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Hey Guys,
Looking over my army list, about to start buying and making the stuff, im a little bit stuck with my veterans.
I have 3 squads overall but have no idea of how to make catachans look even more battle - hardened.
Anybody got any ideas on making those gnarly guys even more hardcore.
Thanks!

well for my stormtroopers in my catachan army all I did was add some body camo (which I left off on the rest of my troops) and bought some vietnam era m-16's and an m60 on the internet and gave them those, and lastly I kit-bashed the sergeant with some other bits and made him look badass with a beret and all...but if you're looking for super hardcore battle hardened I can' help you there

and I don't really care, but why does it say this is my first post? I've been here for a while

Tattoos on their arms, like a sword or dagger tattoo in blue or black paint.

Pock marks on the armor, if they're wearing it, scars on the chest if they're not. Perhaps some eye patches? Different colored bandanas would also help differentiate them, say black instead of red.

Here are some Catachan vets I painted up; I used the command squad kit which already makes them look different, and I did some tattoos. Also, shotguns help:

If you know anyone with some fantasy battle stuff some of the brettonian peasant heads work. I reckon the vets should all have back packs too.

My recipe for making Catachan model Veterans more gritty.

- Keep the painting "dirty". Grizzled veterans do not have to be clean and shiny like some wet-behind-the-ears recruits.
- Camo. A few stripes of black and/or green to faces and hands.
- Add packbacks, water bottles, pouches, knives, pistol holsters etc etc to the troopers. Do not put everything to a single trooper.
Spread the equipment around. This should give a feeling that these guys are experienced fighters that have collected all sorts of
useful stuff.
- When looking for "stuff" do not limit yourself to just IG bitz. Various SM/SW/CSM bitz can also look good on the soldiers kit.
Not to mention putting some enemy heads/helmets on their feet as trophies.
- Personal bonus trick: marine hands and heads w cyber features. A standard marine hand without a shoulder pad is a good
stand-in for a cyberhand and fits the scale too. "The Sarge? He´s been in the Regiment forever. Longer than the Colonel even.
Lost his hand on Carver V when were fighting against the Greenskins..."

bought some vietnam era m-16's and an m60 on the internet

Can you remeber where you got them from, or what scale you bought?

janjanman20 wrote:

bought some vietnam era m-16's and an m60 on the internet

Can you remeber where you got them from, or what scale you bought?

here's where the m16s are from, I got the m60 from a model helicopter

http://www.hasslefreeminiatures.co.uk/range.php?range_id=39&subcat_id=17

theres a lot of other cool stuff on this site too

Look around for some bitz. Heads from any of the Mordheim bands, or Empire flagellants from WH Fantasy would do a lot to help them stand out. When i played Catachans my veteran squad was actually made up of Goliath gangers from Necromunda.