Warhammer 40k - Space Marine With A Beaked Helmet.?

Ok, I've been wondering why a boxset of space marines usually contains a single beaked space marine while the rest have gas-mask looking helmets. Is the beak a sign of authority? If so, what rank does this represent or is it a helmet to represent something else? If so, what?Warhammer 40k - Space Marine With A Beaked Helmet.?
All wrong.



Space Marine armour, in the background of WH40k, is based on a design over 10,000 years old. With time, the armour has evolved from one mark to another. There are 8 marks of space marine armour.



Technically speaking, one can build space marines with any of marks 5, 6, 7 or 8 from the standard tac squad boxed set. However, in practice, space marine armour within chapters tends to be broken up and distributed, so that a marine may have Mk7 legs, a Mk5 breastplate and a Mk6 helmet. This is both a response to damage items and a question of reward - a courageous marine may be rewarded with a piece of armour from a suit that once belonged to an honoured chapter hero.



The beaky helmet - often referred to as "beaky marines" or "combat wombles" - comes from the Mk6 corvus design. The design is a favourite with many veterans, because it is the design that Citadel Miniatures first produced for space marines and can be seen in the very earliest metal marine miniatures, the first edition WH40k rulebook and, perhaps most importantly, the original, plastic RTB-01 boxed set that put many of us oldies onto the path of WH40k in the first place.



Jes Goodwin later updated the design to the now-iconic Mk7 design for 2nd Edition.



The beaked design is both intended to act to deflect incoming enemy shooting and also to give an avian look, echoing the aquila - the double-headed eagle that is the symbol of the post-Heresy Imperium.Warhammer 40k - Space Marine With A Beaked Helmet.?
TBH I'm not sure because I don't keep up with what's new in Warhammer. I do know that the beaked "corvus" helmet is an older design, it was used for the first Space Marine models in 1987 and is still used to represent Mk6 armor.Warhammer 40k - Space Marine With A Beaked Helmet.?
The beaked helmets, I believe, are used by assault troops-so, basically, Assault Marines (the ones jetpacks). They fly, thus they have beaked helmets (indeed, birds have great importance in 40k, as the Emperor's original sign was an Eagle, if my memory suits me correctly). That's the reason, I believe, in video games, however. I suppose with some research online you could find out the truth.