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Has anybody ever done an IG Vitrian Dragoons army? They're the ones from the first Gaunt's Ghosts book, with the mirrored armor.

I'd just like to know if anybody's ever undertaken a Vitrian Dragoons army. If you have, post pictures! I'd love to see some photos of what they look like.

With the new IG Codex release coming up, I'm thinking of starting a Guard army, and the Vitrian Dragoons are one of the coolest regiments in the fluff.

Wow. No replies, eh?

Is it a topic that has no interest?

no interest or nobody has done them.
if it makes you feel better to answer your question, i haven't done them but I'm not sure about anyone else.

Right.

Well, to go off of the description in First and Only, if I wanted to do them, I'd have to sculpt some scale armor for them. I think if I did convert them, I'd just convert one squad as a showpiece... Or build an army of normal Cadians and possibly say the Vitrians are there in support.

In any case, it would be very interesting to see them on the tabletop...

its been a long time since i've read that book.

after a brief refresher compliments of google the scale mail sounds right. i don't know how hard it would be to do but it would definitely be cool. the helm has potential too but man it would be nice to see one for reference.

unique armies are fun, I say go for the full force if your up for the sculpting. as an alternative i wonder if there is a torso that could be borrowed from the fantasy line to combine with some 40k bits.

it would be an easy way around the whole sculpting the scale mail thing.

Hold your horses on changing your mind that quick, i had a look on the interweb and found a web page devoted to giving advice on how to convert regiments of the guard! it was : http://www.librarium-online.com/forums/imperial-guard/47308-ultimate-imperial-guard-conversion-guide.html

This is the guide

The Vitrian Dragoons
These guys take a lot of work. The best way to make them would be to use Cadians as a base. 'Scrape away' the creases and folds in their fatiques to make the uniforms more form-fitting. Next, get rid of the 'coaty' bit on their legs. Get rid of the Imperial Eagle on the helmet and the shoulder pads. Now lay a thin layer of green stuff across the chest, back, forearms and shins. Build the helmet down with green stuff so that it covers the face. Let the green stuff settle for about half an hour and then carefully cut a vision slit in the helmet. Next cut diagonal lines across the green stuff layers in a criss-cross pattern so you have a pattern of diamonds.
-Colour schemes: Paint the non-diamond area in flat black. The diamond area is then painted silver with a light wash of blue ink. Weapons and helmet are black. A good effect would be to paint gloss varnish on the weapons, armour and helmet.
(Doctrines: Carapace Armour, Storm Troopers Squads, Special Weapon Squads, Heavy Weapon Platoons, Die Hards)


If your gonna do them it looks like alot of work but hopefully this is of help

Some of the fantasy troops have "quilted" clothing that might provide an easier source of diamond-patterned parts. It would probably still take some green-stuff work in order to make these look like parts of high-tech armor instead of cloth.

Wow, it's like GW wanted to describe something that simply couldn't be converted on any kind of bulk / mass basis.

You'd be best drawing a concept of their armor and uniforms, then decide what parts you want to keep and then go from there.

I really think you should make atleast a unit of these guys, you may even create some kind of mold for it?

Hm. I'd use Necromunda Van Saars, cut off the heads and replace them with FW Elysians. Then I'd paint them up with a black undercoat, then gloss on all of the armorplates.

Thanks for all the helpful replies guys! I'm relatively ok-ish with greenstuff, but probably not up to converting a whole regiment. But I WILL make at least one small squad of these guys. I'd probably take the scale armor from another range and use it. I know LotR Easterlings have scale armor on them, but they're a bit too small.

If I did make a torso with greenstuff, I'd most definitely make a mold of it, somehow... I could make a Cadians to Vitrians conversion pack, eh? Perhaps just a scale mail vest-piece, and a visor-piece for the helmet. (The Elysian heads are a bit too much for me, as I don't particularly like working with Forgeworld if I don't have to...)

I'll get on these when I can liberate some extra cash from the budget. Could be a while... Heh...

Van Saars might work. But the problem I see is that their armor isn't "scale" so much as "rounded plate".

A good idea though.

You're right - it is plate as opposed to scale. But that said, frankly, I think it will be very hard to convey the glassy nature of the Vitrian Dragoons armor at that scale with scale armor.

Possibly. Of course, the paintjob could portray the glassy-ness relatively simply. A bit of Vallejo Clear Gloss over Chaos black with Midnight Blue highlighting would look good, don't you think?

Edit: Right, well. I've ordered some Guard minis from the Warstore. Just the box with five Cadians in it, so I can try out my painting and converting on a few "willing test subjects".

You do know that there are instructions on making scale armor out of greenstuff on the modeling articles page right?

Yah, I took a look at it. It looks like an excellent method, but not exactly what I'm after, I think...

I can sculpt scale armor relatively well, actually. I need a bit of practice, but I've taken greenstuff sculpting classes at the Historicon Painting University several times, and I'm not too bad with greenstuff. I CAN sculpt, just not exceptionally well. Perhaps I'll take a look at that article.

The Cadians are on the way, so expect some pics by Sunday, at least.

Can't wait to see what you've done on Friday.

Hah, don't get you hopes up, my friend. I doubt the Cadians will be here by then. They were back-ordered, so...

Anyhow. I'm working on my scale armor making right now. Fun, eh?
No. Not at all. In any way. It's grueling. And I'm surprised by how horrible I am at it... Oh well. Practice makes perfect! (Or at least, "ok-ish"...)

The Cadians have arrived, so I'll get to work now!

yay cant wait to see what the hell these IG things are

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat1600088&prodId=prod1090031

For easy cheap scale armored troops have you considered these. With head and arm swaps these might work.

Yes, actually, I had considered them. I actually play Easterlings, lol, so they were my first consideration. The scale is a bit off though, so I don't think they'll work...

I've finished the armor on two of them, and the view-slit on one helmet. Pics soon!

Dang. Too long. Far too long.

Anyway. The promised pictures. My camera is messed up, sorry. (A bad excuse, I know, but it's true. I couldn't get the pictures uploaded because I accidentally deleted them, and then I couldn't take new ones for a while because the camera was damaged and had to be repaired. I took new pics last night.)








These are the first two, so they're not spectacular or anything. I'm reasonably ok with greenstuff, as I've said, but not a pro by any means.

Anyhow, that's the latest.

don't worry, we all get better.

Nice work... keep it up.

Right, thanks for the comments!

I like how they look IRL, I suppose, I'm just a bit infuriated by my incapability to take good pictures of them...

Lol.

Next up, painting one!

good luck I like what you have done so far.

But one thing did they have goggles?

I think the hardest part of this army is going to be painting the armor to look mirrored. I can barely paint glass, mirrored scales sounds very difficult.

As an idea - some plastic pieces (such as what goes into the bottom of a shopping bag to line it) have a small diamond pattern. If you can find one of these, it could make a good neat mold for creating the pattern on GS before putting it onto the model.