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Hey folks, I've been day dreaming about finally starting an IG army (instead of finishing painting the 800 pts of marines I have left, d'oh!) and I was wondering if anyone had suggestions for easy minor conversions for Cadian models. My company will be an Ultramar PDF unit either Calthan urban forces of an Ixian recon force and I'd prefer to have them not look like just more cadians in different colored armor. I am comfortable doing minor to moderate green stuff (have reposed marines and made some cloaks).

Some ideas I had off the top of my head:
--Filing down the shoulder pads to make them look more like old-school cadians
--Cutting down the helmets to make them less bulky more like old-school cadians
--Swapping lasguns for Hits_the_spot's autoguns (see this post)
--Getting some female heads to have a mixed-gender army
--Adding small green stuff details to helmets like goggles, comm equipment, etc.
--Cutting away sleeves to make rolled up sleeves on some models

Any other ideas or examples out there? (Note: I'm not interested in using Pig Iron gas mask or heavy inf heads)

Here are two comparison shots of the old school cadian vs new cadian

One which always looks good on the model is making it look as though the trooper has been and campaign for a while, for examply, add patches on clothing with thin pieces of GS, and go along the sides with a pin to make it look sewn on, remove the helmets and add hair, add grafiti to the armour, such as kill markings ect.

Oh definitely will do kill markings, some hair etc. I might also file off the helmet eagle and leave it only for sergeants or special units.

Some battle worn armor; things like deeper indents from blocked knife wounds, or bullet pockmarks from where their armor saves actually worked. Also, beards and field caps.

a moustache?

Trophies from the enemy. I saw a combat knife made from a Tyranid claw once.

A kitbash between cadian shock troops and SM scouts

Get the Catachan command squad set. Unlike the infantry squad, the Catachan command squad set was made to be interchangeable with the Cadian sets. You'll get lots of cool arms, heads, bodies and legs to use.

Seconding that, the command squads have some great bits, and the special weapons you'll need!

Head swaps are the obvious and most common way of personalising cadians. I use pig iron heads, maybe look at the Forgeworld Elysian respirator heads as well, which are very cool and high-tech. I dunno if this is what you're aiming for, but you could try searching for some Roman historical models. I understand Ultramar has a bit of a classical theme going on, some crested helmets, at least on the sergeants and officers, could convey that.