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I've been wanting to start up an thematic Imperial Guard army for quite some time now and have an interesting idea, I want to run a light, Infantry heavy, army, similar to a Marine Corps.
Now, I'm not really expecting the army to be too competitive, I just want to have fun (Who doesn't though) so here is what I've got in mind
I want to have most of the army be comprised of Infantry and light vehicles (Sentinels, Chimeras, etc.). I've been debating about whether or not to run Taruox's for my main transports since they are cheap (At leat from what I've heard) and use the many Chimera configurations (Hellhounds, Devil dogs, etc.) to fill my "heavy" support roles.
The Theme.
This army would be used to gain a foothold on battlefields to allow Imperial reinforcements to arrive. So that is why I decided to run what is essentially, a light regiment, since this army would need to be able to hit the ground running and be able to capture important positions within a small window of time.
The Army Itself.
So I'm thinking about either running a veteran heavy list or using a regular infantry platoon heavy list. I'm leaning more to the latter, since these guys will be used to conduct first wave assaults, casualties will be high. I'll probably use Veterans to fill the Special Forces role, taking the enemy flanks and destroying high priority targets to allow the infantry platoons to roll up with heavy weapons teams raining lead down range. the Taurox's will be mainly used to transport the Veteran teams to the flanks to perform their roles and the Chimeras will be used to transport the infantry (Well, the Infantry squads with the most heavy weapons) to the frontlines. Sentinels will be used wherever they are needed.

So that's what I've got so far, now, I'm very new to this game, haven't even gotten an army yet (I've been thinking about the army I want to run before I even purchase anything). Leave your opinions and suggestions down below

Look at alternative 3rd party IG models from Madrobot or Victoria miniatures for what you're looking for as far as modeling the marine corps.

Madrobot has modern day marine like torsos, vet heads, slug guns; Victoria has taurox wheel conversions, various outfit guards; they are all scale compatible with GW cadians.

You quite literally read my mind haha I'm definitely going to be converting this army up, slug guns, bandoleers, ammo pouches, grenades, you name it. Even going to get bare arms for some of them so i can try and free hand some tattoos on them as well

I'm assuming you mean the US Marine Corps, not Space Marine Corps.
It looks like you'll be using the platoons squads quite heavily, to get special weapon squads, and heavy might not be your thing. You cannot fit a combined infantry squad in a transport, but you probably won't want to combine for large squads anyway.
Veteran squads work well for flanking and side-missions, as was said.
You have seen the Catachan models, of course. I heard the kits do not mix well with Cadian models, but see what looks to fit. Use them as scouting veteran squads maybe.

As for transports, avoid AV10 where you can. S4 weapons can glance them, and AV11+ is much better.
Chimeras are very handy for carrying 10-man squads, because of the las arrays. Just make sure you keep the side armour protected where you can. If you have command squads, put them in these, as Tauroxes are not command vehicles.

I deffo second the recommendation of Victoria Minis for alternative minis and add-ons.
Also:
http://anvilindustry.co.uk/Regiments/Regiments-Range-Guide

But, don't forget Techpriests, Psykers, missionaries, and the rest. They aren't part of the Marine Corp, but it's a big universe, and the bad guys aren't just humans any more.

I used to have a Marine Corps guard army. All Mordians in there dress blues.

Just remember the rule of 3's. A Marine Corps Rifle Company is 3 platoons of 3 squads of 3 fireteams with 3 heavy weapon squads. HMG, AT, and Mortars.

The emperors shield infantry platoon may be your friend here. Massed infantry with some cool rules to help out with keeping your heavy weapons teams mobile.

 Colbster82 wrote:
You quite literally read my mind haha I'm definitely going to be converting this army up, slug guns, bandoleers, ammo pouches, grenades, you name it. Even going to get bare arms for some of them so i can try and free hand some tattoos on them as well

If you like WWII Marines Warlord makes an excellent plastic kit that could be converted with some Victoria Lamb weapons (Vic's weapons are smaller and look really good in historical models hands)


I made some Valhallan Ice guard using their Winter Soviet kit and it looks great, just don't use official GW weapons as they are far too large for historical models to carry.

I'll probably just go onto Anvil Industries and pick up some scopes and clips and stick them on the rifles of the Warlord minis. I'm worried that the scopes and what not will be vastly disproportionate to the weapon though...

Anvil Scopes are made for 40k sized weapons. It looks excellent on the lasgun or boltgun, but putting in onto the historical weapon will look at least odd, if not dumb.

 necrontyrOG wrote:
I used to have a Marine Corps guard army. All Mordians in there dress blues.

Just remember the rule of 3's. A Marine Corps Rifle Company is 3 platoons of 3 squads of 3 fireteams with 3 heavy weapon squads. HMG, AT, and Mortars.

Welcome to Dakka, by the way.

I’ve also heard the rule of three applies to guard in general.

One is going to get killed before doing anything.
The second is going to miss.
But the third, the third will get the job done.

Applies to basically everything in the codex.

 Nevelon wrote:

 necrontyrOG wrote:
I used to have a Marine Corps guard army. All Mordians in there dress blues.

Just remember the rule of 3's. A Marine Corps Rifle Company is 3 platoons of 3 squads of 3 fireteams with 3 heavy weapon squads. HMG, AT, and Mortars.

Welcome to Dakka, by the way.

I’ve also heard the rule of three applies to guard in general.

One is going to get killed before doing anything.
The second is going to miss.
But the third, the third will get the job done.

Applies to basically everything in the codex.

Thanks for the welcome! Another Warseer refugee here.

As a long time guard player, I can confirm that three units are needed to get one job done.

Alright, I'll definitely follow the rule of three, and as for the scopes and what not on historical weapons looking off, you're right haha I'll just paint the weapons in grey and paint on some lights here and there to make it look like a different styled lasgun or I'll just not convert any warlord minis and stick with converting the GW ones