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Hi all.
I am putting together a Company of imperial guard, which will include some female figures. I know that most imperial guard regiments are same sex but there are some notable mixed regiments such as the ones in the Ciaphas Cain novels.

I am basing my troops on 3rd company, Vahallan 79th Rapid Response Regiment. This Regiment is trained to deploy in any enviroment and fight any foe at short notice.
They wear the standard uniform of imperial guard because I dont like the idea of Valhallans wearing heavy clothing in every operation. In fact again in the Ciaphas Cain novels they wear light fatigues in warmer weather.

The main thrust of my focus is to produce troops in a realistic Camo pattern uniform.
I decided not to follow the white number system as white symbols all over them and white eagles, seem a bit at odds with camo/futuristic military forces.
Instead I have followed military practise of DZ like flashes to the left shoulde and subdued all other insignia.
The triangle represents 3rd company and squads coloured 1st - Red, 2nd - Blue, 3rd - Green etc.
3 squads = a platoon.
3 platoon = a company.
plus HQ and support Platoons.

The Flashes I have made slightly bigger than they would be, for ease of play.
Pics to follow.

Ok so here's the scheme ive settled on.

With unit insignia. sorry about the phote quality its on my phone.

Hey

Looking good, like the camo and the blue eyes (nice touch). Interested to see the flashes.

You found a source of female IG?

Spank

Excellent camo scheme paintjob.
I'd like to make 2 main points:
1) Depending on the amount of troops you're going for, painting all the eyes will drive you insane. That said, you've done a good job of it.
2) Unless you're transferring them to pre-painted bases, it may be a good idea to flock them before giving them such a good paintjob.

Looking forward to seeing where this goes.

They are really nice looking! Love the paint job...Later on on like banners and such may want to paint vahallan 79th though otherwise I guarantee people will think they are cadians.

SpankHammer III wrote:Hey

Looking good, like the camo and the blue eyes (nice touch). Interested to see the flashes.

You found a source of female IG?

Spank

Thanks mate, Im making my own. im using Hasslefree lady soldiers as a base and ripping them apart and buliding them back up again. Will post pics soon.


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CadianXV wrote:Excellent camo scheme paintjob.
I'd like to make 2 main points:
1) Depending on the amount of troops you're going for, painting all the eyes will drive you insane. That said, you've done a good job of it.
2) Unless you're transferring them to pre-painted bases, it may be a good idea to flock them before giving them such a good paintjob.

Looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Lol, I know what you mean about eyes but I cant not do it. Its a curse in a way and yeah Im putting them on resin bases.

Look forward to seeing it.

have often thought about doing a squad of female IG.

Consider me subscribed.

riverhawks32 wrote:They are really nice looking! Love the paint job...Later on on like banners and such may want to paint vahallan 79th though otherwise I guarantee people will think they are cadians.

Thx I know what you mean and I will have to Valhalla them in some way, but unless you stick with limited metal ranges you just cant get enough variety and Cadia seems to be the uniform of the IG, plus plastic is so easy to convert.

So now that im happy with the company fluff, and paint schemes etc time to tackle the women troopers. I am doing a squad first (10 figs) but i would normally distribute them throughout the company. (mixed Squads).
After much research and having looked at all the options I have settled on 10 hasslefree lady soldiers minutres. This is because:

1. I do not want my troopers to like like drag queens by changing heads.

2. I served in the Parachute Regiment and I have seen many female soldiers.(Obviously not in the Paras) but attached and corp personell etc. One thing that amazes me is the number of people on here who say you cant realyl tell the difference when kitted up. You most definatly CAN.

Women ave boot size 5-6. Men 9 - 10
Ave height 5 ft 2in. men 5 ft 10.
Shoulders much much narrower.
Hands far smaller and head size far smaller.
Chest and Im talking back width here, 36, men 40 plus. (Remember the womens includes the bust.)

And if thats not enough, armies are generally tight when issuing kit. They tend to produce universal fitted equipment, so some kit looks a bit bulky on a female frame. Helmets seem to look too big for instance because females generally have slimmer faces, chins, cheekbones etc. Guns look bigger in smaller hands etc.

Now some people will say " yeah but in aliens that women looked bigger etc". Remember she was with actors not soldiers. Simply put if you get a female soldier in full combat kit with a squad of men dressed the same you can tell.

So thats what Im aiming to do.And its my personel view, I dont want drag queens or big breasted barmaids, I want professional looking soldiers, albeit femle.

The minitures arrived and I must say they are fine castings. One critisim is they nearly all have sunglasses on, but apart from that they are just what im looking for.

First off I started by cutting back the helmet to leave only the face. (Not easy I can tell you.) I also cut off weapons and the odd arm that was not in the position required.

Then I began hollowing out guard helmets (another Bsa£$£" of a Job).
Then I cut shoulder pads from spare arms etc. ( You guessed it another .......)

I then paused and wondered if it was worth it.

Now I assembled the ROUGHS, these are minis I am getting a feel for.

I started to add Kit, Backpaks etc.
I like the look and feel they look like I think female soldiers look.

heres some comparasion pics.

looks good dude keep it up. and also serving in the military i know what you mean. I served in a mixed company and you are right about all the points you made about female soldiers. I'd like to see more of this project take shape so keep it up and post more progress

alabamaheretic wrote:looks good dude keep it up. and also serving in the military i know what you mean. I served in a mixed company and you are right about all the points you made about female soldiers. I'd like to see more of this project take shape so keep it up and post more progress

Thanks Alabama, to be honest ive given up waiting for GW to make females.
Next up some specialists, Sarge, Grenadier, Flamer and. Vox.

Beautiful work!

But, seeing as you're doing a lot of cutting, and don't want the sunglasses... Consider removing the heads entirely, and replacing them with:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/shop/miniatures/hasslefree-miniatures/bits/human-female-heads-a-sprue-of-5.html

I think that's going to save you a LOT of time.

--Brian (Sub-SCRIBED!)

Wow looking good. You are ambitous sir! Camo looks awesome.

Looking good man, be interested to see what they look like when you've pained them.

I like you points and agree, i've never served in the military so can't say if your right but if female models are identical to the male ones what the point in having them. Might as well use cadians and say they are ugly woman.

Not that i'm a fan of people who go too far the other way either, not having a go but not my taste, with commissar in suspenders and corsets.

Briancj wrote:Beautiful work!

But, seeing as you're doing a lot of cutting, and don't want the sunglasses... Consider removing the heads entirely, and replacing them with:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/shop/miniatures/hasslefree-miniatures/bits/human-female-heads-a-sprue-of-5.html

I think that's going to save you a LOT of time.

--Brian (Sub-SCRIBED!)

Thx brian, Great minds think alike. Already ordered when i researched what was available. The arrived today!!


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murdog wrote:Wow looking good. You are ambitous sir! Camo looks awesome.

Thx Murdog, I think Guard looks good in Camo.


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SpankHammer III wrote:Looking good man, be interested to see what they look like when you've pained them.

I like you points and agree, i've never served in the military so can't say if your right but if female models are identical to the male ones what the point in having them. Might as well use cadians and say they are ugly woman.

Not that i'm a fan of people who go too far the other way either, not having a go but not my taste, with commissar in suspenders and corsets.

Thx Spankhammer,

I think its important to go with what feels good to you. A Commissar is suspenders my look good, but not quite right in a battle situation!! Getting the balance is tricky though. The way women stand, walk etc its all subtly different and the human eye is pre programed to recognise these dfferences and make instant assumptions.

Ok, So first up is the Vox trooper. The helmat was a real challage but i think it looks better being and original rather than a scratch.
I think her pose is just about right.

Nice work. I picked up Hasslefree's Mackenzie to see about making a test figure for my (eventually) rebooted IGuard army, but she's just absolutely tiny, lol.

Which is probably realistic as you mentioned, but I can't help but think she will look ludicrous with GW scale weaponry in her hands. I wonder if you won't have better luck using one of the templates for the cut down carbine-sized las rifles. If they look gigantic in the hands of the male troopers, they look a little cartoonish with the Hasslefree females.

Still, I like your idea of using the Hasslefree figs. Ultimately, as cool as they are, using any of those torso kits out there liek Shadowforge's, with GW legs and arms will result in some really beefy looking females, lol.

Veteran Sergeant wrote:Nice work. I picked up Hasslefree's Mackenzie to see about making a test figure for my (eventually) rebooted IGuard army, but she's just absolutely tiny, lol.

Which is probably realistic as you mentioned, but I can't help but think she will look ludicrous with GW scale weaponry in her hands. I wonder if you won't have better luck using one of the templates for the cut down carbine-sized las rifles. If they look gigantic in the hands of the male troopers, they look a little cartoonish with the Hasslefree females.

Still, I like your idea of using the Hasslefree figs. Ultimately, as cool as they are, using any of those torso kits out there liek Shadowforge's, with GW legs and arms will result in some really beefy looking females, lol.

Thx vetran

I know what you mean about some of the figs available they are tiny.
What I've done is add to the arms a touch and broaden the shoulders with the pads backpacks etc.
I really like the size now. As for the weapons 40k is a bit comical with size anyway and I was keen to use
Original kit as much as possible. I cut down some of the shoulder pads and bits here and there plus I've left the bayonets off.
If you take an average troopers las rifle its massive even for them and I thought of carbines but I did not want them
To look like cut down rifles because I figured that would detract from
The look of the female figure. Ie if you make the kit smaller and fit it to a smaller frame
you get a small miniature. Is it a male or female or is it just small figure.

Now when it comes to support weapons they are big but i like the look. As far as I'm aware no army
I can think of has ever made weapons just for females. So the girls gotta man up.

I personally think that standard weapons work better than trying to scale them.

Here's the Sarge.

The idea looks good, but the helmet (IMO) it's a little big for her!
Why don't you try to sculpt one!?

FantasyBob wrote:The idea looks good, but the helmet (IMO) it's a little big for her!
Why don't you try to sculpt one!?

Thx Fantasy,
Her helmet strap is undone and this makes a big difference.
I like the scale and as I've already said if I downsize kit they will just look like smaller soldiers.

:

All weapons drilled and battle damage added.
OK so here's the flamer.

No jokes about women holding big weapons etc.
..

Grenadier.

Trooper.

More toopers.

Beautiful! I love that you're actually going out and building women. I have most of the random IG women in my armies, but I have never had the courage to convert. Love the camo as well. Great job