Space Marine Tank crew inspiration

[apologist]

White Dwarf 103 showed us Space Marine tank riders. I didn't see these until many years later, but the image has really stuck with me.

http://solegends.com/citrt2/rt107rhinomarines/Wd103p02RT107RhinoSpaceMarinesx-01.jpg

Space Marine tank crews are notoriously difficult to pin down any 'canon' info upon – so I haven't come here to ask for references so much as inspiration. I'm planning to explore this liitle space in 40k lore by creating a Salamanders tank with its crew (and perhaps a couple of hangers-on). 

Primarily I'm after ideas for how Space Marine crews might differ from their infantry colleagues. Things that I'm thinking about at the moment, for example, are:

• Carbine/bullpup-style boltguns;
• Cult Mechanicus icons/medals/seals to indicate their worthiness to pilot a tank;
• Variant helms;
• Non-attached backpacks.

I'd like to throw it out to you to share your ideas of what you think might make a tank crew look distinctive – and whether that inspiration comes from real life, 40k or other sources, I'd very much appreciate your help. Basically, anything you can think of about tank crews will be useful here.

Secondly, some of the tank models that I like best a festooned with jury-rigged additions, baskets full of jerry cans, cages, improvised armour and the like. If you've found a cool tank (40k or otherwise), please do share what you liked best about it. Perhaps there are serving or ex-members of the military who can share some tank stories?

[Cyrox]

The new Horus Heresy spartan commander/gunner gives us a good look at the back, with a small unit attached to his back where the power pack would go, with cables going down into the hatch.

Carbine weapons for Space Marines sounds like a fun option to explore, as well as variant helmets/shoulder pads?

You are spot on when you say there's not a lot of concrete lore.

I was attached to a cavalry regiment in the British Army and have driven and crewed on Challenger 1 variants and CVR(T) Spartan/Scimitar.

Toolboxes and stowage bins you will find on most armoured vehicles, as well as lights, cam nets, jerry cans (water not fuel) and also spare track links or roadwheels. If if its a repair/recovery variant you'll have stuff like wooden logs and hollybones (like an A-frame) for recovery purposes.

Also, when deployed in theatre you might see stuff like reactive armour (not so much on Brit AFV) or side slat/cage armour

HTH - look forward to seeing the discussion on this.

 

[Sword Brother Adelard]

Oddly these days, the Bolt Rifle Carbine is essentially the same as the old boltgun. (With the minor change that the 'ejection' port actually lines up with the barrel on the new ones...)

I had a search for Bullpup bolters, and there is the Lion's Wrath, but that design is frankly laughable, as there's basically no way the round could get from the magazine to the breach.

But I did find some fan designs around, including this one on Shapeways:

 

Which I thought pretty cool actually.

 

(I don't think this breaches the forum rules, as it's definitely not a GW design but I'm happy to be corrected.)

Edited August 12, 2022 by Brother Adelard

[Sword Brother Adelard]

14 minutes ago, Cyrox said:

The new Horus Heresy spartan commander/gunner gives us a good look at the back, with a small unit attached to his back where the power pack would go, with cables going down into the hatch.

I really like the crewman redesign. Particularly the fact they have fully designed the shoulder armour without the shoulder pauldrons, because, as many have pointed out, there's no way a marine could get up through the hatch with their pauldrons on! 

[MARK0SIAN]

For Marines I don’t think a bullpup design would save any space on a bolter. Bolters don’t have stocks so you’d be specifically adding one in just to accommodate the magazine. Effectively you’re just swapping the position of the magazine and trigger, it wouldn’t be any less cumbersome than a bolter unless you made the whole thing smaller, at which point you might as well just have a bolt pistol. 

As a marine crew, I think they’d use the mag locking features on their armour to carry various tools associated with repairing the tank, like maybe a wrench mag-locked to their thigh or something so it’s always handy but doesn’t take up the space of a servo-harness. 

[Sword Brother Adelard]

The advantage of bullpups is mainly the reduction in the length of the weapon, bolters aren't exactly long I admit, but being able to maintain barrel length while reducing weapon length would be really useful for vehicle crew, or anywhere where space is a premium.

The advantage is arguably more obvious for Primaris weapons, the Bolt Rifle is considerably longer, so being able to maintain that barrel length with a shorter weapon would be very helpful.

[MARK0SIAN]

That’s sort of my point though, bolters don’t really have any excess length to lose. If you swapped the magazine and trigger around you’d still need the fore-grip and the existing barrel barely extends beyond that, you wouldn’t be able to reduce it to any degree that would make a difference. 
 

You might even be better off with a storm bolter at that point, although that adds bulk in other directions.

Edited August 12, 2022 by MARK0SIAN

[Noserenda]

Put a lot of thought into this over the years as a big old tread head :D 

Gear wise you absolutely need to lose the shoulder pads and backpack off power armour to move around inside a tank, all the tank commander models do the latter, showing cables plugging them in below and im sure i have seen somewhere that they can keep the shoulder pads on a rack though that might have been a thunderhawk? In any case given their nature i could see them being stowed on the outside of the hull near access hatches for a cheeky bit of ablative armour and convenience putting them back on. I have never found a way to make this look good however :D 

Personal weapon wise, the standard bolter is already kinda SMG scaled but i can see Primaris having a specific shortened version. Then assorted pistols and grenades inside with the crew and in the case of my white scars a few spears, shields and blades on the outside, all unpowered ofc. Anything tastier needs to be inside to stop enemy infantry jamming it in places! 

Stowage is the real problem, 90% of Space marine deployments dont really need it as the crew need very little food or water and they are usually rapid assaults and then back to base. Perhaps some ammo and personal effects (like above) but not much else. 

Thats why my White scars were modelled as operating behind the lines during the SoT so really did need to carry everything they needed, plus anything they had scavenged on the way, at which point its very much a regular set of stowage albeit heavier towards ammo and even fuel and still minimal food/water.

That all said, rule of cool :D 

[Blindhamster]

We literally have bolt carbines in 40K already so presumably would just be those? 
 

tank riders are a cool idea though 

[WARMASTER_]

Hey! Nice question 

 

my personal thoughts on tank crews for a codex chapter is they’re seconded [usually from the tactical reserve companies] for a period of time into the role of “vehicle crew” which will then put them under the command of the Master of the forge and inside the purview of the armoury, I know you said you don’t really want lord but it affects my answer with aesthetics 

as in my mind they’re under the armoury’s purview I usually imagine them with things similar to your original thoughts 

generally rust orange+red power armour 

Alternative Helmets [Devastator style with loads of targeting enhancements] 

Cog symbols instead of company or role badge on shoulder pads 

No backpacks but still wired into the tank [New vehicle crew sprue is great for this] 

For me as a bolter already has no stock and is a type of carbine having a bull pup only complicates things needlessly really, it’s the imperium after all if it works why would the change it

As for armour styles it could be cool as your using salamanders to go for the more venerable marks of armour [MKII + MKIII] as they’re under the command of the armoury and may have better access to the older MK’s, works well with sergeant Chronus