Spacemarine pilots - all techmarines?

[Turmeric]

If you look nearly all the vehicle crew and pilots on the regular models come with the cog symbol on one shoulder. So it kind of stands to reason they are at least affiliated to the cogboys.

The way the models were released doesn't really support that. The first model that had that crewman was the current land raider. When it came out, white dwarf did an article said that all land raiders had two normal crew like any other vehicle and besides those two they always had a techmarine on board. So you can assume that the crewman model who came with that land raider model is that techmarine.

Then, they made the current rhino. You'll notice that the techmarine is on the same sprue as the storm bolter, the radar dish, the HK missile, the hatches, etc. They just reused the sprue from the land raider, because it is easier than making a separate sprue. So model-wise, the techmarine is just optional the same way that the HK missile is optional. Fluff-wise, the Land Raider always has a techmarine somewhere, but a rhino or predator doesn't have that requirement. The storm talon hasn't ever been said to have that requirment either.

Then, yeah, Phoenix01 posted the thing that he did.

[url]http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki/images/c/ce/CodexOrganisation.jpg[/url]
[url]http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Codex_Astartes#Organisational_Doctrine[/url]

From Lexi



So personally I took that as they could have as many tech marines as was needed to care and pilot their ships/drive tanks. Along with The Chapter Leadership and Librarium not counting towards the 1000 limit.
So a chapter Could have over 1000, but maybe only a few 100 over depending on how many Librarians and Tech Marines they have at one time.

But Not sure how out dated that info is with current fluff.

"In some cases, it will be the Master of the Fleet's own company who provide these Marines, with each of his veteran captains acting as captain to a different vessel within the fleet while their own squad members each man a different vital area within that same vessel. In other cases, squads from different companies within the Chapter may be charged with manning the fleet, serving under the command of the Master of the Fleet in just the same way as a Space Marine battleforce may be made up of squads drawn from several companies across the Chapter under the battle-command of a single, nominated force commander."

[Lord Lorne Walkier]

In the Story Doom Flight, only one of the 3 named pilots is a Tech marine.

[Katharon]

I remember reading some Space Marine BL stories that made it seem like Chapter Serfs were responsible for a lot of the piloting, except for Thunderhawks, which were always flown by Space Marines, either with experience piloting or were techmarines.

[Darren Richardson]

IIRC this is how it works.....

A Space Marine is provisionally placed with the motorpool while on light duties after an injury or while serving in the reserve companies, he's provisionally under the command of the Techmarines, hence the logo on the shoulder pad, while serving in the motorpool, he's under scrutitny for any signs of a close bond with technology, if he does show such an apitude, the Techmarines induct him into their ranks, everyone else is then re-intigrated with the standard companies.

efectively all Space Marines have to go through this process at least once during their service to the chapter.

[Spy_Smasher]

I've recently become grateful for those little cog shoulderpads.

I'm designing a table-top army of a radical Ordo Chronos Inquisitor allied to a "renegade" force of Space Marines who are chasing a former-Imperial-Lord-turned-traitor-turned-Daemon-Prince across time and the Warp. For reasons of fluff that I won't go into, the Marine contingent can only be 32 men strong. Logic dictates that they require Techmarines to maintain their equipment across the centuries. Having pilots and crew (who count against the 32) performing Techmarine duties allows me to fulfill the fluff without actually putting a Techmarine on the table.

How nice.

[Valkerie]

Personally, I think that the AdMech sigil just signifies that the Marine has completed the necessary classes to qualify as a pilot, driver, whatever. Think of it as an always visible driver's license.