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I'm a new player who is trying to decide between IG & SM. This morning I was looking at the IG section of my 4th Edition Rulebook (5th Ed is on order) and I really liked the Valhalla IG troops I saw there.

I took a quick look online to see where I could buy some, but nothing jumped out at me - most everything I found was Catchcan or Cadian. Whats the story on the availability of Valhallan miniatures? Can they be ordered? Or do I have to customize other armies? Good sites to buy or get additional info?

Also - are there any sites you can recommend for armor/tank conversion info? I'm particularly interested in converting WWII & Modern era armor into IG vehicles.

Thanks!

You'll have to pay an arm and a leg to order them through GW direct. Otherwise, You'll have to scout EBay and any Miniatures order sites for them.

One more thing: You're picking a one-piece mini, all-pewter army. So converting them is going to be a nightmare if you want some variety from the stock poses. You're almost better spending the money on taking a course in sculpting/casting and creating your own version of Valhallans in multi-part kits

Supposedly there will be another wave of IG releases that are rumored to include plastic versions of the alternative IG models (Armageddon Steel Legion, Valhallan, Mordian, etc). Who knows though when that will be, and which particular variants will be made into plastics? Definitely gonna have to scour Ebay or order direct... and check out your local GW shops. They might still have some stock.

Remember I'm quite new to all of this.

I checked the GW store and it appears that the Valhallan troops are $13 more than the standard IG. Do retailers other than GW sell these?

How about conversion info?

ps. No GW store here.

Well that is how GW makes their money off the metal minis.... they limit those to sale only in GW stores or approved retailers... at least as far as I know. Anything in the "collectors" range follows these rules.

The reason the Valhallan troops are more expensive is because they are made of a metal alloy called Pewter, which is kind of like a soft led but nowadays its non-toxic. The regular cadians and catachans are plastic, and thus cheaper to produce.

TobintheGnome wrote:Remember I'm quite new to all of this.

I checked the GW store and it appears that the Valhallan troops are $13 more than the standard IG. Do retailers other than GW sell these?

How about conversion info?

ps. No GW store here.

You can get them ordered through an FLGS too, though unless you know the owner well, you'll be paying closer to $20 after expenses.

Probably the easiest way to make Valhallans that I can think of is by Kitbashing Bretonnian Greatcoats from WHFB and Vostroyan heads (Which you can bitz order quite cheaply from some of the sites that advertise here on Dakka) and then just fitting Lasguns to the Bretonnian arms with a bit of Greenstuff modification.

There's no -actual- cheap and easy way to kitbash GW Valhallans. The actual Minis are costly, ugly, and almost impossible to convert or reposition.

Your best and cheapest option is to go with, as I said, either casting your own version of Valhallans, or else buying some Heroic Scale 28mm WWII Russian Infantry in Winter gear and swapping out their guns for Guard Weaponry. WWII figures are generally quite cheap to purchase, always Plastic or Resin, and are often better detailed than GW product. The downside is they likely won't come in large quantities, though they're still the best option for Valhallans by far.

Go Guard. If you like Valhallans, buy the minis secondhand.

Another option is Pig Iron minis, which sell very similar figures. If you're not and don't intend to play in a GW store then there you go.

Thanks for the info.

How about tank/armor conversion tips/info/sites?

The standard GW tanks will work fine, just so long as you can find 28mm Tank Crews for any exposed gunners/commanders. Otherwise, any company that makes Tanks in 28mm (or it's equivalent in the Imperial scale) will work fine. Tamiya is a great company for WWII tanks and vehicles if you don't want to use the stock GW Tanks. Just make sure your opponents know what each gun on your tanks represents if you go with a non GW source.

Sites
here
also work in progress and bootcamp. These are for vehicles-most conversion advice relates to the vehicles.

Frazz, your post seems to be missing the links and you just started tickling my fancy as I´m converting an IG army.

M.

Yeah, some of those are a pain. Esp Valhallans. They are not as readily avail as vestroyan, Kreig, or tallern.

Ebay is your best bet, I picked up roughly 200 models of valhallans for a combined total of almost $300. It just took about a month of patience and hunting and dirty Ebay tactics (sniping, two centing, etc.) but is very possible.

FoxPhoenix135 wrote:Supposedly there will be another wave of IG releases that are rumored to include plastic versions of the alternative IG models (Armageddon Steel Legion, Valhallan, Mordian, etc).

I would put no stock in that.

GW apparently said at some point they would think about other regiments in plastic but there's ben no hint this is actually happening.

Remember the mystery box, and how everyone knew what was in it a year in advance...

I think we'd know if plastic Valhallans were coming.

Wargames Factory is working on plastic greatcoat SF troopers but so far they're not out.

Well, if you know what you want, then don't not get it. You might not be happy with your second choice, and always wish you'd gone with your dream.

That said, start small. Buy a few valhallans, paint them, make sure you like how they paint. Proxy a few games (borrow IG from a friend or even buy used catachan plastics online) to make sure you enjoy the game. there's no sense in spending hundreds of dollars on something you wind up not loving.

EBay is your best bet for old minis like that, simply do a daily search for valhallans and buy a big lot once you're ready. They seem to come up less often than other regiments, but patience is a virtue.

Also remember that as a metal army bought used, you can resell it for generally what you bought it for (minus fees and shipping). So if you buy $300 in valhallans, and don't like them, you can expect to get a big chunk of that back.