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The first squad completed. Veteran Grenade Launchers and Shotguns. Each squad will have a different banner design and a different color of cloth, in this case 6 circles and purple. The red armor and banners will tie the entire army together. Eventually each Veteran unit will also have a large Noburi (banner) with the same symbol as the Sashimono (back banners). Standard IG units will only have a squad identifying Noburi and no individual Sashimono (they haven't earned that honor yet).
Pics taken at dusk with a cell phone, so they may not be the best.
The entire squad:



Grenade Launcher


SGT. I chopped off the rediculous chainsword and gave him a katana more in scale.




C&C always appreciated.

What a superb idea! Well done. Where did you get the heads?

That's really cool. I'm sure you've done a lot of work on these guys, so if you want to take it easy on conversions for a few more squads, you can try the new Dystopian Legions Ashigaru models. They're 28mm, and look like they would fit perfectly into the army.

Nice conversions with the heads and banners. Eyes are pretty hard to paint and I salute your effort. I'm not a fan of the purple clothing. I also think all metal colours should have a wash.
What do you think they're called? The Japania Ashugari? (or however the heck you spell it)

Thanks all for the comments. Not sure about a name yet. I'm working on a Marine Army with the same Samurai theme called "Swords of the Emperor." Perhaps something along the same thematic so they fit as allies.
Yes, eyes have always been a weak spot of mine. Nice call on a wash for the metal...I comletely forgot about that. The next squad I plan to paint the parts as seperate units before final assembly and touchups. That may make getting into fine detail easier not having to deal with parts sticking out everywhere.
The bodies, heads, and banners on the grunts are from WarGames Factory Ashigaru line. The Sgts parts are from the Samurai line. The legs, arms, and weapons are standard GW Cadian IG. I had to use a touch of GS between the arms and body to bulk it out enough to it..the GS looking like cloth between the armor plates.
The banner symbol is a home-made waterslide decal from actual Samurai House insignia.
The base is cork (codex grey base, black wash, fortress grey heavy dry-brushing), beach sand (Sepia wash then Fortress grey light dry-brush), and flocking. The plant thingy for the Sgt are bristles from a plastic scrub brush.
The entire thing coated in Testors Dull coat.

Codemonkey: Thanks for the tip on the D-wars ashigaru models...I'll take a look at the potential. They may be just different enough to make good CCS/PCS models. Maybe even a baseline Commisar.

codemonkey wrote:
That's really cool. I'm sure you've done a lot of work on these guys, so if you want to take it easy on conversions for a few more squads, you can try the new Dystopian Legions Ashigaru models. They're 28mm, and look like they would fit perfectly into the army.

Dang you to heck for this! Now I have ideas for a 400pt IG army made up exclusively of this range

The only problem I see with the D-wars line is they may not be allowed in some tourny's...being metal cast and not GW.

dkellyj wrote:
The only problem I see with the D-wars line is they may not be allowed in some tourny's...being metal cast and not GW.

Mate - I live in South Africa. Official tourney?

Yeah, GW dosn't support the Tourny scene anymore, but their are still some events/TOs that insist on some level of GW models/parts.

That's something cool you don't see often

Sadly, its just been revealed that dystopian wars figs are actually like 40mm tall.

I love seeing IG regiments based on other cultures than the norm, so great work! Urban war makes some great sci fi samurai if you are looking for figures for characters. They scale very well with GW. Agree that some washes would be good.

An update...Finished the Melta-Vets and did a trial test for a Commisar Lord. Started working on some tanks but they are still very much WIPs.
So, the Lord Commissar. I wanted him to have a Nobori banner befitting his status, but went with 2 skulls to add a bit of the 40K gothic look.





And the Melta Vets. Done with blue clothes with the red armor unifying the army.
Melta gunner



A closeup of how I do my shotguns



The Sgt


The Melta and Plasma SGTs showing the differences; cloth color and insignia on the Sashimono



C&C always welcome and desired (yes, I suck at painting eyes...but I'm getting much practice).

Looks good! Glad to see Takeda get the melta. What an awesome idea!

Cool conversions, just the eyes need work. Good job

 Lobukia wrote:
Looks good! Glad to see Takeda get the melta. What an awesome idea!

Thanks. I gave the Grenade Launchers to Senada and I'm thinking of giving the Plasma Vets to either Hojo or Hosukawa...so many cool Mon to choose from.

Silverback: Yeah, eyes....grrrrrrrrrr.

These are very cool. I'm like to see new things and your force is very original. Though bear in mind that just because the Guard dress like Samurai does not mean they are as good in close combat as Samurai.

 Leech wrote:
These are very cool. I'm like to see new things and your force is very original. Though bear in mind that just because the Guard dress like Samurai does not mean they are as good in close combat as Samurai.

They aren't dressed like samurai, they're ashigaru, which the guard reflect quite well. Not to sound too gushing, but ashigaru guard with samurai marine allies is just genius.

Another update, this time Plasma Vets.
The 3 Plasma gunners. On the bases I used some light green Underbrush (model train stuff) to add some low scrub along with the sand and flocking. Green clothes and the Hojo clan Mon (symbol):


Typical Lasgunners (EDIT) Just noticed the bare paint spots on the gun...my eyes are getting old:


The 3 Sgts showing different colors and Mon (banner symbols):



And now, on to the generic platoon troops.

I'm mildly offended. The katana was a 2 handed weapon. It was NEVER used in a single hand. If you want to do something like this that could be somewhat offensive, doing your research will increase the chance that it isn't taken as such. Don't mean to be trolling you, just trying to help you in the future.

Yeah, but you have to work within the limitations of the model while creating a theme. This also allows the model to be presented WYSIWYG (Las pistol and CCW) keeping within the rules of the game.

These are really cool! I'm a huge fan of the Legend of the Five Rings property, so the thought of doing something similar has crossed my mind before. I think yours came out really well and I look forward to seeing more.

What model range did you use to create these?

Thanks. This project has taken me from starting a GK Samurai Army, arcing over to Codex Marine Samurai, and finally going to IG. I decided to finish the IG completely so I have 1 playable army, then work on the others as Allies until I have them finished as complete armies.
Vehicles still have me a bit flummoxed. Do I go with the strait red hulls picking out highlites and details, or do i add a secondary color; black stripes or a white panel???
The legs and arms are standard Cadian troops (Special weapons from the Command Squad). The shotguns are chopped up las-guns with a 1/16th plastic rod glued to the top so it looks like a Mossburg. The bodies, heads, banners, and sword is from the Wargames Factory line. The troops are Ashigaru while the Sgts and Commissar are from their Samurai line.
Basing is a chunck of cork, sand (from a playground sand box), flocking, and the like.

(EDIT) Also, the GW Cadians are heroic scale while the WGF models are true scale. I have to bulk out each shoulder area with GS to create a scale illusion between the parts and for the arms to actually fit and hold the weapons properly.

Dkellyj,

Im loving what you have done to the IG!!!! just wanted to quickly say if you are making a 'Ashigaru' unit, possibly think about making a 'Spear-lasgun' for a bit of a laugh. So have the shaft of the spear as the barrel, the trigger can be near the 2nd holding hand and just improvise from there; have some kind of a muzzle at the top rather than spear head. Just something to think about.

FoWPlayerDeathOfUS.TDs wrote:
I'm mildly offended. The katana was a 2 handed weapon. It was NEVER used in a single hand. If you want to do something like this that could be somewhat offensive, doing your research will increase the chance that it isn't taken as such. Don't mean to be trolling you, just trying to help you in the future.

A katana wielded single handedly (by a 40k model) offends you ?! Never heard such an idiotic statement in my life.

Anyway, it's cool to see something different on guard. Keep up the good work OP.

If you are offended (and frankly if so, you should get out more...) just remember that this isn't a katana and these aren't feudal Japanese warriors, it's a 'katana-like weapon' from an imperium world that has evolved a society resembling that of feudal Japan...

hoorah Wakazashi!!! They are also curved and were used as a "back-up" weapon. (usually one handed). Just thought i might throw my 2 cents in.

Great job on the conversions!! i play guard and have never seen anything like it. great creativity!

Thank you kindly all. I've been busting my butt to improve my paint-fu (I'll never get to Golden Daemon level) so I could take the idea and do it justice.
It has quickly become a labor of love and even "She Who Must Be Obeyed" has become impressed enough to graduate me from "nerd" to full on "Geek." LOL
Almighty: Interesting idea of the "spear lasgun." That might just make be an interesting take on a hot-shot Lasgun for a squad of Storm-troopers. A Liham Pattern Arquebus.
Hopefully I'll have the first squad of a platoon finished in a few days...work has gotten hectic this week with some 18-20 hour days coming up (stupid broken submarine needs some TLC and fixing...theres never a servitor around when you really need a good repair roll).

o.O one more thing i forgot to add. A group of rough riders might be neat, it would definately go along with the theme and you can use the spear idea there as the power lance(or whatever its called.) just a thought.

Yeah, a unit of mounted Samurai would be spectacular. I also have a box of WFB Ogres to do an Ogryn conversion (the models already have asiatic/oriental features so they would fit right in).
But for now I'm really trying to get my core army done. Still need to build a second Platoon Squad, a PCS, and CCS. Built but needing paint are a Vendetta (considering going with a WW2 A6M 'Zero" paint scheme), 2 hellhounds, 2 Chimeras, and a Manticore.
Biggest problem with the tanks is the solid red hull just looks like somethings missing (once done I'll have Kanji on the hulls and some type of 'nose art' (koi fish, mount fuji, a tiger, a dragon, a Torii gate, etc)...but the plain red hull still bothers me.
Take a look (anyone)..the IG start on pg2...any suggestions would be appreciated.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/30/471480.page

So, sōhei for Imperial priests?