Tortuga Bay Size & newer 30k kits question

[Atia]

Heya!

 

Wanted to ask if anyone here has experience with Tortuga Bay bits / models compared to the new 30k plastics / CSM range. I already ordered some Terminators who seem to be in scale with the recent Leviathan chunkies, but my package hasn't arrived yet  and I was wondering how their power armour stuff holds up against the recent stuff? 

 

My initial plan was to use some bits to spice up the upcoming Emperor's Childrens to bring them a bit closer to the Siege of Terra, and the size seems to be ok but it's hard to grasp without seeing them in 3D. 

 

 

Also, am I right that the newer 30k plastics are monopose, with legs and bodies in one part? If so, that would make mixing and matching a bit harder, although not impossible?

Edited February 22, 2025 by Atia

[jaxom]

From 

 

 

 

 

The newer 30k plastic kits have the body being two pieces but of a single pose, and separate arms. The shoulders have nubs that are meant to align specific arms, and the arm inner-shoulder area may require trimming, but they are easy to cut off and using any pair of arms.

 

 

  trimmed --> 

 

Once a body is assembled, it's simple to saw it at the waist for more or less rotation; at least with the Mk6.

 

 

Glue them together and you can change the body angle. These two are the same body off the sprue.

 

 

Hide any sins with pouches or grenades

 

And here's two sets of the same two bodies off the sprue, with the left two being converted to change the stance.

 

 

 

[The Scorpion]

This is a great guide!

 

I wish we could see how compatible are the Tortuga bodies with the old MK7 mini marines, cuz the Mk7 tortuga heads leave a bit to be desired

[MoriyaSchism]

6 hours ago, The Scorpion said:

This is a great guide!

 

I wish we could see how compatible are the Tortuga bodies with the old MK7 mini marines, cuz the Mk7 tortuga heads leave a bit to be desired

 The Mk VII heads from Tortuga are pretty good. There isn't much size deviation when compared to the tactical squad and they fit my primaris conversions quite well. Their beakies are slightly sharper and more symmetrical than the official ones. 

 

The bodies are compatible with classic Marine arms, they are close in size to the currently available Chaos Marines and Plague Marines. You can also use Heresy 2.0 arms if you don't mind the smaller hands. 

[The Scorpion]

I see. Kinda wish tortuga had more Mk7 heads without icons on the forehead though.

[MoriyaSchism]

4 hours ago, The Scorpion said:

I see. Kinda wish tortuga had more Mk7 heads without icons on the forehead though.

You get 7 without symbols in a set of 11, but a couple of those have optical accessories. Out of the 7 plain heads 2 have rivets but that's fixed easily. The remaining 4 are 2 sergeant helmets, an Aquila and a cross. 

[Elzender]

From my experience, most bits from the "old" marine plastics work well with Tortuga bodies. I cannot remember if some arms might be a tad short for two handed bolter poses depending on the armour mark, but generally everything fits, and helmets work just fine, you might just need to add some filling on the neck hole of the body as some can be quite deep.

 

Compared with the newer HH plastics Tortuga are a bit taller, but the main difference is how chunky Tortuga bodies are.

 

I will try to upload some pictures of my minis later today, they mostly use GW/FW helmets and a mix of firstborn and primaries arms, and put them side to side with some new HH minis for comparison.

 

 

[The Scorpion]

I can live with the chunky. The only ones that me me wince are the Mk3's, and even then one can probably slim them up trought paintjob a bit.

[Elzender]

 

For scale, from left of image to right:

- Plastic HH 2.0 MkII marine

- Tortuga MkIV body w/ firstborn MkVII helmet (from either BA or Sternguard)

- Plastic HH MkVI marine

- Tortuga MkIV body w/ plastic HH 1.0 MkIV helmet

[MoriyaSchism]

7 hours ago, The Scorpion said:

I can live with the chunky. The only ones that me me wince are the Mk3's, and even then one can probably slim them up trought paintjob a bit.

Their M3's are on par in bulk as the Plague Marines from the current range that don't have the belly plate. They re-worked most of their M3's recently so the rivets are way smaller than the initial release. Their Panzer-T line also got the same rework, but I'm still happy with the old style ones I got years ago.