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I am currently working on my IG cadian veteran squads and was wondering if anyone was will to share some customization ideas.... i've got alot myself but have to build ~50 of them and would like them to all look unique. If anyone is willing to share that would be great. Thanks

I dont paint IG, but the gallery search would be my recomendation.

You can always modify the color scheme, like make thier helmets a bright color if the rest of thier amor is drab, and you can always buy bits like bags and whatnot from variious sites that sells 28mm pecies for "heroic" size minis

I have found that the catachan grenade arms make for good pistol grips on the barrels of las guns. some slight modification with the cadian might look cool too. I can post pictures if needed. also i have added the single scope bit to the top of the same las guns to give a red dot sight looking scope to the guns. I would also add some of the extra bits to make them look more outfitted with equipment and maybe some cool helmets with visors and such.

Garvil_Loken wrote:I have found that the catachan grenade arms make for good pistol grips on the barrels of las guns. some slight modification with the cadian might look cool too. I can post pictures if needed. also i have added the single scope bit to the top of the same las guns to give a red dot sight looking scope to the guns. I would also add some of the extra bits to make them look more outfitted with equipment and maybe some cool helmets with visors and such.

what did you use for the red dot sights?

Here is where I found the idea

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/238549.page

Thats more of a sniper scope than a red dot sight. However you can make good looking red dot sights by trimming the flash-hider assembly off a spare lasgun and sticking it on the sight rail of the one you want to use. the exact orientation is up to you

Otherwise, you can do helmet swaps from a number of different sources (Pig Iron being a popular choice), add lots of kit on to the guys, kit-bash using Marine scouts or other Guard kits, alternate weapon loadouts (e.g. from Hasslefree or modified from lasguns).

You could try having them carrying extra equipment (the fact that the codex mentions Veterans acquiring less common weapons and equipment means you could use things from all manner of kits). I've also mixed in parts from Catachan kits with my Cadians to make Veterans, though some kits are easier to mix in than others. Taking heads as an example, I'd say the heads from the Catachan Command Squad fit better, while the heads from regular Catachans seem sightly bigger and have thicker necks, so you'd probably have to do a bit of filing to make them look suitable.

Those ideas for adding scopes to lasguns sound like they'd look good.

I like to use the sights from the heavy weapons kit on the top of the lasgun

Edit:

Here is where I found the idea

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/238549.page

I was too late lol

Backpacks and head swaps go a long way. I went with Black Dog backpacks and West Wind heads.





They hadn't been based yet, but you get the idea. Also, for Sergeants and officers, I chopped most of the nicknacks off of the Vox Casters to make them look like AN PRC radios.

You could buy one of the many Forgeworld Imperial Guard upgrade kits, notably the Cadian Veterans with Shotguns, Chaos Renegades or Elysian equiptment pack , or just base your conversion off of them. Just painting white stripes onto their armour (how crude these are is up to you and your regiment's character) and making them a bit more grimier and battle scarred can go a ways to making them look unique. Using dfferent heads, either bear, such as ones from the Warhammer Empire range, of with different helmets, for example maxi-mini produce a range of alternative guard heads, can also help. Straps, beards, pouches, scars, extra unit designations and campaign markers, long range recon equiptment and different weapons (gun off the stocks of their lasguns...), bases with extra rubble, grisly trophies, or loincloths and purity seals....... There's many ways to make your vets unique (in fact each of my own vet squads look quite different from one another), its just up to you to decide how you'll make yours. ^^

Here's a piece of concept art I drew a while back for my own carapace vets.



Oh yeah, and did I mention, backpacks, backpacks, backpacks...? =D

Pig iron productions heads for me too (had just finished halo reach!) And I just cut the ends of the lasguns off, drilled the barrels and stuck the ends of the lasguns on top as scopes. Hey presto, instant autoguns! Some catachan backpacks and thats about it.

What I've done before is take the binoculars from the HW set and slice them in half... Add a little bit of plasticard or GS to raise it up a mm and it looks like a squared and armor-housed version of the marine scope.

I used the Catachan command squad set, which let me have some more characterful models. I converted up shotguns for them and painted some tattoos.

I just had a thought: "suicide grenades" or, I don't know what they're called.... Esseintially, many troopers that did not want to be taken prisoner carried a grenade with the pin looped to their neck.....

Other options include: Space marine pouches (triplet pouches) on the shoulder, modified weapons, a different set of heads (could go as mentioned above, with pig iron, or if you have a friend who plays catachans, give your vets catachan heads... Or you can also give them the tanker helmets (smoother shape, and they all have comms)).

The real trick is: what doctrines do you intend on giving your vets? THAT is where you can go absolutely nuts on them. If theyre grennadiers, bulk up their armor, if theyre scouts, give them camo and more gear... and.... i appear to have forgotten the third one, but once you decide what doctrines you want them to have, it opens up some more possibilities than trying to tease out your favorites from suggestions.

Another option could be to give them all bandages

I use spare & unhelmetted Empire heads, maruder heads etc - the ones with the beards for example.

Try the gas mask heads from Ramshackles' latest trooper set, fit perfectly on Cadian bodies.

Look at the various Bitz shops on E bay, you can build each different-- if you can afford it?

Try SM scout heavy bolter arms ( with bolter), and maybe a "number 2" carrying ammo cans- either spare from tank kits, or the ones in the SM devastator set.

Got artillery? Empire gunners arms, especially the ramrod, fit well too. Crews carrying heavy stubbers/ jerricans/WHY?

Look at hasslefree's weapon sprues for alternatives; if you go for that Troopers set from Ramshackle you get weapon sprues with the bare/gasmask heads too, bargain!

Most modifications won't show at tabletop distance if you keep the uniforms painted the same as your other Guards.

Enjoy.

I just greenstuff hats onto them, it's fairly easy to do if you don't have spare heads or don't want to buy alternate heads. (I give em boonie caps)

My vets are rockin' the packs w/ entrenching tool from the heavy weapon squads... and I gave my heavy weapon squads com-packs, because it makes way more sense to me that way.

I essentially created a short history for their squad leader and used that as a basis for what sort of gear they have. To each their own though, best of luck.

I did lots of little to big things for my vets. FW respirator heads, SM scout legs, etc...
but the biggest thing i did was paint them with black helmets. eventually i'll have special squad decals
for the vets and standard squad/cadian numbers on the regular squads.