Ambiguity regarding pre-heresy helmets

[jimbo1701]

Been musing over this one while planning a pre-heresy army. So I take the gospel about pre-heresy armour to be the entry in C:SM showing the 8 different Mks of armour. However, various artistic impressions of marine over the past few years have made things a bit more confusing. or example, the helmets seen on the cover of False Gods don't fit neatly into any category. Also, the Luna Wolves are said to wear MkIV plate and yet the cover shows them wearing what looks to be more like MkV plate with the aforementioned unknown helmets. I also recall the thousand sons havnig their own 'egyptian' style helmets, so does this mean that all chapters simply modify the helmets as they wish?

 

Main reason I ask is that I really like the interpretation of the Luna wolves fromt he False Gods cover and at the same time want the army to fit into GW canon. Several people use the maxmini helmets for pre-heresy, but only two of those even resemble the MkII/III helmets with the others being as random in appearance as the False Gods ones. ANy input gratefully accepted! :woot:

 

http://www.maxmini.eu/store/index.php?main...mage&pID=60

 

http://ui17.gamespot.com/1808/falsegodsbig_2.jpg

[Madwolf Shadowmane]

short answer is yes, each legion modified their armor, particularly for heroes and officers.

[jimbo1701]

Kind of came to the same conclusions. Gutted that I splashed out on some red scorpions vets when in fact I could have made them using just the regular 'strapped' marine chests.

 

Has inspired me to make myown helmets though. Have cast up Sicarius' helmet plume with GS and have converted one of the Venerable dreadnought 'crusader' type helms into a replica of the ones seen on the cover with the intent of casting it in GS also. The Khorne beserker helmet conversions I've seen don't resemble it closely enough as the Luna wolf ones don't have a slit down the middle.

 

Thinking I might call them 'optimus' pattern helmets in honour of the resemblence they bear to a certain giant transforming robot. (cursed xenos)

[Marshal Traben]

I think the MaxMini Steam Knight helmet nr.5, resembles the helmet of the Luna Wolves on the cover of False Gods book.

[Hyperion]

The covers don't fit well with the known armour marks - for example you can see everything from Mk2 to Mk6 on the cover of Fulgrim. A much better guide is HH: Collected Visions.

 

In addition to the C:SM lineup there's also the Armour Through the Ages set, which gives a much more "accurate" guide to armour marks (Mk1-5).

 

For Luna Wolves you're looking at Pre-Heresy (since they became the Sons of Horus after Ullanor), so Mk2-4. There's some suggestion that Horus's Legion had earlier access to new armour marks than the others (in the HH:CV line-up they are shown with Mk7 armour, unlike all the others in Mk6) so they probably had the prototypes first.

 

Therefore using Mk4 torsos (either Forgeworld or the one from the Black Templars upgrade sprue) with normal Mk7 (kneepad) legs and chaos arms would work - then add the Maxmini head with the vertical slit - pretty close. Alternatively you could just go for Mk4 heads as well - they're pretty iconic in their own right.

 

I'd recommend checking out HH:CV though - there are a lot more images of Luna Wolves (and Sons of Horus) in it, which might give you a whole bunch of alternative ideas.

[jimbo1701]

I think the MaxMini Steam Knight helmet nr.5, resembles the helmet of the Luna Wolves on the cover of False Gods book.

 

This is the thing. Most people I have seen conversions from that try to imitate the False Gods marines have used either that head or the simiar Khorne beserker head cut down. (may have a basis in the collected visions book - I'm not sure)

Irony is, the False Gods heads have neither a vertical nor horizontal slit in them, rather they have the crusader style faceplates covered by ears at the sides. As mentioned above, I've now sculpted one and am in the process of casting it so will show pics soon. I think it's accurate to the False Gods ones.

 

 

In addition to the C:SM lineup there's also the Armour Through the Ages set, which gives a much more "accurate" guide to armour marks (Mk1-5).

 

For Luna Wolves you're looking at Pre-Heresy (since they became the Sons of Horus after Ullanor), so Mk2-4. There's some suggestion that Horus's Legion had earlier access to new armour marks than the others (in the HH:CV line-up they are shown with Mk7 armour, unlike all the others in Mk6) so they probably had the prototypes first.

 

Therefore using Mk4 torsos (either Forgeworld or the one from the Black Templars upgrade sprue) with normal Mk7 (kneepad) legs and chaos arms would work - then add the Maxmini head with the vertical slit - pretty close. Alternatively you could just go for Mk4 heads as well - they're pretty iconic in their own right.

 

I'd recommend checking out HH:CV though - there are a lot more images of Luna Wolves (and Sons of Horus) in it, which might give you a whole bunch of alternative ideas.

 

I've had a flick through the HHCV book but didn't see that many LW in there - mostly TS/EC/SW/WE from what I saw. (awesome book though and does give general insight into the era) As mentioned above, there doesn't appear to be a slit in the false Gods cover at all so hopefully the custom I made will turn out OK. Thanks for the advice though. I think as a ersult I'm going to go with this:

 

20 marines made from FW red scorpion set - MkIV Maximus armour

20 marines made from custom heads with normal marine 'strapped' chests - MkIVa armour

5-10 marines in a variety of MkIII, MkV and MkVI armour just for a bit of variety.

 

 

On a slightly different note, does anyone know what the red markings are for on the Luna Wolves:

 

I gather the red helm crest denote rank so I was going to give them to sergeants and the Captain (red cape for him too).

 

The red stripe on the left knee - could this be s company marking similar to DA 3rd co?

 

The 4 red slash marks on the right legs (sometimes seen in different numbers on bolters/gauntlets/helmets) - could these be squad markings?

 

Any help appreciated. And, does anyone know the name of the cover artist? (don't have the book to hand)

 

EDIT: WIP here:

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=206498