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I am starting my fist IG army and want to do a all Catachan list with a Vietnam feel. My question is how do I take the jungle fighters box and make them into vets? LOL how do you really represent vets over normal troops?

Great Question!
i used Catachan bits to make my Cadian vets!
1 thing you can try is using SM scout legs. gives them a different look.
you could try camo face paint, or different colors on the uniforms maybe.

Camo cloaks, ghillie suits, war paint, extra armour/padding etc.

For Catachans you can do everything alarmingrick suggested, and I think you should do everything he said along with loading the out with an almost absurd amount of gear. Backpacks, knives, grenades, etc...

obviously, being the manliest men of a manly regiment of jungle fighters, they eschew even the minimal protection that normal catachans use against enemy fire... the single ply cotton t-shirt! they have to all be shirtless!

backpacks and belt bits (canteens, ammo pouches, holsters) are the go-to bits for cadians. i don't see why they wouldn't also work for catachans.

All my troops are vets so i dont need to worry about people not being able to tell them apart, I just dont want to get called out in a tournament for WYSIWYG.

My friend is building an IG army and he has made his veterans look good by paiting camo on there faces and giving them life like ghilli suits. he did this by painting the face normal skin colours, then painting over with a few lines of beastial brown and dark angel green. this contrasted with the green uniform. He then made the Ghilli suit by sticking some or the sinthetic grass (a couple of the colours mixed, sorry i dunno what colours) ans sticking it on the body and also a bit on the gun to give it a more unique, realistic look

For my vets, I used catachan heads and arms on cadian legs and torsos. It gives the appearance of the elite units that got the armor upgrade. I also mixed in a few empire heads. They lend a bit to the experienced vet look. Now, my vets were based off the atilian rough riders, so just imagine them with out the furry hats

I am thinking about giving them tiger stripe camo to make the unit stand out more.

Any one got some pics of the ghilli suits guys?

guynamedFleck your guys cool! I just dont want to have to buy 2 sets of troops to only be able to field 1.

sickening wrote:
guynamedFleck your guys cool! I just dont want to have to buy 2 sets of troops to only be able to field 1.

I hear you on that. This was actually my solution to finding a use for the leftovers in my bits box. I had used the cadian arms on brettonian men-at-arms bodies to make trenchers. In fact, my whole IG army was made from several 40k and fantasy kits swapped around. you might also look at bits sites on ebay. Its a cheap way to get arms, torso, etc without wasting the rest of the sprue.

The best Catachan based mdoels I've seen on these boards recently have all had berets greenstuffed on. It seems to be a simple fix to the problem of the Catachan models being horrible

I painted the veteran insignia on all my vets. For cadians its the large chevron on their right shoulder for catachans it is a little skull tattoo on their right shoulder. I find it to be a nice little touch.

Helmets and actual armor.

capt. tyco wrote:I painted the veteran insignia on all my vets. For cadians its the large chevron on their right shoulder for catachans it is a little skull tattoo on their right shoulder. I find it to be a nice little touch.

Wow thats not a bad idea! I cant find a pic of the insignia in the codex can you post it up for me?

I do think the Catachans models are a little ugly but the Cadians look they belong in the 3rd reich.

Tattoos are always nice if you can pull them off, as are modified lasguns and huge-ass knives. Make sure to put said knife in cool place (e.g. boot or mag-locked to chest). Scars and signs of years of constant warfare look good when not overdone.

For my cadians, regular guardsmen are just normal looking but the vets get all the extra bitz like backpacks, grenades, canteens, etc. For Catachans I figured if I ever did them, I'd do the same thing with the extra bitz but also use greenstuff to give them berets on their heads or some other kinda hat.

Boonie hats?

Big ass machetes and handlebar moustaches.

Mutton chops are optional, but look great.

Do these, as well as other ideas, and your vets. will look great!

I gave all mine backpacks from the heavy weapons team sprues. Since they're infiltrators, they'd probably have more equipment as they'd be in the field longer.

Good idea also but I am only going to have the bits that come in the jungle fighters box.