Adding Personality to Marines

[Marshal van Trapp]

So for my all Primaris army, I plan to make each squad a group of individuals (fluffwise they function like a Fireteam from Destiny where each member is an individual that operates as part of a team rather than a single 5 man entity) each squad will have it's own paint scheme themed to its fluff as well as its theater of operations. That said, I don't want all the marines in a particular squad to feel like the same model in a different pose.

 

How could i add individually to the models to make them all look different? I've been thinking of swapping out helmets and shoulder pads (I have a bits box full of old bits from near 15 years of collecting marines) and also giving each member some variation to their paint scheme (same colors but in different patterns) but how else could I make these squads feel like unique Astartes that have grouped together to finish some task but each having their own personality?

[Lucerne]

Okay so, Marines are actually fairly straightforward to add personality to:

 

1)Bling- a bit obvious but a nice coherent set of fancy eagle bits, helmets, chestplates, etc is an easy way to make no two marines look identical\

2) Poses/hands- 2 identical marines with the same weapons but different poses can look wildly different. This is a bit trickier to source bits for but is a great way to add individuality.

3)accessories- bolter straps, pouches, cloaks, ammo etc etc- people might not carry them in the same place

4) bare heads- fits some chapters more than others

 

Look at project logs done by people like apologist- who has a log here on B&C or any other "characterful" Marine log, or GW's "space marine heroes series 1" which is mostly just tactical marines but with lots of personality to each one.

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/312286-officia-monstrosa-%E2%80%93-iron-warriors/

 

I'd say poses and careful choice of armor are key to making sure Marines work both as individuals and as a squad.

Edited December 31, 2019 by Ugolino

[Fajita Fan]

If you want this to have a Destiny theme then you need to repeatedly nerf pistols until they're next to useless and randomly not be able to open your army case to play a game.

 

When assembling my 13th Company space wolves I broke down my bits (head, torso, weapons, legs, backpacks) into separate spots of Walmart jewelry boxes to make sure I didn't repeat poses or weapons.  Now 13th Company use a mix of SW and Chaos marine bits so I was able to easily make every guy different but the same idea can apply here.

 

Do you want to have a unifying part of the paint scheme?  Like everyone has the same chest/pelvis for the chapter but maybe do a Howling Griffons-esque pattern (right arm/left leg one color, left arm/right leg another color) switching colors across your squads so they look suitably different.  Can you freehand?  Marine shoulder pads at least give you some space to work, if you struggle you might try using Micron pens instead of brushes to make it a little easier.  

[Marshal van Trapp]

You both gave great suggestions, as far as poses go with the Primaris marines it's going to be very difficult to make them different (especially considering I'm using the shadowspear and some DI marines) but I think I can probably get them to work a bit with some extra bits here and there, I already know i want to do up my chaplain as Lord Shaxx (i got a chaos helmet with the horns in just the right position i just gotta break one off and make his faceplate smooth haha)

 

As for paint scheme and making them look like an army, I was going to do the Destiny logo on their shoulder as their chapter symbol, I have micron pens in loads of colors as well as some gundam markers so I should be set on doing the symbol by hand (just have to practice)

[Fajita Fan]

The gear color scheme from the Leviathan raid was the inspiration for my traitor legio in AT.   If you wanted something non-codex how about using the Fallen style gear from the Reef with little antennae sticking out and coiled hoses?

During my first playthrough of Destiny 1 I kept thinking how the Fallen would make a great addition to the Tau as something like mercenary shock troops.

[Marshal van Trapp]

Yeah I'm using the different gear sets and shaders from both games as inspiration for the individual squad themes, I think to tie them all together into an army I'm going to make each model have their left arm in a single unifying color with a matching chapter symbol (kinda like reverse deathwatch)

[Fajita Fan]

A Thorn or Last Word conversion would be cool...

 

I mocked up a Gjallarhorn to count as a Warlord quake cannon before the official quake cannon was released for AT, that would look good on 40k scale marines.  Destiny was such a pretty game with cool looking stuff.

 

 

[Marshal van Trapp]

It really was, a pretty game with great lore, which is why I'm borrowing inspiration from it for my marines. I'm also thinking of doing up a couple of Bow wielding marines using some of the stormcast bits. I figure in the hands of a marine, a compound bow becomes basically a gauss gun in terms of penetration capacity, combined with explosive tips you got yourself some efficient (and quieter) bolter equivalents

[Marshal van Trapp]

Got to working on some conversion work, lemme know what you guys think of these few I've done so far:

 

[dread05]

If we're talking only about primaris marines, there isnt a lot you can do to personalise them. I tried to do that with a squad of hellblasters, in the end the only things I did was some head and shoulder swaps. I was satisfied with the result back then but now that I look at them Im not so sure, old marine helmets are bigger than primaris and they end up looking weird side by side.