Cheapskate Imperial Guard

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**UmbrellaLegion**

I'm looking at expanding into the Imperial Guard, but the cost of all of the models seems excessive. Can anyone give me some advice on how to either cut costs or model convincing substitutions for imperial soldiers?

Any help would be appreciated with this endeavor.

**chromedog**

There are a variety of other manufacturers who do minis in 28mm (metal or plastic) and generally most are cheaper than GW.

Prince August minis in Ireland have bags of 40 Warzone (former 28mm competitor of 40k in the 90s) going for around £20 or so.

Ebay for older plastics from 40k (RT had guard boxes with guardsmen with lasguns and lascannon teams, but no special weapons, so you'd have to convert them.

My own IG army is made up of 20-man cadian boxes (oop now, but you can occasionally find them cheaply in the back piles of gaming stock at some stores), RT plastic guardsmen (pick up bags of 20-30 of them for around $15 at conventions with 2nd hand stalls, and the Wargames Factory Greatcoat models.

There are also Several other "napoleonics" ranges in plastics in 28mm.

**kenshin620**

As said, its either oop or non gw stuff. Historicals are fun to use since you can pretty much use anything as long as you strap a gun on them (theres everything in the imperium from australian bushmen to roman gladiators). Plastic historicals are very inexpensive, main problem being though they're skinnier than GW humans and there is a limit to their ranges although pretty much all eras exist in metal form. Wazone is another decent alt although you'll be force to have x2 different types of models when you buy the bags!

http://www.princeaugust.ie/target_games/tg2420-1.html

Wargames factory is ok but be wary that there is a boatload of controversy with the company

**xcasex**

kenshin620 wrote:Wargames factory is ok but be wary that there is a boatload of controversy with the company

I'm sorry, i'm unable to find said boatload of controversy, and as a lover of gossip, could you point me to more information regarding the juicy controversy?

**chromedog**

Hostile takeovers,
Conspiracy
Nasty business types.

That kind of thing. There is now Wargames Factory and another company now producing the Alien Suns premise game that the plastic greatcoat stormtroopers were ostensibly made for.

**SoloFalcon1138**

Either play IG or find another army... Jeez, we all know that his is an expensive hobby. If you plan on outpopulating your opponent, just get them!

**winnertakesall**

I would wait and buy from defiance games, they have plans for vehicles ect.

WF customer service is horrible.

**Lonecoon**

I'd suggest buying your Wargames factory minis from a retailer such as the War Store rather than directly from the company.

That said, I love the models. I've got 72 of the Shock Troopers that I use as my veterans, and I couldn't be happier. The come 18 to a box for $20.00

**1-UP**

Catachans seem to be the cheapest - you can find old metals or even plastics for about $1 a model (Small comfort when a blob squad is 30+ dudes, I know).

It's *somewhat* easy to substitute vehicles for guard tanks. The the Skorpion Gunships from the Avatar movie, for example, can be converted to Valks/Vends pretty easily (for about $20 a pop no less).

IG is still a basardly expensive army to put together....

**UmbrellaLegion**

kenshin620 wrote:As said, its either oop or non gw stuff. Historicals are fun to use since you can pretty much use anything as long as you strap a gun on them (theres everything in the imperium from australian bushmen to roman gladiators). Plastic historicals are very inexpensive, main problem being though they're skinnier than GW humans and there is a limit to their ranges although pretty much all eras exist in metal form. Wazone is another decent alt although you'll be force to have x2 different types of models when you buy the bags!

http://www.princeaugust.ie/target_games/tg2420-1.html

Wargames factory is ok but be wary that there is a boatload of controversy with the company

I think I'm going with the Alien Suns for my footsoldiers, the total price of which was what was really scaring me off. I did always like the "heavy coat" look for Imperial Guardsmen.

**oadie**

Cheapest approach I can think of is the most labor intensive, by far, and will bar you from GW-only gaming. Go very mech-heavy and use generic 28mm military models + generic 28mm guns for your minimal troop choice and scratch build/convert your vehicles. I've seen fantastic vehicles converted from $5-10 army men vehicles (there's a site that sells cheap recasts of OOP models - I think it's called "Toy Soldier Depot" or something like that), which are the cheapest bases for conversion you'll find, although there are plenty of other suitable toys out there.

Whether you're willing to spend that much time and effort is the bigger question. Guard can be done without spending that much money, but you're still paying out the ass in time and effort.

**UmbrellaLegion**

Thanks to a combination of eBay and deals from my FLGS, I'm currently 82 soldiers and 3 tanks in, using all GW models.

To whoever wants to know the loadout:
40 Catachans (used as Penal Legionnaires)
42 Cadians
Leman Russ Battle Tank (magnetized to be modular)
Leman Russ Demolisher (also magnetized to be modular)
Basilisk

**Marcin Ciszewicz**

Look into paper vehicles. Sure, they need lots of work to look well, but I've seen some impressive results. There is a Russian digital artist named Eli Patoroch, who makes a ton of great stuff, all ready to print, assemble and paint.

**Zefig**

The Warzone minis are even cheaper at the moment. Not for long though.

**Eilif**

Nice job on the acquisition. I was going to suggest the use of Warzone figs also, but it looks like you don't need them.

Having a ton of legionaires isn't always a good thing. Consider converting a squad or two of them up as veterans. I did this for my vets, using the non-barechested catachans with cadian arms and weapon swaps.

**MeanGreenStompa**

A cheap alternative for vehicles would be Old Crow miniatures.

http://www.oldcrowmodels.co.uk/25vehicles.htm

http://www.oldcrowmodels.co.uk/25vtol.htm

**chromedog**

The Gladius/Glaive models (from Old Crow) are around the size of a rhino/chimera (if you get the tracked versions).

The Claymore is also a good size, but some might find it a little long.

**SickSix**

The Old Crow stuff is pretty interesting and actually seems to be on a bit of a better scale than GW's own vehicles. Look on google an you will find an image of space wolves next to 3 Old Crow vehicles.

The only problem I see is the lack of detail. I think you would have to do a bit of work on these models to get them up to par with GW's tanks. But just having something unique might be worth it to some folks.

**chromedog**

Lack of detail isn't a downside.

You can always Bling the crap out of it. GW have enoug vehicular bits on their sprues and other model companies also do stowage and stuff.

It's often harder to de-blingify something.

**MeanGreenStompa**

Yep, bits companies and good paint scheme are your friends here.

**SickSix**

Chromedog - You make a good counterpoint. I guess it just depends on what style the modeler is after.

For perhaps some more help with using these custom casts with 28mm GW stuff, here is a thread where one guy gives a pretty good break down of the size of a couple of the Old Crow vehicles compared to SM/IG:

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=179477

The larger vehicles would be more expensive for US buyers than GW stuff. However, the turrets and weapons are reasonably priced and would probably make for some great converting! I wish there were more pictures of this stuff out there!

**Eilif**

I really like the most of the non GW vehicles that are available form Pig Iron and Old Crow. However, now that you've got a pretty solid GW IG army, I wouldn't go and mix in Old Crow vehicles if you're interested in tournament play or might end up playing in a GW store. If you take your time, and are willing to strip crappy paintjobs and convert, you can find most anything used here or on bartertown.

My army http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/343518.page
was made of just this kind of purchases and cost about 1/3 or less of retail with alot of conversions to save $.