Space Marine Head Upgrades

[phandaal]

57 minutes ago, Nephaston said:

One of the frowns looks a tad different from the other frowns, featuring ventilation slits instead of pipes. Not sure if we had one like that before.

 

 

I believe this is the original concept art for the next gen of Marines that were supposed to follow Mk 7/8, before the current Mk X helmet took that spot. Looks like GW has decided to use it after all. Neat!

 

Edit: @Joe beat me to the punch by a mile. 

Edited yesterday at 01:33 PM by phandaal

[Orange Knight]

7 minutes ago, phandaal said:

 

I believe this is the original concept art for the next gen of Marines that were supposed to follow Mk 7/8, before the current Mk X helmet took that spot. Looks like GW has decided to use it after all. Neat!

 

Edit: @Joe beat me to the punch by a mile. 

 

It IS a cool looking design. I still prefer the basic MkX because I love the MkIV helmets from the Heresy, and it resembles those, but I certainly wouldn't mind a few of these scattered around.

[Northern Walker]

My immediate reaction is "ok great, but why?". 

The helmets look snazzy in the main, the bare heads range from great to absolutely terrible. I'm not sure if some of that is how they've been hightlighted.

What I don't get is why this is given design and production priority over other things, even within the marine range, never mind the whole range.

[Orange Knight]

I am puzzled by how many exposed faces they put in these sets.

 

From what I've seen of basically every single army I've faced on the tabletop, people don't use bare heads outside a few choice HQ units and the very occasional line infantry.

 

Is there someone out there who wants an entire army of Marines with no helmets? It would stand out, I guess...

Edited yesterday at 02:03 PM by Orange Knight

[MoriyaSchism]

51 heads, only 15 helmets and just 9 that aren't Mark X. This is a really unbalanced upgrade set. 4 helmet slots are wasted on really plain looking Mark X helmets. There's next to nothing here for the Terminators, just 6 heads and 4 of them are helmetless. More different marks of Terminator helmet would be nice. Gorgon style helmets, the one Tyberios has and maybe even some that look like the Centurion helmet. It would be great if they just made two separate sets for bare heads and helmets. Or just make a helmets upgrade kit and advertise the Heresy heads as compatible with modern 40K kits, because they are the same size as the Primaris bare heads. 

[Craig]

Some of the bare heads look slightly feminine. Not sure if it's just the paint job though. They are definitely reminiscent of the looks my wife gives me when I walk in with more grey plastic.

[Robbienw]

27 minutes ago, Castellan Wulfrik said:

Forgeworld (Specialist Studio) won't make parts for 40k now, they're direct rivals with the main studio due to structural decisions. Tinfoil time: if anything I wouldn't be shocked if the main studio did this to cannibalise Forgeworld's existing bare head packs.

 

Well it won't work, the resin specialist games head sets are markedly superior.

[NorthernUltramarines]

I always assumed the bare heads were aimed at Painters, since painting faces effectively takes more skill to make look 'good'. Plus having repeated helmets in an army makes sense, whilst repeated bare heads looks a bit off. So I understand why (although I crave more unique marine helmets) they include so many.

 

I do find the 'Eavy Metal style makes the faces look like 2007 RPG characters though, maybe it's the dramatic shading or how 'clean' it is. Tend to find once the painters in the wild get their hands on them they start to look much better.

[Ayatollah_of_Rock_n_Rolla]

So many bare heads and yet again not a single long-haired one.

[Rawmel]

The bald chap with a quarter of his head replaced with bionics has got to be a reference to Vespasius from SM2!

[Lord Marshal]

6 minutes ago, Ayatollah_of_Rock_n_Rolla said:

So many bare heads and yet again not a single long-haired one.

 

Astartes Pattern Baldness is especially prominent among Primaris I suppose, one of the side effects.

[Marshal Reinhard]

Speaking as someone who is not afraid of painting and using bare heads, the ones on display are a bit.. samey? And not too inpsiring. There's a few I like in there, but I think the kit overall could've used different design helmets to a higher degree.

 

Also, to be clear: Every Single helm here is MK.X. The slanted ears is the give away. We have both beakie and grill style face plates though.

 

Overall, I quite like it, but there's a very large portion of bits I know I wouldn't use, including the crested helms.

[Agramar_The_Luna_Wolf]

Some heads looks like a bit a androgynous, aren't they?Some of them can pass as female even. Maybe it's the paint work or the photo...

Edited yesterday at 02:16 PM by Agramar_The_Luna_Wolf

[MoriyaSchism]

1 minute ago, Marshal Reinhard said:

Also, to be clear: Every Single helm here is MK.X. The slanted ears is the give away. We have both beakie and grill style face plates though.

 

When I say Mark X I'm talking about the annoying Primaris bug face that's now the face of the whole property. I think we have more than enough of those for them to be included again and again in so-called upgrade sets. 

[SvenIronhand]

37 minutes ago, Orange Knight said:

Is there someone out there who wants an entire army of Marines with no helmets? It would stand out, I guess...

Hi. As a Space Wolves Successor player, it fits the vibe. 

[TheVoidDragon]

39 minutes ago, MoriyaSchism said:

51 heads, only 15 helmets and just 9 that aren't Mark X. This is a really unbalanced upgrade set. 4 helmet slots are wasted on really plain looking Mark X helmets. There's next to nothing here for the Terminators, just 6 heads and 4 of them are helmetless. More different marks of Terminator helmet would be nice. Gorgon style helmets, the one Tyberios has and maybe even some that look like the Centurion helmet. It would be great if they just made two separate sets for bare heads and helmets. Or just make a helmets upgrade kit and advertise the Heresy heads as compatible with modern 40K kits, because they are the same size as the Primaris bare heads. 

 

It's strange that they don't seem to realize how popular something that actually gave a decent amount of classic style helmets would likely be. They just seem to include a few randomly as a sort of lipservice to it. 

[Ramell]

We were just talking about this, as a desirable possibilty, in the Ultramarines sprue thread the other day. Very nice.

[Blindhamster]

1 hour ago, Orange Knight said:

I am puzzled by how many exposed faces they put in these sets.

 

From what I've seen of basically every single army I've faced on the tabletop, people don't use bare heads outside a few choice HQ units and the very occasional line infantry.

 

Is there someone out there who wants an entire army of Marines with no helmets? It would stand out, I guess...

I like having bare heads, usually 3-4 in a squad of 10, 1-2 in squads of 3-5

[Crimson Longinus]

Nice set, I will definitely be getting one. And in general I applaud a chapter agnostic upgrade sprue; they should do more of such. This is good for giving primaris more varied look. I've been using minimarine helmets for this, but most of the kits are now out of production and the rest are sure to follow, so it is nice to have source of the old style helmets. And the bare heads are fine too, though perhaps there indeed could have been a bit more variety with these. Some female heads for example!

[Blindhamster]

1 hour ago, MoriyaSchism said:

51 heads, only 15 helmets and just 9 that aren't Mark X. This is a really unbalanced upgrade set. 4 helmet slots are wasted on really plain looking Mark X helmets. There's next to nothing here for the Terminators, just 6 heads and 4 of them are helmetless. More different marks of Terminator helmet would be nice. Gorgon style helmets, the one Tyberios has and maybe even some that look like the Centurion helmet. It would be great if they just made two separate sets for bare heads and helmets. Or just make a helmets upgrade kit and advertise the Heresy heads as compatible with modern 40K kits, because they are the same size as the Primaris bare heads. 

The HH heads are smaller, not insanely so, but still noticeably so

[Bouargh]

1 hour ago, Northern Walker said:

My immediate reaction is "ok great, but why?". 

 

I strongly agree. At least with the underlying criticism I want to decypher behind the words.

 

I will not look for any excuse for myself such as a bad night or a crappy day at work (which are however 2 true assessments), but, without being too sarcastic with such a piece of news, any release of a mundane headset is a non event. And a waste of ressources. We already have plenty of spare heads (and characterful enough) to be used on the sprues of the kits we buy. Why releasing more?

 

PS: it is really a bad day

Edited yesterday at 03:00 PM by Bouargh

[Vazzy]

It’s always wild to me how few people

seem to realize that there is a significant amount of people who do like painting skin, and like having enough head variety to fill out squads and not have twins. 
 

This kit combined with the Ultramarine kit and FW stuff will be great for future projects for me, and I appreciate GW doing it. 

[Osteoclast]

1 hour ago, Craig said:

Some of the bare heads look slightly feminine. Not sure if it's just the paint job though. They are definitely reminiscent of the looks my wife gives me when I walk in with more grey plastic.

 

1 hour ago, Agramar_The_Luna_Wolf said:

Some heads looks like a bit an androgynous, aren't they?Some of them can pass as female even. Maybe it's the paint work or the photo...

Oh good, it wasn’t just me who was thinking some of them looked like woman’s faces. Might even be more feminine than some of the notoriously bad SoB heads. 

[twopounder]

1 hour ago, Craig said:

Some of the bare heads look slightly feminine. Not sure if it's just the paint job though. They are definitely reminiscent of the looks my wife gives me when I walk in with more grey plastic.

 

More than slightly, quite feminine. They jumped out immediately. I suspect this was the reason there were so many bare heads vs helmets. Make of that what you will.

[SvenIronhand]

6 minutes ago, twopounder said:

More than slightly, quite feminine. They jumped out immediately. I suspect this was the reason there were so many bare heads vs helmets. Make of that what you will.

They're clearly just East Asian looking heads.