Hey Ian, made a throwaway account because I never comment on KZfaq vids: Was actually organizing a HH Zone Mortalis tournament to get some friends into the setting (40k era firstborn allowed to see if they're willing to take the Heresy plunge) and went to print out the old ZM reference sheet I used constantly during the heyday of Horus Heresy, and I did a double-take on seeing that you'd put it together. Thanks for that from someone who got years of use out of it, and will be sending this to people who wanna start their own Heresy armies!

Really good overview. I think a lot of people don’t realize just how much of the plastic GW range is completely usable in 30k as well. Fingers crossed that the supposed box set arrives this year; any additional plastic kits that Horus Heresy gets only serve to increase the potential player base.

I have an unopened Chaos Rhino and Predator from the 90s I've been trying to decide on what to do with, making some heresy vehicles could be fun.

Hey Ian, offtopic comment: I'm about your age and back in the hobby for around 7 years now. Nothing brings back the magic I felt as a young teenager like your videos. Thank you!

There's also the plastic Heresy chaplain and terminator captain box, and all the Emperor's golden boys and girls (except Allarus Custodians and named characters).

May be worth a revisit to the info here as the new books (liber astartes at any rate) are missing a lot of the old options such as the box dreads, some of the big tanks etc. On a plus note the scouts are actually a HH unit in their own right!

Since I live in Australia and apparently gw/fw think we should pay an extra 20% or so for being aussies… If I was going to start a 30k army it would probably be from black legion market.

if we're talking HH then i think you missed the big one in custodes. I know most of their plastic army can be used, still a bit out on the jetbikes and allarus, but guard, wardens, the plastic contemptor, should all still be useable

This is a great video and has very good tips but I would personally avoid mk7 armour unless you are making an imperial fists force rigth at the end of the siege and even then I would be carefull with them. But having a single character in mk7 or 8 is defenetly not a bad thing as long as you put some effort into making it fit with the asthetic

You didn't mention using chaos spacemarines as heresy era Spacemarines, they all wear mk 5 armour, so are suitable for traitor legions, but just make sure to cut and shave off any mutations and overly chaosy bits, also a head swap might be a good idea

custodes and sos are crying in the corner about being completely forgotten despite almost all of their stuff being usable in both 40k and 30k

Love this breakdown. Heresy always seemed really interesting to me, but I was always worried about not having the right armor marks or needing to grab the FW specific faction stuff. Once I finish the last bits of my now 2 40k marine armies, I'll probably grab a box of mark 3 and mark 7 marines to start working on a ultramarine heresy/40k project. Along with my fantasy dark elves. And my imperial guard. And I want to get skaven someday. God I have a lot of hobby crap...

"know one really does events set in the early, mid or late heresy" They do, they almost exclusively do. The drop sight massacre being the most prominent

Thank you . Am glad I kept my rouge trader mk,IV marines , 🐺

Stumbled across your channel and have watched a couple of vids now... Massive fan of your style and the way you tie the lore directly into the gaming side of it.

For my plantine blades i just used regular marines with the sword arms of the slaanesh chaos warriors from aos from ebay.

The Predator Twin Lascannon isn't a heresy option but the Baal Predator Flamer Cannon turret can be made into Inferno Turret for another option. The Razorback weapon turret is good for converting your land raider Proteus with Triple Lascannon and the twin Heavy Bolters into Quad Heavy Bolter gun carriage. But a great video to show how with a little research and convertions Heresy isn't that restrictive to get into with Plastic options.

Who in the unholiest of hells can afford a forge world army??? It’s like 40k but like 10x the price on everything

It’s worth noting here that the Imperial Fists received the lion’s share of initial-production Mk.VII armour right before the siege of Terra, so if you want a bunch of fists in Mk VII for your HH army, just say they’re siege-era.

Makes sense to get Chaos kits, they just use 30k gear with corruption added. Nice tip!

Thank you very much for this guide Ian, incredibly useful and a time-saver. I've been thinking about putting together a small Dark Angel legion force for a while and was going to go through my collection and work out what could be made to fit. Awesome video, take care ;)

I started doing this with my Night Lords army and trying to make it 30k and 40k compatible. I grabbed a Chaos Land Raider and just kept most of the chaos bits off and put on the NL door set and going to do similar with the Chaos Rhino. Great video so thank you for sharing.

I wish I had seen this years ago. I’ve been using 40K plastic models for my Dark Angels recently with no push back from the 30k community. I even played a 2000 point mourneval event a few weeks ago using mostly plastic models with no issues from the other players. Black Knights become plasma outriders (I may kitbash some melta ones) and my current project is a squad of Deathwing Companions made from the Dark Angels veteran squads. With prices going up I can see many new Horus Heresy players opting to use plastics instead of resin units.

I don't even play warhammer but i loved listening to you being excited about this stuff. Thanks for including pictures for noobs like me :D

Old video, but I'd like to add, that this may be overall "salvation" for firstborn kits. Maybe not AS Horus Heresy, but something like expansion for War of the Beast. I'm not a player, just collector, but I do love Horus Heresy approach of collecting miniatures in speciffic lore acurate styles. For now firstborn are still standing, but this whole assumption, that they will be phased out one day is not nonsense. The problem is there is 10 000 years of history of the Imperium to work with, and primaris fit nothing. I want to have some Age of Apostasy force, some pre deathwatch War of the Beast kill teams, some Badab War force... Maybe even Horus Heresy could be expanded into post heresy Great Scouring, where loyalist counteroffensive happens and lot of 40k stuff is introduced to the larger use, than just "some imperial fists used mark 7 during the Siege of Terra".

Honestly this is weirdly useful for me making "Deathwatch" who even as a 40k army have access to alot of the classic gear. Thank you Ian!

This is amazing - I don't play 30k but am looking at starting a CSM army made up of Heresy-era Iron Hands who went mad with the death of their primarch and corrupted into a bunch of Daemon engines, and have been wondering how I make my CSM look 'cleaner', more like they're using scavenged and old tech instead of making them incredibly 'busy' with spikes and chains and whatnot, as is apparently the route for CSM sculpts now. Anyway, I didn't even realise the MK3 plastic kit was a thing as I've been away from the hobby for a while and oh good lord I love it. Thanks for bringing it to my attention alongside the other tips!

Thank you for this. I like your 30k stuff much much more over Other Overly Salty 30k channels, much more ballansed!

Awesome vid! But to put in my suggestion as well if anyone sees this. The winged power packs that the old and new chaos space marine kits had saw use on both sides during the heresy. It also isn’t too absurd to see loyalists with spiked trim on their armor. Many of the legions on both sides had some sinister elements to their looks in the artworks of the heresy. The best thing to keep in mind is to have fun and be creative. This war was galaxy wide and had hundreds of thousands of space marines in conflict, and this was a time when a marine was more of a free thinker. so the characters and armies you can cobble together are really endless. A cool example is from a buddy of mine that made a force of loyalist night lords that painted themselves red and were obsessed with delivering imperial justice to any traitors they find

Another bit about the regular troops: because the crusade era involved a lot of conquering and absorbing of other human worlds throughout the galaxy, it's entirely feasible for them to look like anything. The armies of old empires pressed into service and given the minimal equipment needed to bring them to the Imperium's standards. This is where things like third party models come in. As always, I recommend the output of Wargames Atlantic, who have a number of plastic kits specially built to work with the Imperial Guard, as well as a weapons sprue that can "guard-ify" other models (such as WA's historical kits). All for way cheaper and in greater number for the price than you'd ever get from Games Workshop. So long as your gaming scene or local tournaments don't care about third party models, it's a very useful option.

Given how many plastic kits are coming out for HH, it could be cool to see the inverse of this video. What HH kits are useable in the 40k setting and maybe a bit of lore as to why and how that's the case!

You could potentially proxy astra militarum with various Tau bits as the Auretian Technocracy from the Novel series, not sure which rules you'd use though. I have committed the ultimate heresy and used Primaris Marines as pre Heresy Luna Wolves using some Mk 3 shoulder pads and helmets scattered about.

Thank you very much for the video, I just got into heresy and my army is mostly plastic right now. I’m eager for the box to come out!

Fantastic video, as usual. I’m really looking forward for the new box.

great video, makes me feel justified in already doing a lot of that with my Dark Angels. Have also subscribed so look forward to future vids

This was a welcomed and appreciated video. Thanks

Good overview of marines, but I would have loved to see content related to talons and ruinstorm (especially since latter has so much conversion potential). Maybe in a part 2?

I found this video so very helpful, I'd love it if you ever were to do a followup focused on the Chaos Marine line of miniatures.

Fantastic video! Might have to start a heresy army!

Slight caveat to what he said about predators, The predator annihilator (dual/twin Lascannon turret) is not a heresy era, it's similar to the razorback

This is extremely helpful. Thank you for putting this out.

This is a really useful video. Thanks for sharing your ideas.

I recently got into the heresy. It's great. I play milita. I just did some head and some arm/weapon swaps with 3rd party gear and they look great. I also did some 3d printing 🤫. But overall you can do some cheaper conversions and still get in without anyone being the wiser.

One thing I don't think you mentioned was how, if you want to do a late Heresy Traitor Legion, it's even easier. Lots of legions were proper chaosified by the time they got to Terra (think Death Guard), Possessed Marines existed (think Word Bearers), and there were even some legions that were fans of the spikey look early on (think Night Lords). That's not even mentioning that you can just straight up use Demons. A lot of the Chaos line can be used for Traitor Legions with little/no conversion.

Nice video, appreciate the informative nature. Pricing has always been an issue getting into 30k.

Haven't played warhammer in years, but I'm loving these videos. Would love to see to talk about the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game (I.e Lord of the Rings Warhammer)

I'm building a Word Bearer's army to pull double duty for both 40k and if the opportunity ever arises HH. I'm using one of the Chaos Marines with a mace from the Dark Vengeance box as a Chaplain/Dark Apostle. Although I am availing of the Mk 3 and 4 plastics I'm mix and matching bolters and things going for a late in the Heresy vibe, they're using whatever's still working. Still I'm likely going to avoid Mk7. Of the resin stuff the Gal Vorbak guys would be high on the list to use as possesed. I've got a Mk1b rhino which will work nicely and even an old Baal Predator I got second hand recently which could do as a predator destructor with a bit of work to the turret and removing that big Blood Angels Icon off the front. I'm even considering painting up some Space Crusade CSMs and the dreadnought for the force.

nice one, getting beaky helmets for my raven guard

I love your channel, the pics are awesome.👍

awesome video man keep up the good work

Could you please update this for everything from 10th and New HH kits, and their cross compatibility between the gamesystems

Depending on how many infantry squads you run, a box of 40k tacticals or firstborn sternguard/vanguard vets can supplant the 30k sergeants to be modeled as marines with artificer armor.

Ok, quick rant coming up about the Australian prices here. I would kill to buy a Contemptor Dread for £35. £35 is about $66 Australian dollerydoos right there... ... ... for context, it costs $70 Australian for a firstborn tactical squad. A Contempor Dread goes for $100 Australian. A regular dreadnaught costs $74. I know it all has to be imported from the UK but surely they could make the models just a smidge bit cheaper.

Thank you for the PSA. One thing I would like to comment is that the Hunter kit is a very good source for a Legion Basilisk/Medusa kit, you just need to eBay out either the Demolisher or Vanquisher barrel to slap on the end.

I would love to see the difference between the modern necron back story and the original. i've tried reading it myself and spent days upon days but without the perspective from before it was retconned it's hard to understand. I love the way you present the lore

I don't play heresy and I don't ever plan to. But I still love hearing you talk about warhammer stuff.

Wow, what an amazing job! 👍

I personally think that with a little bit of conversion work you could use a deathguard plagueburst crawler as a arquitor bombard since they look so similar. All you really have to do is switch out the side-mounted weapons with heavy bolters, remove the shield thing at the front and the tiny gun in the middle and remove any overly obvious nurgle corruption boils. You probably don’t even have to remove the mortar canon in the back if you use it as the morbid heavy bombard variant.

Gonna have to pick up some drop pods!!! They look so cool

incredibly helpful thank you kindly

1 year later Many, many tanks are now in plastic, and are thus cheaper. Demios Rhino is plastic now, and is cheaper. Contemptor is out, and plastic, but Box-noughts are nice. Tartaros and Catifractii armor come in boxes of 10, and is the better option for termies, but Indomnius armor have their own rules now! Mk4 and Mk3 marines come in boxes of 20.

You can also just play a regular Tyranids army and say you're the Megarachnids!

7:44 Alpha Legion: Rule one, never let them know your next move.

I suspect most people will buy the new plastic Heresy stuff just so they can get affordable Beakies and Contemptors for their 40K army. I'm just getting the mkVI marines out of nostalgia for RTB01, and I refuse to pay the asking price for that regular plastic Contemptor. It's almost the price of a resin one, but is a monopose brick. Hopefully the new one will be an improvement. I'm gonna use them to make a Post-Heresy but old-school army (call them 35K). I'm thinking loyalist Emperor's Children successors.

I WANT BEAKYS

very well done chap

Hey Ian thanks for using my Sons of Horus Land Speeders at the beginning of the vid :)

well nice vid ,but there is the question in waht scale the new horus heresy minis come . its was pointed out (in my cycle of players at least ) that the marines might be more akin to the primaris . wich ofc does not stop someone from using the "classic" marines. but could be a downside to some players, when they mix the lines.

Don't forget: The ENTIRE Custodes line!

I've really enjoyed doing the opposite! Adding Heresy kits to my 40k army to give it a more ancient feel. Getting hold of mkV and mkII armour is a bit of a pain though

I keep coming back to this video at the moment and going damn, i need to make an iron warriors legion army with these plastic bits lol

Very useful thank you

Now that we have the plastic Leviathan dread (as well as quite a few plastic versions of resin kits), this video serves not only as a “avoid Forgeworld” (which I will only buy the Legion units and their new Librarian from) warning, but also neat advice for army building.

I’m playing at the greetings for the warp the siege of terra what if and I’m using standard rhinos and landraiders. Plastic cataphractii and marines. Only Horus, my Spartan, Sicarans and upgraded shoulder pads are FW.

I really like These Vids - reminds me of the 90's ( Ians shirts) :D

Both patterns of predator? Has the fluff changed? My understanding was that the Annihilator didn't appear until M36 as a field expedient modification by the Space Wolves. Its all made up nonsense of course but I'm a little surprised.

I have been playing around with helmet and holter swaps feels like all my 1st born stuff just collects dust now a days

The spacemarien commander set is a good one to make HQ.It is old SM, and has lots of weapon ，equipment and armor choices.

Skitarii vanguard are just a headswap from secutarii peltas, unfortunately the heads aren't sold separately and the kits are expensive but you can eun them without the headswap perfectly fine

Contemptors, leviathans, MKIII and Cataphratii are some of my favorite space marine models

Any info on Imperial Knights or (like nepeta lejion mentioned) Custodes? Thanks for looking out for our wallets!

This Is exactly the video I needed!

UPDATE The items on this list have been given rules in a community article except the land speeder IMPORTANT! Some of the units listed in this video do not have a data sheet at the moment in the new army book those units are: Land raider phobos Box dreadnoughts 40k Terminator 40k land speeders

I would love to see Mark one armor be an option. Perhaps some legions in battlefields got so desperate they break out some old unification wars relics

Excellent advice!

"Regular" Marines? Is that a new type of Primaris? /s

I love the modularity of the classic Marine kits and would love to make an army with combined armour parts. If only they weren't so squat... looking forward to the new MK VII kit though!

What about rogue trader terminators or other models? Or models with the era's armor but 40k chapter colors ex. The Blood Ravens.

I'm still mourning the disappearance of the land raider Achilles...

So, hang on -- I can use my original 1987 Imperial Space Marines box set figs with this? The dude at my local Warhammer store said I could even before this as long as I used the newer-sized bases. I still have many of those models on their sprues! Great vid again.

Have 3k of Alpha Legion that's almost entirely plastic. Mk IV marines, the Space Marine Heroes sprue with two 30k characters converted into a power-armoured praetor and a terminator chaplain, 10 Cataphracti terminators, three Vindicators, a Predator, and three plastic Contemptors. My total resin in the 3k points are some Volkite chargers, a Deredeo, five Grave Wardens [Reward of Treason is cool] and some of the Contemptor weapons. Could easily jiggle things around to make it entirely plastic if you wanted

I have no problem using my Rhino Primaris as a Damocles.

I wish we had the option to include Horus Heresy minis for 40k, like 9th edition allowed us to do

Hi Arbitor Ian! Thank you for the guide. It’s gotten me interested in playing Horus Heresy. I was looking to purchase a rulebook, but Forgeworld had it listed as No Longer Available. Is there somewhere else I can purchase the rules?

I know I'm late to the party, but the Primaris helmet looks just like the mk IV helmet, so if you have any of those kicking around (like I do because I head-swapped all of my Primaris) you can easily give the Assault Marine kit (with the chest pieces that have the harness on it) a real cohesive mk IV look.

Do you think you could post addendums for this. Things like the Deimos Rhino now being cheaper now that it's in plastic

My local club had a rule that 40k plastic was fine if it was de eagled or chaosed. I’m sure we will keep that going once this new version comes out.

I hope that one guy who told me to leave the hobby and unalive myself for using anvilus pattern backpacks on my alpha legion is foaming at the mouth right now . Fantastic content .

Sounds like you can take most of the Space marine range into heresy as a very late army if it were WW2 it would be 1945 if not 1946(If the war continued.) type.

I heard a very, very dirty rumour that "Plastic Sicaran" is in the pipeline too…