Legion upgrade armor frequency.

[Castellan Maximus]

http://i.imgur.com/v09EzBD.png

That helmet is amazing! Is that just green stuff over a plastic 40k helmet?

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Kinda. It was one of the Mk IV Destroyer helms with the extra armor over the cheek cabling trimmed down. I first tried for a helm that looked like a raven skull but it didn't turn out so great. Then I had the idea to model it after the Raptor Imperialis icon.

[Daemon2027]

Personally I like to use a mix of kits on my models. I want each legionnaire to tell a story, from the plane new recruit to the form Terran Vet who still has the honour marking from the day he served besides the Emperor.

 

I also like to use the Iron Hand kits, great source of bionics to give that look of a warrior who has fought for years.

[marine7312000]

This thread made me realize that I will likely purchase a set of the Ultra upgrades to sprinkle through my BA once I get them really going. The BA stopped by Ultramar pretty much right after Fear to Tread (can't think of the world) and the Ultras would likely be happy to bring them back to fighting strength with armour.

[Iron Hands Fanatic]

Like everyone else said, it pretty much varies contextually, but I think part of the product description on FW's webstore for the Ultras' Praetor armour is pretty telling:

 

 

Across the thousands of Forge Worlds producing battle plate for the Legiones Astartes, variations from the standard template have been introduced in deference to local customs, views on artifice and the requirements of the Legion being supplied.

 

You could see a Legionaries' battle-plate being gradually modified throughout their career, or view the Legion specific armours as being issued directly to new inductees as the Legion's supplying Forge Worlds & Legion Forge produced their own modified variants of the basic patterns.

 

Personally, I'd imagine the above varies depending on the various deployments & Legions. For each Legion's main Expeditionary Fleet, I assume the Legion's own unique variants would hold precedence - they'd have the almost undivided attention of their dedicated Forge World(s) / Forge vessels, so would probably get their own specific gear pretty continuously. Obviously this would be less applicable when these main Fleets were crusading in more remote regions, but the Expeditionary Fleets would likely have decent contingents of Legion Forge ships, which would slightly alleviate this effect. 

 

Plus, some Legions just had different approaches - I'd imagine the highly utilitarian Iron Warriors made little modifications to the standard templates for their power armour unless there was a specific need - if hazardous conditions required enhanced environmental systems for example, the IV^th Legion had a Forge more than capable of modifying the plate of whole formations of Legionaries.

 

On the other hand, Legion forces away from the main fleets would have had more limited access to Legion-specific patterns of wargear, and would have relied on the standard patterns, or those produced by the particular Forge World(s) local to the areas they were fighting in.

 

Basically: it would have varied a whole lot, but looking at specific Legions & deployments gives some good clues - I'll give the example of the Legion to which I'm devoted: they've always had a focus on engineering / technical ability, with vast Forge resources & connections to the Mechanicum, so I'd imagine that whole suits of Power Armour without any form of Legion variation / modification would be rare. However, this wouldn't be purely for the sake of ostentation - the X^th were routinely deployed against the most technologically advanced civilisations the Great Crusade encountered, so every extra millimeter of armour would be desirable - hence why the majority of Iron Hands are depicted as bearing MkIII plate - it's the most durable. Almost uniquely amongst the Legions, I reckon this'd probably apply to all of their Legion's deployments, not just the 52^nd Expedition, which contained two thirds of the X^th's Legionaries, as their focus on technological mastery & the autonomous nature of the Clans would mean any deployment of Order size or above would have significant accompanying Forge assets.