New tac squad parts on CSM - do they "work"?

[Urauloth]

This has been bugging me for a while, because I can't quite decide if they look right. CSM arms all traditionally have those huge gauntlet things going on, and the trim on those matches the trim on the greaves and so on. They also cover up some of the more sophisticated looking techy bits on power armour forearms, which makes them visially distinct from loyalists.

 

Question is, do loyalist arms look ok on CSM minis? I see no fluff reason why those big gauntlets should be omnipresent, and chaos warbands loot imperial gear all the time (not to mention periodically swelling their ranks with post-heresy traitors) but I can't shake the feeling that the arms from the new tactical squad would look a little out of place without some kind of modification.

 

What about other loyalist components? There's no reason why the Mk.IV legs in the tac squad box couldn't be used for even legion-era traitors, but they'd stand out visually due to the omnipresence of trims on other CSM minis. One way to minimize this would, of course, be to invest in some FW maximus armour and scatter it around my squads, which is tempting.

 

Anyway, what do you guys think? Do any of you use non-CSM power armour parts on your minis, and how's it working out for you?

[hornywingythingy]

Yep, my alpha legion made much use of imperial kits for kitbash, its actually in the black crusade rp fluff/rules that most of the legion armours are cobbled together. Tbh I think it looks good so long as you plan what you are assembling.

[Lucien Eilam]

Space Wolf components are a good way to bridge the gap between the two styles. They're a patchwork of different marks, have extra trim, and the pelts and fangs don't look out of place on Chaos Marines. You need to do a bit of filling and filing to get rid of runes, obviously Wolf icons and purity seals, but nothing too onerous.

[Malediction]

I've been mixing and matching between the, now, old Tactical boxset and our own set without problems.

 

I think they can work quite well together. Especially if you're trying to represent looted armour or recently fallen Marines.

[Beachymike123]

Yep, my alpha legion made much use of imperial kits for kitbash, its actually in the black crusade rp fluff/rules that most of the legion armours are cobbled together. Tbh I think it looks good so long as you plan what you are assembling.

 

i agree entirely with this. as long as you have an idea in your head what the mini will look like you will end up with a great result as a kitbash. the same is if you reverse it - the CSM arms (imho) look good to distinguish veterans (the CSM power sword looks good on a SM sergeant in either vanguard or sternguard squads if you tone down the chaosy bits and do a bit of repositioning). like hornywingythingy, my Iron Warriors also have many looted imperial pieces in their aesthetics. i have 2 chosen squads, one for laying down firepower, the other for melee. the melee unit is largely kitbashed from the SM assault squad sprue and the running legs look fantastic. 

 

edit: typo

[Urauloth]

Excellent, good to hear that this works. I've used black templar weapon arms before, but never plain tacticals. I do have the advantage that I'm mostly making word bearers, so it's fairly easy to stuff parchments on things to make them blend it.

[Tenebris]

Actually I have used with success the various MEQ kits with the CSM. If you check my Dreaming Host topic in the WIP area you would see how DA, SM command squad and Tac pieces fit into a seemingly cohesive look for the CSM. My trick is ti use not only the legs but also some other things like hands, shoulder pads and even helmets to blend the whole into an uniform look.

 

Regardless of CSM warband the overriding belief is why manufacture your own wargear when you can loot and pillage your most hated enemy. Granted the SM are a "rare" sight on the majority of the 40k battlefields, so much that some traitor marines use this to their advantage in order to fool the local imperial forces yet the idea is to scavenge what you need. 

 

In the end a shoulder pad is a common piece of armor that needs to be changed, so are the knee joints and boots, helmets too. Wear and tear can reduce even a formidable suit of power armor into a pile of junk and being a nomadic and raiding army as it is the case of the CSM warbands such pieces need to be scavenged from every source imaginable. 

 

An average CSM has a wide experience in astartes weaponry and armor and since the precious knowledge of a Warpsmith is a rare occurrence the warbands loot what they can. This was aptly portrayed by an old codex, I don't remember exactly which but there was a picture of some renegade Crimson Fists which were built with pieces form the SM tactical squad and the old CSM kit. 

 

All in all I think that if you use only a determinate piece of the SM kit like the gauntlets or the legs the result would not look proper but if you include some minor loyalist pieces like a chest with a ruined aquila, a shoulder pad or even a helmet and use the tons of spikes you get with the CSM kit you will manage to make an awesome miniature. 

[Urauloth]

Cheers for the replies folks. If you happen to have pics or links to your work, that would be great, I'd like to see some of these kitbashes in action (so to speak)

[Malediction]

http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd365/AlcatrazLogan/W40K/ATSquad/StandardBearerVII_zps5de696f9.jpg

 

http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd365/AlcatrazLogan/W40K/ATSquad/StandardBearerIV_zpse6940a09.jpg

 

http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd365/AlcatrazLogan/W40K/ATSquad/StandardBearerVI_zps811e7883.jpg

 

I made this guy from the SM Tac box and the CSM box... besides the banner pole and nose. I think they all blend well together personally.

[Nemesor]

For me and my models, parts-mixing is a requirement. I do not build any model from just one kit. My CSM army bear parts from DA, BA, SW, SM, and CSM kits. Fluffwise, it makes sense on all but the most twisted and warp-infused spiky marines. The chaos legions today are probably more than 70% made up of post-Heresy Imperial renegades and more-recently created marines. Their armour is often looted from loyalists they have slain, other members of their warband who have fallen in battle - or kept from their time in the service of the Emperor. There's also the fact that, logically, CSM should have more ancient armour types than the loyalists, given that many of them actually fought in the Heresy! But the CSM kits have very few older-mark pieces. Almost all their legs are Mk VI with chaos-trim, most of the gauntlets are the same, and the helmets all look like later marks with heavy modifications. Chaos should look chaotic - that means variety. Not everything needs to come from the official CSM kits. Just plan out your part-mixes beforehand, and it will look good. Loot those dirty loyalists!

 

As for the new Tactical kit, you may have to shave off a few Imperial symbols and purity seals, and maybe stick on some spikes, but I actually think it's better than the old one for mixing in with CSM bitz. Why? Mainly because there are lots more studded parts now. These studs can be used to help tie a less-chaos-ified part into the overall theme, by painting them the same colour as the trim on your CSM. There's also a much larger variety of helmet designs, and more varied marks of armour. I love the new kits. Hell, I am looting Vanguard and Sternguard bitz too!

[Xenith]

Space Wolf components are a good way to bridge the gap between the two styles. They're a patchwork of different marks, have extra trim, and the pelts and fangs don't look out of place on Chaos Marines. You need to do a bit of filling and filing to get rid of runes, obviously Wolf icons and purity seals, but nothing too onerous.

 

If you're doing black legion, you dont even have to get rid of the wolfy icons, they could be leftover devices from their Luna Wolves days, like how Horus has wolves scuplted into the chasing on his armour.

[Chaeron]

I prefer to use the standard Tactical Marine backpack on my Death Guard, I just think it looks that much better with the Pre-Heresy scheme I've got than the truly Chaotic extended one. I reserve that for the other traitor legions.

[MaliGn]

Mixing in all kinds of power armour is one of the best things about collecting chaos. I built a squad of chosen pre dark vengeance using approximately a single chaos part per figure, blood angels, dark angels, black templars and even iron hands have all screamed out for corruption and assimilation, the new sternguard look even more plunder able thanks to the older armour marks. If we look at the way that the loyalist kits have gradually included more and more varieties of armour marks in various parts of the whole and more complete Sets, then compare this to the latest multi part chaos power armour - the raptors this trend can clearly be seen to be spreading to the followers of the true gods.

 

As to for how the specific parts of the new tactical squad kit goes I have no idea having only seen sprue pics but if they are compatible with all other power armour kits the I'm sure they'll be just as handy as the old ones.

[Spaz431]

On my night lords, I kept the purity seals. Seeing them makes me giggle.