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Hello there. My first post on Dakka.
I figured I'd share my Imperial Guard army project with you. As you propably already figured out, they are the 72nd Cadian. It's a light/heavy armoured regiment specialised in snowy regions and close urban fights.
No Guardsman is going to be identical to another. This gives the army a more realistic look. If every guardsman had the same type of weapon/s, gear and equipment the army wold not be as interesting as this army would be. I'm also going to try to give them different poses.
This was a common issue in my last Guard army. It was very boring to look at...

Before I get to the painting I have to finish the paint scheme. I'm working on one at the moment. We'll see how it turns out. White clothes and light grey armour, perfect for snowy urban streets.

First up: Here's a list of projects that is to be done. I will add projects and edit the list throughout the blog.
Modelling:
Red projects are not started,
Orange projects are in-progress and
Green projects are finished.
Painting:
Red * are not started,
Orange * are in-progress and
Green * are finished.

Paint scheme
Army list
Company Command squad
Chimera
6 Snipers (counts as Ratlings)
Platoon Command squad
Platoon Command squad
49 Guardsmen
6 Sergeants
6-man Autocannon Heavy Weapon team
9 Veterans
Sergeant Harker *
5 Snowmobiles
Hellhound
Leman Russ Battle Tank
Medusa





These pics are or will be sources of inspiration for equipment and the paint scheme for the Guardsmen.



Black Mesa Source and Half-Life soldiers in all their awesome glory!



These Pig Iron Productions heads will be used for all Guardsmen.

What's in the next update:
Photos of a finished or nearly finished prototype Guardsman.

The only thing I'd have to criticize is that everyone uses the Kolony heads. The new System Trooper heads look amazing. If you haven't ordered your Kolony heads yet, I would suggest considering these ones, as they look amazing:

http://www.pig-iron-productions.com/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=47

Sorry, /img tag won't work on it.

I agree with Metallifan, but I'm excited to see this army good and done.

Try to avoid uniform heads if you're going for individuality. Take a look at page 260-261 in the BRB for examples on how different heads can really make guardsmen individual. There are also some pics on pages 19 and 69 of the CoD book of guardsmen who use a multitude of heads to great effect.

Good luck, and I look forward to pics!

I know what you mean, but they are simply too awesome.
I haven't ordered them yet (I trust my relatives to do so; I've put them on my wish list for Christmas).

Those System Troopers heads look neat too, but for me they are too Science Fiction-y to fit the Imperial Guard. Though they would perhaps fit with Storm Troopers or Veterans. Thanks for the idea...

CadianXV wrote:Try to avoid uniform heads if you're going for individuality. Take a look at page 260-261 in the BRB for examples on how different heads can really make guardsmen individual. There are also some pics on pages 19 and 69 of the CoD book of guardsmen who use a multitude of heads to great effect.

Good luck, and I look forward to pics!

Unfortunately I don't have the 40k Rule Book NOR the Cities of Death rulebook.. Only the old Cityfight one
Could you post the pictures or send a link with them, please? Or perhaps a .PDF file of both books? I really appreciate your help.

You'll have to wait until I charge my camera, but I'll try.

Probably tomorrow before I post 'em.

If you're doing an army like that, one of your guardsmen has to be named Adrian Shephard

P4NC4K3 wrote:If you're doing an army like that, one of your guardsmen has to be named Adrian Shephard

Hahaha
Hmm... maybe I should base the army a lot more on Half-Life? That'd be awesome... HECU goes forth in time 38.000 years...

A 'Black mesa' themes guard army would be pretty awesome. They'd be like Ad-Mech guard except they'd be more techy and less archaic looking (i.e. a lot less random hoses and skulls, more random robotic eyes and sleek designs) with a lot of weapons and designs based loosely off of Theoretical physics.

Uploaded those images for you; they're not great, but you'll get the idea. Check out my gallery.

Thank you, CadianXV.
Those Cities of Death rulebook Guardsmen sure do have dynamic poses and you can really tell that they are different persons. Individual looks and poses FTW!
I'm saving those pictures for future use. Once again, thanks!

I'll post my finished prototype Guardsman as soon as my camera is charged.

THE 72nd CADIAN, UPDATE
The camera battery is charged, and I recently took photos of the prototype Guardsman. Please bare in mind that this is by no means a finished product. I will make adjustments of the model itself (different head, more equipment etc) and to the paint scheme. I'm considering painting the hands black, to represent gloves (which is more likely to have in a snowy region). Might aswell paint the armour black or green, as in the game(s) and I might aslo add camo to the clothes, though this will make the process a lot longer.

What is good, what is bad, what needs re-doing? Tell me what you think.






Since I finished the Guardsman I figured I'd start working on the Chimera. It's going to be based on the look of the Assault Troop Crawler from the strategy PC game Command & Conquer: Generals: Zero Hour. Though I'm not sure on how to build it... Suggestions?



Here is my workstation... It's quite messy at the moment, blame that on the new Chimera project! All vehicle parts that you can see lying around are scavenged from a Chimera, an old Leman Russ and an old Hellhound.



Notice the Leman Russ hull? The back of it is going to be the front of the Chimera Troop Crawler.

What's in the next update:
WIP Photos of the Chimera
Possibly updates on the paint scheme

Back-to-front use of the Russ hull is nice, but keep in mind that if you cobble together your Chimera from these various components you're going to be in trouble when you need, say, three of them... unless you're willing to buy that many parts and can replicate your first results consistently.

I really like the pose of the guardsman. With him leaning forward and all the snow ( at his boots, too) he´s looking like he is fighting in the middle of a snow-storm.

Owain wrote:Back-to-front use of the Russ hull is nice, but keep in mind that if you cobble together your Chimera from these various components you're going to be in trouble when you need, say, three of them... unless you're willing to buy that many parts and can replicate your first results consistently.

Yeah I know, but I'm just planning to have one Chimera, for the Command Squad. You will see that later in my army list that I'm working on.

bigfood wrote:I really like the pose of the guardsman. With him leaning forward and all the snow ( at his boots, too) he´s looking like he is fighting in the middle of a snow-storm.

Thanks! I was inspired by the Guardsman artwork on the first page of the 5th ed Codex.

I'm still trying to figure out how to build the Chimera. I've put the back doors of the old Chimera and Hellhound to the SIDES of the new Chimera. So basically it's not a Chimera anymore (Chimeras' entrance point is at the back, mine's entrance points are going to be on the sides. Duh). But I'm still field it as a Chimera, same rules and stats etc.

Guardsman Hedman wrote:
What is good, what is bad, what needs re-doing? Tell me what you think.

Guardsman looks fantastic! The cloth, the flesh, the detailing, are all brilliant. Don't repaint the armour- perhaps highlight the extreme hard edges of the shoulderpads, but it's not hugely necessary for gameplay standards. Remember the 3 foot rule! Camo- perhaps if you have the time, but not essential. Great mini, can't wait to see more!

Oh, and good luck with the Chimera project.

but the flamer soldier is totaly gonna face plant after his burst of flame. looks good and i am a fan of the hl story too ur so doing a GORDON FREEMAN counts as iron hand straken

Nice stuff but like physcosamatic said,he's gonna get hurt...

To my mind the Flamer does look as if he's diving into cover but as he's a Guardsman and a trained veteran that seems fine to me. He's beautifully painted and I love the snowy boots. I've got one question if your taking the Cadian 72nd why are you using the Catachan characters? For the Chimera I'd suggest you have a look on Old Crow models they've got something called the Gecko which looks exactly the type of thing your after!

Thanks, everyone!
I might probably highlight the hard edges of the armour with Fortress Grey. We'll see about that, after I've painted most of the Guardsmen to about the same level as this one.
Gordon Freeman-counts-as-Straken-miniature... That's a fun idea you gave me. It's just too bad that the soldiers are/were his enemies...

Anyways, I have NOT had time to update. I'm usually really busy during the weekdays, and this week has been no exception. I usually have spare time on the weekends, but I've been in Örebro, Sweden, playing ultimate frisbee Friday to Sunday. I just got home. We ended up at the ninth place, 1st in the B-finals. Pretty good considering that this was our second tournament as a juniors team (U20).

Tomorrow school starts at 10:00 and on tuesday we have school for about an hour, then our Winters-holiday begins! So, I've got some time now to get some modelling done on the Chimera, before I go to bed.
Stay tuned!

http://www.oldcrowmodels.co.uk/25mm/claymore/clayl.gif Looks exactly like you were describing!

Been too lazy to be doing any modelling. I quit school today, finally our holiday started... 2 days before the Swedish Christmas Eve... I'm not gonna get much stuff done these days, as I've been re-furnishing my room and there's lots of stuff to prepare before Christmas.

As for today's update... All I can say is that I've been looking at Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 game play clips. The demo mission is in a snowy place, which caught my attention for this project. At the end of the clip I was watching the player and his superior officer escapes in a snowmobile. That gave me a great idea - snowmobiles as Sentinels! What do you think? Should I give this a try? Please leave your opinions.

Yes the snowmobiles must be done!!

Surely Snow Mobiles are smaller and would lend themselves better to Rough Riders?

Llamahead wrote:Surely Snow Mobiles are smaller and would lend themselves better to Rough Riders?

I'm not a big fan of the Rough Riders and I think Sentinels are better than RR. Though you could of course field the snowmobiles as either of these. But I think I'm going to field mine as Sentinels.

Scout Sentinels are fast, open-topped and have the Move through cover and Scout special rules. And they also have armour, which is typical for vehicles. These rules match snowmobiles very well. Scout Sentinels can also be equipped with heavier weapons, this is the part where snowmobiles do NOT fit as Sentinels.

Rough Riders are non-vehicles, and therefore they have no armour. Bare in mind that they are Rough RIDERS, so are the snowmobile RIDERS. So it's slightly better to field snowmobiels as RR, as the GUARDSMEN do NOT have armour, they have armour saves. It is the Guardsmen that count as the unit, not the horse (snowmobile) they are riding. They can also exchange their Hunting Lances for special weapons, which suits fast moving vehicles better than heavy weapons. Would you put a lascannon on a Space Marine Bike? No, but you would more likely put a Plasma Gun in the rider's hand.

Hmm, after further thoughts, Rough Riders seem to be the better choice... The only problems are that I need to have at least 5 snowmobiles to be able to have a legal squad of RR and that I lose the Scout special rule. Sentinels require only 1 to be legal for play. If you don't understand a word of I'm saying, let me just explain it like this: snowmobiles fit better as Rough Riders than Sentinels, due to the options and rules! My English is not at it's best today, I'm afraid.

Interesting idea! You could use the SM scout biker arms for inspiration, and those packs would come in useful for giving them an "on campaign" look.

As an aside, are you going to adapt your fighting vehicles to winter terrain? Winches, ploughs, etc?

Oh, and some more pics would be nice! Merry Christmas.

CadianXV wrote:As an aside, are you going to adapt your fighting vehicles to winter terrain? Winches, ploughs, etc?

Yes. I am also going to adapt the Guardsmen to the climate. Gloves, shovels, caps, scarves for the infantry. Bags, containing vital supplies for the Guardsmen, and ploughs and similarities for vehicles.
I'll post pictures of snowmobiles and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 later tonight or tomorrow.

Merry Swedish Christmas to you too!

OH BUGGER...
My Internet connection has been all messed up since the night of the 24th. So I've not been able to check in on Dakka or other sites. I really need a new PC ASAP... This one is 6 years old and has since a long time ago started to working slowly.

Anyways, that's not what I'm here to tell you. I'm sorry, but I'm abandoning the Chimera project... Everything just gets messed up. And I'm out of glue...
I will stick to assembling and painting Guardsmen from here on. Another problem is that I don't have any parts to make any Guardsmen... I didn't get the Infantry Squad I wanted for Christmas, and neither did I get the Pig Iron heads...

Here are some more inspirational pictures. By now you might noticed that I play/have played a lot of games.

Awesome gun design in Battlefield 2142.


Battlefield 2142 classes and weapons.


Dawn of War commander. Might use this idea for my commander and officers.




What's in the next update:
Probably some pictures of old Guardsmen and even more inspirational pictures.

Guardsman Hedman wrote:Awesome gun design in Battlefield 2142.

We all know what that means; BATTLEWALKER SENTINELS!
Now seriously, that would make for some awesome conversions and while we are at it: the BF2142 APC's ain't that bad.
And the europian AR would make an awesome shotgun. And their pistols look big enough for boltpistols.

Otherwise the IG fluff and rules just don't allow any other BF guns to be imported.
Although, one last thing: the las-snipers look a hell of a lot like the heavy(and extremely useless)sniper.

maart3n wrote:

Guardsman Hedman wrote:Awesome gun design in Battlefield 2142.

We all know what that means; BATTLEWALKER SENTINELS!
Now seriously, that would make for some awesome conversions and while we are at it: the BF2142 APC's ain't that bad.
And the europian AR would make an awesome shotgun.

Haha, that would be something really cool. But in my humble opinion I think the BF2142 walkers are too big and beefy to match the style of a Sentinel. Otherwise it's a very good idea! I've checked out the BF2142 APC before, but it's not that look I'm going for.
Do you mean the SCAR 11 AR? Then yes, it does really look like a shotgun, even though it's a assault rifle.

maart3n wrote:Otherwise the IG fluff and rules just don't allow any other BF guns to be imported.

Yes that's too bad. Even though the Imperium has plasma guns, the BF2142 plasma-like guns would still not fit in.

Thanks a lot for your opinions! Now I'm off to work on some sniper rifle and lasgun designs that will be used for my Guardsmen.