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 Thursday at 05:30 PM 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 Thursday at 09:58 PM 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.

[Pacific81]

A lot of the guys above have already made some good suggestions. I'm doing an entire Veteran army, with every mini converted in some way, which means they will probably never be finished and see the tabletop but this is one extreme!

Lots of extra detail shoulder pads, 3rd party bits for helmets, added studs/spikes and chainmail. Finally some battle damage, so they look loke they have had a good scrap.

I also used Chaos Marines as a base in many cases (with chaos iconography removed) who are mostly veterans if you think about it!

 

[Blissful Brushes]

I’ll caveat this by saying I don’t play, so I don’t really need to worry about conformity with the rules set.

 

For my Luna Wolves a Black helmet denotes veteran status. Equipment wise they all have the best available.

So the close combat marines have power weapons, and the conventional tactical marines will have modified bolters or volkites/plasma guns instead of the regular bolter. 

I sculpt reinforced armour plates on the close combat ones too. I also try to give them some kind of honour marking - the raptor transfer for example.

I’ve started sculpting a few loin cloths or pteruges here and there too.

My army list consists of 114 marines (let’s be real though, probably not going to hit 114), of which I’ve got somewhere in the region of 50-60 veteran+ marines. They have all got either a fancy sidearm, power weapons, artificer armour or something that’s ‘expensive’ to denote the fact that they’ve served at the pointy end longer than their brothers. 

Edited 23 hours ago by Blissful Brushes

[Agramar_The_Luna_Wolf]

I like to use old mk,like mk2, for my vets. And if I can't,at least full of it, I like to mix pieces,specially shoulder pads,helmets and back packs.

Additionally, I try to not repeat things from other units, like bare heads, and I try to give some personality to each member: a different model of weapon(Bolter or close combat), some trophies, an engraved shoulder pad, if it's possible a special breast plate,seals and scrolls,...

 

But I do this more in my sarges and certain characters than in units because I try not making "fix role" units and trying to make them flexible, so I can use them in different roles just changing a weapon or even a head:Tactical,Support,Vet,Heavy Support,etc