Armour through the ages

This post is late.  I'd planned on putting this up towards the end of last week by life etc. has conspired to take away what little spare time I've had since then.  Either way, I thought I'd post it anyway despite being a little behind the curve.

A couple of weeks ago everyone got very excited by this image released as a teaser by Forgeworld:

Mk V: "Heresy Armour" helmet (Forgeworld)

Everyone was toting it as the beginnings of a release of a pre-heresy/heresy-current range by Forgeworld, but sadly more recent news suggests that this isn't the case.  A week later Forgeworld release a second image and in the text associated with it made it clear that this isn't for a pre-heresy/heresy-current range but well and truly set in the 41st Millenium:

Mk III: "Iron Armour" helmet (Forgeworld)

Having seen these images, what excites me most now is not whether it is a pre-heresy/heresy-current range, although both could very easily be used in that setting, but is looking at the details, I think that Forgeworld are moving into producing a complete range of Space Marine armour types, and that these aren't just a range of helmets.  Lets look at the details:

I've zoomed in the image, and marked up some interesting bits.  Below are some comparison images taken from the 40K Lexicanum:

       

Obviously there is the helmet, its design, and the rivets, and note that there is no topknot/spike but a vent on the top of the helmet placing this firmly as a piece of Mk III armour (the left image above is Mk II, the centre and right are Mk III).  Secondly there is the chest-plate that extends up to the base of the helmet, and is riveted at the top which is non-standard and suggests at more than just a helmet conversion set, as is the marked shoulder-pad rim which seems to be scalloped.

For the Mk V armour, as well as the very distinctive helmet design which is pretty unique to the Mk V suit, there is also the "re-breather" style chest piece and most interesting to me is the different style of back-pack that this armour came with.  The images below show this for comparison, again taken from 40K Lexicanum, and they also show the riveted shoulder pad that you can maybe see the hint of on the very right of the above image.

So, my 2p worth is that we'll see a full or relatively full set of armour sets from Forgeworld, considering that they already do a lot of Mk IV as part of the Red Scorpions range, this will leave us with Mk's III - V (Iron, Imperial Maximus and Heresy) from Forgeworld, and GW kits include Mk VI - VIII (Corvus, Aquilla and Errant), all that will be missing will be Mk I and II  (Thunder and Crusade) armour types to complete the set.

And if you can't wait, and want some of these types for your army already, well then My Wargame has a fantastic series of guides to creating your own Mk's I - V armour.

So what are everyone elses thoughts, do you think I'm onto something, or am I just extrapolating into crazy land? - bG