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This thread is about being a total cheap bastard and engineering complete Primaris units with as little going out of the way (and money) as possible.

Here's where I am right now:

A few months ago I bought a easy to build Intercessor 3-pack for about 8 bucks from a game store. I did this mostly out of curiosity. I really like the Restartes (from an aesthetic perspective, not a fluff one) but I don't want to actually spend army amounts of money on a new army. And I wanted something to paint. (3 models, $8)

I've been keeping an eye on ebay off and on for various things, and just recently, I managed to score Dark Imperium squad A and squad B for $25 total. I also picked up another easy to build 3 pack for $12, along with the DI Captain too for $5. (16 Intercessors, 1 Captain, $45)

Finally, I caved and bought a box of Inceptors at retail. I did this because I wanted the ones with the plasma weapons, not the bolter weapons. This was extremely embarrassing, and if I could do it again, I probably would have bought the pushfit ones and cut up some plasma cannons to fit their hands. Maybe I'll come up with something to do with the extra bits. Live and learn. (16 Intercessors, 1 Captain, 3 Inceptors, $95)

I was looking at all of this stuff today, and I saw that I wound up with a total of four "sergeant" type models. I'm defining that as models that have a helmet with the little skull on the forehead. Three of them aren't wearing their helmets, but have the markings on the ones on their belts, while the fourth is wearing his. I decided that the one guy wearing his helmet was going to be a lieutenant. I set him aside for later. (15 Intercessors, 1 Captain, 3 Inceptors, 1 Lieutenant, $95)

I didn't want my guys all looking the same, so I started cutting the knobs off the arms/heads/torsos. Everyone knows knobs belong in Ork squads, not on space marines! I started coming up with slightly varied poses based upon the added extra movement this awarded me.

I started looking at the sergeants. They all had the same expression, the same haircut, and the same direction they were looking. That wouldn't do. I scrounged two new helmetless heads out of the bitz and put a ball of greenstuff down in the neck of the torso to give the heads something to sit on. I also cut all their left hands off, because they were going to get power swords, because Dakka told me that was the right thing to do. (15 Intercessors, 1 Captain, 3 Inceptors, 1 Lieutenant, leftover bitz from a Black Knight Sprue and a couple power sword hands, $95)

Finally I went back to my Lieutenant. He's plain. He's super plain. I through one of those shoulderpad shield things that came with the DA upgrade sprue on him. I also plan to add some more purity seals and whatsits from the bitz box. I also wanted a stalker pattern bolt rifle on him, so I took the scope from a scout sniper rifle, the long suppressor barrel, and the little knob thingy it has where the casing ejector should be and I transferred those onto his bolt rifle. Looks stalkerish enough I think at this point.

So that's my effort. That's 671 points of Primaris (in a legal Battalion) averaging a price of $4.75 per model. That's about the price per marine model from when I started playing some 10 years ago. Not amazing, but not bad either. Probably could have had that below $4 if I would have gone with the cheap Inceptor route.

Still to do:
- Toss up some pictures
- Find some cheap hellblasters
- Improvise some more inceptors
- Make some auxiliary grenade launchers

Anyone else tried to put together an army this way?

I've definitely considered using the easy to build and easy to eBay push fit models to add some Primaris to my BA army. The starter boxes have a nice mix of units, but I've considered the BA themed box of either Intercessors or Hellblasters for the shoulderpads, because I kinda want my Aggressors to have the non-ETB loadouts, or get 2 squads. Likewise, Reivers and the Dread look like a lot more fun in the full kits (and the Reivers will give me spare skully helmets) so I'm not sure I'm doing the limited budget thing right. :p
As it is the only Primaris I have is the guy who came with White Dwarf and he's acting as a Lieutenant at the moment.

Saving cash is always advisable. Nice breakdown of costs.

I have seriously played with the idea of starting a Primaris force, seeing as I have seen the Dark Imperium marines going for sometimes as low as 60 bucks on ebay, which is not bad for 22 figures of that size, and then using the easy assemble Aggressors and maybe a Dread to add to them, which could see such force going for something like 125-135. Or maybe use the new Dark Angels Lieutenant to convert up a Librarian, and get the arm bits on Ebay for an Apothecary to convert an Intercessor into one.

I just wish I haven't had so many years of painting Space Marine armor already!

I did a full Primaris Ultramarine army for fairly cheap here

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/749656.page

All the marines are the easy-build ones from the box set, bought off ebay resellers. Prices seam to have gone up though, all of those squads were arount $12 each, heroes from the starter set were around $4 each.

The easy-build Redemptor dreadnouughts are great, especially if you can convert the heavy flamer into a an onslaught cannon (I used extra rotary cannons from the plastic Heavy Gear figs I have). Somebody was selling the 3 easy-build Reivers for $8 on ebay, so I bought a 10-man squad for much less than the regular kit, and I bought Guilliman for $42 off a reseller.

I shelled out for the Primaris Apothecary and Librarian because the models are so great. Chaplain is an easily build Lieutenant model with a Reiver head. You can save a lot of money from converting your own Librarian, Apothecary and Commander. I also went with the regular Aggressors instead of trying to convert the easy-build ones into boltstorm gauntlets.

The only thing you're absolutely stuck with is the Repulsor tank, it's too good not to take and it's expensive as heck.

Even with buying the expensive characters and the Repulsor, I think the army I linked to cost a bit over $300 USD, not including the Custodes or the Eversor assassin

I see your thrifty and will attempt to raise you:

I bought a Dark Imperium box set but had no interest in the Death Guard models (except the Bloat Drone which I thought might be fun to paint) so I sold off all the other parts including the rulesbooks. I was left with the Primaris marines and the unsaleable parts (ruler, dice etc).

Paid - £76
Sales - (£76.98)
Fees and postage - £16.52

Total cost - £15.54

For that princely sum I have: 1 Captain, 2 Lieutenants, 1 Ancient, 10 Intercessors, 5 Hellblasters, 3 Inceptors (plus a Bloat Drone) so 70p per model (plus a free Bloat Drone)

I decided I liked the Inceptors so much I bought another Dark Imperium squad from ebay for £10 so I now have 6.

It's not a well-rounded army and I don't have any of the other model weapon options but it is a start! I also went down the modding route and chopped arms and legs etc to get more pose variety. The Inceptors had a lot of chopping and green-stuffing to make the poses more dynamic and less like they are just hanging from ropes under their armpits.

All in all the army is just over 1000pts for £25.54. I definitely took it as a challenge. Having run the numbers just now I am tempted to try and sell the Bloat Drone and spare transfers to try and bring down the net cost even further!

As I hear Primaris are a bit more broad in the torso, I wonder if the Axe of Caliban w/ attached terminator arms from the Deathwing Command will fit a Primaris? If so, shaving down the shoulders so normal marine pads fit would net you a nice bit to make a Librarian's Force Axe that would slide right onto a model. I see places that have that bit for around three bucks.

Nice break down

i did 1 dark imperium and retail purchased one of each box that came up. though it would of been cheaper with the push fit redemptor.

not as cheap but its a full army and i also did not take reviers though i have them for my imp fists.

you could probably make a significant foot slogging army with two halves of DI.

hell blasters are no joke and the intersestors while not flashy are fairly tough. just got to do some good old kit bashing to get the grenade launcher and power sword (which i personally think are worth it on the sarge.)

There's two ways to get the power sword option - the Dark Angels upgrade pack or relieve a Lieutenant of his arms and swap them onto the Sarge. You could go further and find a spare rifle and have him go butch one-handing the rifle in the formerly pistol hand.

Frankly, I prefer #2 because you can then give him a bolt rifle. I took the stock mag and shaved it down a little so it has the straight-mag look for the Stalker.

Another way to get the bits for Stalkers or Auto-Bolts is to go over to Anvil Industries, his Exo-Lord Mag swaps will fit the standard bolt rifle just fine. He's also got scopes so you can swap out the scope for something a bit more pronounced on your stalkers.


As to the Redemptor, you could, with a little work, get the other options from Blood and Skulls - the light chaingun would work for the lighter Onslaught, and he's got a Medium Plasma cannon that might well give you that option if you wanted.

Shooter Aggressors can be solved with a bits order and some creative work with the knife - the bolt gauntlets are a two-piece design, and then it's just a case of getting the belt feed and ammo drum to sit properly.

Upgraded Hellblasters is the same, go to a site like Hobby Titan (aka Bits-world on Ebay) or Blackdagger games, and get the upgrade fittings for the heavies, or Anvil for some laser targeters to slip under the plasma gun for the assault version.

WobblyGoblin wrote:
I see your thrifty and will attempt to raise you:

I bought a Dark Imperium box set but had no interest in the Death Guard models (except the Bloat Drone which I thought might be fun to paint) so I sold off all the other parts including the rulesbooks. I was left with the Primaris marines and the unsaleable parts (ruler, dice etc).

Paid - £76
Sales - (£76.98)
Fees and postage - £16.52

Total cost - £15.54

I am super jealous of how well you pulled that off. I thought about it at first, but I have not seen prices on the death guard stuff as having nearly a good enough return for it to even really be worth it at this point. I could buy the entire Primaris side for about 45% of the DI price, and I could sell the Death Guard at about 50% to 55% of the DI price.

I should have got in on it while the kits were still new.

 daedalus wrote:


I am super jealous of how well you pulled that off. I thought about it at first, but I have not seen prices on the death guard stuff as having nearly a good enough return for it to even really be worth it at this point. I could buy the entire Primaris side for about 45% of the DI price, and I could sell the Death Guard at about 50% to 55% of the DI price.

I should have got in on it while the kits were still new.

Honestly it wasn’t intentional but worked out well. At the time there were no alternatives to the new DG models so they were popular. I just got lucky.

You should also consider the rule book as well. I got a decent price for that. I know that CA and the FAQs have probably made it a little less desirable but you still might get a few dollars for that.