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Having returned after many years of absence (since 3rd edition), I noticed the IG line has remained relatively stagnant. I've noticed a few changes here & there, new Ogryns, HQ's re-sculpted etc but otherwise it has remained relatively unchanged after almost 10 years. I'm sure just about every army is in a similar position. I'm just surprised at how little has been updated. When I started in 3rd edition, Tau had just been introduce, Armageddon & the Steel legion were added etc. It was a exciting time. It was almost to much going on.

Years have gone by and with my return, much has remained unchanged. Rules have changed a great deal, but the models themselves seem like they haven't been recast. While this is great for getting back into the game, I can identify pretty much everything its also somewhat disappointing. I remember back in 3rd edition there were rumors Sister of Battle were going to be recast in plastic. 10 years and SOB players are still waiting. With more & more armies being introduce via FW (Elysians/DKoK etc) has Games Workshop just thrown in the towel or what?

Edit: I forgot about Voyostrans or w/e they are called. I'm not a big fan of their aesthetics.

GW have been concentrating on plastics a lot lately what with improvements in the process allowing for things like plastic characters and using 3d modelling where appropriate instead of traditional sculpting. So for IG, where it shouldn't prove too difficult, I would expect to see some new plastics when their next Codex turns up. That might be a bit of a wait though.

It's also a disservice to say they've had not had much in the way of new models when you consider the tanks... not only have there been new variants available for most (if not all) of their Codexes, but the ones that used to come with metal add-ons are now fully plastic too.

As for Sisters of Battle... there have been many threads on that, which you can find easily enough with searches, but the general whispers through the grapevine seem to be that the plastics still aren't at a stage where they can get the models looking right in a multipart kit.

There are some great 3rd party Imperial Guard alternatives such as the plastic Dreamforge Eisenkern Stormtroopers, restic Mantic Corporation troopers, or a variety from vic minis in resin or metal.

I see quite a few other people coming back into the hobby after many years out. I myself stopped buying minis during 2nd edition and for me there is a quite a bit of new stuff out there (Tau, Necrons, SoB, Dark Eldar...).

It was a big shock for me that everything new had switched to plastic and I was also surprised to see there if very little mention of it. I expect the 2nd edition starter box was a sign but I hated those models and barely got any of them painted.

Truth is I'm still not convinced by the switch to plastic. Some of it is so brittle and easy to break, plus I find it criminal the prices expected for a plastic model. At least when you bought the old metal model you felt like you were getting something substantial. They have also held their price relatively ok, whereas I doubt the plastic will be able to (if it somehow remains unbroken).

I'm liking the look of IG at the minute and will look into those others suggested by Yonan. If purchased through GW they would simply cost far too much to build an army.

Imperial Guard have gotten plenty of plastic love, but much of it may seem subtle. The Chimera, Leman Russ, Basilisk, and Hellhound (plus variants for all of the above) were resculpted in excellent, easily assembled plastic kits, but they resemble the old kits to anyone who isn't looking terribly closely, or isn't terribly familiar with the modern models vs. the old ones. Catachans got some excellent kits with the heavy weapons teams and command squad, but unfortunately their standard infantry kit is still pretty damn ugly, and not compatible with the Cadian kit.