Modeling Veteran Units

[arnesh88]

I'm wanting to model basic Tactical Veteran Squads for my Salamanders, but am having a tough time knowing how to paint and model them to stand out from basic troops. I know you can just take normal tactical marines and say they are Veterans, but I want them to look different and stand out from them. What do you guys do to represent that? Even examples from other legions will help.

Edited 12 hours ago by arnesh88

[Astartes Consul]

My rough ideas would be mixed armour marks, especially different heads and shoulders, lots of pouches etc, and pick some kind of tweaked colour scheme. A different shoulder pad colour, for example.

 

 

[SlickSamos]

Other tacticool ideas:

Add the sheathed CC weapons from the old Mk. III or current Mk. IV kit

Add Scopes for Bolters 

Use helmets that have a lense targeter / light fixture 

A different power pack can also make them stand out 

Using a custom Vex (e.g. a brazier since you're doing the XVIII)

Customizing the Special or Heavy Weapons in some way

 

My first seeker squad used studded Shoulder Pads, Scopes, Helmets with antenna from various bike kits, machetes from the Mk. IV kit, pouches galore (partly to hide a Mk. VII power pack so it could be a Mk. IV under all that gear)

 

 

 

For my second squad I'm going for some custom Bolter magazines and drums, Mk. IV for Void Warfare power packs (the CSM ones), and probably lots of pouches... (Picture pending)

 

Centurion Command Squad (read second edition Veteran Squad) #1 I used the Mk. III sheathed Chainswords and Mk. IV Void power packs to tie the unit together.  Also the Plasma guys have the heaviest armour to keep them happy!

 

 

 

My second Centurion Command Squad was based on European knight traditions (coz Terran recruits in the Emperor's Children) so just lots of DA bits, Chainswords and I gave the special weapons guys Plasma Blasters because it looks cool:

 

 

Heavy Flamer customisation from Grey Knights and Cadian bits:

 

 

[Razorblade]

On my Dark Angels I simply use different accent colours. Most units are black with red as a secondary colour but veterans wear deathwing bone-white with their black. 

A lot of legions have multiple secondary colours or even alternate color schemes you could use to showcase Veterans. (Rogue Trader-style Tiger-stripes for Salamanders?)

A very simple method could also be to just use a different armor, so if your army is mostly new MkII, Veterans might be sporting the new and up-armored Mk3, whereas in a mostly Mark6 Army, Veterans could still wear the venerable Mk 2 that served them throughout the crusade.

Depending on how customized your basic troops are you could simply use the fw head upgrades to mark veterans as well.

For Salamanders specifically you could try to give them reptilian cloaks from the Dark Elf corsairs. They'll require some cutting to fit on a space marine body but this should be relatively easily.

Edited 8 hours ago by Razorblade

[Grotsmasha]

Different coloured helms or shouldpads/trims is the easiest, low budget solution. Next bump might be plumed helms for the whole squad.