Carapace Armoured IG

[sneakyben]

I want to do some Carapace armoured Cadian Imperial Guard troops... I think I want to do them as stormtroopers (as I have enough of the face masks from the Cadian HQ kit, and have a cunning plan on how to make hotshot lasguns and back-mounted power-packs


Obviously, I could just buy some storm troopers or kasrkin, but they are metal and I don't like working with metal so I would prefer a plastic/resin option...

I can think of a number of ways to do this, but am not really sure how to go about finding what I need for any of them...

So, please fire lots of helpful advice my way :-)


Option 1) Buy some normal cadian shock troops, cut-out some little plasticard/plastic knee and elbow pads and stick them on..

problems with opt 1) My gosh that would be fiddly as hell, and the consistency of the sizes of the knee/elbow pads could be an issue


Option 2) get some legs/arms bits (possibly torsos?) from somewhere to fit with the normal cadian bits

problem with opt 2) What companys do bits like this? Are there any good kits I could get the bits from? (GW, Forge world, others?) my 1st idea was to find some sort of armoured foot soliders from WFB and use cadian heads and arms on those torsos/legs... but I couldn't find anything that looked like it was appropriate for this


Option 3) find some full models that could be used

problem with opt 3) same as 2 really... where is a good place to look?

[Colonel Bindoff]

I was thinking about this myself a few days ago. Space marine scouts for armoured sections with Cadian heads and perhaps arms? I don't have any to hand though so don't know if they'd just look too big.

Ultimately I decided that the lives of my guardsmen weren't worth carapace armour, but would be interested to hear what other people have done

[sneakyben]

SM scouts... I bloody hate those models :-) I forgot about them; probably my mind blanked them out as both kits are pig to assemble IMO :-)

They are a tiny bit bigger than normal guardsmen but would be great as storm troopers... a friend of mine has done SM scouts with cadian heads and they looked great (for some reason he particularly didn't like the ghostbuster style visor which are awsome :-))

[lomaxxdurang]

Persoanlly I mixed Valkyrie door gunner uppers (yes get the saw) the heads from the valkyrie and scout legs and arms either shotguns or boltpistol sword also the missile launcher sniper rifle and heavy bolter work well too for veterans.

[sneakyben]

valk door gunner bodies is a great call... only problem is I can't see a way of getting hold of 20/30 of them :-)

All the bitz people on-line appear to be out of stock :(

[Xenith]

Use normal models.

Just paint the regular flak armour to look like plastic rather than the paper it's made of.

[I NoSe]

You could use the forge world Hostile Environment kit for Cadians.

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Imperial_Guard/Cadian_Shock_Troops/CADIAN-HOSTILE-ENVIRONMENT-TROOPS-CONVERSION-SET.html

Then to make the Hot Shot lasguns you can cut the ammo clip off and run some guitar wire to the back pack. Its a little involved but I think you'd have some pretty slick Storm Troopers that way.

[plasticaddict]

Check out these two from Maxmini:

http://www.maxmini.eu/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=12&products_id=129

http://www.maxmini.eu/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=20&products_id=146

[mephiston_x]

Here's what I did for my storm troopers, just used the SM Scouts, added some extra shoulder pads I had as kneepads, added the sight from the bolt pistols from the scouts, and put half of some laspistols on the front of the bolter
I used some Pig Iron heads to replace the SM Scout heads

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2010/11/9/154003_sm-Guard%2C%20Tyranids.JPG (http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/154003-Guard%2C%20Tyranids.html)

[Grailkeeper]

I was going to suggest scouts too. Alternative options- 1. Buy them on Ebay. 2. WHFB bits and say they're from a more backwards society. 3.- Those new mantic corporation models

[Labrat]

http://kromlech.eu/ make some pretty impressive armoured torsos.

These combined with some pigiron helms would be awesome. Sadly I've not found any suitable legs for them.

[Grenadier]

I pondered this at length and found no solution to my liking. I felt the scouts were too bulky for Imperial Guard. So I just green stuffed it. Sculpted a very simple carapace armor on each individual trooper. The problem is keeping each one consistent.

[Redshirt]

Actually Option 1 is what I did before the metal kasrkin came out.

The fiddly parts werent so bad once you settle on some basic dimensions (i.e. small rectangle pieces for leg armor) and the codpiece was a ball of epoxy putty. pressed on. the heads were salvaged Vox heads and the odd bits here and their added to the helmet. Gear, well I used custom backpacks, but the heavy weapon team backpacks look really good on there.

Strips of narrow plasticard were used to make a gauntlet (just a top plate on the arm, actually). With paint unifying the plate and the arm underneath, noone noticed that's all it was.

If you simplify the detail, it goes much easier. People typically dont notice as they're not sniffing your miniatures. They usually see them at arms length.

[roncarlin2002]

I gave up and just repainted my oooooolllllldddddd metal stormtroopers. I will keep them in heavy rotation until we finally get some decent plastics, or I can afford to replace all my Guard with Elysians,,,,,*dreaming*

[Regnir]

This was a WIP shot of some stormtroopers that I made for a friend awhile back

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-boAUQLrSBp0/TC9Yf0jy1EI/AAAAAAAACMA/zRylNgg0eBs/s640/st1.JPG

[Thornblood]

Ok- simple fix- If you can already make the hotshot weapons that is

Add http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Imperial_Guard/Cadian_Shock_Troops/CADIAN-HOSTILE-ENVIRONMENT-TROOPS-CONVERSION-SET.html
or
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Imperial_Guard/Elysian_Drop_Troops/ELYSIAN_DROP_TROOP_HEADS_WITH_RESPIRATORS.html if you have backpacks already.

Then paint them with the little red triangles with white outlines over them like the GW 'Eavy Metal Kasrkin. Maybe even add the metal Kasrkin sergeant to the squad.

If you want more than one unit and special weapons, get the special weapons hostile enviroment pack- awesome models.

[morninson]

I used the pig iron heads too, they looked pretty good but a little small. Using gloss varnish on the armour plates and matt everywhere else makes the armour look more substantial and special-issue - more like vets or elites?

[Mystery.Shadow]

I can't paint 'flesh' so I used Pig Iron heads on ALL the Guardsmen!

[dawfydd]

Mephiston, those are nicely done. Groovy how they ended up looking like the original 'Big Toy Soldier' 3rd Ed Stormies :)