mkVI Power Armour

[Goonbandito]

Putting together a Seeker squad for my Word Bearers, and was thinking of having them in mkVI armour.  Just had a few questions though:

 

1. Fluff wise, there's no real reason why sets of mkVI couldn't be in the hands of the Traitor Legions right?  I know mkVI is "known" as being the Raven Guard's thing, but is there any evidence of one of the Traitor Legions using it?  Horus was effectively in charge of the supply lines leading up to the Heresy after all.  It doesn't really worry me either way, because I'm still gonna make some Beakey Bearers, but it would be nice to have some fluff behind it.

 

2. I'm probably gonna kit-bash it out of the various mkVI components you find in the plastic Space Marine range, but that just leaves the backpacks.  Without having to do a great deal of converting, what would be the best option?  Plastic mkIV or VII backpacks as is?

[JeffJedi]

Plenty of all armor marks were used by both sides, both new and scavenged. In an older Chaos Codex there is art of a mk6 Raptor.

[Charlo]

Putting together a Seeker squad for my Word Bearers, and was thinking of having them in mkVI armour.  Just had a few questions though:

 

1. Fluff wise, there's no real reason why sets of mkVI couldn't be in the hands of the Traitor Legions right?  I know mkVI is "known" as being the Raven Guard's thing, but is there any evidence of one of the Traitor Legions using it?  Horus was effectively in charge of the supply lines leading up to the Heresy after all.  It doesn't really worry me either way, because I'm still gonna make some Beakey Bearers, but it would be nice to have some fluff behind it.

 

2. I'm probably gonna kit-bash it out of the various mkVI components you find in the plastic Space Marine range, but that just leaves the backpacks.  Without having to do a great deal of converting, what would be the best option?  Plastic mkIV or VII backpacks as is?

 

1. Yup. They would have had some for sure. While RG were the proprietors of it, the AL had some differing designs of their own and I'm sure Horus would have squirreled away some.

 

2. Mk4 or 7 are pretty similar to 6.

[Vodunius]

1. Canonically at the time of Isstvan V it had only been officially issued to the Raven Guard for field testing - it had initially been offered to both the Iron Warriors and Salamanders both of whom turned it down, Perturabo himself purportely thought it was a waste of time. One of the Ultramarine/Word Bearer books has mention of a senior Word Bearer having a pre-production prototype suit but given it's generally poor reception I don't think the traitors (AL excluded) would have been lining up to get it. 

 

2. Depends whether your force are time travellers. MkVI is derived from MkIV so should be compatible where available, whilst MkVII backpacks wouldn't have been invented yet (the original armour fluff article noted that the MkVII's 'improved leg articulation' ie: kneepads, had already been implemented on later production MkVI, there was no similar mention regarding backpacks). 

 

In my headcanon pre-production MkVI used MkIV legs, backpacks and arms, with the canonical stripped down backpack, kneeless legs and shorter 'arms' being inherited from late-production MkV (some MkV models have been kneepadless like MkVI, in my headcanon this was done mid-production to speed up production, ala the Panzer IV switching from a split turret hatch to a single one circa 1942)

[Marshal Loss]

There's also art of a Sons of Horus marine in Book 4 in MkVI (although the full piece didn't make it into Conquest, I can upload it if you want), so yeah there's no reason why the Traitors wouldn't have it.

[Fire Golem]

There's also art of a Sons of Horus marine in Book 4 in MkVI (although the full piece didn't make it into Conquest, I can upload it if you want), so yeah there's no reason why the Traitors wouldn't have it.

Yes please!

[Sandlemad]

 

1. Canonically at the time of Isstvan V it had only been officially issued to the Raven Guard for field testing - it had initially been offered to both the Iron Warriors and Salamanders both of whom turned it down, Perturabo himself purportely thought it was a waste of time. One of the Ultramarine/Word Bearer books has mention of a senior Word Bearer having a pre-production prototype suit but given it's generally poor reception I don't think the traitors (AL excluded) would have been lining up to get it. 

 

 

Both the Iron Warriors and Salamanders did have it though, they had received small numbers of suits but didn't given them full mass battle field trials. Perturabo definitely wanted to bury the whole mkVI project but that's not to say that small forces (squads? parts of companies?) of Iron Warriors or Salamanders with eccentric commanders couldn't have hung onto their suits.

[Kol Saresk]

I'd also imagine that as the Raven Guard began using more and more of it(especially since they started building their own after the initial shipment), it wouldn't be unreasonable for a Seeker squad of all things to take some suits as trophies from Raven Guard they killed. Or to scavenge them from fallen Alpha Legion.

[Marshal Loss]

 

There's also art of a Sons of Horus marine in Book 4 in MkVI (although the full piece didn't make it into Conquest, I can upload it if you want), so yeah there's no reason why the Traitors wouldn't have it.

Yes please!

 

 

Here you go, noble sir!

 

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/QRdQAWq.jpg

 

 

 

The SoH had a lot of material cut from Conquest (I suspect Tybalt Marr & The Long March were folded into Book VI after they cut down Book IV), and hopefully all of this gorgeous art sees the light of day in a future book.

 

In any case, it's nice to see another Legion in Mark VI. :)

[Brother Captain Kezef]

While MKVI had a poor reception with many legions due to it's lighter nature, I don't see why recon squads wouldn't jump at the chance to get hold of MKVI.

 

I can see specific recon and light assault units in both traitor and loyalist legions using MKVI.

[Old-Four-Arms]

Putting together a Seeker squad for my Word Bearers, and was thinking of having them in mkVI armour.  Just had a few questions though:

 

1. Fluff wise, there's no real reason why sets of mkVI couldn't be in the hands of the Traitor Legions right?  I know mkVI is "known" as being the Raven Guard's thing, but is there any evidence of one of the Traitor Legions using it?  Horus was effectively in charge of the supply lines leading up to the Heresy after all.  It doesn't really worry me either way, because I'm still gonna make some Beakey Bearers, but it would be nice to have some fluff behind it.

 

2. I'm probably gonna kit-bash it out of the various mkVI components you find in the plastic Space Marine range, but that just leaves the backpacks.  Without having to do a great deal of converting, what would be the best option?  Plastic mkIV or VII backpacks as is?

 

2. Plastic Mk IV backpacks from B@C come pretty close. If you're a stickler for details,

the 2015 Assault squad has a single backpack with the old-school "ribbed" upper look.

 

 

 

Old-Four-Arms

[Charlo]

Thanks for uploading that pic, Marshall - it's very cool!

[Xenith]

 

 

1. Canonically at the time of Isstvan V it had only been officially issued to the Raven Guard for field testing - it had initially been offered to both the Iron Warriors and Salamanders both of whom turned it down, Perturabo himself purportely thought it was a waste of time.

 

 

Both the Iron Warriors and Salamanders did have it though, they had received small numbers of suits but didn't given them full mass battle field trials. Perturabo definitely wanted to bury the whole mkVI project 

 

As an aside, can I ask where this info is from? It's a pretty interesting little titbit!

[Sandlemad]

 

 

 

1. Canonically at the time of Isstvan V it had only been officially issued to the Raven Guard for field testing - it had initially been offered to both the Iron Warriors and Salamanders both of whom turned it down, Perturabo himself purportely thought it was a waste of time.

 

 

Both the Iron Warriors and Salamanders did have it though, they had received small numbers of suits but didn't given them full mass battle field trials. Perturabo definitely wanted to bury the whole mkVI project 

 

As an aside, can I ask where this info is from? It's a pretty interesting little titbit!

 

 

Massacre, the Raven Guard background, but portions of the text have made their way onto the WH40k wiki. Politicking by Perturabo.

[Brother Pheidias]

Honestly, there's always space for justifying any armour mark short of VII and VIII with mishandled resupply shipments, scavenging or any other excuse you care to come up with. That's why my Scars have got plenty of Mk. VI scattered throughout, even if they're pre siege by a few years.

[Kol Saresk]

Honestly, there's always space for justifying any armour mark short of VII and VIII with mishandled resupply shipments, scavenging or any other excuse you care to come up with. That's why my Scars have got plenty of Mk. VI scattered throughout, even if they're pre siege by a few years.

Actually, even Mk VII could be justified as we've seen bits and pieces of it spread throughout the artwork. IIRC, the biggest examples would artwork from book 1 of a World Eater and a Son of Horus wearing two different patterns of Mk IV helmets that look exactly like the Mk VII helmets.

 

Heck, honestly we could even squeeze in the Mk VIII because the only thing that stands out about it is the raised gorget and we got that in the Ashen Circle. And where there's one example, it's only a matter of time before we see more.

 

So really, Forgeworld has done a lot to nullify the need to worry about how the armor works because it isn't until the Codex Astartes and the Mechanicum's reversion into the pattern-retentive Mechanicus that everyone started worrying about everything having to look a certain way. 30K was an era of innovation and personalization among the Astartes. The Mk IV was a Mk IV because of its software, firmware, and hardware, not because its casing looked identical to everyone else's Mk IV. It was only after deviation became a bad thing that everyone had to look identical sans the paintjob.

[depthcharge12]

I'd say that after the Massacre, the Word Bearers might have it lying in droves around them on Isstvaan. No reason to let shiny armor just lay around with some useless old Raven Guard still in it ;?

[Vodunius]

 

Honestly, there's always space for justifying any armour mark short of VII and VIII with mishandled resupply shipments, scavenging or any other excuse you care to come up with. That's why my Scars have got plenty of Mk. VI scattered throughout, even if they're pre siege by a few years.

Actually, even Mk VII could be justified as we've seen bits and pieces of it spread throughout the artwork. IIRC, the biggest examples would artwork from book 1 of a World Eater and a Son of Horus wearing two different patterns of Mk IV helmets that look exactly like the Mk VII helmets.

 

 

 

Depends how much of a stickler for detail you are. The MkVII respirator/faceplate has relatively flat sides with entirely external cables/pipes, aside from the rivets production MkV is almost identical but has a massive bulbous protrusion (ala Star Wars Stormtrooper helmets) enveloping/protecting the front half of the cables. The 'MkVII' helmets in Betrayal are the latter not the former, one of the marines descriptions even states that it is the pattern (Sarum/Mantilla) that would later become 'standard' for production MkV. 

[Cryptix]

Can someone point out which kits have MkVI in them anyway? I'm bad at seeing armor marks, so my knowledge only goes up to MkV, and I still manage to mess up 2 and 3.

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