Intro
The Space Marines are one of the main attractions of Warhammer 40,000 (40K), and many a player of 40K starts out with a squad of Space Marines. Their popularity overshadows almost everything else, and spawns whole forums of fanatical communities, which leads to a awful lot of discussion. Unfortunately (or fortunately - depending on how you look at it), many of the technical details of Space Marine construction and gear are glossed over by the design studio. It is rare for official articles or publications to delve into 40K technologies. This leaves it wide open to fan speculation and it's a fertile ground for the imagination. I think every fan has their own take on the Space Marines, constructed from selected pieces of background and codex canon, to suit their personal preference. I am no exception. Over the years, while chatting away on forums, I have put forward quite a few thoughts on the Space Marines, their biology, gear and chapter structure. Here you can find all these ideas collected together.
Reimaged or Traditional?
One of the real tests of these concepts is how 'Space Marine' everyone thinks they are. The main aim of this collection of concepts is to make the marine, as presented by Games Workshop's design studio, seem plausible (without hanging the suspension of disbelief by its neck 😛 ). As such I have taken liberties with the facts, and perhaps overly harkened back to the Rogue Trader era of my youth, when creating what you see here. I hope that this does not distract too much from the ideas behind it all, and some of the technologies presented here.
Morphology
The design of this marine is to match the official marine armour template created by the legendary Jes Goodwin. It seeks to justify the image of Space Marines 'as is' in the background and draws upon information known about the Space Marines in published material and comments by the design studio. My aim was to create a marine that is 100% compliant to the Warhammer 40,000 background, and explains some of the 'rule of cool' quirks - like marine heroes always seem to be 'bigger' than other marines, and the discrepancies between stated sizes in the background.
Creation and Biology - reimage
This is a reimage of the process of creating a Space Marine, as such it differs from the creation process detailed by Games Workshop. The aim of this fan fiction was is extend what Games Workshop had published, and to offer hypothetical clarifications of what exactly what happens. I delve into the processes in more detail, and offer explanations of how these fit in with the concepts put forward in the previous page of Space Marines Morphology.
Tactical Gear
Marines are directly supported by the Adepts of Mars who hold the marines in high regard and as their 'children' born of their relationship with Terra, a symbol of the Imperium itself. As such the marines have access to weapon system and gear few forces could even dream off. Even the basic tactical kit is far in advance of anything we have today, and elevates each marine to the power as a one man APC or IFV but in a (large) human sized package.
Bolters & Bolts
The main battle weapon of the marines. These ideas are an extrapolation of current experimental smart weapons into Warhammer 40000. It is my vision of the Bolter as a ‘smart weapon’ linked via the Black Carapace into the Machine Spirit (Covenet) of the power armour which forms a symbiotic relationship with the Space Marine’s mind, and the suits sensors, peripheral detectors and comms. All combined this forms a sophisticated targeting, and weapons management, system. A DNI or Direct Neural Interface with machine spirit co-mind. To the Space Marine they are literally one with their weapons, it is an extension of their will and controlled with their intent. This is quite advanced by sci-fi standards.
Organisation
The Chapter is a warrior band, an organised into an autonomous army dealing with the Imperium's special operations and black-ops. It is fully supported by the Imperium and Mars who partition the chapters for aid, yet each chapter actually contains everything it needs to be self-sufficient. It even has it's own Adepts of Mars known as the Tech-Marines to manufacture and maintain gear, it's own ships so it is not reliant on the navy and it's own support war machines. Marines are ago anywhere rapid response strike force fully capable of destroys a whole world.
DIY Chapters
This page is a collection of my DIY Chapters I have produced over the years. They draw inspiration from a range of cultures and mythologies. I think creating your own Chapter of Space Marines is one of the great joys of Warhammer 40K and armed the with SM painter on Bolter and Chainsword, anyone can make a profession looking DIY Index Astartes and contribute to the 1,000 Chapter Project! (see below).
Reimaged Chapters
This page is a collection of my re-imaged GW Chapters: most notably the Rainbow Warriors and the Space Sharks as they both needed a drastic reimage. I hope I have done these two Rogue Trader era chapters justice, and make other fans look at them in a new light.
The 1,000 Chapter Project
This brings together all the current canon and fan made loyalist chapters into one large gallery. All the colour scheme images link to the Lexicanum (canon) or an Index Astartes (fan made) for more information. The gallery can be sub-divided to show only 'Canon' or 'DIY' (do it yourself) chapters. When it's complete other sub-division will be added (geneseed, founding, etc.)
Connect
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