Space Marine Weight

SF: discuss futuristic sci-fi series, ideas, and crossovers.

Moderator: NecronLord

Post Reply
User avatar
Steel
Jedi Master
Posts: 1123
Joined: 2005-12-09 03:49pm
Location: Cambridge

Space Marine Weight

Post by Steel »

Now i'm not asking about their equipment, merely the actualy flesh and blood and insane amounts of muscle.

How much do you think a typical space marine weighs?

I dont have any decent pictures of space marines withoug their armour to hand, so i dont know exactly how they are proportioned. But judging what i recall of the size of them they must be incredibly heavy.

To illustrate, i am 6'7 and dont look very muscly and have very little fat, but i still weigh just over 95kg (bit over 210lbs). Those people i know who are the same height as me but actually look more built typically weigh in the region of 105-110kg+. Compared to any human i know, both in terms of height and width the astartes are absolute motherfuckers Simply assuming that they have the same BMI as me and extrapolating their height to 7' would have them at about 120kg, but they certainly arent the same build, in fact they appear to be just on a different scale to normal humans.

Anyone got any information that would be useful in determining SM size and weight?
User avatar
Feil
Jedi Council Member
Posts: 1944
Joined: 2006-05-17 05:05pm
Location: Illinois, USA

Post by Feil »

(Assuming we are discussing 40k...)

About 800-1000 pounds. Just scale for volume. They're about 8 feet tall, maybe twice as broad and twice as thick as a well-built man.
User avatar
Feil
Jedi Council Member
Posts: 1944
Joined: 2006-05-17 05:05pm
Location: Illinois, USA

Post by Feil »

Edit: Yep, 'astartes' would make this 40k.
User avatar
white_rabbit
Jedi Council Member
Posts: 2039
Joined: 2002-09-30 09:04pm

Post by white_rabbit »

Theres also a lot of synthetic material in there, and they do have denser muscles, exaggerated and additional musculature to that of a normal human scaled to their height.

Thicker and greater bone coverage, specifically the rib-cage, as well as sheath of plasteel/technobabblium material over most of their abdomen.

Bones are also reinforced with handwavium "ceramite", and depending on the chapter, additional cybernetic implants are as "standard".
Image
User avatar
Feil
Jedi Council Member
Posts: 1944
Joined: 2006-05-17 05:05pm
Location: Illinois, USA

Post by Feil »

None of which are big/dense enough, except in very limited cases (full limb replacements, etc) to cause more than a few percent deviation from what you'd get with a volume:volume comparison.

The weight, even unarmored, of these guys does shed light on why their armor has such huge feet. It's the only thing that keeps them from sinking very unheroically knee-deep in mud while the heretics run away over the surface, or from falling through the floor in indoor combat.
User avatar
Invictus ChiKen
Jedi Council Member
Posts: 1645
Joined: 2004-12-27 01:22am

Post by Invictus ChiKen »

Arnt they covered in a thick black membrane of some sort also?

Also in the case of the Iron Hands it is full on replacement of entire healthy limbs to become stronger.
User avatar
Connor MacLeod
Sith Apprentice
Posts: 14065
Joined: 2002-08-01 05:03pm
Contact:

Post by Connor MacLeod »

Invictus ChiKen wrote:Arnt they covered in a thick black membrane of some sort also?
The Black Carapace. Its extra armour and also the main connection point of a Space Marine's body into its power armour, IIRC.
Also in the case of the Iron Hands it is full on replacement of entire healthy limbs to become stronger.
IIRC the Iron Hands are as big on augmentation and cybernetics as the Adeptus Mechanicus are :P
User avatar
Connor MacLeod
Sith Apprentice
Posts: 14065
Joined: 2002-08-01 05:03pm
Contact:

Post by Connor MacLeod »

Feil wrote:None of which are big/dense enough, except in very limited cases (full limb replacements, etc) to cause more than a few percent deviation from what you'd get with a volume:volume comparison.
In terms of a volume comparison (depending on the hieght of the person and the height of a Space Marine you use) you'll get between a 2-3x difference in mass (call it 300-500 pounds) assuming a completey linear scale up between human/Space Marine mass. This is supported by "traitor General" (IIRC some number is given but not not precise) and Harlequin, where an Iron Fist Space Marine out of armour was twice the mass of an Inquisitor.

That said, h owever, we don't know for sure. They have a black carapace which is fairly thick and it covers much of their chest. On top of that their ribcage becomes a virtually solid mass of bone (considerably thicker and/or denser) as does their skulls and the rest of their musculature. The organ involved in changing their skeleton allows the bones to absorb the "ceramic based chemicals" administered in the marine's diet. After two years, the process will have resulted in "considerable strengthening" of the bones, the ossification of the chest cavity into "a solid mass of interlaced bony plate"), and an increase in the size of the skeleton (taller, wider, thicker, etc.)

Ceramics are generally denser than bone as I recall, and the fact the skeleton grows as part of the process tends to suggest a non-negligible amount of ceramic is absorbed into them (as does the extreme strength hinted at in "Angels of Darkness".)

Body wise, there's bound to be some major differences in body composition as well, even aside from the bones. Space Marines are MANY times stronger and faster than humans, this means a greatly strengthened and improved musculature (10x stronger than human - the bones and shit have to be able to handle that as do the muscles.) and probably very little body fat (which is less dense than muscle.)

And there is, of course, the Black carapace.
User avatar
Ford Prefect
Emperor's Hand
Posts: 8254
Joined: 2005-05-16 04:08am
Location: The real number domain

Post by Ford Prefect »

Connor MacLeod wrote:The Black Carapace. Its extra armour and also the main connection point of a Space Marine's body into its power armour, IIRC.
The Black Carapace is designed to allow for greater interface between Space Marine and power armour. As I recall, it has holes drilled into it for interface nodes, for lack of a better term.
IIRC the Iron Hands are as big on augmentation and cybernetics as the Adeptus Mechanicus are :P
Hell, one of the models show an Iron Hand with a bionic head (actually brain, but whatever).
What is Project Zohar?

Here's to a certain mostly harmless nutcase.
Post Reply