A tactical (marine) problem

[Voltigeur]

Hey guys and gals,

I recently inherited a collection of marines from a buddy of mine. I have four different marine armies currently and most of the models fit in to one or another just fine. The problem is the collection includes about 40 snap fit marines from the 4th and 5th edition starters. Combine that with the 40 or so snap fit marines I have languishing in my bits box and I have 80 tactical marines with no idea of what to do with them. They don't fit in to my other armies and they are not easy to convert. On top of that is the fact that I rarely use more than one tactical squad in most games.

My question for you is: what would you do with 80 mono-pose space marines? Can you think of any neat projects where these would be an asset? I don't generally like to sell my models unless I absolutely must, so I'm trying to avoid that as an option.

As a final note I am more a hobbyist than a gamer so I'm happy with any cool ideas or fun themes regardless of tabletop effectiveness.

Thanks in advance!

[hyudun]

[Tomgar]

Just build an entire reserve company? The idea of spamming the ever loving hell out of tactical marines (and their transports) has always appealed to me, I'd love to try a game like that.

[Darren Richardson]

well apart from giving them away instead of selling them (proberley the onbly way of getting rid of them, as experianced modellers won't want that many either), how about using some in secenery.

A suggestion is try making a base with column's lined either side each adorned on top by one of the figures, suitably distressed, perhaps with bits cut off and painted and weathered correctly to represent stone or bronze and you have a nice piece of Imperial Scenery to reclaim "In The Name Of The Emperor!"

[euansmith]

Great ideas from hyudun and Darren Richardson

Maybe you could use them for a Crusader Army with four squads of 20 marines or you could take them as eight squads of 10 marines and then combat squad them in to 16 squads of 5 marines for ultimate MSU silliness.

[Voltigeur]

Thanks for the great Ideas, love the terracotta army pic! I hadn't considered a big terrain feature, but I can always use more terrain! Euansmith the crusader army had crossed my mind but I'm not sure if I would be better served using the Black Templar rules to take squads of fifteen or use the Chaos space marine rules to take squads of twenty? Making them into Chaos space Marines probably wouldn't be too challenging.

[YorkNecromancer]

Sternguard.

If you have the spares, replace their heads with bare or more blinging ones - those are easy enough to source on The eBay if you don't have any. You could also upgrade the shoulder pads.

Then, just add additional stuff to their bolters to make them more Sternguard-y. You could either buy these from a site:
[url]http://www.anvilindustry.co.uk/The-Armoury/Ammo[/url]

or, if you're feeling brave, make some gun accessories of your own:
[url]http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?45519-A-Beginner-s-Guide-How-To-Scratchbuild-Infantry-Weapon-Accessories[/url]
(Yes, I know this tutorial is for a lasgun, but everything there can be adapted for use on a Bolter, especially things like flash suppressors and scopes.)

Alternatively, if you have abunch of various Marine bits for different chapters hanging about, you could always use them as the base for a Deathwatch kill-team.
[url]http://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Deathwatch-Kill-Team-Conversion-Kit[/url]

Ultimately, the snap-fit models are a bit more of a pain to work with than the regular kind of marines, but you can make them look extremely nice with only a little bit of conversion work. I've adapted loads of them myself, and if you just take your time, you can get lovely results.

[Wolfshade]

The answer is simple. Build a Chapter.

[Krefey]

The answer is simple. Build a Chapter.

Hahaha. *ahem*

You could use them as statues for terrain as well. Paint them up as a bronze, use some of the GW green copper "rust" verdigris stuff.

[Ravingbantha]

I would by multi pose marines and mix them in. You can also use them to fill out devistator squads. Perhaps use them in conversion projects and use them as passengers in transports