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What options are out there for (cheaper?) alternatives to GW’s Imperial Guard footslogger?
Preferably multipart kits, as I know there are plenty of monopose historic figures that could work.

Please post me some links, thanks in advance!

How cheap?

In the realm of minis, Guard are pretty dirt cheap per model as is.

Hmm kinda surprised i cant find those old wargames factory shock troops at all.

i remember those guys being pretty darn cheap.

there is always ebay 2nd hand.

First off, there's no such thing as a cheap IG infantry army. Cheaper, sure, but a proper IG infantry force will cost more than most other Arnie's pay for their entire force. Usually just buying used lots will be your cheapest source of Imperial Guard infantry. You'll find legit GW plastics for cheaper than even most new 3rd party options. Troll eBay and the swap shop for army lots and do your research.

If you're only interested in new models you build and paint yourself, you will need to be very handy at conversions and creative. My cheapest option I've figured out so far is Valhallans using Warlord Winter Soviets mixed with Victoria lamb bits. Done correctly by buying your infantry during a sprue sale and buying all your Vic bits in one go for free shipping, you can build a massive infantry army for about half the cost it would take to do it in official plastics. That said, it takes much longer to do, as you will need to source official GW bases, wait for sales, and put more time into converting each model to make them look right in 40k.

Keep in mind, most 3rd party options out there, even high quality lines like Victoria lamb and Mad Robot, usually break out to the same as GW. The reason why is while GW kits are cheaper at first for your 10 men, most of the options you actually want don't come in the box, and you're limited to 1 of each special in the command boxes (which are $25 for 5) this means you have to special order guns and bits like power weapons online, often from 3rd party lines, which ups the cost considerably. Meanwhile a squad from Vic may be $45 but you can get whatever weapons you want thrown in, letting you break roughly even. Keep this in mind while pricing out models and units and keep in mind IG are the most customizable and variable army in the game when it comes to models. You'll want an idea of a rough theme you're going with before you start buying or you'll end up with stuff you can't use.

Historicals are the go-to if you want a cheap IG army.

Not exactly 'cheap' but I can personally recommend Anvil Industry, still moreso than GW

Look in Mantic's Warpath line at the GCPS troops.

£25 gets you 20 multipart hard plastic troops with various weapon options, an engineer, a metal(?) Commander and 2 hard plastic heavy weapon teams.

£25 also gets you a different set with 5 more troops, metal upgrade options to make them snipers or tank-hunters, 2 more heavy weapon teams and a strider in restic (kind of a Sentinel...ish).

These are newer Mantic plastics, and are decent kits - good detail, easy assembly. I was off the company for a while due to quality issues, but their Warpath stuff is great. And half the price of the GW equivalent.

Source plasma, melta and the like from third-party companies. As Kholat says, Anvil Industries make brilliant stuff.

My favorite alternate IG models are Victoria Miniatures, Mad Robot Miniatures, and Anvil Industry, in no particular order. Like others have said it’s not necessarily cheaper but it’s about the same I’d say per model, especially if you want not Catachan or Cadian style armies. They all should have cross compatibility in theory, at least for arms/torsos/legs/heads (I don’t think arms and weapons will swap well basically), I’ll be putting that to the test later this week since I received my own purchases sans weapons. Just remember Victoria miniatures has male and female bits for most options, so don’t accidentally buy the wrong sex if you want one or the other, not that I would know Hope that helps!

Can someone tell me what scale would be appropriate for IG models (both vehicles and people)?

Generally it'll be called 1:56 or 28mm. You'll want heroic proportions to some degree. If you go truescale you'll look like you're running child soldiers, one of the problems with some 3rd party lines.

For vehicles, be very wary of using historical kits or really any vehicle following some semblance of competence in design. The leman Russ and Chimera are monuments to everything you're supposed to avoid in tank design, so finding alternatives tends to be difficult. For reference, most 28mm tanks are way too long and far too short to accurately proxy as a Russ or chimera. Meanwhile if you go bigger, say 1:48, to get hatches that are the right size and a good height, your tank will be far longer. Be sure to look up measurements of the vehicle you are buying and the vehicle it's meant to stand in for. I've even heard of people using smaller tanks like panzer III's in 1/35th to try and find a good leman Russ stand in. Look up comparisons of Bolt Action tanks compared to 40k Guard tanks, you'll see what I mean. Good tank designs to look up are interwar designs from the 1920's and 30's, especially French and Russian designs. It's not hard to see where the inspiration for the Leman Russ comes from looking at French tank design. If I remember right there's even a Krieg tank variant that's basically just a KV 2 with sci fi bits glued on.

For what it's worth, I would say a good 2/3rds of my army is 3rd party models. I have never found it worth it to go 3rd party on vehicles from a cost standpoint. Tanks can be had for pretty cheap online if youre patient and know where to look. There are some awesome alternatives out there, but most hit FW prices by the time you're said and done.

 Desubot wrote:
Hmm kinda surprised i cant find those old wargames factory shock troops at all.

i remember those guys being pretty darn cheap.

there is always ebay 2nd hand.

Yeah, I'm glad I picked those up before the company was broken up. I thought Warlord bought the molds for the shock troops, but I can't find them. They were probably discontinued in favor of their Antares models.

If you don't mind using historicals, Dreamforge has Germans, American and Russian 28mm minis for $15 - for 30 models.

The shock troops went away not long before the Warlord merger - not sure why they didn't carry on.

I'm told 1:35 vehicles can kinda do it, but GW's scale has some ... special ... conventions.

While we have troop alternatives (Victoria, etc) I'm not quite sure anyone has many viable vehicle alternatives out.

Dreamforge Eisenkern. Fantastic kits.

https://dreamforge-games.com/collections/infantry

And check out how cheap they are with the sale!

I have some of those, and they make great scions/stormtroopers/kaskrin (those are all the same, aren't they?)

The Dreamforge Keilerkopf is 1000% better than the Taurox, and the model has some pretty amazing detail. However, if you like the look but not the price, it is based off a Russian BTR-152, you should be able to find a 1/35 model that will work in its place pretty easily.

Bolt Action's range is great, provided you dont mind the ww2 aesthetic.
Gates of Antares is more sci-fi but may be too advanced.

Here's a few options

http://anvilindustry.co.uk/

https://victoriaminiatures.com/

https://puppetswar.eu/index.php

https://bitsofwar.com/

I've found buying one 10x man imperial guard squad box and two 5x man push fits works well and is slightly cheaper (especially if not bought from GW themselves) for making two squads.

The 10x man boxes have enough bits for 2x Sergeants, 2x Vox Casters and have enough for 4x special weapons (but only make 2 of these). The two 5x boxes are monopose but are cheaper than a 10xman squad. You can probably do even better if you don't want special weapons or vox casters.
The worst part about this is that you're restricted to flamers or grenade launchers for special weapons, and there are no heavy weapons teams for the squads.

So I've squeezed three 10x man boxes (£45) and six 5x man (£28) boxes into 6 squads which each have 1 vox caster and 1 special weapon. So that's 60 troops for £73.

six 10x man squads from GW = £108
six 10x man squads from FLGS = ~£90
three 10x man squads and six 5x man squads from GW = £90
three 10x man squads and six 5x man squads from FLGS = ~£73

Doing the last option saves you more than 30% compared to GW.
You can even build up the extra special weapons (as you get 2x flamer and 2x grenade launchers per 10x man box) and get a couple extra 5x man boxes and make a special weapons squad.
If you buy a command squad on top you can use the special weapons you have spare in that box. (1x plasma, 1x grenade launcher (I think?), 1x melta and something that looks like a heavy flamer?). Command squads can be made out of 4x normal guardsmen though if you want to be really cheap, you just need the company commander for a HQ.

Imperial Guard are not cheap due to the sheer numbers, but you can make them cheaper.