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I was thinking about starting up and Imperial Guard army, using primarily Imperial units from Warhammer.

Some of the modeling will be easy. Using Knights for Rough Riders, Ogres for Ogryn, and Fanatics for Penal legion doesn't require huge stretches of imagination. But there were some things I wanted input on.

If I use Empire State Handgunners, can I just put them on round bases for counts as guard infantry? Or to more strictly mach wysiwyg should I swap out all the guns for las-guns?

How does the size of the Steam Tank match up against 40K tanks? Would it work for a Chimera or a Leman Russ? If it's too small what about using it for a Sentinel?

If I wanted to use Heavy Weapons teams, what, if any models would you recommend?

I can't see there being a problem just putting handgunners on round bases as far as las guns go because the fluff says not all las guns look the same so as long as you've represented it as a gun and haven't used any other gun from 40k (like giving a model a bolter to represent its las gun and another model actually has a las gun) it should be fine.

Personally I would convert Outriders to be Rough Riders but then again I don't like most of WHFB Knight models. And I don't think there is any way a Steam Tank could pass for a Sentinel

For Heavy Weapons teams I would just buy actual teams and convert State Troops to fit the original crew as best you can or come up with new poses on how they're interacting with the weapon. Remember that IG can look barbaric or primitive or backwards (I'd say IG wearing tights on the battlefield are backwards ) but it may just be the tradition of the regiment and they can still have advanced wargear and since the Imperium and Empire share alot of imagery it woulden't be hard to convert normal IG tanks, sentinels and other units to fit your theme.

I'm not sure how the Steam Tank matches up for size compared to other guard tanks but I would just use normal tanks for ease and add on Imperial parts so maybe replace a Leman Russ barrel with a Empire Cannon etc because I'd be weary of trying to convert the Steam Tank to represent the differant options of the tanks such as secondary weapons, cutting into the side to have the right fire points etc.

strictly WYSIWYG, you have to at least put the lasgun barrel on the tip of the guns (Lasweapons all have that iconic barrell on them, regardless of size), although I personally have no problems with them representing primitive autoguns (which had the same stats as Lasguns).

The Steam Tank would be roughly the right size for a Chimera. You're gonna have to do some converting with an Empire Cannon if you wanna use it as a Leman Russ.

Ogryns will need a bit more converting though. If you use Leadbelchers it might work, otherwise you need to represent the ripper gun. Heavy Weapon Teams should be Empire Artilleries.

Thanks for the feedback.

I'll probably leave the guns the way they are. If I ever get to the point that wysiwyg interferes with entering a tournament, it won't take lone to add Lasgun barrels to the ends.

I was planning on using Leadbelchers, for simplicities sake. I might grab other ogres later, if I end up with spare guns.

I'll probably end up purchasing at least one steam tank, for spare parts if nothing else. Hmmm.... I wonder what the steam tank would look like with sentinel legs...

For heavy weapons teams, I think I'll stick with 40k weapons, I'll just try and scrounge up wheels so that I can mount them in gun carriages.

I'm thinking that I might have all the troopers carrying special weapons be flagellants. The fluff reason being that after a couple troopers carrying plasma guns died, only the truly fanatical among the superstitious regiments we're willing to carry them. Other, more reserved soldiers preferring their old weapons.

I'm thinking that for Heavy support options like Medusas and Hydras, I'll take a chimera and build a flat platform on top. On the platform a couple of artillery crews will be loading up their antiquated weapons. I'll try and hunt down some Congreve style rockets for the Manticore. For an added bang, I might see if I can track down some appropriately sized bottle rockets. Although, depending on where the tournament takes place it might not be legal for multiple reasons.

MechaEmperor7000 wrote:strictly WYSIWYG, you have to at least put the lasgun barrel on the tip of the guns (Lasweapons all have that iconic barrell on them, regardless of size), although I personally have no problems with them representing primitive autoguns (which had the same stats as Lasguns).

Just curious but where does it say that? In the entire time I've played (10 years) in 3 differant states it was agreed that as long as something is represented in a suitable manner (a sword woulden't be a lasgun) and dosen't conflict with something else in the army (saying a bolt gun represented both a bolt gun and lasgun) it falls under the WYSIWYG and I highly doubt that anyone who looks at the model knowing they're IG and sees that they have guns is going to say that they can't be used because they don't have barrels lasgun barrels.

The Steam Tank would be roughly the right size for a Chimera. You're gonna have to do some converting with an Empire Cannon if you wanna use it as a Leman Russ.

If this is in referance to my suggestion I didn't say he should use a Empire Cannon as a Leman Russ. I recomended that he could replace the barrel of a tank with an Empire Cannon.

Ogryns will need a bit more converting though. If you use Leadbelchers it might work, otherwise you need to represent the ripper gun. Heavy Weapon Teams should be Empire Artilleries.

@OP: Ogryns to Ogres is one of the easiest conversions I have ever seen done and only required minimal GS work, there are a number of sights where you could order actual ripper guns on their own. And I'm pretty sure GW still has the tutorial on how they did it on their site, if not I'm pretty sure a quick search will pull up some examples.

Or something you could do is make a gun out of plasticard that looks like a Repeater Handgun from the Empire codex. Give it 3 rotating barrels to match the Ripper Guns assault 3 coming out of the Leadbelchers cannon end (if you look at Leadbelcher sprues the barrel of the cannon and the back piece of the cannon where the ogre is holding it aren't connected so this back section where the Ogre is holding it could be where you attach the body of the gun and then the barrels onto that) with a few bits here and there so it has more detail. Then you could take the left over cannons from the Leadbelchers and use them as the barrels on your Leman Russ.

Of course Ministorum priests could be represented with priests of Sigmar, conscripts with Militia (though that would need more conversions as they're kind of a hodge podge mix of weapons). For Veterans or Storm Troopers you could convert Great Swords to have lasguns (converted up for Storm Troopers guns, I would suggest maybe buying at least 1 box of normal IG so you have some IG bits to spread around your troops like knives, seargent heads, chainswords etc). Ratlings would probably fit into your army with Halflings being apart of the WHFB Empire.

Something that would be cool is if you could make your sentinels so that the main body looked like the barding on the Empire Knights horses or Steam Tank (again plasticard would probably work or GS if you're comfurtable). Something else you could do is with flamers on your vehicles (like if you take a Hellhound) is to use some of the brazzers from the flagellant sprue in front of a barrel that pushes out promethium.

For a commander you could combine parts from the Empire General with a Cadian Command. Oh and I just remembered, not to long ago GW made some IG conversions and they used Empire Handgunners arms and weapons without lasgun barrels to represent the guardsmen and their lasguns so if GW does it and it's ok you'll be fine. That may be on the site still to under the White Dwarf section.

Cool!

I don't know if my greenstuff skills are up to the level needed to replicate barding, but it's worth a shot. I was actually thinking of using dwarves for counts as rattlings, but actual halflings would fit 40k fluff better.

I especially like the brazer idea. I've got some left over from my last kit-bash. I think I'll give it a try.


Do you think that a pair of Hellblaster Volley Cannons mounted on a chimera would make a good representation of a Hydra and it's twin linked Autocannons? I like the idea because it'll also give me a pair of Helstrom Rocket Batteries that I can use for missile launchers.

As far as the empire handgunners are concerned, I think swapping out the weapons would defeat the purpose of what you are talking about doing.

Las guns are strength 3 I think (don't play guard), I would think that this a appropriate number for black powder weapons, so why not just say they are what they look like. As far as game mechanics are concerned, las gun/autogun is about as generic as it gets. Lost and the Damned had a weapon called "firearms" which had the same stats as las gun, so there you go.

I've seen guard armies made out of skeletons and all kinds of what-not, I don't think you will run into much complaint.

This an awesome idea that I have had myself a few times, though I haven't come around to do it.
Can't wait to see how it turns out


//Edge

Thatguyoverthere wrote:Cool!
I don't know if my greenstuff skills are up to the level needed to replicate barding, but it's worth a shot.

It's actually not that hard to do, all you have to remember with GS is that whatever you're making starts out with basic shapes added together and the best way to do Imperial type barding would probably be plasticard tops and bottoms cut to shape with the sides being rectangular pieces of GS cut to fit and curved.

I was actually thinking of using dwarves for counts as rattlings, but actual halflings would fit 40k fluff better.

Well using Dwarfs would work fine especially if you got the handgunner/quarreler (spelling!) box but then you would probably have more Dwarf models then you can use because you can't take very many Ratlings. You would just have to convert the Dwarf Handguns to represent sniper rifles.

I especially like the brazer idea. I've got some left over from my last kit-bash. I think I'll give it a try.

There are plasticard tubes of various sizes that can be made into great weapon barrels.

Do you think that a pair of Hellblaster Volley Cannons mounted on a chimera would make a good representation of a Hydra and it's twin linked Autocannons? I like the idea because it'll also give me a pair of Helstrom Rocket Batteries that I can use for missile launchers.

I'm not sure about this as I almost think the Volley Cannons would be too big and but that's just something you'll have to try yourself.