# Chaos Space Marine Heads



## Kevko (Oct 9, 2008)

I have an issue with the helmets. Why are there so many of them with horns?
Fine, I understand after 10k years in the warp some sprout horns, and some marines add the horns as trophies or to look more intimidating or to gore people in close combat. 

But what about the recent renegades? Why does basically the whole Red Corsairs have horns, and their armor already warped by chaos (armor edged with the arrows, etc.) Wouldn't it take awhile? I mean I know they threw off the shackles of the Imperium but I dont think all of them became fanatical worshipers of chaos immediately. At least give us un-horned chaos helmets. I think the plastic box set only comes with 2 (without the top-knot), the rest are horned. I like the idea of having a squad or 2 of un-horned chaos marines. I see alot of GW images with chaos marines without horns.

I would imagine some look like normal marines but with a different paint scheme and no imperial eagles. This leads to another problem I have.

After reading Legion (best HH book so far IMO) I was thinking of building a few Alpha Legion squads along the lines of "We are Legion" - every marine looking exactly the same. But it's nearly impossible to find mkV or mkVI armor that's not chaos and not adorned with additional stuff (tabards, etc.)

I miss the old bitz catalog where u can just buy each individual piece u need. 

/rant off


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## solkan (Apr 24, 2008)

I wish they would bring back some of the curves and different styles that CSM had in the Chaos Renegades line. Then again, I suppose the old sloping shoulders and cow skull heads would be hard to do in pieces.

Then again, for the last set of CSM that I put together, I was actually filing skulls and spikes off of the figures because I wanted a plainer look. Wouldn't it be horrible to have to buy regular space marine sprues to make decent looking chaos marines? Oh, well, atleast plastic parts are easier to remove details from than the old metal ones.

I miss the old bits catalogue, too. :cray:


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## cypherthefallenangel (Jul 13, 2008)

the thing i wasnt expecting from the new sprue was they took out all the mutations which kinda sucked but you know i really always thought it would look better if you had a whole squad of normal or mutated (different box sets)

catalogue R.I.P


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## admiraldick (Sep 9, 2008)

Kevko said:


> I have an issue with the helmets. Why are there so many of them with horns?


the predominance of horns harks back to a time before SM and power armour became clearly defined (and before people became obsessed with the idea of bad-guys who weren't actually bad at all). back in the RT era CSM had huge variety in their appearances, which kept them in line with the barbaric Chaos Warriors and other sci-fi fantasy of the time (think of badguys from Willow, Krull, Conan the Barbarian and 2000AD).

those vestiges have remained, even though the silhouette underneath has long since changed. now it just helps deliniate them from regular SM.

personally i think that the old incarnation was much better than the current. when there was little that remained of the former warrior, and chaos reigned supreme. now they are little different from their 'loyalist' counter parts.



Kevko said:


> After reading Legion (best HH book so far IMO) I was thinking of building a few Alpha Legion squads along the lines of "We are Legion" - every marine looking exactly the same. But it's nearly impossible to find mkV or mkVI armor that's not chaos and not adorned with additional stuff (tabards, etc.)


not sure what the misquote of the bible's supposed to imply, but their isn't much reason to suspect that all members of the AL look exactly the same. the chances are the officers don't wear official symbols of rank, that or have dummies to protect them, and i doubt that they are all precious about their armour like most other marines are, so are perfectly willing to deface it if that will disguise them at least for a short while, but i don't think they're identical.

its just so that as an opponent you can't really tell who is who.


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## Kevko (Oct 9, 2008)

Have you read the book Legion from the Horus Heresy series?

You'd understand what I meant if you did....just didn't want to give out a spoiler, but the Alpha Legion all try to look identical to each other all pretending to be Alpharius. The quote "We are Legion" comes from the book. And whenever any member of the Alpha Legion was asked who he was, he'd say "I am Alpharius"

So I just want to try portray the same thing with my miniatures - older mk armor without chaos or imperial symbols with helmets without horns.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Everytime I read that quote, I imagine Alpharius (who, being a Primarch, was taller than a normal Marine) to be ducking down behind his men with a huge great grin going *teehee*.

Or it might be Omegon... Who knows?


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## Revelations (Mar 17, 2008)

Hrm... the red arrow thing is not a "warped by chaos" alteration; it's a marine picking up a can of spray paint and shooting a few lines on their armor (or with blood if you prefer). Just because the basis of Chaos models involve spikes and horns, doesn't prevent you from making your own. Alpha legion especially, I could see them in bright Ultramarine blue shooting their "fellow ultras" in the back on the battlefield because that's what they do. Make your own guys; ebay, blister packs, regular SM's, can all provide models for you. 

I'm rather fond of the majority of Chaos armor alterations; steel for the Iron Legion, Egyptian style for the Thousand sons, etc. But one I just don't get, Night Lords and their batty ears... for a chapter whose shtick is terror... I just don't see it working.


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## Trandoshanjake (Jul 22, 2008)

I dunno, I liked the Night Lords the most, fluff and appearance wise. Too bad their ruleset didn't sit well with me...


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## MaidenManiac (Oct 2, 2008)

Kevko said:


> I have an issue with the helmets. Why are there so many of them with horns?...


I have annihilated Horns from my EC army, there are no horns there, none! Topknots are ok but thats it. Sure I have about ½ of the models with metal heads in the army, but its not very hard to cut the horns off on plastic heads:wink:

I can totally agree on your helmet issue. Night Lords are dead cool for example. However *huge* flaps on helmets are totally uncool. This goes on all over the games for me. 
Whos the general in the HE army? 
The one with a helmet as big as himself:alcoholic:


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## gwmaniac (Sep 1, 2008)

I think horns just make the helmets look stupid, topknots are ok, but I'd prefer pre-heresy helmets or the helmets that look like the chaos knight helms. By the way, what are your guys' favorite head on the new Chaos Space Marine squad sprue? Mine is probably the nurgle one, it may have a horn, but three eyes...that's just awesome!


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## Lord of Rebirth (Jun 7, 2008)

Sorry if this is to harsh but really get out a file. Horns that are there can be removed. I kinda like them so i use a lot of them but if I only have horny heads i just cut and trim.

And if you want unspikey marines get loyalists.


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## CamTheApostle (Oct 31, 2008)

Horns are a well-established fashion statement within the Eye of Terror. Also, all Chaos Marines have an inferiority complex about their height (when standing next to a 10' tall daemon prince), so they use the horns to make them look taller. 

But if you don't like the horns, get a file and a sprue cutter. Snip, snip, file, file... BOOM! No more horns. Its that easy. Personally, I use the WHF Chaos Warrior heads for my Word Bearers.


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## MuGGzy (Dec 28, 2008)

I am mid way through an EC army as well and I think I might have 2 guys in the entire force that have 1-2 horns. If they have a helmet at all it is the hornless helm with the tiny studs or the one hat looks kind of like a skull. Otherwise I have mostly either GW NM heads (both current and OOP) or bare heads. I have done a TON of GS to make weird faces (like a speaker where a mouth or eye should be) out of bare zerker heads or bare SM Sgt heads. I don't like horns or topknots mostly because it's just one more thing I have to paint meticulously.


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## Kevko (Oct 9, 2008)

Thanks for all the replies guys! I think I might end up using loyalist heads, gonna hit up ebay...I'm horrible in filing but might give it another go since I don't think there really is another option.
:good:


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## Lord of Rebirth (Jun 7, 2008)

Will you have spare csm heads then? I could likely dig up 10 or 20 loyalist heads and I could use more csm heads.


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## the cabbage (Dec 29, 2006)

Some of the iron warrior metal heads with no horns are really good. I do like the fact that there is a range of chaos heads though. I ussually use the heads to show the squads instead of markings.


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## admiraldick (Sep 9, 2008)

Kevko said:


> Have you read the book Legion from the Horus Heresy series?


i know it well, and not only do i think that its a pile of poo, but it represents the Legion about 10,000 years ago. the corrupting influence of chaos has certainly taken its toll on them, as every other peice of artwork and background for the AL attests.



Kevko said:


> You'd understand what I meant if you did....just didn't want to give out a spoiler, but the Alpha Legion all try to look identical to each other all pretending to be Alpharius. [...] And whenever any member of the Alpha Legion was asked who he was, he'd say "I am Alpharius"


have you ever seen the film Spartacus (which is where the idea is pinched from)? the slaves made no attempt to dress as Alpharius, because no one knew what he looked like anyway. logically it is a much better tactic to let all of your men dress as individually as they please (it much less like hard work) and just have Alpharius keep a low profile in comparison to the other Primarchs.



Kevko said:


> The quote "We are Legion" comes from the book.


i realise that, and its also a phrase taken from the Gospels of Mark and Luke, however, GW seem to insist on using the adage in the exact opposite situation to its meaning (in both a literary and cultural setting); that is to say may personalities within one form. which renders using it pointless, because they ignore the image that the phrase is supposed to evoke.



Kevko said:


> So I just want to try portray the same thing with my miniatures - older mk armor without chaos or imperial symbols with helmets without horns.


sadly the game isn't set in the 30th Millennia, so GW don't feel it necessary to produce serious numbers of pre-heresy armour. even less examples exist without chaotic adornments. personally, i think that GW should produce a plastic 'veteran' box set, which includes plastic examples of each type of armour and maybe a couple of artificer suits.

if you are really looking for pre-heresy stuff though, you are going to have to put in some conversion work. there are some examples of Maximus armour on the BT sprue and the FW Red Scorpion sets. otherwise you are just going to have to shave the horns off CSM to make Heresy helmets (not sure how you'd make Iron, Crusade or Thunder).


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## Shaun_wi (Oct 8, 2008)

If you wanted to make all your marines exactly the same my suggestion would be to go on a bits website and order identical heads with identical bodies etc. Then you could choose any head (without horns) from any csm sprue or loyalist stuff


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## Wachaza (Mar 20, 2008)

Some of the horns are stupidly big. The old metal terminators were so well horned you couldn't get within arm's length from the fronmt.

The idea is to look big and scary but some are just too big.


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## The Sullen One (Nov 9, 2008)

Vaz said:


> Everytime I read that quote, I imagine Alpharius (who, being a Primarch, was taller than a normal Marine) to be ducking down behind his men with a huge great grin going *teehee*.
> 
> Or it might be Omegon... Who knows?


Haven't you heard, Alpharius has his men walk around on stilts so their as tall as he is.


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## Kevko (Oct 9, 2008)

admiraldick said:


> have you ever seen the film Spartacus (which is where the idea is pinched from)? the slaves made no attempt to dress as Alpharius, because no one knew what he looked like anyway. logically it is a much better tactic to let all of your men dress as individually as they please (it much less like hard work) and just have Alpharius keep a low profile in comparison to the other Primarchs.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Sorry never watched Spartacus, and I'm not Christian so don't know too much about the Bible. They used to have a mk6 plastic boxed set back in the day (Rogue Trader I believe), but I like your idea for a new 'veteren' box set.

Thanks again everyone for the ideas


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