FW Mark IV Armour: Legion IV vs IV, Traitor Use?

[Kais Klip]

On forgeworld there are two batches of Astartes Mark IV Power Armour; the Legion Maximus IV and the 40k (?) Maximus IV . 

 

Those of you who purchased one of the above, am I correct to understand that the only discrepancy is a few pieces of Mark V plate in the former, while the latter is all-mkIV and has running-legs sculpted?

 

Going to purchase one of them for my Alpha Legion, and I doubt non-Istvaan III traitors would be running about in scavenged mark V plate, unless they used it as a pattern with increased protection like the loyalists in Deliverance Lost, I believe.

 

From what I gathered, the techmarines made the mark V more robust vs the armour penetrating shells of the traitors, before they received the mark VI.  

 

Comments? 

[ninjasuperspy]

From a pure aesthetic standpoint I think the studded armor looks cooler. It is a shame the only ways to get the smooth chestplate is through the MK IV Assault Squad or the Destroyers (I don't like having extra jetpacks sitting around and for some reason the fact that the Destroyers are one piece legs & torso annoys me).

[Kais Klip]

Damn, you mean their torso and legs are one-piece or the arms and chest?

[geordie]

The two types of forgeworld mk4 armour are quite different, despite looking fairly similar at first glance. The 'Legion mk4' is the updated version, which in my opinion is fair superior to the original version for a number of reasons;

 

More variations on the legs - 5 different leg options, which are more dynamic too

More variations on the heads - 3 different head options (I think)

Also the arm poses are different so they wont all hold their bolters at the same angle.

The parts are cast better, the flash/mold lines are in more innocuous places such as the part where the arm joins the torso, as opposed to on the torso itself on the old versions which was a pain to file down.

 

The only reason I can see anyone getting the 'original' mk4 over the 'Legion' mk4 is that if you don't like studs and variant helms. The original ones are more plain and uniform looking. That being said you could remove the studs in minutes with minimum effort.

 

I'd go Legion mk4 all the way. Only the destroyers torsos and legs are joined, all the mk2,3,4,5,6 are separate bits.

 

Hope that helps

[Kais Klip]

Massive thanks Geordie, that was exactly the type of info I was looking for. I was going to purchase the later version as I'm not a fan of the "edgelessness" of the mark V pauldrons, however given the design details you point out I'm going to grab the Legion mark and use the GW metal pauldrons, which are same thickness as IV.

Does anyone know if the generic ASM/Tactical pauldrons from GW are still metal? Hearing here and there that they switched them to finecast, but does that include the generic plates?

[Jim AMM realgenius]

Those of you who purchased one of the above, am I correct to understand that the only discrepancy is a few pieces of Mark V plate in the former, while the latter is all-mkIV and has running-legs sculpted? 

I posted a pretty detailed review with sprue pics a while back here: http://www.flylords.net/2013/01/fw-legion-mk-34-vs-regular-mk-34.html

[Daemon2027]

FYI the Reconnaissance mark IV is also one piece but has some cool heads and backpacks. I personally mix legion and normal style just for variation, but I much prefer the legion style.

[Kais Klip]

Wonder why they started churning out one-pieces, are the recons attached torso to legs or the arms as well then?

[Daemon2027]

Torso and legs and one arm on the body, where the cape is. I'm not sure, I rang them yesterday should have asked. Oh, to see the recon backpack which I think is cool, check out my alphas in my sig, it's my last post, although I did add the bolter. It's very Alpha Legion...

[Kol Saresk]

Maybe its cheaper to have one mold making one big piece than three molds making three small pieces?

[Daemon2027]

Very probably. Going to make it a bitch to convert them not something else.

[skeletoro]

There aren't any mk bits in the legion mk iv set. There's some studs, but that's it. No edgeless pauldrons, for example.