did an easy snip replacement with Special Weapons on them for my Loyalists. Fits wonderfully (and stores in foam slots nice too).

For my Chaos bikers, even though swapping the Bolters would be the better option, my modeling advantage wasn't feeling so important, so they have their Specials in their hand, or strapped to the side of the bike.