<![CDATA[Latest posts for the thread "Moving all first born to primaris bodies"]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/56.page JForum - http://www.jforum.net Moving all first born to primaris bodies
Spoiler:

In 8th I came back to the hobby and managed to finish a good portion of my army, but due to the way I played I had no first-born marines other than bikes, using scouts as my main troop selection. This pushed me to finish painting all my scouts, since I like to paint my army by sections. I do have a good bunch of tactical marines and a couple of squads of intercessor squads, but since I barely use them, I did not got around to paint them. Nevertheless, I had a good base of troops ready for 9th and the new codex…. And scouts are moved to elites.

This means I have no troops finished: The emperor does not like that. Furthermore, having tactical marines and intercesors made a lot of sense, since the rules where quite different, and thus the models reflected that difference. But now First-born marines and primaris are basically the same thing with a +1 attack and bigger gun. They even use the same base! I already have the models, so cost is not a problem, but time to paint both and space to keep them is a lot of investment for little return. Thus, why have both models?

I always though First-born Space marines minis looked really underwhelming compared to the 40k art. As a kid that did not matter that much, since all miniatures of the time looked a bit off compared to awesome drawings, but nowadays, especially with Primaris being a thing, first-born marines really look outdated. Specially in proportion. Mentally I justified the miniature difference due to the rules.
Now that is not the case. And I am abig fan of conversions, sooo…


My idea would be to get all my army to have primaris bodies on the tabletop. This means I would use the same models to represent different roles, and making some models looks so much better. This is not unique or original, but a big change on approaching my army moving forward.
Most of the conversions would be quite simple: Some examples:
- Tactical or intercessor? Just a helmet swap, and making magnetized special weapons work on a bolter rifle
- Devastators or Hellblasters? Both! Just swap the body from the hip up with a magnet. Making devastator weapons work on primaris torsos is quite easy.
- Assault marines with jetpacks or assault intercessors? Just swap the helmet and back pack and you got both again. Or go an extra step and convert inceptors.

Additionally, this approach could be moved to other ranges of models, such as gravis. Before we only had aggressors, but now there are several units with the same body that would just be magnetized. An obvious one is heavy intercessors and eradicators.

Personal rules/Preferences:
- Minimum amount of miniatures
- No small bits magnetized except for special weapons (no helmets, for example).
- Army coherency. If tactical marines have the new look, devastators must as well. Some exceptions are allowed for certain vehicles (Ej: Land speeder pilots) and scouts (which are not full marines anyway).
- Squad diferenciation. If I have a tactical squad next to an intercessor squad when playing, they need to be recognized as different models. This can be achieved by making squads by themes either in conversion or in painting, making it easier to separate them (ex: white helmets, or a certain motive on the armour that is unique to the squad)

Pros
- Looks awesome, great conversion potential, and makes the army a bit more unique and personal.
- Cheaper in the long-run.
- Less work in the long-run.
- All my first-born minis need to be changed to 32mm bases anyway.
- More flexibility when playing. Since some units with the conversions do not looks exactly like the official models, I can use them to represent several models without too much of an issue. If anyone calls that a proxy, I can call it a conversion XD.
- Potential to use no-space marine models converted into space marines.
In other words, a lot of Fun!

Cons
- Cost now. I have a decent amount of bits to do the conversions, but I would probably need to get more.
- Using same models to represent different ranked units might cause visual hierarchy problems. Traditionally, the more decorated and uniquely painted a model is, the higher the rank of that model is (Ej: Assault marine < Vanguard veteran < Smash captain).
- Some bases might end up being bigger than they should according to the rules.
- 10 tactical marines with primaris bodies coming out of a rhino looks a bit ridiculous. They are almost as high as the tank!
- Although most of my first-born stuff is not painted, a very small number of models that are done and will not change (3 characters and 5 bikes).
- Some units can’t be transformed easily: Ej: Bikes. I have 10 first born bikes (2 of them magnetized to transform into attack bikes).
- Redundant models will go to a box and be forgotten or sold. Specially tactical marines with bolters and a good bunch of parts legs and torsos of devastators and assault marines.

In other words, a lot of Work!

Collection (s;ightly outdated)
Spoiler:
Painted army


All (both old and new stuff)


Some quick dry fit proof of concept tests. There are no adjustments on the pose or any bits, so the final product should look a bit better.

Tactical-intercessors


Comparison with an actual tactical model


Devastator comparison


Assault marine vs Converted inceptor working also vanguard veteran, or smash captain


No-marines model conversion potential

]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/792885/10953307.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/792885/10953307.page GMT Re:Moving all first born to primaris bodies Basically, I cut in half or casted legs and torsos, added a magnet and worked out poses that are unique yet compatible Thus, I can choose to have hellblasters, devastators or more tactical/intercessors.
I also made swapable special weapons for my "tactical" marines.
There is work to do still (adding more detail, make more swaps on devastators and special weapons) but I am really happy with the results so far.

Those are 15 legs and 20 torsos (10 hellblasters, 5 tactical special weapons-intercerssors, 5 devastators). I also have other 15 intercerssors (5 fully painted and still on plastic), which I plan to not convert with this method.
I do have though other 15 devastator heavy weapon upper torsos on traditional marines that I am going to transform, as well as some tactical special weapons.
Before converting any of those I will get this group painted first, and maybe add another 5 leg sets once I get there.

Thigs to note:
-If you had traditional first born marines still unpainted, but want to somehow use them, this is such a big improvement both on looks, time and storage.
- Posing works really well, both rotating the torso on a particular leg set or swaping from one to another. Barely any of the look like clones, get into wierd poses or straight not work well with this set up.
- Some pose compromised are needed to make this work. No element should go from the top to the bottom in a complicated way (ropes, purity seals, cables,etc), or at least should give enought space for being able to make proper contact. Devastators or heavy hellblasters have big dangly cables that in ocassion need to be bend to fit correctly.
- There can be a lose of uniqueness on each mini since all can be interchanged. With space marines is generally not an issue.
- It might be a bit confusing to have minis with this set up and full minis without it, since at a quick glance you might not be able to tell which ones can be swaped and which cant once fully painted. This can be solved by adding some kind of marking to the minis, that makes them recognizable one way or the other.

"Tactical marines" special weapons swaps


Devastators-hellblasters-tactica/intercessor




Everyone
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