Modeling Terran recruits in the legions?

[MegaVolt87]

What is the best way to integrate remaining Terran recruits into a post primarch legion? I am guessing you do the newer legion scheme but retain a colour + OG marking? Unit wise, vet squad, command squad and HQ's seem like obvious choices. Also would there be an equipment bias, eg mk II-III power armour, cataphractii instead of tartaros, more volkites etc? 

[Gederas]

Yeah, older armour as well as markings is how I'd do it. Definitely would make sense for Veteran Squads, Command Squads and HQs to be them.

 

My idea for my Dark Angels is I'm going to have some Terran Legionnaires as Ragdan Xenocides survivors, and they're going to be in Mark III armour. Lots of Bionics, scarred heads and the like.

 

Another thing is if you have bare-headed marines, I feel that bearded heads would give them the "older" look Terran Legionnaires should likely have.

[Brother-Captain Gilead]

Regarding equipment I go back to the opening of the HH books where Garviel Loken is commenting on his new Mark IV battleplate and how nice it is. That book is situated after the Triumph at Ullanor, so all of the primarchs would have been found at that point and the recruitment would have shifted away from Terra to the new legion homeworlds some time ago. If we assume that incoming new equipment would first go to the new legionnaires so that they are combat-ready and only after that go the existing forces to replace their older marks of armor as this passage suggests, I would definitely have my Terran recruits in older marks of armor, especially if they are from a loyalist legion, as it is indicated in the other books that Horus as Warmaster messed with the logistics in a way that all of the newest equipment went to the traitor legions while the older legions had to make do with fewer replacements.

[No Foes Remain]

As Gerderas and Gilead have said, older armour is the way to go. In addition I, personally, will be using these Raptor Imperialis on my older veterans and spreading them amoung sergeants and squad members.

[Qkhitai]

I personally prefer to go for a bit more uniformity when it comes to armour marks and I don't like to mix and match; unless going for a mid-late era Mark V vibe. I would kinda assume any armour upgrades would be done company by company, not squad by squad or individual by individual, but that's just my headcanon. But if you're not modelling a specific company, then that wouldn't be an issue. As for how I'd make Terrans stand out, I'd look at specific Great Crusade campaign honours, markings, trophies, oathmarks etc rather than mixing armour marks, contrasting them with homeworld/legion specific stuff on other marines, like Colchisian runes, Cthonian gang marks/lodge symbols etc. If you have that distinction in place, the difference should shine through really well, without just putting the old dudes in the old armour and the new dudes in the new armour.

[Gorgoff]

In my opinion veterans should have the best armour and equipment available since they're the best of the best. My Iron Warriors have mostly MKIII armour because it looks cool but my veterans have MKIV. That makes them stand out and they look due to the slender look of the mark IV also more commando like.

But if you don't want to mix the marks you could make it very simple.

Give them more stuff.

Additional knives, chainswords, better guns, pouches and the like. Their heads should be bald and with a biopic eye here and there to show that they are badasses which do not waste time on cheap like styling their beards or hair. Jason Statham style.

Or to make a long story short;

Do it like me:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSy_fRLBdnX/?igshid=ufel0419q1jg

[sarabando]

I use Raptor imperialis on my terrans and clearly non asian skin tones (white scars)

[Sandlemad]

The raptor imperialis, eagle imagery and associated thunderbolts are good in general, as are older marks of armour. There's certainly room for a "veterans get the best gear" approach but the "unchanging old codgers who want to stick with the machine spirit they know, thank you very much" is perhaps easier to represent. And then additional knives/pistols/sashes/bionics work for veterans in general.

 

Otherwise simply using features that are the opposite of your legion's usual aesthetic works. On a handful of dudes it ought to stand out without breaking the overall visual coherence. So on a Terran Ultramarine, maybe you could have some slightly more brutal features: studded or spiked pads to show that this chap is an aggressive old Warborn, even as the XIII legion's culture has changed around him. Or on a Space Wolf, maybe he still wears a very un-Fenrisian horsehair crest. Or a World Eater who stoically holds onto the gilded laurel wreath he won in the last days of the unification wars, despite his brothers calling it a "high-rider's bauble". Or a prominent genebred wolf pelf for a SoH (didn't fall out of favour that much but is still a clear visual sign). A lot of it is going to come down to the particular character you want to get across with that veteran.

 

You could also do this through the absence of other features. Maybe your SoH veteran never quite accepted the Cthonian style gang-signs the rest of your dudes have. Or a DA veteran was sniffy about the knightly robes of his new Calibanite brothers. Agreed about the OG markings as well, where we know them, bearing in mind that some had a gradual shift An Alpha Legion veteran who prominently displays the alpha-and-omega iconography over the serpents the rest wear could work well.