Imperial guard allies

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

So I'm thinking of using Imperial guard allies, and I'm not sure what models to use, I'm thinking either steel legion or vostroyan, though colours wish I'm thinking either white with either blue, green or orange trim, or possibly a dusty red orange with blue or green trim (A friend does use vostrayans in the standard scheme in my gaming group however.) Any opinions? I could always do a squad of each possibly, I'd be using them as veterans, and I have a squad of the kareskin models which I will use in the same scheme, so mixed squads could possibly work, possibly as an indicator of the different worlds they have been recruited from?

[Kierdale]

Which Chaos god(s) do you see them worshipping? That might give you some ideas.

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

They will be with my Thousand sons, though my thousand sons are Ahrimanites, so they are not that keen on Tzeentch themselves, but I can see them qualifiying warrior lodges/cults ect within their support troops,, so Tzeentch or Slannesh possibly. (I'm thinking of also including some noise marines.

[Rik Riorik]

What about the Death Korps of Krieg? They look rather nasty and better looking than the Armageddon Steel Legions.

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

And are very expensive, I'd love to use them, but would rather not spend more on my guardsmen then my Chaos marines.

[Rik Riorik]

Touché ;).

[Beachymike123]

i myself use a mix of catachans and cadians, although that is only one squad of the latter. the catachans can be made to look more like downtrodden workers or rebels who dress in militia fashion, which in turn is easier if you then want to use them as cultists. you can always just grab some WHFB chaos marauders too and kitbash them to give them a more medieval or feral look. i'd think about how you want them to tie in with your CSM army too though as this will help explain why they are armed and equipped in that fashion.

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

My sorcerer is determined to rebuild prospero one day, and he also wishes to fight in a manner as similar to the way he did pre heresy, and so he maintains it is vital to maintain the army support units he commanded prior to the heresy. They and the ship crew are mostly made up of descendants of the original crew and attached regiments, that included Spireguard and a few others, though over the millennia many more have been taken aboard/recruited form worlds they have visited, in especially the planet of Kimzon VI, which has been cut off from the imperium for centuries, and various cults have grown within it, the current Governess, Beatrice Zolotoy, who whilst not embracing Tzeentch, at least not fully, sees no problem in giving the planets beastmen underclass, materials and other supplies and even recruits to the Jackal Sorcerer.

[Babel_Triumphant]

Mordian Iron Guard painted up in red and gold make pretty convincing Spireguard. If the troops joined up later, you could use steel legion to represent fighting on death worlds like Prospero.

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

I did think about using the mordians, but then I saw there faces :P Plus I realized just how badly they looked like U.S marines (I think, it could be some other american military arm), and wandered why they had not kept the pretorians in that case :P But it mostly the faces that put me off them.

[totgeboren]

The easy path is plastic Cadians, but with 3ed party heads. Some different tech heads might be

http://www.pig-iron-productions.com/index....mage&pID=65

 

Not all that Tzeentchy, but nice nonetheless.

these are a bit more Tzeentchy though

http://www.pig-iron-productions.com/index....mage&pID=53

 

Or maybe something a bit more "odd", to match the aesthetics of the TS?

 

http://www.maxmini.eu/store/index.php?main...products_id=171

 

What is the visual theme you are going for?

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

I'm very keen on the longcoat visual of the Vostroyan/Steel legion, I must admit I really like the non goggle on the rebel colony ones, can you order specific heads? Must admit I really like the first on the left and middle ones of the micro art ones. An idea I would love to try and visualizer would be vostroyans with helmets like a science fiction version of the LOTR numenorian helmets.

At the moment I am leaning towards a mix of vostroyans and steel legion, possibly with some mordians as cultists :P

If I were to use Mordians, I'd probably paint them up as the Pendragon Memorial regiment :P

[RolandTHTG]

I did think about using the mordians, but then I saw there faces :P Plus I realized just how badly they looked like U.S marines (I think, it could be some other american military arm), and wandered why they had not kept the pretorians in that case :P But it mostly the faces that put me off them.

 

Yea, the official Mordian Color scheme is based off of the USMC Dress Blues uniform, but the Praetorians are based off the late 1800s British colonial regiments (pith helmets and Roarke's Drift included). But don't let the official paint scheme discourage you, the mordian models are very good for any sort of dress/fancy uniform.

 

While I think the vostroyans are the best for the archaic/techy look you said you wanted, Here's a comparison between the two fan-made praetorian conversion sets. Actually, Victoria Minatures probably has some of the best IG conversion kits out there, no matter which look you want.

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

I was kidding mainly on the Preatorians :P Though that stuff does look nice.

I am thinking of possibly going with the idea of different models for different squads to represent regiments, perhaps have somethign where my Sorcer does not like to commit any of the regiments in their entirety and risk them being wiped out and their traditions lost?

[Nehekhare]

I use imperial regulars from the old warzone game. The WW1 british trencher style perfectly accomodates my iron warriors siege battallion (and doesn't exist elsewhere in 40k fluff yet). Plus they're cheap as hell (5,5€ per squad on ebay).

[Kierdale]

Cadians and Catachans are obviously the easiest to covert what with them being plastic. Mix together a box of each and you can get quite a rabble.

Alternatively, if you want to work on a budget, the push-fit box of five Cadians can be converted quite easily to get away from the set three poses. I bought two boxes of push-fits and one standard Cadian squad and made two nice-looking veteran squads on the cheap. That's one option.

 

There's always Tzaangor: Tzeentchian beastmen. The WHFB ungor box has lots of arm options so you can make all manner of poses.

 

I'll also put in a word of support for the Mordian models. I picked up a squad recently and they're really nice, stubborn-looking b'stards.

[Xeraxen]

If you've funds to spare, I would suggest searching through ebay and such for high elf archer legs. They could work very well for robes or greatcoat legs.

 

Or you could look into these guys: http://wargamesfactory.com/webstore/alien-...atcoat-troopers

 

They're a steal! XD

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

Those guys are really nice, except the guns :/ And I have thought of buying the high elf archer box and converting them to be robed, hooded cultists, but not sure where I would get guns for them. May try and get a model of each off ebay to paint in the scheme to see how they look.

[totgeboren]

These heads might be along the line of what you are looking for? (I sure know I want some!)

 

http://www.anvilindustry.co.uk/index.php?r...;product_id=191

 

The same dude sells some very nice guns too

 

http://www.anvilindustry.co.uk/index.php?r...;product_id=156

 

All you need to do is find some bodies you like. :)

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

Those guns do look nice, but I'm not so sure on their price, 60p for one?

[Brother Ambroz]

Or you could look into these guys: http://wargamesfactory.com/webstore/alien-...atcoat-troopers

 

They're a steal! XD

 

I use these guys for cultists or IG allies. They look great and they're very cheap. You can get 40-50 guys for the price of one GW guard box.

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

I may see if my local gaming store can get them in.

[Azatoth]

Golden Demon Winner Victoria Lamb has a good shop, with interesting semi historical variants for the IG. You can get kilts, ABC masks and penal/slave trooper collars.

 

http://victoriaminiatures.highwire.com/

 

Just a couple days ago she also released heads with ANZAC hats.

 

Her pieces have an excellent fit with GW IG parts.

[Spear of Achilles]

I've got a steel legions style tainted chaos guard work in progress posted here ... used the WW1 army helmets from Maxmini and some putty for most of the trencher coats (mostly on 2nd page...first has regual guard turned into chaos guard). Here's a couple of pics (the great coats were very simple to make)

 

http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad64/BossGrabnutz/Horde.jpg

 

 

http://i922.photobucket.com/albums/ad64/BossGrabnutz/Greatcloak.gif

[Purge]

I have been considering using some Krieg troops lead by one of these figures.clicky

I think they will go perfectly with plague marines since the troops all have masks on.