Space Marine Head Upgrades

[Magos Takatus]

I won't rush to get this set. I prefer my marines helmeted and I already have a broom, so four of those helmets are redundant to me and might as well have been on the Ultramarines sprue rather than a generic marine sprue.  I think the Mk8-ish helmets are interesting and while I think some of the heads look useful, it's not enough to make to put down money for it.

[Marshal Rohr]

They look feminine because they overdid the blue around the eyes. That’s one of their painting queue for girl models. 

[ThaneOfTas]

1 hour ago, Marshal Rohr said:

They look feminine because they overdid the blue around the eyes. That’s one of their painting queue for girl models

Also think that the lips a slightly too red/emphasised by the paint job.

[Marshal Rohr]

57 minutes ago, ThaneOfTas said:

Also think that the lips a slightly too red/emphasised by the paint job.

One of them is lined too

[Nephaston]

I for one welcome Battle Brother Teal'c

[Marshal Loss]

Wish there were far more helmets in the set - would have made it the kind of kit I'd buy multiples of to use a bunch of Mark VII/Mark VI/snazzy Mark X across a force. 

[skylerboodie]

17 hours ago, Ramell said:

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

 

Yes but in the context of, just put bare heads into a separate set, so that the chapter specific upgrades have more properly chapter specific bits in, rather than loads of bare heads that could mostly be used for any chapter

[Orange Knight]

1 hour ago, Nephaston said:

I for one welcome Battle Brother Teal'c

 

 

Now I'm wondering why we don't have an obvious Kratos head.

[AenarIT]

1 hour ago, Marshal Loss said:

Wish there were far more helmets in the set - would have made it the kind of kit I'd buy multiples of to use a bunch of Mark VII/Mark VI/snazzy Mark X across a force. 

I agree. In general I'm not a big fan of bare heads on marines, so more helmets would've been cool

[Casual Heresy]

Think we need to move the conversation back on topic before mods take note. Best to focus on the topic of upgrade kits here and not polarising topics which will lead to heated discussion.

 

On the topic of upgrade kits: I do hope we see more like this that cater for an entire faction (come on tactical, assault and fire support pads for marines) and not just the sub-factions as we've had in the past. And I'd love to see it expanded to other factions. Guard, Sisters and probably Tau stand out in my mind as easy possiblities.

 

Guard should get more kits along the lines of the cadian sprue but for other regiments, but a sprue of new heads and characterful bitz to add some variety to the next forty guardsmen you need to build would be nice.

 

A Tau head sprue with some variety, say heavily scarred heads and Tau versions of bionic eyes would be useful across every version of tau including farsight enclaves.

 

Don't know about anyone else but a whole squad's worth of sisters heads that look like they're serenenly singing hyms instead of screaming would make for an intresting Retributor squad with heavy flamers

 

At the end of the day, nothing like this is truly necessary, but it's a great way to be able to easily personalise your models, especially since the game has moved away from granular customisation with loadouts. And it caters for those of who can't easily pick up 3d printing as another hobby.

[Brother Tyler]

The most recent posts about female Adeptus Astartes have been removed as off-topic. If you want to discuss the concept of female Adeptus Astartes, you should take it up in the + ADEPTUS ASTARTES + forum. Be forewarned: historically, the issue is extremely controversial and tempers have flared out of control (on both sides of the issue), resulting in the topics being locked (and disciplinary action occasionally having to be taken).

 

As for the issue of the number of bare heads versus the number of helmets, and just bare heads in general, having more bare heads makes sense to me. The Chapter-specific sprues tend to have heads/helmets that are appropriate to the Chapters, focusing on iconography and other thematic elements that make them recognizable as the Chapter in question. The squad boxes tend to have sufficient generic helmets to give every model an appropriate helmet, with a few extra helmets and bareheaded options that give hobbyists flexibility. This kit, meanwhile, is a [mostly] generic kit that works for all/most Adeptus Astartes units. In that, it's appropriate for there to be a range of generic bare heads, allowing hobbyists to choose those that work for them and the style they're trying to achieve. There are a few helmeted options that are different from those found in the squad boxes as well as the Chapter upgrade sprues, working for just about any Chapter and giving this kit broader appeal. The distinctive veteran units (Terminators and Bladeguard) have fewer helmet options, but that's appropriate to the lower density at which they appear in armies (Deathwing notwithstanding). Bare heads are a fun way to give models a bit of character and are great for people that can paint them well (and terrible for those of us who can't ). The sheer number of bareheaded options in this kit allows players to have multiple bareheaded Adeptus Astartes in their squads/armies without having twins all over the place.

[TheMawr]

21 minutes ago, Casual Heresy said:

Think we need to move the conversation back on topic before mods take note. Best to focus on the topic of upgrade kits here and not polarising topics which will lead to heated discussion.

 

On the topic of upgrade kits: I do hope we see more like this that cater for an entire faction (come on tactical, assault and fire support pads for marines) and not just the sub-factions as we've had in the past. And I'd love to see it expanded to other factions. Guard, Sisters and probably Tau stand out in my mind as easy possiblities.

 

Guard should get more kits along the lines of the cadian sprue but for other regiments, but a sprue of new heads and characterful bitz to add some variety to the next forty guardsmen you need to build would be nice.

 

A Tau head sprue with some variety, say heavily scarred heads and Tau versions of bionic eyes would be useful across every version of tau including farsight enclaves.

 

Don't know about anyone else but a whole squad's worth of sisters heads that look like they're serenenly singing hyms instead of screaming would make for an intresting Retributor squad with heavy flamers

 

At the end of the day, nothing like this is truly necessary, but it's a great way to be able to easily personalise your models, especially since the game has moved away from granular customisation with loadouts. And it caters for those of who can't easily pick up 3d printing as another hobby.

 

Seeing the reactions everywhere I think this would have been appreciated by almost any faction more universally than here, not critisizing the reactions of fans.. GW should have known the majority of spacemarine players are more intereseted in full armor and various helmet designs than they are about bare heads. ( and IF bare heads, then they're usually more interested in faction specific outings.. not generalised ones.) so seperating heads from helmets would probably have been better. ( its spacemarines, you can afford selling two sets there.)

 

Though when looking at it some head connections arent as universal as others, I expected the traitor guard kit to have the same connection as cadians, but they do not. Sisters of battle also seem to have a slightly different connector.. so its not so easy to make a multipurpose Human heads kit. 

But Eldar bare heads on the other hand would have a similar ( if not bigger ) amount of kits where the same set of bare heads would be applicable.

 

That said, I assume that even if there is indeed a minority of spacemarine fans interested in bare heads, that minority still easily outnumbers the potential other factions that are. 

 

But here is hoping they extend this further, I think GW is really lackluster on this element for anything but non loyal spacemarines. ( and even there they often aspire for the minimum ) even if there is evidence of entire companies suviving on the premise of alternative heads.. and instead of C&D orders, I think the best way to fight it is to offer those clearly desired products themselves.

 

For Tau at least there is a low effort middleground, just make the now defunct kill team upgrade sprue available as online only.

[Blindhamster]

Do you have data to support “the majority would rather have full armour”?

[TheMawr]

23 minutes ago, Blindhamster said:

Do you have data to support “the majority would rather have full armour”?

 

No, not at all, it was a subjective observation.. not some sort of hard claim, I mean when I read this topic and similar topics in the past it seems the majority talk about mostly wanting helmets. And those that I see talking about liking spacemarine heads often seem to favor more faction specific heads.

26 minutes ago, Blindhamster said:

Do you have data to support “the majority would rather have full armour”?

 

But I see that I wrote it more as a hard claim.

[DemonGSides]

2 hours ago, Brother Tyler said:

The Chapter-specific sprues tend to have heads/helmets that are appropriate to the Chapters, focusing on iconography and other thematic elements that make them recognizable as the Chapter in question.

 

Sure, but I don't think anyone is asking for chapter thematic helmets, just, y'know, access to helmets beyond just Mk X.  This sprue has a few, I'd just prefer a more even balance, or perhaps two different sets to buy; one unhelmeted, one helmeted in non-standard mk X and maybe some past mk's as well.

[Agramar_The_Luna_Wolf]

The only think I would like more in this kind of sets it's independent crests for helmets, not all in a single piece. And if it's possible several extra crests and similar adorned pieces.

[phandaal]

19 hours ago, Sonder76 said:

 

I get the where your coming from when saying they look feminine... but i think they are meant to be Asian... like Japanese or Korean. The highlighting on those cheekbones isnt helping the readability of the sculpts but im thinking they are to represent south east asia.

 

Yeah. None of these read like women to me. (If they did I would say so, believe me. Most of my little grey marks come from the more virtuous fraters for my expression of wrong opinions. ) The dark-skinned guy on the top left reminds me of Teal'c. And some of them are obviously supposed to look Asian.

 

It is actually impressive how well GW's sculptors can capture different phenotypes on a plastic bit the size of a green pea. Although I guess any resemblance to modern-day races is only incidental 40,000 years in the future, right?

[phoenix01]

12 hours ago, Nephaston said:

I for one welcome Battle Brother Teal'c

Indeed.

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

12 hours ago, Nephaston said:

I for one welcome Battle Brother Teal'c

 

 

Just don't ask him to make an acceptance speech or we'll be here 'til M43.

[Agramar_The_Luna_Wolf]

2 hours ago, Lord Nord in Gravis Armour said:

 

Just don't ask him to make an acceptance speech or we'll be here 'til M43.

Gross

[JeffJedi]

With this set I'm seeing a return to the Roman theme of the Ultramarines as well as the current Heresy kits. This seems unusual for codex chapters unless they are Ultramarines geneseed embracing the return of their Primarch.

 

This helmet feels off to me, somehow crooked:

Edited 17 hours ago by JeffJedi
Added photo

[Marshal Reinhard]

8 hours ago, JeffJedi said:

With this set I'm seeing a return to the Roman theme of the Ultramarines as well as the current Heresy kits. This seems unusual for codex chapters unless they are Ultramarines geneseed embracing the return of their Primarch.

 

This helmet feels off to me, somehow crooked:

*SNIP*

Seems perfectly fine to me. It's photo'd at an ever so slight angle, perhaps that's throwing you off?

[Pacific81]

Good to see this wide range of extra heads, more choice is always a good thing! On the female topic there has been a lot of excitement in social media groups around using the female heads for Custodes, Sisters & even marines (from that community of modellers).

 

As for them not looking like women, obviously there are a number of posters who did not watch the recent Rugby Women's world cup . And it raises an interesting point: a lot of the 3rd-party heads which are available tend to look pouty or like the sculptor is aiming for Taylor Swift. These are indisputably more 'GI Jane', and fit well with the other aesthetics.

[Robbienw]

FYI, they aren't female heads.

[Craig]

3 minutes ago, Robbienw said:

FYI, they aren't female heads.

Yeah, you aren't playing with your toy soldiers properly! If you don't stop I'm going to tell Games Workshop on you!

 

:D