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Hello!
Right so along with some VC I'm doing for gaming (picked a good time to start them eh) I've decided I want to do a more fancy looking army that will slow burn in the background.

I've always liked the sheer variations of human life described in the Imperium, and inspired by the Feudal world description from the 3e rulebook I'm going for some sort of techno-feudal army.

I'm using the planet of Gudrun from one of the Eisenhorn books, described as a Feudal planet and has a cool name to boot.

Of course the first place to start would be an infantry platoon, but they're in the post. More on that later.
A long time ago GW sold box sets that consisted of 10 troops and a transport. They were well priced (anyone remember?) so I got an armoured fist squad, which had 10 guardsmen and a chimaera. Unfortunately I discovered when I got home that one of the chimaera sprues was missing - which involved the turret, rear armour and lasguns. Being young and stupid at the time, and losing the reciept, I never complained to GW and made some awful bodge job of the Chim.

Years passed and the Chim was eventually covered in battle damage and used as terrain pieces or whatever - with various bits being stolen for Orky creations.
As an aside, I never got round to getting any more IG and the 10 guardsmen were converted into some semi-decent plague traitors.

Anyway, I decide I want this IG army now and dig the chimaera out of my wardrobe with a view to restoring it into something a bit more tidy and special. Being older and somewhat wiser - and versed in the knowledge of plasticard, instant mold and paint stripping made this plan a bit easier

So here it was, fresh from the back of my wardrobe. Cover your eyes

I then removed some gubbinz and cut out the rear cover, and stripped it of paint (a bit of a disappointing strip but it'll do). I also tidied up some of the holes and stuff with a file ready for filling.


I then got busy on one of the side hatches, which had some damage. I recreated the frame with card and gs, and replicated the hatch from the other side as the original was damaged and bent.



The mold wasn't great because I kept poking it and moving it around when it was still soft, so I might redo that

I then got started on the turret - of course I could buy the missing sprue in a flash these days, but that would be boring. So I'm scratch building some sort of interesting one.

As I was making it, I kept thinking it reminded me of something. Then I remembered:


Luckily I have a multilaser from a sentinel kit, which will go on the side. plenty more to do on that!

As for the rest, all of the damaged will be filled or replaced. I'm going to create a few more track covers, and there are some treads on the back that need replacing.
For the rear section I'm going to have some form of open topped thingy with gubbinz and stuff. Maybe a few figures here and there, which I don't have at the moment. Lots of purity seals and maybe some flaming torches and flags and wood panelling.

I like to scratchbuild stuff entirely from my head, I don't really like looking at other stuff for inspiration. But all comments and recommendations welcome!
Of course I will add more as it's done, including when I get started on the guardsmen. Cheers!

What are you planning to base the guardsmen on? Historical miniatures are worth a look with the Perry Twins, Wargames Factory and Warlord Games all making nice odels for this type of project.

Llamahead wrote:What are you planning to base the guardsmen on? Historical miniatures are worth a look with the Perry Twins, Wargames Factory and Warlord Games all making nice odels for this type of project.

I did spend a lot of time considering options, including LOTR stuff (seem too small), chaos marauders (too naked), empire stuff, etc but settled on brettonnian men at arms. But I'm still not sure, when they come I'm going to examine them and maybe change my mind. One of the downsides is their socket arms which might be a bit annoying. But i like their clothing and helmets.

I didn't want something that was blatantly empire with lasguns stuck on, and I felt the bretons had a bit of scope for expanding away from WHFB.

Historical minis completely skipped my mind, I might look into them

RED ALLERT YESSS!

And wooden panneling appeals to my idea of feudal, but purely asthetics like strange towers? not to replace the armour (unless you want to have a chimera with a armour rating of 5,3,3,)

Btw i happen to know a certain ex guard player with a huge load of bitz which could come in handy

im very interested please post soon

Subbed. Looks like a good project.

Thanks everyone, just a small update as I have been busy with other stuff.

The main turret is basically completed although not glued on because there is some more work to do underneath. Plenty of work remains for the rest of the tank.


I have been thinking a lot about the "art direction" of the army and while the main theme remains I want to inject some healthy religious fanaticism so expect plenty of purity seals and robed madmen. I'm a big fan of Blanche's artwork, cables and all, so in a way it's my homage to him.

Anyway, the bretons arrived and I am pretty pleased with the sprues, it's an old kit but they are decent models and there is plenty of scope for this project.
The main bulk of infantry will take some time as I have to fabricate and reproduce arms and lasguns for them (prototypes in production!) however I just had to get started so I threw together this flamer chap.

The tank is a railway scale detailing part I found in a model shop, surprisingly heavy but looks cool as you can guess the main barrel is made from a rusty nail (and the head for the tap).
I still need to connect the other end of guitar string, obviously, and add some more detailing when I have the time. Then I'm going to paint him up to see how the scheme will look (undecided on that too).

Professor armless next to him will be the guineapig for various lasgun designs. He has a bright future ahead of him.

Only thing I would say about the sprue is that the cast is crap, there's some heavy mold lines and a few creases in some of the parts. but hey, 9 year old sprue, what more can you ask for.