Kitbashing infantry queries

[apologist]

The poses are so similar between the Mark III and Mark VI Tactical squads that it looks like they're made from the same dollies; but are the parts actually interchangeable? 

 

 

 

For anyone who has them in hand, or has tried it themselves, how compatible did you find the new infantry models for Age of Darkness? Can you literally kitbash (i.e. glue together straight from the sprue) these like the old models, or do they require actual conversion work (i.e. trimming, clipping etc.)?

 

Things like the arms, heads and guns are pretty obvious, but I'm wondering if particular torso fronts or individual legs (for example) designed to be interchangeable between the kits.

 

...and for anyone with the Mark VI Assault squad, how do they combine?

 

Thanks in advance for your insights and thoughts.

[LameBeard]

We know that the special weapons are designed to take both mk vi and mk iii arms. We also know that mk iii has vambraces to allow mk vi arms to look mk iii for shoulder-mounted heavy weapons.

 

This strongly suggests that the arms and weapons are interchangeable, and that “shoulder width” must be the same.

 

I also suspected that poses are repeats, so maybe a chest/leg would fit - but it would look like a Frankenstein’s monster, not at all like kit bashing the older models.  I have a few unbuilt which I was planning to build this evening, I’ll have an experiment …

Edited March 7 by LameBeard

[No Foes Remain]

They may have the same poses but their layout on the sprues are different, same with the assault squad.

 

I think I had a similar idea to you Apologist in mix-matching to make a hodge-podge mk5 abomination, I've seen people cut around the weist of both and glue them that way which works as you've got a smaller surface area to cut since the models are (mostly) split in half.

[lansalt]

The torsos and legs are designed as one piece and can't be mixed without a lot of cutting and using greenstuff. Everything else can be easily swapped, and in fact they share a sprue with the Sgt. weapons, vexilla, etc.

 

However, IMO mixing MkIII and MkVI is unfluffy. MkIII was a left over from veterans of the Great Crusade and MkVI was mainly used for new recruits in the middle of the war. Besides custom characters re-using their old MkII-III pauldrons (something that seems to have been common from MkIV onwards), they represent two eras of power armour evolution.