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Hi, so I'm working on an Imperial Guard army at the moment and i was thinking of using some military kits instead of the basic GW vehicle kits. Its for a couple reasons
1. The scale for all the vehicles except the valk are just a bit too small to conceivably carry the 10 models it's supposed to, rhinos should be like land raiders etc.
2. Just to add some character and individuality to my army, its hard to do without access to bitz dealers and i'm using cadians (they're a hell of a lot cooler than the baby ogryns)
3. $$$$ GW is stupidly expensive for what you get.

So if anyone knows of a good company that makes good artillery and tank models let me know. Id rather they were a little bigger than the gw tank kits

This would be cool, and it sounds cool, but also take into consideration that you won't be able to use this army for too much, unless your opponent doesn't mind. And forget tournaments.

If you're not worried about either of those 2 points, then go to town. I'd like a few pictures of the WIP.

I would suggest checking here:
http://www.thewarstore.com/

Left side has a bar with different links, check the historical.

Best of luck

It goes two ways.

You can actually pick up half of a leman russ for around $17, you just need to get the track sections, usually run you around $10-16. For the rest, you need some plasticard to finish it off.

If you are set on doing military vehicles, you need to do your research. Find out the dimensions of the tank, and find out how large it would be in 1/35 or 1/48, and which fits better. Comparatively speaking the Leman Russ is actually a monster of a tank, and in the real military.... man, its a tight squeeze, but they all fit in. In the guard, there are no vehicle size issues, I actually think the valkyrie is too big. comparatively speaking though, the rhino is tiny.

In all honesty, Maelstrom games is your cheapest bet for bits and goodies and stuff. Shipping is expensive, so you really have to go all in, and drop a huge wad of cash. Before you do that though, check out all the stuff they have on ebay, if not enough interests you, just don't bid.

Their site is blocked from work, but try the WW2 vehicles found here:
www.warlordgames.co.uk/home/bolt-action

Maelstrom also sell them.

Once upon a time I had a link to a blog where someone was doing a Russian themed IG army. That link however is long gone.

But the gist of it, he found a site that sold the proper scale russian heads and AK's for the guardsmen. He then proxied Hinds for the aircraft and one of their APC's for the chimera, nothing for the Russ though (unless you don't plan on using the sponsons). All about the right scale.

This article will be useful.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Scale_Model_Kits_for_40K

I advise the use of 1/35th scale model kits. They will look good and bulky compared to the GW kits. There is a better selection in 1/35 than in 1/48.

Tamiya, Dragon, AFV Club, Italeri, Revell and Hobby Boss are all good makes of 1/35th scale kits. You should be able to search and order online in Canada.

If you want to do aircraft, I advise the use of 1/48th scale. Aircraft are so large compared to vehicles that 1/35th scale is too large for the tabletop. There is a wider selection available in 1/48 as well.

I use Tamiya 1/48th myself.
Some of the smaller artillary pieces (eg the Marder III) do look a bit small, but remember that GW vehicles are over-sized.

Alright thanks for all the info Dakka!
I'm thinking of doing a mixed regiment, half-infantry and half-artillery. So i'm sure i'll be able to find some great kits at the 1/35th scale.
Also my opponents aren't going to care as i only play with a couple friends and have no intent to play tournaments

Most military tank kits are 1/35th scale. In my experience medium to large (real world) vehicles will be huge in a 40k game, but if you look into the smaller early WWII mini tanks you can find kits that fit sizewise and have the archaic Imperial attitude. 1/35th scale Soviet T-70's make an interesting looking predator. I could see British MkVI light tanks or Stuarts being used. I have seen interesting conversions using Bren gun carriers too.

The OP is looking for oversize vehicles. He feels the standard GW models are too small.

My main issue is with using military models in 40K is that they always end up looking like a military model with the barrels replaced with lascannons and the odd aquila.

Or to make it look 40K enough, there is usually that little of the original military model left that they would have been better off just using 40k kits to begin with.

It's a very fine line, and very difficult to pull off well, so tread carefully

I know what you mean.

It helps to pick some of the less well known vehicles such as Italian or French WW2.

OTOH, the Rhino is a copy of the M113 and FV432, so a "real" vehicle model looks pretty good.

I picked up a couple of Fuchs APCs awhile back to use as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuchs_(APC)

Unfortunately, I never got around to building them, and they're boxed away at the moment. I also got some other obscure Eastern European APC/AFV/police riot vehicle which looked great, but it's also boxed away and I can't even remember what it was called.