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I've decided that I need some rough riders for counter assault in my IG army, but I can't stand the models. My army is themed around trench-warfare guardsmen and adeptus mechanicus.
Basically, I want to come up with models other than guys riding horses. That just doesn't seem to fit with my army. I've already thought of some sort of bike conversion, but that doesn't make much sense for assaulting trenches and such.
The only real ideas I have right now are jump pack guardsmen with lances, or some sort of adeptus mechanicus thing. Unfortunately I don't have any concrete thoughts about how to do either, so I was wondering if anyone had any other suggestions. What would you recommend for non-horseman rough riders?

Bikers is a common one (I have guys on trailbikes - actual 28mm scale trailbikes - as my rough-riders, with flamers and meltas and non-lance upgrades for mine).

Bikes themselves were about $5 each. Another squad uses the very old Black Shadow bikes (with the old IG rider legs) and similar weapons.

I'm not a fan of the pole-vaulting bikers (or of the "Knightriders" movie - which had nothing to do with talking cars - Tom Savini notwithstanding).

I wouldnt do bikes either if I had a trench theme. Im thinking some mechanical walker or jump packs. Personally Id scratchbuild me some walkers. I can see these small guardsmen with legs replaced by spidery fast mechanical legs scuttling over the field and through the trenches. Maybe one leg has a plyer looking claw to cut through barbed wire. And all would be modelled leaning forward as if running.

Could look really cool. Just a thought.

my rough riders are using oldschool imperial jet bikes. only have five sofar these buggers are hard to find

For walkers, perhaps you could look at the "robogear" line of models.

There are some spider walkers there with saw and pincer arms/attachments that might work (the cockpits are a little large, but something could be worked out. They would fit with an admech force.

Well, here´s one I knocked together from sentinel parts, some plasticard and an ork chainsword.

I´ve cut the topmost part of the sentinel legs off, and made a new crossbar between the legs because the other one was too big.

And I´ve gotten rid of the armor for the crew compartment, and put in a roll cage. Also, since the army this is meant for has a bit of a medieval feel, I´ve put a shield on the front of it.

Obviously, this is WIP, and may never get any further, but if you can get some ideas from it, then that´s all good.

Oh, it fits on a 40mm cavalry base.

The sentinel idea is cool

I think though the new marine scout bikes that just came out will make good conversions for rough riders.. just use the scout legs and a cadian torso and arms.

I´ve got one of the scout bikes sitting on my table right now, and can tell you that I fully support the idea of cadian parts for it.

The bike itself is lovely by the way, and comes with more bits than Paris Hilton! (Not sure why she would have so many bits, but I felt inspired somehow.)

Anyways, there are five different heads, three sets of arms, tonnes and tonnes of grenades, pouches, ropes, shiny bits, flags and other stuff.

Expensive kit? Yes.
Worth it with all the bits? Also yes.

I like the rough riders people have made from cold ones, they seemed to work well especially with Catchan riders.

Trench warfare is actually perfectly in line with horsemen, considering their use in the first world war. You could go the crazy route and convert mechanical horses though, for which I recommend using the skeletal undead horse as a base.

if I was going to do horse rough riders I would just buy the forge world DK ones, they're so great looking.. but they're so pricey.. so, considering that, the scout bike is the way I'm going to go if I make them

Do the cadian bodies and the scout legs match good as far as size goes? My only concern is the cadian bodies might seem out of proportion if the scout legs are bulkier looking

pure genius, mechanical horses all the way!

I`ll try and get some pics up later, haven´t the time right now...

But yeah, I think it looks quite good, at least with scout arms. I´ll test with cadian arms also. I´ll probably be using cadian torso + scout arms for mine.

It´s for that =I=Munda campaign so I need to get away from having too much scout´ishness going on.

i agree, try making some sort of jump pack. or oddly enough i saw a show on the history channel where the military was working one a sort of a pogo mechanical leg jumping unit.... thing. the power source was mounted on the soldiers back and it powered these literally pogo-piston leg contraption. the wearer could run like 30-35 mph and could easily jump over a car. somthing like that could would and really would be SUPER easy to craft......... yanno what, im making my stormboys to look like that lmao

I have a twist on the "cyborg horse" theme to propose. Since this is a Mechanicus army, how about some centaur-shaped servitors? The horse parts of the body could be entirely robotic, or the sevitors could be made from parts of a human and a normal organic horse.

That sentinel is really neat, by the way.

Has no one mentioned the mechanical horses from Warhammer fantasy?

How about the steeds the muties rode in Gorkamorka?

How do you map the lances used by rough riders to something on a bike? I.e: Do you use lances or do you cover this with fluff?

Something like:
"my rough riders are mounted on bikes and they have grenades that counts as lances"

/Grindah

Maybe the WHFB Cold Ones would be a nice option for deathworld or desert RRs.

They are plastic and quite excellent minis.

Cheese Elemental wrote:Maybe the WHFB Cold Ones would be a nice option for deathworld or desert RRs.

I've used these (the Lizardman plastic ones) when I tried making Rough Riders for my Tallarns, obviously using
the old Tallarn RR models. I believe I first saw them in the 'IG Collectors guide.' They're almost a perfect match,
with very little fiddling needed. Though if they'd fit with a trench-theme is an entirely different matter.

And another thing; they make great 'counts as' Muties for Gorkamorka, or even Ash Waste Nomads for Necromunda

al-Majid Agandhjin bin Ahfal al-Rashid

Mine are on the OLD ork warbikes. It work perfect. You can even use the ork legs and arms and nobody can tell the difference.

Well I used the new Cold Ones, they look really kool...and might work for trenchs (as my guard are that style.)

Maybe add some techno gubbinz to them?

Zaku I wrote:Well I used the new Cold Ones, they look really kool...and might work for trenchs (as my guard are that style.)

Maybe add some techno gubbinz to them?

Paint em silver with red eyes...hey, it worked for the Godzilla movies...

how about the terminator steed from the master engineer for empire in fantasy?

The way I'm going is using Tomb King skeleton cavalry as mechanical horses. There are a couple blurry photos in a topic a few days back about IG Rough Rider Servo Steeds. In principle it should also be possible with other fantasy cavalry units. Paint them all robotty and add some crazy mechanical bits. The Cadian infantry wide stance legs fit on horses with only a little persuasion.

Maybe a little out there, but you could try something like a Hellion Skyboard. If the AM really really loved these guys they might hand out antigrav devices.