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Hello.

Let me start off with explaining why I am eschewing proper protocol for posting here. Because as much as it pains me to ask for help and advice while having little to offer but pretty words, that is exactly what I am here to do today.

My current modeling and painting skills are practically nonexistant, and I have been gifted some Space Marines and Chaos Marines, as well as a small handful of painting and modeling tools. I have thus decided that this is an excellent time for me to try and pick up the hobby aspect of the wargame. I have painted up the marines, and intend to model and paint the Chaos Marines as well, even though this is only in practice of my true goal, I intend to put images up as soon as I can get a good camera, for the goal of public humiliation and critique.
Now, I never do anything without a firm goal in mind, and thus intend to be very clear on my course of action before I fully start gathering miniatures - modeling is the first step, so having that firmly in mind before I move on to how I should paint them seems like a good idea in my mind.
I am a player of the game since previously, though with proxies and VASSAL as opposed to proper miniatures.
The army of choice has been the Imperial Guard, the particular flavor of choice being the Death Korps, and through some boredom I have even come up with some fluff and the like.

So... having firmly established that I have no idea what "brevity" is, nor do I clearly have any idea of how to make life easy for myself, on to the topic at hand.

My budget is rather embarrassing, and my task daunting.
So my question to you all is...
How do you make a good representation of the Death Korps of Krieg, on a tight budget? And as a bonus hard mode challenge, the army list I intend to create uses a truly astonishing amount of shotguns. Wishing to hold to proper WYSIWYG and tournament standards while doing so.
... Not an easy task, is it?

So, to get this goal, how would Dakka suggest I proceed?
Forgeworld's prices are close to extortion, so as lovely as their models are, I assume I will need to do something a bit more slapdash. Particularly as I need those shotguns.

Is the use of Pig Iron's heads on Cadian bodies suitable? For instance, the ones pictured here: http://www.pig-iron-productions.com/bmz_cache/c/c7a21c8efdee0edacb6c5389ed2dbf78.image.733x550.jpg
Are there any other possibilities? What would be cheap? What would look good enough?

As for shotguns, what would be a good and economical way of getting hold of a great deal of them? I am half-considering having them be armed with something that could look like a shotgun if you squint, such as Empire Outriders guns ( http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m350305_99120202019_OutridersMain_445x319.jpg ), but the question is: Would this actually be cost-effective? Would this follow WYSIWYG standard? And are there better options?

I will, as soon as possible, put up my tiny, tiny amount of mostly-finished marines (done but for the bases, because they were from the GW practice painting kit, which doesn't include any basing tools) here.

I think this post has now failed most of the standards for creating a thread in this section of the forums, but my hope is to vindicate myself through the knowledge gained from answers to my numerous questions.

If you actually read this far, thank you for reading. Any and all comments are welcome.

You could use those pig-iron heads on cadian bodies, yes. It'd also look good if you GS'd trench coats onto them.

As for shotguns, you'd probably be best off using Space Marine Scout Shotguns (use the swap shop or a bitz site), cutting up flamers, or making your own double barreled shotguns out of plastic rods.

S_P

The best way would probably to take the time to develop GS skills to the point where you can buy the embarked Gorgon DKoK models and split them apart into regular guardsmen.

That way they're still DKoK, but they're much cheaper.

One option that a lot of people on a budget have decided upon are the Greatcoats from wargames factory. Another option if you want to actually use dkok models if buy a few squads firing/advancing and a gorgon squad or 2 and separate the models with a little work and disperse them amongst your army and you'll have a relatively cost effective force or the actual models.

Don't do it. Make a different army. You can make greatcoat guard, that's fine, but don't try to call them Krieg. That will just end up with them always being compared to better models (because, let's face it, Krieg are some of the best models GW/FW ever released). As harsh as it sounds, you will only find failure if you try to be cheap about Krieg.

Cadians with pig iron heads will work well. But do the math and see what works best for you. Like for example...

Cadians with pig iron heads will cost ya close to $30 for 10. 10 real DK's will be around $55. Shotguns will cost a bunch if you buy the bitz, Battlewagon Bitz has scout shotguns listed at 4 for $10. Not cheap at all. This is the route I took though, but I used them for 2 vet squads so I only needed 6 shotguns per squad.

$15 per squad for the FW models will add up a lot but for me personally I'd rather have the real thing and just build the army slowly over time when I can afford it. Or, go tank heavy.. just get a few units, chimeras for everyone, and big tanks blowing the poop out of every thing. You could also try building your army as all vets instead of using platoons, that'll eat up more points but give you better firepower.

Fafnir wrote:Don't do it. Make a different army. You can make greatcoat guard, that's fine, but don't try to call them Krieg. That will just end up with them always being compared to better models (because, let's face it, Krieg are some of the best models GW/FW ever released). As harsh as it sounds, you will only find failure if you try to be cheap about Krieg.

This,

Seen too many people try and use Cadians/Great Coats etc. to try and make Death Korps. If you like the models and the quality of them, save and buy the FW squads, you'll just end up being dissappointed by the end result if you expect them to be FW level of quality. Cadians and Great Coats will never be Death Korps, here is a handy thread about it http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/332401.page#2220704.

Alright, thanks for your answers, everyone.

I'm not in a hurry to build the army, so if there's no way to make them look both cheap and good, I can just be slower, and use the Forgeworld models.

I'm too much of a 'lady of the night' for the established fluff of the army I play to switch to a different army, though. So forgeworld models and taking it slow seems to be the better alternative.

Nothing wrong with taking it really slowly. It gives you time to paint your miniatures to the utmost standard, and also gives you time to consider each and every individual purchase.