Boltgun Penetrative Power

Damn right we will wait if it is this quality

Just for the lore : When the first big heresy battle started (Istvan 3 and 4), the chaos space marines used special ammunition designed to take down astartes armors. In fact, they were designed by the second major mechanicum priest on Mars who pledged allegiance to Horus. When the Astartes faithful to the emperor went down on Istvan 4 to kill the 4 Known legions traitor, they had their own ammunition (piercing and all) but those one couldnt pierce trhough the chaos armors when theirs could. That is why it was a slaughter (besided the fact 3 other legions were following Horus and backstabbed them) I assume your film takes place 10K years later because at this time, all astartes got the same well known standard armor design. During the time of the heresy, armor could mbe compare to knights armor from the past (sort of). So at this time (40k years), all space marines got ammunition that can pierce through space marines armors, all space marines got the same standard MK(7?) armor and they all use the same bolter as primary weapon. There is some differences with specialized space marines : - Captain that can have a sword and a plasma pistol (like the one a space marine use in part 3) - Heavy marines with heavy bolter (with chain of bolts comming from the back into the heavy dual bolter rifle) - etc. During the heresy, there is no trace of "special ammunition" like piercing ones, incendiary ones and so on. If i remember correctly, they only use one type of bullet : the bolt that is a mass reactive ammunition that is extremly big (make an "o" with your hand and you got the size of a bolt). If they needed fire or else, they used flamethrower, roquet-launcher or else. By the way, bolts are so big that a standard human (like the ones in your film) should litteraly have holes in there body when they get hit. The velocity of the bolt + his size and mass deliver an enormous amount of energy that rip off apart entire bodies. Add the fact that it explode after penetrating his target, and you got a joyful body explosion. I'm just saying that from the books that describes how standard humans died from space marines. I think we don't see enough the power of this weapon against humans on your animation. On guy, for exemple, took a bolt through the chest and just fell on the ground when he should have been riped off. Otherwise, i love your work. I was looking fomr something like thise for years and years and it brings me tears of joy every time i watch it ! Keep going and remember, we will wait the time it took if the animation are of this quality

or you could have a band of paint on the magazines, think "Die Hard 2" when they have blue for blanks and orange for live rounds

Joel Gardner

You could possibly mark magazines with a symbol representing each type of ammunition. It would be a split second for someone to notice and make them ask “wonder why the magazines have different symbols on them”

If I ever did something longer it'd be fun to go into detail like this on the variety and versatility of their equipment.

Astartes

You must consider that Space Marines would carry specialized ammunition for different purposes. I wrote a very extensive article on bolterandchainsword about this exact subject. But in summary there would be standard light armor piercing explosive for taking out personnel and lightly armored targets and then youd have SLAP rounds for piercing heavy armor like power armor. Incendiary rounds, high explosive, etc. All the same shit we have today and probably more. But they would absolutely have a magazine dedicated for taking down armored targets when required. So a terminator or power armored target comes into the fight, the space marine would drop his magazine of standard ammo out, insert his SLAP ammo magazine, and cycled the gun to eject the last round of FRAG ammo out of the gun, and insert a SLAP round into the chamber. If you need weapons/ammo advice just ask me. Ive made my own ammunition and have a lot of experience with weapons and training.

Well the armour plate of the chest would resist a bolt round until you are within a few meters. The marine usually aim for weak points in the armour such as the gorget or the eye lenses. The Bolts are anti-infantry but assume the infantry has some sort of armour. Standard Bolter ammunition utilises a mass-reactive fuse, designed to penetrate the target before detonating within, maximising damage to the target and leaving little chance for survival. Standard for 40k is to have .75 calibre which is 18.75mm

To my mind, the classic bolt projectile is a small anti tank missile with an explosive charge. closet real equilivant is the heckler&koch GMG quick research says penetration between 50mm and 80mm the sound being somewhere between the GMG, a browning fifty cal and a panzerfaust =)

Ravnholt

there is an explosive/incendiary one that gets up to 70mm I believe but it’s a little slow. So assuming the bolter guns are of course high tech and all that I don’t think 90mm in RHA would be out of the question. You could probably get into 100-110mm in RHA.

Zakurask

A 20mm autocannon seems to middle at around 50mm-45mm.

Zakurask

well I dont think it penetrates more than the explosive that activates from its "mass-reactive" shell would blow junks of steel off. This begs the question about heavy bolters as youd want a heavy weapon to have more penetrating power... The lore doesnt help much in this regard as bolters will go through ceremite armor depending on who has plot armor

In my opinion it is incorrect to compare bolts with small arms calibers. Bolt is a hybrid between 40mm HE cartrige and .50 BMG round. .50 BMG AP round penetartes 1 inch thick armor with no trouble. i believe a bolt could break through 1-2 inch in case of direct hit at 90 degrees. and also, due to the construction of bolts they are likely ricochet at angles less than 60 degrees. During heresy, SM were aiming for weak spots of armor like belly armor or helmet, to reach 100% penetration.

Hey thanks Ethan! I'm all set asset wise for Part 3 but when I get to 4 & 5 there's a good chance I could use some help, I'll keep in touch. Cheers!

Astartes

Please good god. Are you allowing other artists to contribute to this project? 3D Generalist/Hard surface bro over here, I'd love to chip in zero obligation assets in whatever way I can. This project is easily the best fan 40k project to date.

Shinanigans

So compared to weapons and armor today, a "small caliber" 5.56x45 rifle round will reliably penetrate a 3/8" thick steel plate. 3/8" is pretty darn thick steel for anything thats not structural or armored. Most metal doors, bulkheads, and the interior hallways on naval ships are not this thick unless they are load bearing elements. I think its not a bad comparison to equate todays 5.56 assualt rifle penetration to that of a 40k lasgun (granted theyre probably more powerful, but materials are probably better so it likely evens out). A modern assualt rifle will shoot through most modern unarmored stuff like a 40K lasgun will shoot through unarmored 40K stuff. This gets to bolt guns. They should have more penetration power than lasguns, so they should be able to penetrate anything not heavily armored. Bolt gun is to lasgun (in theoretic penetration) as modern 5.56 FMJ is to 7.62x51 tungsten cored armore penetrating. This will easily penetrate around 3/4" steel plates which is getting into the realm of light vehicle armor, but nowhere near tank or IFV armor. Most things in an enviroment are not up to the task of stopping 7.62x51 AP. That said, perhaps bolt guns are "bad" at penetrating multiple things. a Lasgun might penetrate multiple thin pieces of cover, where as a bolt round would detonate after breaching the first barrier regardless of its residual penetration potential.

Alan

Ah and i forgot to mention the bolter itself takes 30 round mags and has an ammo counter both on the exterior of the gun and the helmets hud.

While this has likely already been answered I'll give my 2 cents anyways. Bolter rounds are .75 caliber rocket propelled diamantine tip with a gyrostabiliser to help keep it on target and a delayed reaction explosive charge so that it detonates a fraction of a second after penetration for maximum damage. It's effective even against armored vehicles (though of course not something like a lemon russ) Though this is only the most basic form of bolter rounds as others are different in caliber and some carry acid or even incendiary tips. There are also some that forgo the explosive charge for greater penetration.

In addition, Standard Bolter ammunition utilises a mass-reactive fuse, designed to penetrate the target before detonating within. That sounds to me like it could penetrate a steel plate. But since that could be up to interpretation, you should be fine it using it as you see fit in your movies.

According to Warhammer 40k Wikia, a Standard Bolt Round is self-propelled and has a hardened diamantine tip, which allows it to penetrate most armor before detonation. <a href="http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Bolter_Ammunition" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Bolter_Ammunition</a>

scodiak

The penetrative power depends on what kind of ammo is loaded to the bolter, but not all kind of ammunition is commonly available, some are uncommon and some are restricted to certain organisations/chapters. There are a lot of types, here are a few examples: Hellfire (against organic), Stalker (for sniping), Inferno (incendiary), Kraken (armor-piercing), Psycannon (anti-daemon, used by ie. Grey Knights), Seeker (target following) etc-etc. So you have a lot of room for creativity. cheers!

Standard bolter rounds only damage Power armour under sustained fire, some lore though has bolters as a far smarter weapon than the game portrays. Firing different types of ammo against different foes. Some of that was retconned into being only the special gear used by the Deathwatch.

Rob Chilton

Well, they fire a .75 caliber round. Basically they fire a can of Redbull at you. Now, they are light armor piercing(Flak armor, plate armor, personal transport(not military) etc.). Now, for 40k steel plate(industrial or military?) if it is the former(actual steel) then it will handle it alright...not just ignore it but it could punch it. If we are talking military grade plasteel on the other hand...then it will stop the round dead(though that kinda stuff is relatively rare). If we are talking regular modern steel plate then the round is going right through it...40k stuff is a bit more sturdy...40k military gear can stop it cold if it is high quality stuff.

The short version is: the standard Bolter round wasn’t designed to go through armour, it was made to kill infantry (not other space marines), but it would be able to go through a normal wall on a 40k ship, beside the internal corridors probably weren’t designed to have bolsters fired at them, they’re just designed to separate rooms. That being said, there are many Bolter rounds that are designed to go through the equivelant of modern day tank armor, so it depends what those space marines brought with them on their mission.

Imagine an RPG payload condensed to only detonate a bowling-ball sized chunk out of whatever it hit. Flesh gets disintegrated, normal metals get dented or get chunks blown out, tank plating can barely withstand it and starship hulls are a no-go. Bolter rounds are anti-troop first, anti-armour second.

Sam Null

Hm, Benton's reply seems to have been taken by the Warp.

Astartes

So the original boltgun bolts where never meant for besting Astartes gear, it wasnt until the massacre at istavaan that Horus’ Allies unleashed even deadlier shells. Plus take into the fact more vechiles armor and corridors of imperial ships have to be able to withstand such munitions even before the Heresy as they would be kinda shitty and risky to transport and house the ammo in them. Sorry for the lack of proper sentence structure! 💜

Sky Leviathan

I was gonna write some shit but Benton got it pretty much in one

Sam Null