Using 30k models in a chaos army?

[Brother Clavero]

    I was just wondering how many people are mixing 30k armour patterns into their 40k chaos armies?

 

     I've added a few MK III and IV but sometimes add chaos shoulder pads, backpack or a helmet with horns thrown in the mix.  I'm finding that this gives a nice 'renegade" look and keeps the squads from looking so 'cookie cutter in their appearance. '

[Lord Asvaldir]

If I could start my army all over again, I'd make the entire army out of MKIV armor plastic sets. Just looks better than the standard chaos space marines armor, not to mention easier to paint. I'd chaosify them up of course, use a bunch of horned heads from across the chaos range and use a lot of chaos shoulder pads so that they didn't just have the generic MKIV armor look. 

 

Since I already have about 50 chaos space marines with the standard armor though I don't plan on making the change, just too big of an investment in the old armor at this point. 

[Fhanados]

I love the HH marines! I want to pick up Calth for some MkIV, but I'm using the MkIII from Prospero a fair bit. Just mix and matching with standard CSM parts has been a ton of fun!

[DreamIsCollapsing]

As a lot of chaos players, i dislike the actual vanilla chaos space marine models.

The only exception is the Defiler (nostalgia ?), old Daemon Prince (DoW I nostalgia ?), the Dark Apostle ( ), the Decimator and the Hellblade (oop..).

I intend to use 30k models for all the other units. Better proportions, the models are not hideous as the GW vanilla marines (wich are basically old, very old space marine models with spikes..).

 

Wainting for E.C. to be treated with the same respect as D.G.

 

I mean : Do you prefere this :

 

 

Or this ?

 

[Lhorke The First]

The vast majority of my chaos army is MK III and IV marines. I even have some MK II thrown in there. I have added chainswords and bolt pistols from the raptors set and a few of those topknot helmets from the chaos marine kit just to chaosify them a bit. I find the Heresy era armor is much more striking and fun to paint.

[hushrong]

I have to echo everyone else here.

 

I myself use it because I think it looks better than most CSM plastic kits and you can only reuse the raptor kit only so much. I play chaos armies that are from Legions so this a good bit of MkII and MkIV would have been what a lot of them had back then. And like anything else chaos, some little touches here and their and it can look a bit more sinister.

[betrayer41]

My entire army is HH mixed with other Stuff. My World Eaters are HH mks mixed with AOS blood warriors. I don't like alot of the current csm line. Its actually very fitting. I assume alot of them more or less had the same armor from the siege

[Brother Clavero]

  Thanks for all of the great replies!  My army (The Steel Brethren) is an offshoot of the Iron Warriors. I'm thinking of modeling the original legionaries in their older marks of armour while the 'fresher' recruits would wear  more chaosie  or imperial looking armour. 

[hushrong]

Oh sweet! That’s a good choice there with the Steel Brethern. Because BaC and BoP are such great deals that would be a sweet place to start. I always like the idea of IW with the MkII (from forgeworld) and MkIII (BoP) with higher ups in MkIV (BaC) but mixing those armor sets with some upgrades would be cool in my opinion.

[totgeboren]

I mainly use mk.IV and mk.V, with CSM shoulderpads and other details. Also BT bits here and there.

 

Funny thing that the basic CSM box have not stood the test of time, yet I still almost always field a 10-man squad of marines made up almost entirely from that box! Though I have spent a huge amount of time personalizing every member of the squad so... :)

[Lucerne]

I actually think the older CSM set's look and design approach has potential- just look at how the Space Marine game handled it- but the execution is a complete flop and looks worse than even older sets like the Khorne berserkers.

 

My preferred take on CSM is to basically take a loyalist or 30k  pattern and...reinterpret it to be more archaic, decorated, and generally divergent from a museum piece or 40k LSM design.

 

"Modern" 40k CSM at their best basically have access to Imperial Marine technology- godwdyn bolters and modern power armor but aren't afraid to mix and match or to use whatever's on hand to equip themselves. There's a reason the generic CSM armor design is a variant on the aquila or Mk V helmet, a full on aquila torso, a completely divergent set of gloves, and corvus boots- they don't follow little things like "armor patterns", every Marine's armor set is likely to have a long and messy history of its own especially if parts of it started off as a Heresy or pre-Heresy suit, and field repairs or "improvements" that just confuse things further.

Edited October 26, 2017 by Ugolino

[WarriorFish]

I agree, CSM is a great excuse to go to town mixing up armour marks. I use almost all SM armour bits for my Chaos (mostly avoiding overly Imperial bits, like aquila torsos) and it works nicely. Aside from all the various marks mixing and matching well as you'd expect it helps give them a less loyalist appearance.

[Brother Clavero]

  All great replies! Now, any pics?

[Lhorke The First]

 

Here is one that I kitbashed using mostly 30k parts. MK III legs and MK IV torso. I used a chainsword from the chaos raptor kit, and a top know helmet and respirator pack from the old chaos plastic kit. I would have used a 30k head but i didn't have and MK II World Eater heads left at the time.

[hushrong]

Most of my Emperor's Children and Alpha Legion look heresy era with their armor and paint jobs I have going. Personally I like the idea that they are in the time frame of the Legion War that raged in the Eye following their failure at Terra. So not a ton of mutations yet but that's going to change soon...

The only one I have convert up where it's noticeable something is different is this guy:

[Syrakul]

The CSM kit has nice torsos, dont mind arms too much, and shoulders and backpacks are a bit underdetailed, but hey, Chaos. Its nice having CCBP and bolters in same box.

Legs are the part that doesnt holdup. The banding seems uninspired and squatting Marines must be purged whereever they still linger...

Swap the legs and heads out and they do the job.

Back when the battleforce contained CSM and Zerkers it was great for taking zerker legs, pads and torsos with CSM arms and such.

[Commander Dawnstar]

My Iron Warriors started out life as a 30k army, so in the end they're predominantly just MKIII models with added gore, skulls, spikes etc. I certainly would have taken things further if I'd meant to make CSM from the start, but I still think what I've ended up with does enough to get the point across.

 

[Lucerne]

Ironically, the CSM head that holds up the best is the generic one, no horns, with a topknot. Take that, remove the topknot and shave down the over the top cheekbones slightly so it's divergent from loyalists but less blatant, and you have a pretty good "generic" CSM helmet.

 

For Alpha Legion, ironically, Primaris models and bits work great.

[DuskRaider]

Absolutely you can use 30K models, both FW and GW. Take a look at my Word Bearers log, most of my models are 30K with Chaos bits mixed in for flavor.

[totgeboren]

  All great replies! Now, any pics?

 

A few of mine.

 

 

 

 

Mostly mk.III-V with bitz from CSM and BT boxes thrown in.

[Ghorgul]

My CSM army, originally started as 30k, is mostly mark IV marines from Betrayal at Calth box, so they are very cookie cutter.

 

This is a minority opinion, but I dislike the current raptor kit, the 3.5 era raptors were much nicer IMO. Don't know why they had to do these current monstrosities.

I'm building my Raptor squads from mixing Mark V assault squad pieces with Mark IV Night Lords legion specific pieces and generic Mark IV pieces. They are ending up to look like very rag-tag, which is good in my opinion. Mark IV assault squads would have been nicer, but I dislike the jump pack there.

[Closet Skeleton]

I would say "if you're not kitbashing Chaos Space Marines you're doing it wrong" but I technically think the same way about loyalist marines and I'm close to finishing my limited kitbash Death Guard army so I'm now a hypocrite.

 

The progress log in my sig has pictures of my Havoks in it, those are made from a mix of mark III and the CSM kit. Lower down there are some other Black Legionairies with mark IV torsos and other bits.

 

Ironically, the CSM head that holds up the best is the generic one, no horns, with a topknot. Take that, remove the topknot and shave down the over the top cheekbones slightly so it's divergent from loyalists but less blatant, and you have a pretty good "generic" CSM helmet.

 

Remove the top knot? NEVER!!!

 

Unless you're taking those top knots off to put on other marine helmets, that is acceptable.

Edited October 27, 2017 by Closet Skeleton

[totgeboren]

I would say "if you're not kitbashing Chaos Space Marines you're doing it wrong" but I technically think the same way about loyalist marines and I'm close to finishing my limited kitbash Death Guard army so I'm now a hypocrite.

 

This is a thing I had a slight issue with in regard to the new DG models. They are rather mono-pose, and also have a scale and proportions that are slightly off from other CSM/SM models, meaning kit-bashing simply wont work most of the time. Personalizing is limited to greenstuff basically, which while fun, takes quite a bit of time.

 

Personalizing models is a must for me, so the new path GW is heading might leave me in the dust, even if the models do look cool.

[ChazSexington]

I'm a fan of mixing and matching, actually. It's been a while, replacements are difficult to come by, so scavenged armour makes sense, unless the Warband in question has access to a Forge World. Mixing all Heresy MKs, CSM, and even some SM bits gives a very Chaos-y aesthetic.

 

I'm not a fan of using Heresy MKs unchanged for 40k, mind, even if I do it on the occasion myself

[betrayer41]

Here are a few of mine to match the scale of primaris and DG

 

The next few I’m working on have more of a chaos feel

 

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

http://i.imgur.com/Jdftd2G.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/w739QU1.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/dSd39Uj.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/hEb5pWl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/hEb5pWl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/8dXDt7o.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Bngh9L2.jpg