Old Marines are not more Gothic or Grim-Dark than Primaris.

[Blindhamster]

11 minutes ago, Evil Eye said:

GW has made terrible decisions before. Just because they decided to do something doesn't mean they were objectively right to do so. Creators (or license-owners) can be wrong about their own properties- look at the state of Star Wars as an example of that.

 

except star wars is no longer handled by the person behind it, and his plans were quite different. We can agree to disagree though, you do you! I personally support Jes deciding to redesign marines if he felt he could do it better now (which I personally feel he did).

[Robbienw]

The current (to be replaced imminently) Sternguard kit has just the right level of bling for Marine veterans.  Fitting for 200+ year old marines.

 

I've just realised who Orange Knight is 

Edited May 19, 2023 by Robbienw

[Blindhamster]

17 minutes ago, Robbienw said:

I've just realised who Orange Knight is 

im intrigued! who are they?

[Blindhamster]

17 minutes ago, Robbienw said:

The current (to be replaced imminently) Sternguard kit has just the right level of bling for Marine veterans.  Fitting for 200+ year old marines.

I always used to have to mix mine with regular tactical marines to reduce it, always felt a bit too much to me, but I recognise that that is a taste thing. To me the best veterans were thse:

I did also like these a lot though (though many of them had weird proportions lol):

 

The modern sternguard just seemed to tip it too far

[Evil Eye]

4 hours ago, Blindhamster said:

I always used to have to mix mine with regular tactical marines to reduce it, always felt a bit too much to me, but I recognise that that is a taste thing. To me the best veterans were thse:

I did also like these a lot though (though many of them had weird proportions lol):

 

The modern sternguard just seemed to tip it too far

That era of pewter Marines are some of the best Astartes sculpts we ever got, at least IMO. Sure they don't have the modern scaling/proportions but they have this particular vibe where it feels like they leapt out of a piece of Karl Kopinski or Adrian Smith art. I have a few Juan Diaz veterans and they're absolutely gorgeous minis.

[Marshal Rohr]

I don’t think Gothic is right word. Oldmarines looked like this. This is brutal. We had resin parts to mix and match and make something look, for lack of a better phrase, like space marines. Blindhamsters old Blood Angels we’re classic examples of space marines that looked like they crawled out the art. 
 

 

 

 

Edited June 2, 2023 by Marshal Rohr
Edit: this was supposed to have a picture of the mark 2 assault squad

[Sea Creature]

There are plenty of third party vendors that provide an amazing selection of bits. There’s no reason not to use them if you want a particular look for your army.

[Blindhamster]

Thanks @Marshal Rohr, appreciate that :)

 

To me, I guess the thing is, my favourite firstborn 40k models I did were these 5

 

And the thing with them is, with the exception of the sergeant, none of them have excessive sculpted details, two had shoulder pads, one had a helmet, otherwise they are quite minimalist and aimed at being clean looking, I also never much liked mixing armour mks, so these are a mk 3, a mk6, 2 mk7 and a mk8 marine. All of them got made taller, and reposed to be more upright. The sergeant got some greenstuff details inspired by the space hulk terminators (the leg detailing is one of my favourite blood angel leg decoration motiffs as a result and I used it extensively in sculpted models (like this one too)

Spoiler

 

A big part of why I love primaris, is a lot of what I wanted my marines to look like, primaris just did out of the box, most of the detailing on my preferred miniatures before came from some little sculpted details here and there and minor bits of bling, things I can and do with my primaris too, but there were definitely times where I enjoyed the freedom of the hugely mixable firstborn range (like the hidden marine above, that used bits from the red scorpions vanguard, a mk4 assault marine, terminators, red scorpion command squad and sanguinary guard), thankfully a lot of firestborn bits are cross compatible, and the primaris range itself is fleshed out enough now that I can make models that capture the same general vibes I wanted (though I've not sculpted my favourite leg detailing on any models actually... maybe I should)

Edited June 2, 2023 by Blindhamster

[Chainsword Cookie]

Depends. My Space Wolves Firstborn are just covered in detail, trinkets, furs, bones, runes... they are very high fantasy in this regard. 

 

I have painted Dark Imperium and Indomitus Primaris as Raven Guard because I really find the cleaner aesthetics more fitting for chapter XIX as well as more silver than gold when comes to metals. 

 

Still neither sits well with me. Both are distanced from the current narrative. As it is the Primaris have now been on campaign and crusade duty for almost 70+ years, most are now veterans and some even forged chapters of their own. There is also a major cross-pollination between the different space marine bloodlines since many Primaris served together in the first years of the Indomitus Crusade which means for example that a Primaris Novamarine can certainly more lean toward and Iron Hands outlook if he served with the Primaris from Xth bloodline for most of his life, this opens countless possibilities. 

 

In terms of the gothic aesthetics we still have it in spades. The bones of martyred brothers adorn the shields of the Bladeguard, auto-sanctification shrines (the little belt ornaments many Primaris have) are present everywhere, so it is for chapter icons, tokens and adornments. The combination can be as grimdark or as clean as you want it and I favor something in between. 

 

With the advent of 10th I am tempted to give it another go and paint my Primaris as Imperial Stars, an unknown origin chapter which frees me from more specific aesthetics, which allows me to field the Primaris as they are, out of the box and with a moderate inclusion of gold and various bitz since these are effectively 50+ years old marines, who still use the power armor which Cawl gave them, which if they adorn their wargear or no is very much a personal choice rather than a chapter norm. 

 

I think that the Primaris models in Leviathan strike a good compromise between veterans and recent inductees and are reminiscent of the legion aesthetics from the early to mid stages of the Great Crusade era where ornamentation was more a personal choice of the individual marine, or a recognized mark of a deed or a commendation. Bling in 40k means age, bling in the GC era meant individuality. Think of the Indomitus Era as the reiteration of the Great Crusade era. A Primaris is a more streamlined, mass produced, super solider. Who he is, is less important than what he does. His armor is more machined than hand crafted, his bolter is one of the millions Cawl forged, so it is with his conditioning. 

 

In time the said Primaris will think of himself as something more than an implement of war, in time a Primaris will become an individual (stunted as he may be) and then he will proceed to represent his individuality on his armor and arms. 

 

 

Edited June 4, 2023 by Chainsword Cookie