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Hi everyone,

I'm relatively new to 40K, I've made models before but not with the intention of gaming with them. I play imperial guard and already have a few basic units, does anyone have any ideas how i could expand?

What do you have already?
Do you have the rulebook and the codex? You will need them to play.
Post a list with what you have, it will make it easier for people to help you.
Also, Welcome to Dakka.

Find a club or local gamers.

You need quite a bit of stuff unfortunatly : rules, tape measure, dice ,templates, a codex/army book and the models themselves. However you can probably find a small rulebook + templates on ebay. Paints and brushes too. And glue.
You need the codex, there is no way around this. The sooner newbies learn this the better. Infact you need the codex almost more than the rules!

Go to a GW / FLGS and get someone to teach you how to play. None of this 'terminators have a 4+ save' or 'orcs have 6 attacks' nonsense. Proper rules.

Find out what points values are played near you - 1000 1250 1500 2000?

Make a list incorporating what minis you have, what you'd like to have and what suits your playstyle.

Yeah I've got a codex, tape measure, dice etc. I have about 40 normal soldiers, two leman russ' a chimera a hellhound and a sentinel

It sounds like you may or may not have the bare essentials for gaming - it depends on how your regular soldiers are equipped and divided up.

To play you need, at the minimum, two Troops choices and one HQ choice. Guard is a little tricky when it comes to organization, so first I'd make sure you have a suitable HQ unit - a company command squad, or a Lord Commissar or Primaris Psyker - and two Troop choices - either platoons (with their own platoon command squads and at least 2 regular squads) or veteran squads. Do your best to sort through the codex entries if that's still confusing, I'm probably not the best at explaining IG organization (my apologies if you already know all this, I just want to make sure all the bases are covered).

Next I'd take what you already have and play at least a few games. Get a feel for what's working and what isn't, where you're weak and what you think you need.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, in my opinion, look around at the units available, the stories in the codex and other books, what other people do with their armies, and what armies you think are cool from real life (present or past) and get creative! I think too many people build their armies to be competitive and get frustrated when they don't win enough.

Buy what you think is cool and build it how you like. Just make sure you have the essentials first, and play a few games with what you've got to get a feel for your army.

More basic troopers. Heavy weapons squads. Tanks, basilisks. Chimeras.
All depending on weather you want to go mech guard or lay down 217 infantry models and artillery.

Thanks everyone, its a lot of help