What's your Heresy flavour?

So…

What I wanted to discuss this week was more of a question really: what is your vision of the Heresy?

What I mean is, I’ve been interested in 40k since Rogue Trader and started actually collecting and playing 2nd edition. My favourite marines have always been Mk6 beaky helmeted guys, because they were the first type I owned, because Space Wolves seemed to love that armour (remember the metal space miniatures? There were a lot of Mk6 in that set) and just mainly because the aesthetic really appealed to me.

You’ll notice I generally have a lot of beaky marines in my army. Mk6 has always BEEN the heresy for me. Flick through the original Collected Visions of Heresy art book, and the more recently updated version, and you’ll see a lot of Mk6 helmets in there. 

What you’ll also see in those books is a lot of variation. There are marines in there wearing any of the marks of armour now available from Forge World, combinations of these and even some marks of armour you are never likely to see released (because let’s face it, there were a lot of artists involved and these are their varied interpretations of the brief).

The same goes for weapons. I don’t really like the Heresy era plasma gun that FW released, so my tactical support squad has the 40k version, but that’s fine, these were just produced by a different Forge World, they are a different variant. Again, I have never liked that missile launcher, even when they were around in metal the first time round (what, 15 years ago?), so half my squad have the 40k equivalent. 

I’ve been questioned about these choices lately so felt compelled to go back to the source, and low and behold I find Heresy era marines in both Mk7 armour and with the ‘40k’ missile launcher in Collected Visions of Heresy (there is also a dubious looking Alpharius in there which I am hoping they do not use as the base for the FW version…).

So, what I am saying is, based on these books, the various novel covers and lavish FW black books, it’s clear that pretty much anything goes. Mk 6 appeals to me but also creating a cool looking miniature is my main priority. If this guy happens to be wearing mk7 armour, I’m not going to not include him in my army, especially when so much of the art clearly shows what seems to be Mk7 armour. The marines were testing all sorts of armour during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy (many of these being designated Mk5 later on), so you can easily explain this away.

So, what’s your flavour of Heresy?

Dave