GKs as DW Vets?

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**Galef**

How well do you think using GK power armour models as DW Vets would go over in a tourney?

Specifically if you replaced all the GK power weapons with Storm Shields and painted their armour black (except the left arm, which would remain silver)
I really can't think of any issue with it considering both had similar =][= shoulder pads
The main reason to do this is to get every model with a Storm Bolter, which GKs have on every model. It shouldn't then be too difficult to slap Stormshields, Chainswords, etc in place of the GK power weapons, maybe even leaving the SGT with a Hammer.

The kit is also a bit cheaper for 10 models than 10 DW Vets

Thoughts?

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**Stux**

Really difficult to say what a tournament would say. You'd just have to ask the TO.

I'd have absolutely no problem personally though. Painted as Deathwatch with the right weapons, I think would look great.

**Marmatag**

Conversion are allowed but counts-as and proxies are not.

The question is really: do they actually look like DW vets?

Ultimately that is decided by the tournament organizers.

If you're doing this for LVO you should contact them ASAP.

**Galef**

True, but I guess my question should be, given your experience with particular tourneys in your local meta, would this be OK.
I suspect most would say yes.

Still not committed to DW, but hashing out ideas anyway.
"Storm" Vets just seem so good. Or rather, they seem more like Movie Marines with decent durability and good offense. And I do like the look of GKs and the paint scheme of DW

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**Marmatag**

Deathwatch are the best marines right now. And you're not wrong. Storm Bolter Storm Shield vets are not bad at all.

Poisoned 2+ ammo hitting on 3s rerolling everything and wounding on 2s rerolling 1s essentially gives you on-demand dice volume Bobby G.

Bring a way to handle vehicles and you will do well.

You can also build primaris kill teams, too, and they're not bad. Because they have innate AP which helps the poisoned ammo. Also, combining Inceptors and Aggressors into a squad gives them neat abilities a-la 7th ed.

And i understand the premise of this. Essentially GK are really bad, and you want to at least get some mileage out of the models.

Personally, I'm just going to sell my Gk if i can find someone to buy them. I've given up on marines being anything but terrible in 8th edition, and 9th edition (which will be based on 8th edition).

**Brotherjanus**

If they are armed correctly I see no issue. I doubt a tournament organizer would have a problem unless they were not altered from their Grey Knight equipment.

**Marmatag**

Galef wrote:
True, but I guess my question should be, given your experience with particular tourneys in your local meta, would this be OK.
I suspect most would say yes.

Yes. Given what i've seen in a highly competitive environment, as long as they're modeled with the appropriate wargear and painted the right way, people won't care.

**Galef**

Marmatag wrote:
And i understand the premise of this. Essentially GK are really bad, and you want to at least get some mileage out of the models.

I don't have the models yet, but one of the things I dislike about buying new kits is paying for all the upgrade bits I'm not gonna use, on top of having to already add to that price for the wargear I am going to use.
Since GKs already come with SBs for every model and is a cheaper box, they seem more appealing. All I'd have to order are some Shields, which are probably very easy to make or bitz order.

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**Marmatag**

Whoa, if you're buying new kits, at least look at the DW kits.

DW are actually pretty cool. And it's nice having the iconography of all the various chapters mixed in the shoulder pads.

**Galef**

Oh no doubt the DW kits are nice. But they are also $10 more for a kit that contains tons of extra bits I don't need and no SBs at all.
Granted the GK box has extra stuff too, but at least it's mostly multiples of the same 3 melee weapon types. Weapons that can sell well for any Marines

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**the_scotsman**

I think it's a cool idea. I'd love to see someone actually put some creativity into one of the "not-vanilla" marine chapters. For some reason the "sub-faction" codexes always have people playing incredibly rigidly with their fluff and modeling.

A your-guys marine chapter using deathwatch rules and GK models as a base would be incredibly cool IMO. Especially if you get some third-party storm shield bits with an unusual sigil or something.

**Galef**

the_scotsman wrote:
A your-guys marine chapter using deathwatch rules and GK models as a base would be incredibly cool IMO. Especially if you get some third-party storm shield bits with an unusual sigil or something.

Yeah, I'd probably still paint their armour black and the left shoulder silver, but having the right shoulder painted the same on all with the same icon could let me do a "your-dudes" Successor Chapter.
Maybe one on an extreme home world that requires tougher wargear (shields) and unique ammo (counts-as SIA)

I could even get a ton of Lizardmen Saurus shields for their Storm Shields saying they are the hides of great reptilian beasts that roam their home world and killed as a rite of passage to become a Marine.
I like the idea of them being called Omega Marines and use the UM icon upside down on their metallic blue-green shoulder pads. Maybe they were a Loyalist cell of the Alpha Legion that was allowed to be rebranded and are "officially" an UM Successor.
Similar to how there is evidence to suggest the Silver Skulls UM Successors are really descendants of Loyalist Iron Warriors

But that's just some ramblings off the top of my head for fluff

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**Marmatag**

I do like the mounted-arm storm bolters for GK. A DW & GK conversion would be pretty neat.

In general if you put time into a conversion, i can't imagine Reece/Frankie/Pablo saying no.

**Galef**

Cool. It's too bad I don't paly enough anymore to merit getting a whole new army. I'd love to pursue this.

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**Karol**

Galef wrote:
Oh no doubt the DW kits are nice. But they are also $10 more for a kit that contains tons of extra bits I don't need and no SBs at all.
Granted the GK box has extra stuff too, but at least it's mostly multiples of the same 3 melee weapon types. Weapons that can sell well for any Marines

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Two GK boxs and one DW box? enough parts to make all squads look more DW and not just repainted GK.

**DoomMouse**

It'd be fine - particularly if painted nicely. Provided it's the same size and it's clear what the models represent. Bonus points if it looks cool and/or painted nicely.

**Blndmage**

Marmatag wrote:
Conversion are allowed but counts-as and proxies are not.

The question is really: do they actually look like DW vets?

Ultimately that is decided by the tournament organizers.

If you're doing this for LVO you should contact them ASAP.

You can't unanimously state that conversions and Counts As aren't allowed.
I've seen tons of tournaments that not allow GW bits based conversions, but are 100% ok with full Counts as, if following that rule.
Wanna run a Kroot army, using the Drukhari rules? That's cool, as long as everything is identifiable.

**Galef**

Second question: since I'm basing my Vets on GKs, what do you think of using GK interceptors as Vanguard vets? They'll likely all TH/SS, but with the interceptor jump pack instead of the traditional marine ones.

I kinda just wanna get 20-30 GKs and make the whole army out of that, characters included

**Nevelon**

Thematically, I’d not have a problem with it. Visually, the interceptor teleport backpack is a lot more subtle than a jump pack, so it could be hard to pick the VV out of the squad if you wanted to see where he was. But if you did something like paint it silver with glowing blue accents, rather than just black, that would probably make him distinct enough.

YMMV. This is a lot more of a WYSWYG question then the difference between a guy with a SB mounted on his arm vs. in his hand.

**Galef**

Very true. I would indeed make the jump pack stand out, in addition to the VVs being the only TH carriers. Shouldn't be too hard to pick them out

**Silver144**

Totally ok, marine is marine, only wargear and weapons are matters.
My deathwatch veterans have space wolves colors and marking this edition, if you know what I mean с:

**Galef**

So another thought occurred to me while making my list:

While 2 boxes GKs have all the Stormbolters, Hammers and "jump packs" I'd need for my list, it doesn't have the shields I need (about 25)
But AoS Stormcast Eternals do.

So I am thinking of get 2 boxes of GKs (20 models) and 1 box of Stormcast Liberators (10 Models) and eBay the rest of the shields I need.
The Stormcasts will be used specially as my 4 Vanguard Vets (with GK Interceptor packs) Characters (2 Jump Captains with actually jump packs, 1 Watch Master, 1 Librarian) and 2 Sgts

I have plenty of Space Marine heads and the GKs come with power packs to spare for the Stormcasts. And since I am including Custodes Dawneagle Shield Capts into the list, but painted black & silver instead of GOOOOOOLD! the Stormcast aesthetics could help tie the army together

Thoughts?

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