Inevitable MKIII Review: Iron Armour goes plastic (again!) 

A good observation - and you are correct! Thanks for pointing this out, the sprue does attached directly onto the shoulder nub and there is a risk (as I demonstrated) to cut it off in error.

Don't know about the mk3s, but the mk6 also have the sprue attaching to one of the leg nubs. Meaning that it can be cut off, but can also be deformed easily. Apart from the backpack and the proportions, I like the older kit better. Mainly due to more poses and easy mixing of bits from other kits.

My snark-level is inversely proportional to the quality of the criticisms assessed.

My pleasure!

You are welcome as always Adam. Hope you have fun with your's when they arrive.

Thank you Nox.

Good observations... and I think you reveal a truth about the old and new MKIII models - both have good features combined with some less favourable ones.

Speaking of the helmets, I would imagine the spikes would be very easy to snip away, with just a couple of passes with a file to smooth out the cut, if you absolutely wanted your Mk III Marines unpointy.

@@leakycheese something else I want to try out: that groove next to the trim on the shoulder looks like it would drink up some of that high viscosity panel liner really well. Aw nuts I'm going to have to buy one of these boxes...

You mean the metal model from 1990? By "original" you mean the 2010 Forge World interpretation? That's a well known model, but it was far, far from the original MKIII.

@@leakycheeseI prefer the Mk3 that came with the Burning of Prospero kit.

The heavy weapon arms come in the MkIII kit

I'm a *checks notes* middle aged man but I like the new stuff 😆 Remember: once upon a time (2010) those Forge World MKIIIs were brand new. Would be a fascinating time travelling experiment to see how people reacted to them if these models had been released first. Anyway, thanks as always for watching 👍

I think I might have to start using the little yellow triangle iconography myself!!

Actually, I might actually go with an orange one instead, thinking about it

Thanks, you're most welcome 🙂

Ah.... now that's an interesting idea! Not though, cheers.

I imagine it all as MKIII, just built to slightly different specs. If you want a real world example of this thought experiment, look at the huge variety of military rifles built on either the Armalite or AK platform. The galaxy of the Imperium is mind-boggling large.... deviations from standards not only makes sense in such a setting but it would be less convincing if everything is always identical. Final thought: one piece of artwork I didn't mention in this video is "The Emperor of Mankind" by Kevin Chin (2012). You should take a look at the Astartes in the lower left of the painting, these are perhaps the clearest vision of what the new MKIII Tactical Squad is based on. Also, remember Forge World designed the MKIII from Burning of Prospero set. It was their interpretation of previous art and models from Games Workshop, and wasn't particularly faithful to that material either. Know your design history - avoid holding up original paradigms that are anything but.

Thanks - someone else pointed this out as well. In my rush to get this video made on Saturday (and it was!) I missed the nubs. I think my brain was on auto after all the MKVIs I'd built where the nubs are separate from the sprue attachment points.

Yeah I noticed that after my 4th guy. It's really weird they put those there

Unfortunately no... I've built all the MKVIs I own. Looking at the instructions, pose 2, 3 and 5 appear to have legs that can easily be swapped between MKIII and MKVI. And the arms, powerpacks, pauldrons and helmets are all interchangeable.

Word of advice: don't be facetious

Nice one, I also bought the head sets for my Sons of Horus army project… lots of cool designs for sure. They are compatible with the new MKIII as well as MKVI, and can also work on older marine models from Forge World and GW. One of the upgrade heads I used on a Justaerian and it looks great. Hope this helps 👍

Agreed.... I was working on a couple more and noticed the same thing. My fix thus far has been to leave a bit of the sprue attachment on the neck to slightly raise the head.

No lore was changed around MKVI armour, not sure what you are referring to here? I've seen this remark made a number of times and it is erroneous. So much so that I prepared a summary of the MKVI armour history as noted in the Black Library novels and Forge World Black Books. 1. The Iron Warriors and Salamanders both received limited numbers of prototype MKVI armour to trial in the late Great Crusade (HHB3: Extermination). 2. The Raven Guard trialed 1000 pre- production suits before the heresy began (HHB3: Extermination). 3. MKVI entered full scale production in the months before the heresy began i.e. Battle of Isstvan Ill (HHB3: Extermination). 4. The Alpha Legion were deploying MKVI in significant numbers before the heresy began. John Grammaticus observed Captain Ingo Pech of the Alpha Legion wearing MKVI armour during their encounter in Mon Lo Harbour, an event that occurred before the Battle of Isstvan III (HHB3: Extermination, Legion by Dan Abnett). 5. Canon artwork shows that other legions had MKVI prior to the outbreak of the heresy e.g. Space Wolves and Thousand Sons (A Thousand Sons, Prospero Burns). 6. Canon artwork shows the Death Guard, Emperor's Children and Iron Hands had all deployed MKVI at the time of the Isstvan Campaign (Black Library Horus Heresy novel cover Fulgrim). Supplemental: Leetu, the prototype Astartes who dates from the late Unification Wars, wears a unique pattern of powered armour. His armour (the LE2 model from 1985) has many features of MKVI Corvus armour including the distinctive lean-snouted helm. Any connection between this armour and the much later MKVI has not yet been explained (The End and the Death: Volume 1 by Dan Abnett). Conclusion: Astartes MKVI Corvus Pattern Armour was being deployed across the legions immediately before the events pertaining to the Horus Heresy. MKVI is full Space Marine battleplate (it is not light-weight armour for recon use only) with an enhanced sensor suite located in it's distinctive snout (see Deathwatch expansion for Dark Heresy RPG). From start of the heresy, the MKVI became an ever larger part of the marine legions armoury, along with MKV as MKIl, MKIll and MKIV suits were lost in the war. Hope you found that helpful 🙂

@@leakycheese Thank you for this detailed answer, it was very helpful. But wasn't it previously said that the lack of armor led to the widespread introduction of MK V armor? And now GW says that the MK VI was the most widespread armor, isn't that contradictory to older sources?

You're welcome. Can you be specific and cite the original and new source material(s) you are referring to so we can understand what the potential contradiction is? Update: I've added comments on Leetu to my original reply.

Deredeo is the yacht of the dreadnought world.

Sure do Deluxe! These are: Bolter barrel: 1mm Fore muzzle break: 1mm Aft muzzle break: 0.5mm Meltagun: 1.5mm Hope this helps :)

@@leakycheese thanks a ton!!!

That's a good idea... but no need to wait for others to do it - go ahead and make it happen yourself.

Thanks! I've been asked this quite a few times, here is how I do it. How to Beakie MKVI shoulder pad pauldrons seamless joins: Technique (work quickly): 1. Add standard liquid polystyrene cement e.g. Revell Contacta along the seam. 2. Stick 2 halves together, lay on board, push sides together hard. 3. Then immediately take Tamiya Extra Thin and brush on to smooth off the join. 4. Leave to throughly dry (overnight is good). 5. Carefully trim down any remaining seam or gap along the join with a sharp knife. 6. Reapply a fine layer of Tamiya Extra Thin over the trimmed area to smooth off any remaining burrs. 7. Sit back and enjoy the seamless pauldrons. Be careful not to touch the areas where glue has been applied while it drys! Hope this helps 🙂

You are pretty warm here - after the vid I found that part 21 is the elbow pad for one of the arms holding a bolter. Could be used for some interesting converting I think.

Thanks @@leakycheese

Good question... and sadly one I can't practically test as I've built all my MKVI stash. I do know J from Legion of Two is doing some experimentation with swapping bits from the various new armour mark kits at the moment - he's active over on Instagram @legion_of_two

Yes, the MKIII Tactical Squad box contains the new version of Iron Armour. The previous design (originally from the Burning of Prospero boxed game) and now out of production.

@@leakycheeseI preferred the Burning of Prospero Mk3 design. I preferred the helmet, I preferred the shoulder pads and I preferred the extra poses.

@@psychedashell What extra poses? Also, where were my walking poses in the old MKIII Prospero kit? And aiming bolters... where were those?

@@leakycheese The new Mk3 armour only has four poses since you're effectively rocking one soldier sprue and the fifth pose is duplicated. The Mk3 armour that came in the Burning of Prospero kit came with six poses and two duplicated across two soldier sprues. Someone good at carving or clever at pinning could make it an irrelevant point but as a basic kit it's kind of a pain. I also dug the holstered chainswords from the Burning of Prospero kit. I want the Burning of Prospero Mk3 marines re-released.

@@psychedashell Six poses all of which were basically the same squatting marine stance. New set has 5, plus better aiming poses. Oh, and new set marines also have proper trigger discipline 😜

Perfect kit to launch the Great Scouring range! 😆

Thanks mate, hope you enjoyed the video :)

Pssst! You! Psssssst! You! Yes, you Harry! Those MKIIIs you are talking about were first released as part of the Burning of Prospero boxed game in 2016. *checks calendar* That's 7 years ago. Just sayin' Harry.

That's a mighty haul indeed! Hope you have fun with these.

That's a fair criticism on the face plates.... while we don't have a full MKII yet, the tank commander head from the vehicles does allow for comparison. I just compared the two now, and while the brow on the MKIII is more prominent, the face plate is of similar depth to the MKII. The MKV is going to be a tricky one to do in plastic. If the designers want to achieve symmetrical hemispherical studs like on the MKVI pauldrons then that will be an absurdly complex kit which I don't think GW will do (each leg will likely have 3 or 4 sections). That then leaves the other option of stud underfills like we saw on the plastic MKIVs from the Calth box... not as good looking for sure. I wonder how people would react if GW went with the complex option?

@@leakycheesethey could do the mk5 as seen in the index astartes first founding articles / index astartes books and early printings of visions of heresy! (Seen best in the black Legion / sons of Horus / Luna Wolves and world Eaters article's!

I'm sure there might be some pushback, but there's been pushback for literally any of the new kits

@@leakycheese Yeah, three-part legs would be a pain. I'd probably just do a slight redesign of the greaves, put the studs on only the front facing (a trick they've used on things like new Praetors and Khorne Berzerkers), and maybe do cables or MKVI-like details on the backs. If they only have to worry about cleanly casting fiddly details on 180 degrees of the surface instead of 360, it's not quite as hard. Same reason why I suspect MKIII's had two plastic kits in the time it's taken for MKII to get none beyond a single crewman (in the most MKII-friendly pose possible), although I can see how Mk II would be doable with the new MkIII/VI poses. Just eexpect almost every leg to be split at the knee on those. The new MKVIs make me think GW isn't willing to compromise on quality with the backfilled studs anymore. I'm fine with it, even with the two-part pauldrons, although I think the optimal solution is just to reconsider the idea of plastic-resin hybrid kits for awkward parts like that (using good-quality resin, of course).

MKII Armour wasn't "phased out" so much as they took the resin models out of production (like most of the early heresy and Badab kits). If you look at the art in the new rulebooks MKII is still there, and the new plastic tank commander is also in MKII. My prediction is we will get a new plastic MKII kit over the course of the next 2 years.

Not yet, but the upcoming kits due to release this winter (mentioned towards the end of the video) will give us plastic chainswords amongst other choppy weapons.

Or pistols, thunder hammers, mkiii power fist and claw

Right you are, thanks for pointing this out, my recollection wasn't accurate on the Vexilia. I think my perception was clouded by buying the resin command sets to get the nuncio-vox for my Word Bearer plastic MKIVs and that set including the vexilia as well.

it's a comparison of the discount to the RRP, so it makes sense to alculate the discount to the RRP, instead of a discounted box

Watch the video - I show all the sprues on camera 🙂

@@leakycheese it is indeed not there, damn. Gonna have to go beg the beakies enthusiasts to sell me their spares 🙃

@jellydamgood As a Beakie enthusiast, I’ve 80 unused chain bayonets so I’m good 🙂

@@leakycheese ah to be so taunted. Good for you.

@@jellydamgood But seriously, there are going to be loads of people with spare chain bayonets. Instagram is a good place to ask for parts available to swap as is Facebook (I guess?).

2025.

You as well mate :)

I disagree, the plastic is cheaper, it's still expensive, but definitely cheaper than FW

Plastic prices in Australia on MKIII Tacticals are 33% of the resin equivalents (new MKIII Tactical Squad is AUD$125, 20 Forge World Iron Hands Tactical Marines are AUD$380). If you can get the plastics at a discounting indy store then the difference will be greater. For reference, a 1-1 exchange on the UK retail price of the plastic squad is just under AUD$86 so yeah, there is the derisking effect of international pricing which isn’t great.

And yet the new marine kits are being sold at a notably lower price point to their heresy predecessors and quite a bit below current WH40K models - so not following your thinking at all here? When I thought it though it's actually an inversion of reality? And people need to be accurate with what they say - in online text-based communication that's the only way meaning is conveyed. If people actually just said "I don't like that there are only 5 stock body poses available, I wanted them all to be different regardless of the consequences for the totality of the model range meeting the features of the army list" then I'd say "fine". But that's the thing, calling the design here lazy is approaching oxymoronic. And as you've shown with your lengthy explanation, a "lazy" way to level a complaint.

Try putting alongside the Medusan Immortals… those are as tall if not a bit taller. It’s complicated.

No, I didn't... as you can see from my in video explanation. Calm down and go easy on the exclamation marks next time.

@@leakycheese Oh, I accidentally posted my comment multiple times! Sorry for my mistake, I fixed it

@@Jules_Nerdworld No issue with multiple comments, but your observation is incorrect. Remember: I chose to share my little mistake with you - that was done for comedic effect 😉

@@leakycheese I didn't intend to attack you personally with my comment, I could have worded it better! All good ☺️✌🏻

@@Jules_NerdworldNo worries... I also realised English isn't your first language so a bit of a misunderstanding on meaning as well I feel. Hope you enjoyed the video 🙂

Aside from picking up on the Adrian Smith art I showed in the video (and also the Forge World Rapier gunners which have the same design), I think there is still a missing piece of the puzzle which is a new MKII design.

Well not totally lame but I do prefer the old mk3s over the new ones They just look better

Honestly if you put the old MKIII heads on the new bodies I think you have the best of both worlds!

The special and heavy weapons are sold separately... this kit is for the baseline Tactical Squad. Not sure I follow what's to dislike about that?