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Hi there, very sorry if this is in the wrong place, but I'm very new to the forum. Anyway, I digress, I am starting to collect an imperial guard army and I really love the idea of a sort of bio-hazard theme in both aesthetics i.e. gas masks etc. but also, using that kind of weaponry, the obvious choice is the bane wolf (I believe that is the correct variant of the hell hound.) Beyond that I'm stuck for ideas - I play with a close knit group of players so the isn't a problem sticking to GW tournament rules and such, I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions when it comes to modelling and painting - or what kind of weapons to use? Any help in getting a long term hiatus player back in to the game would be much appreciated.

Cheers.

You could likely do a bio-hazard kind of theme using "acid throwers" as Heavy Flamers/Flamers/Meltas (depending on dispersal and intensity). This could likely be carried off by modelling funnels onto the end of the flamer instead of its standard set piece and painting.modelling it as bright colour acids etc.

Forge world also provides hazard gear for Cadians on their website, to kit out your entire army it'll likely end up costing a fair bit but it will carry your theme through.

I went with wagames Factory greatcoat troops myself. Gas masks and the weapons that came with them and some bitz. There are may companies that make bits , such as heads. I'll see if I have some of those links, if not I am sure someone will throw em down.My them was a "cold" desart world much like mars, little breathable atmo, so I kept the gasmasks and went with baneblade brown desert yellow and khaki for the clothing. And Runelord bronze for the mask with a flat red for the goggles.

It really depends on what kind of environmental background they have, deadly jungles, frozen wastes, acid rain storm washed world or what. One you pick this most of the theme kinda falls together.

The funnels idea sounds good, I'll give that a shot, thanks.

I like the sound of an acid rain storm washed world, any kinda ideas on how that could pan out?

To represent chemical spray weapons, I'd just go with flamers and heavy flamers where I can. To represent a particularly lethal perhaps even acidic chemical that is fired from something like a water jet, I'd go melta (extremely precise water - or should I say chem - jet, more like a ranged water, chem, saw capable of cutting through the toughest armor) or plasma (blast represents the splash, and the gets hot! rule could be interpreted as some of the chemical seeped out of the gun and got onto the soldier who happened to be wielding it).

As for modeling the jet spray weapons that would count as Melta or Plasma, I'd go for a sort of... water gun look I suppose? As far as modeling your units, look at Salvar Chem Dogs and DKoK for inspiration.

I do love the DKoK but then, I'm not made of money, in an ideal world I'd probably use them, but not only am I not a fan of the prices, I'm not big on their separate rules.

I agree - you could do a pretty in-your face kind of guard with this. 3x melta mechvets + meched CCS, 3x banewolves, stormies, perhaps an infantry platoon to bulk up the numbers. You'd have to be crazy to do a chimera highland charge, but it seems to fit your fluff.

Otherwise, you could do this foot horde. Take a few power blobs and generally eschew heavy weapons. You could also do some neat conversion work to make some highly fluffy bio-mutants (ogryn).

In any case, you've got to start with the basics - a lot of guardsmen with a bunch of chimeras, or a LOT of guardsmen and a couple of commissars.

Canonically, Krieg and Armageddon guardsmen are the ones that always wear gasmasks or similar equipment. Mordant Acid Dogs often fight in mines or nocturnal world, though if you go that way, you're going to have to do a lot of modeling. Those three regiments are native from world that come very close to what you describe, though not only because of acid rain. You can also find adequate bits for other regiments if you want. Cadians with dangerous enviroment equipment from FW look awesome, in my opinion.

Bane Wolfs are some of my favorite vehicles in the whole game, and would go very well if you want to try out a tank-heavy Armageddon army. You could also use them if you want to go for a mechanized infantry list.

I have an IG regiment planned that uses models with hazardous enviroment equipment too. I made it that way because I think it looks cooler, but also because from the entire legion (they're renegade guards) they're the ones that use the most plasma weapons, including executioners, and Bane Wolfs. Maybe you could give them plasma weapons too? They're famous for their inestability, so you could have another reason for their gear there.

I'm a big fan of a mechvet army, involving driving around in chimeras, burning and melting everything and looking in your face in the process (something you don't get with your standard cadian). I really like the steel legion models, but I'm not the best at working with the metal models so I wanted to leave them. I have some left over cadian enviro-kits my brother gave me before he went to university so i'll see how they look and whether i can afford to keep it up. So, as far as it stands, I'm thinking lots of mechvets with the weapons people have suggested, supported by some bane wolfs or wolves, whichever.

Death Korps of Krieg is one way to go with the gas-mask aesthetic; you'd be paying 2-2.5x as much for the Forge World infantry miniatures, but if you stick with a mechvet army it's not going to be quite as absurd as an infantry-blob army would be.

I've finally decided against Dkok, just because how ever much I do like them, and how ever much they cost - part of the hobby is all about being original, creative etc. - I'll go slow and make my own guys

There are also the hazardous environment upgrade packs for the Cadians that FW sells.

Forgeworld also stock Elysian heads with respirators if you want a little variety from the hazard atmo bodies/heads (not sure if its a one piece kit). Again you're looking at a pricetag but they're easily compatible with a cadian torso

The Elysians might be cool, but one of the guys I play with uses them, so I'd rather stay away

Elysian heads on Cadian bodies will look different enough that your army won't look like your Elysian friend's army. There are also Hazardous Environment Cadian upgrades from Forgeworld:
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Imperial_Guard/Cadian_Shock_Troops/CADIAN-HOSTILE-ENVIRONMENT-TROOPS-CONVERSION-SET.html
You could load up your army with lots of grenade launchers (frag grenades = gas grenades) and flamethrowers.

Ok seeing a lack of Non-Gw ideas and links I will provide some

http://www.maxmini.eu/store/ Here you will find Alternate Heads, weapons, and kits
http://www.pig-iron-productions.com Here you will find a ton of things, weapons, heads and miniatures.

Those are two that might provide you with some idea's. You might also want to hunt Ebay for bits or a few well known bit dealers. If you go over toward the Modeling/painting section of this site they have a thread with a large list of resources for such things.

I really like some of the pig Iron heads - I understand loads of people use them, but I can see why! I do like some of the maxmini weapons, thanks for the links.

You're welcome, I don't use GW minis for my army, although I do use some bits. So I tend to look for nifty bits

I was looking at the imperial guard models, and was thinking the old style storm troopers could be cool for the theme - but I know storm troopers have a lot of stigma attached, despite those who do like them being quite strong in their defense, I'm a little hesitant to buy some, I'll probably proxy them for now. Do any of you think they are worth it? Or should I avoid stormies?

Stormies are fine in groups of 5 with special weapons, usually melta guns, and deepstriking behind enemy vehicles.

Thanks man, I'm not very familiar with the new guard codex, but as far as I can see, people aren't too impressed with the elites section in general.

You may have been looking in the wrong places.
Think of Marbo and what he does for 65 points, think of the Psyker Battle squad. Both are highly competitive choices. The Ogryns, Stormtroopers and the Ratlings all have their functions and are certainly usefull, but they are a bit beyond the internet theme...

http://www.victorialamb.com/store.html

scroll down to the highland guard packs and heads. Those guys would fit your theme very well I would think. And I've bought from the site before, excellent quality and a very good price. They are metal but I found they were pretty easy to work with, so they shouldn't be much trouble.

As for other things, anything that puts out templates would be a good start. All of the hellhound variants have good potential here, but other good choices might be heavy flamer or plasma cannon sentinels, the executioner russ (The one that fires plasma cannon shots), and maybe even something like the demolisher if you could figure out a good way to mod it.

Stormtroopers are alright, I guess, but they can't really compare to other things in the codex. If you have the points to spare, give them meltas, deepstrike them near the weak end of an important vehicle and let them have at it, but they won't do much more than that.

Marbo does sound like a lot of fun, I was a little concerned about what is effectively a free kill point for the other team though, the highlander models are very cool, do you happen to know if anywhere in the UK stocks them?