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.

So, I'm getting back into 40K. Woo. Problem is, I don't really care for any of the IG models out there. The Catachans look like a bunch of rambo wanna-bes in the midst of 'roid rage, and the Cadians, while neat, are a little too "modern" and clean-looking. Plus they've been done to death.

So, I decided to do some kit-bashing. Using Pig Iron heads, Wargames Factory Shock troops, and assorted GW bits. I was going for a sort of Tsarist/Soviet retro sci-fi look. And of course, great coats. Because they're easier to paint, and because I like winter. So, here goes.





Wargames Factory troopers are a good deal, at $19.95 for 18 guys. Get two boxes for $40, and you have 36 troopers, enough for a 3-squad platoon and command squad. Of course, you'll need to get some GW bits to dress them up some, but that's a minor consideration. So, without further ado, here goes (bear in mind, my GF took all the good cameras with her on vacation, so I have to use my crappy camera phone ). Bear in mind, BETTER PHOTOS WILL BE POSTED!!!

This is my test model. The pictures don't do him justice. He is also shiny because I have yet to matte varnish him after the washing procedure.



With the flash on



With the flash off











I haven't gotten my lasgun arms in the mail yet. However, I figured I would see what I could do with the provided weapons. I find the Shock Troopers' weapons to be kinda dorky looking, so I decided to do some surgery and came up with what I thought would make good grenade launchers. Though of course, I plan on using them as my general special weapons troopers, so, yeah.



As you can see, I think they stack up pretty well next to the GW scale figures. Ignore the horrid painting jobs on the SM and the Necron. Those are just dummies I use as a test palette.

So far, I like what I see. I am going to be doing winter bases to off-set the darker colour scheme. Using Mig Productions ashes, I am going to sprinkle some snow on their boots and the hem of their coats, and will try to get a grimy, mid-winter look to them.

Comments, thoughts, and suggestions are appreciated.

I like it but I think the scale is a little off, an IG regular trooper shouldnt be the size of a space marine.

You can't really tell it from those angles. The trooper is significantly less "chunky" than the marine. I'll grab some of my IG models when next I'm at home and will see how they compare.

Alright, all I have for IG is snipers, but yea it was some nice work

So, more pictures













Tell me what you think!

love them...they looked pretty rough in the first couple of pictures, but once I saw the more recent pictures my opinion changed entirely I think it is a very effective (and cheaper) alternative to cadians or catachans


Automatically Appended Next Post:

villescrubs wrote:I like it but I think the scale is a little off, an IG regular trooper shouldnt be the size of a space marine.

but the space marine models themselves are horribly out of scale, the guardsman are the right height and bulk, space marines aren't

Wait what? If anything marines are more in scale with the rest of the game because of the vehicles. Guardsmen are grossly out of scale. Especially the plastics.

Those look great. Hope you stockpiled some boxes of the shock troops though. How much of the red are you planning to incorporate on your vehicles?

On the other issue, Brian Nelson really hosed the scale of everything when he sculpted the plastic Cadians. They needed to be just a little slighter.

Thanks. I actually ordered a bunch of sets of IG gear and lasgun arms off E-bay, so I should be ok there. I'm only working on 1000 points so far, and between 2 boxes of Shock Troopers, I get 36 figs, which is enough for 3 veteran squads and a command squad with a Master of Ordnance, so I think I'm set.

I will post more as I make more progress. After that, it's on to tanks!

I love them. I despise standard IG, because that is pretty much all you see at the moment around our area (if it's not a SM, it's IG) but these guys are a refreshing change.

I also like the red and green colour-scheme, it stands out nicely.

They look great.

Looks awesome to me!
Great job!

The red paint is going to be applied as a frontal full-stripe, and then using a sponging effect, I will dirty it up. Here is my manticore conversion:





http://www.flickr.com/photos/32077508@N06/5350880870/in/photostream/

Working on a Leman Russ right now. As usual, I'm in that "oh crap it looks terrible" mood, as I always am right after the basecoat and before it starts to come together More to follow!

the tanks look awesome, great weathering...and no, the marines are worse I saw somewhere (librarium-online I think) someone who actually took a space marine helmet and measured out how big the marine should be to proper human anatomy (not even space marine anatomy) and the feet on the space marine models would reach the knees on a properly proportioned marine, and the arms were no better