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I'm going to be using AoS models for my berzerkers, adding in chainswords on arms with things like shields or maces. I think that these models look far better than the outdated berzerker models themselves, being better detailed adding a primal look to my CSM. However, just about every Marine on both sides of the war uses power packs. I'm thinking of using some of the packs from the possessed box, as they too have that animalistic, primal look to them, but even so, I'm afraid of adding any packs as might not gel with the overall model. A good paint job might be able to overcome this, but overall, I'm just not sure if they would look good or ruin the vibe of the model. Would it look good if most of my berzerkers (minus Kharn) did not have packs?

Wether your building CSM out of the box or converting them from something else, there's nothing requiring you to put the packs on them.

Will it look good? (shrugs) Only you can decide that. So play around with/without packs until you find the right look.
Concerning your opponents opinion on the matter: Who cares? It's not their models.

While you are free to do whatever you want it's worth noting that the Power Pack is an essential piece of the power Armor. Without it it'd be just.... Armor. It'd feel wrong to me.

Just sticking a backpack on a Blood Warrior feels half-assed. The backpack is a component of power armour; even in the bizarre world of the 41st Milennum plugging it into a random suit of armour isn't going to make it suddenly perform all the functions of power armour. It feels to me like putting the tail fin off a Stormraven on a Stegadon and saying that now it's got the aerodynamic properties of a Stegadon and should be able to fly, ignoring the fact that it doesn't have any engines.

If you just think Sigmar Blood Warriors look better than the Berzerkers and want to use those models, by all means, go ahead. You can come up with a quick, simple mechanism for plugging them into the lore; they're some cult of brutish abhumans, possibly running on some kind of stimms, packed into ornately-crafted but primitive armour and sent running at people. In that context they might use the rules for Chaos Space Marines despite the fact that they're not.

If you want your Sigmar Blood Warriors to actually be proper World Eaters as in survivors of the Twelfth Legion splintered and drifting around the galaxy since Skalathrax then you've got a bit of a conversion project on your hands. There is a concept in lore and in rules called "Pariah power armour", where a Space Marine doesn't go into combat in the full original suit, whether by choice to save weight or by necessity as mutation forces him out of it. It's the default state of Wulfen out of the Space Wolves, and is an option for Blackshields in 30k. Blood Warriors would be a great base for a Pariah power armour conversion.

Berzerkers look a million times better with power packs

 SHUPPET wrote:
Berzerkers look a million times better with power packs

Which power packs did you use on these?

They aren't mine. Pick the ones you think look best.

The Age of Sigmar Blood Warriors are great for converting into Berzerkers but they really do need a backpack otherwise they look too much like the AoS models that they are. Other kits may not have that problem.

 AnomanderRake wrote:
Just sticking a backpack on a Blood Warrior feels half-assed. The backpack is a component of power armour; even in the bizarre world of the 41st Milennum plugging it into a random suit of armour isn't going to make it suddenly perform all the functions of power armour. It feels to me like putting the tail fin off a Stormraven on a Stegadon and saying that now it's got the aerodynamic properties of a Stegadon and should be able to fly, ignoring the fact that it doesn't have any engines.

If you just think Sigmar Blood Warriors look better than the Berzerkers and want to use those models, by all means, go ahead. You can come up with a quick, simple mechanism for plugging them into the lore; they're some cult of brutish abhumans, possibly running on some kind of stimms, packed into ornately-crafted but primitive armour and sent running at people. In that context they might use the rules for Chaos Space Marines despite the fact that they're not.

If you want your Sigmar Blood Warriors to actually be proper World Eaters as in survivors of the Twelfth Legion splintered and drifting around the galaxy since Skalathrax then you've got a bit of a conversion project on your hands. There is a concept in lore and in rules called "Pariah power armour", where a Space Marine doesn't go into combat in the full original suit, whether by choice to save weight or by necessity as mutation forces him out of it. It's the default state of Wulfen out of the Space Wolves, and is an option for Blackshields in 30k. Blood Warriors would be a great base for a Pariah power armour conversion.

How is your last paragraph so damn contradictory to the first.

Just stick a backpack on a blood warrior, now hes wearing "pariah" power armour. Obviously a dude in medieval arnour wont have a power pack, so if that dude happens to have a powerpack, then obviously hes infact actually wearing power armour.

123ply wrote:

 AnomanderRake wrote:
Just sticking a backpack on a Blood Warrior feels half-assed. The backpack is a component of power armour; even in the bizarre world of the 41st Milennum plugging it into a random suit of armour isn't going to make it suddenly perform all the functions of power armour. It feels to me like putting the tail fin off a Stormraven on a Stegadon and saying that now it's got the aerodynamic properties of a Stegadon and should be able to fly, ignoring the fact that it doesn't have any engines.

If you just think Sigmar Blood Warriors look better than the Berzerkers and want to use those models, by all means, go ahead. You can come up with a quick, simple mechanism for plugging them into the lore; they're some cult of brutish abhumans, possibly running on some kind of stimms, packed into ornately-crafted but primitive armour and sent running at people. In that context they might use the rules for Chaos Space Marines despite the fact that they're not.

If you want your Sigmar Blood Warriors to actually be proper World Eaters as in survivors of the Twelfth Legion splintered and drifting around the galaxy since Skalathrax then you've got a bit of a conversion project on your hands. There is a concept in lore and in rules called "Pariah power armour", where a Space Marine doesn't go into combat in the full original suit, whether by choice to save weight or by necessity as mutation forces him out of it. It's the default state of Wulfen out of the Space Wolves, and is an option for Blackshields in 30k. Blood Warriors would be a great base for a Pariah power armour conversion.

How is your last paragraph so damn contradictory to the first.

Just stick a backpack on a blood warrior, now hes wearing "pariah" power armour. Obviously a dude in medieval arnour wont have a power pack, so if that dude happens to have a powerpack, then obviously hes infact actually wearing power armour.

"Power armour" in the context of 40k is not "any suit of armour you happen to have strapped a power armour backpack to". If I put a Space Marine backpack on an Ork that doesn't make it "power armour", that makes it Ork armour that's got a Space Marine backpack strapped to it.

I'm taking a closer look at some Blood Warriors (I don't have any myself), and I will concede that they're close enough to serve. The torso can pass for overdecorated Mk.IV, the soft joints are either replaced (no greaves) or covered (the chainmail around the hips), the pauldrons are lighter but that's probably one of the first components you'd swap out if you're trying to make lighter modified armour, and the more 'fantasy' design elements (the faulds, the chainmail) happen to line up with some of the newer CSM miniatures (faulds have always been standard on Terminators but not on power armour, at least before the plastic Rubrics and the new Havocs).

GW's actually got a user-submitted Blood Warrior->Berzerker conversion on the store page for the Blood Warrior kit with power-armour greaves, a standard Mk.V backpack (the CSM ones with the vents placed on struts away from the central body), and a bolt pistol, and it does look like they fit well together.

Yeah, I really think you need to put some effort into converting AoS Blood Warriors into 40K Berzerkers.

At minimum:
Replace the leather boots with proper power armour boots/greaves.
Use actual chainaxes, not just unmodified Blood Warrior axes. (Obviously chainsword + bolt pistol Berzerkers don't need this.)
Give them power packs, so that they are actually wearing power armour, not just fancy carapace armour.

I also think they look better with real power armour shoulder pads rather than the Blood Warrior ones, but this is purely personal preference (they'll fit in better with the rest of your CSM army). But the above three points are non-negotiable IMO if you want your models to be considered conversions rather than lazy proxies.

 ArcaneHorror wrote:

 SHUPPET wrote:
Berzerkers look a million times better with power packs

Which power packs did you use on these?

these are done with the regular khorne berzerker ones.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Duskweaver wrote:
Yeah, I really think you need to put some effort into converting AoS Blood Warriors into 40K Berzerkers.

At minimum:
Replace the leather boots with proper power armour boots/greaves.
Use actual chainaxes, not just unmodified Blood Warrior axes. (Obviously chainsword + bolt pistol Berzerkers don't need this.)
Give them power packs, so that they are actually wearing power armour, not just fancy carapace armour.

I also think they look better with real power armour shoulder pads rather than the Blood Warrior ones, but this is purely personal preference (they'll fit in better with the rest of your CSM army). But the above three points are non-negotiable IMO if you want your models to be considered conversions rather than lazy proxies.

IMO

Have you considered that not all off theseare done as you can see above?
Also have you considered that out off all units khorne berzerkers are described to have a vast array of melee weapons so your insitence on chainaxes is idiotic?
Have you also considered that the chainaxes that exist (khorne berzerkers and the Terminator one) are either to small for the scale and positively ancient or stuck on a terminator body?

Bit needlessly gatekeeper-y, Duskweaver. The conversions above look fantastic and they’ve got their original boots. They’re no ‘lazy proxy’.

I was pretty clear and unambiguous that what I was saying was just my opinion. Not sure how you missed the "I think" (twice) and "IMO" (once).

So your "idiotic" (your word) hostility is completely unwarranted.

IMO leather boots on supposedly power armoured models looks awful.

IMO the standard Blood Warrior axes are emphatically not chainaxes and don't look right to represent chainaxes. I think they'd be fine as power axes, if Berzerkers could take those.

FWIW, I'd still happily play against such proxies, but I'm not going to lie and say they look good. I don't think they do.

EDIT: On reflection, I should possibly have phrased my first sentence as "I really think you should" rather than "I really think you need to". I still think it's clear I was posting my personal opinion, though, not trying to claim there was some official rule stating they had to be that way.

Why not just Khorne-up new CSM? Probably only need heads and arms. And they already have some CCW arms in the kit. So maybe just heads, and original Berserker heads are oversized anyway so maybe will fit.

There's also Forgeworld kit for Berserkers I think?

EDIT: On reflection, I should possibly have phrased my first sentence

Not really, your explanation for how conversions should be was on point and pretty fair.

Find someone who runs Space Wolves and trade your blood axes for chain weapons.
AOS Chaos weapons with some grimdark add ons like power lines and purity seals make epic Fenrisian relic weapons.

As for the boots a covering of greenstuff over the toe goes a long way towards making it look modern, some green stuff dots on the ankle take it a bit further.

For me a power pack is an essential part of the look of a Space marine. I even strapped a power pack on the Fantasy Nurgle Lord who doesn't even have any armour on his torso (so essentially there's nothing connected to the power pack that it could power, there's just some leg armour). But for the looks and to form the model into a 40K one I considered a power pack to be necessary. Pistols, grenades, chainweapons and motors on other CC weapons also go a long way.

The power pack is an integral part of the chaos marine silhouette. The only time I'd stray away from the classic chaos 'wing' backpack is if I am specifically trying to communicate something by doing so, e.g. I may use a loyalist backpack on an alpha legionnaire to communicate they might have been working under disguise.