Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I've shown this army in bits and peices in other threads but here's the whole enchilada.  I'll have to do a bigger thing on pimping your guard but for tonight this will do.

More images at:

 

The army is still a work in progress, I started it in summer 2004 before going to Guyana and since I'm about to move back to the US who knows when it will be done. 

To start with I wondered who says catachans have to look like this?

Couldn't they just be wearing tight long sleeve shirts?  And for that matter who says that's a tee shirt, couldn't it be body armor?  And what about those faces?  If they wore full masks I'd never need to worry about painting faces again!

I've done crazy IG before, Zombies, Zombie armored company, Inquisition and using EM4s plastics figures but I have never really tried a 'realistic' army.  And you never know when you'll need a fifth IG army.

Since I would be replacing GW lasguns with real world weapons it had to be Catachans, Cadians have the left hand attached to the gun making weapon swaps nearly impossible.

Kits like this would provide the guns, they're a bit smaller than GW weapons (which is funny since 1/35 scale is about double 28mm scale but that's GW for you) but are pretty clearly lasguns/autoguns.

Available at:

http://modelwarehouse.safeshopper.com/10/cat10.htm?408

Specifically at:

http://www.modelwarehouse.biz/85/cat85.htm?976

Unfortunately my favorite kit, the MP5 collection is OOP, I got the last 5 from Model Warehouse but M16s and AK47s are just as doable.

So here we go!

Test model, a GW shotgun, green stuff and a US WWII helmet.

And some other early successes

I mused using real world weapons as GW heavy and special weapons.  SAWs and LMGs as plasma, TOW missles as las cannons, LAW rockets as meltas... I might still do it, mybe even make extra models for the realistic and GW versions of the army and let my opponent pick.  Yeah.  Sure.  Why not?  Maybe someday...

But for now I'm sticking to GW guns.  The Raptor weapon sprue provides plasma and meltas that are the perfect size for my SWAT teams.  Using them with the blunderbuss arms (rolled up sleeves) from the Empire militia sprue worked very well.

Heavy weapons are mostly from the now defunct Warzone line, they had seperate packs of heavy weapons that look real world enough for my guys.  The Lascannon on the right is a Chaos Havok one, I was about to pick up a bunch more till I saw GW wants $5 each for them. @##$$ that!

Submachine squads are the meat of the army, darn they look cool if I do say so myself.

They will be getting cameo stripes one of these days...

 

WWII German helmets, no masks this time just to see how they look

 

With the urban war theme Hell Hounds were a natural choice.  I can even tell myself it's shooting a water cannon.

Besides the guns most of the kits I used are available from:

http://www.towerhobbies.com/listings/cat-cat-s.html

In this category

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0093p?&C=SJB

Italiari, Tamiya and Dragon are my standbys.  Here are some vital kits for any IG pimping project

Italitari 1/35 WWII accessories, ammo boxes, guns, crates, lots of useful bitz

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXR256&P=0

Tamiya modern US accessories, modern packs and bitz, many backpacks end up too large for IG but there are enough useful ones to justify buying it.

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXFRZ4&P=0

And finally the #1 pick, Tamiya WWII German and US accessories, each one has 5 or 6 helmets (which fit IG if you trim their heads) and other bitz for just $4.50 each. 

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXGV36&P=0

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXGV37&P=0

Opps, omited the link to my gallery:
http://www.pbase.com/kidkyoto/swat

thank's for sharing! i like everything but the german helmets, and the guy lugging the lascannon. they both seem a little too big.

Thanks! (sniff one reply... all that work and just one one reply... sniff...)

Would the Fritz helmet guys look better with covered faces? I'm torn on that. I'm starting to think the US WWII helmets do work better though. Still have to try the modern kevlar helmets.

"Would the Fritz helmet guys look better with covered faces? I'm torn on that. I'm starting to think the US WWII helmets do work better though. Still have to try the modern kevlar helmets."

i was thinking at least maybe a liner of some kind. kind of the way the cadian helmets look around the edges, maybe? i could see a guy beating himself up with a helmet that loose as he runs.

the kevlar might look too much like the cadians. what about berets?

Kid, you consistently impress me with the imagination, creativity and sheer scale of the work you do. I really love the look of these guys ? it's a convincing and unique take on what are generally dismissed as ugly figures ? and you've done a ton of 'em; all internally consistent and with a strong visual appeal. In addition, you've scratch-built a lot of your army, but kept it looking 'real' in 40k terms ? rather than just gluing lumps to old toy cars; and that deserves some applause.

I patricularly like the plasma gunners. I've been looking for a way to get rolled-up sleeves on my guard for a while, so you can consider that idea (for one) reaped. The smaller guns go a long way to displacing the top-heavy look of the standard catachans, and make the figures themselves more of a focal point, something you've carried over to the submachine gun units.

These guys would look great as part of a PDF force (perhaps with LatD rules?) ? relatively low-tech, but far from primitive.

In short, congrats: these cats look great! Any chance of some pics in action?

I don't really care for the guys in the German helmets, but the other guys are aces. I always knew the tamiya helmets could be used on IG, but never thought to use the guns. The bogie wheel as ammo can is another awesome idea that I'll be stealing immediately.

Great stuff, Kyoto-sama.

i like the face mask guys and the smgs. Good creativity and a well realised concept. Me likes.

Darkchild

KK, I have loved your stuff and ideas since you were posting on the Command Tower in the early 90's

"KK, I have loved your stuff and ideas since you were posting on the Command Tower in the early 90's"

Thanks, but I think that was the early 00's, unless you mean bitmaps from usenet.

I'm doing another squad tonight, any suggestions about what to do for las cannons that still fits the theme are welcome. Maybe dragon TOW missiles with the new HK missile...

how about cutting the size of the barrels down? that could get time consuming, though!