How do I turn Imperial Guard into Chaos Guard without spending fortunes?

[The Weekly Wargamer]

Seeing as I am nearly 16, I don't have loads of money. Any ideas for traitor guard on the cheap?

[isotope99]

Sprinkle in a few chaos cultists amongst the IG and paint consistently (autoguns=lasguns, can't see anyone getting too excited).

If you want more mutant, the fantasy forsaken box looks overpriced but spread across an entire army it's not so bad

For tanks, the 10 metal icons packs go a long way.

Otherwise surf bits sites for a few random heads and icons at reasonable prices.

Remember the squad and upgrades should be WYSIWYG but if a few guys are missing the correct standard weapons that's not a big issue.

[Chaoschrist]

Color schemes might help a lot. And shaving off the imperial eagles.

Maybe see if you can trade (or buy if you want to spend a little) some heads from the from the Warriors of Chaos fantasy range... they have some more savage/barbaric heads that might give it a bit more character.

I guess to some extent it depends on what kind of Chaos guard army you want to pull off.

Nurgle; Add gasmasks and tubes
Khorne; Savages. Maybe even use Beasts of chaos heads (goatmen and all)

No real suggestions for Slaanesh & Tzeentch...

But color and getting rid of imperial symbols is a good start I think

[ElectricPaladin]

Shave off or deface Imperial symbols. If you cake ugly red paint over an Imperial Aquila, for example, it looks like the wearer has tried to paint over it. Alternately, you can shave it off with a hobby knife.

Buy some Chaos bits - you can get things like Chaos standards or Chaos Space Marine bits for a couple of bucks here and there on eBay - and add them to your figures. Guardsmen can carry Chaos standards on poles. Chaos symbols can be attached to your Chimeras. And so on. You can do the same with bits from the Warriors of Chaos line, especially if you want to do arm or head swaps for mutations.

Decide on the theme of your army and paint them appropriately: virulent green for Nurgle, blood red for Khorne, blue for Tzeentch, etc.

Learn to use greenstuff. Use it to add extra limbs, or heads, or tentacles, or unidentifiable lumps to your models, representing mutations.

[DWest]

It's going to be all about character, character, character. You'll first want to figure out a bit of backstory; why did these guys turn to Chaos, and when? That will help you with getting a good theme going, and tying everything together. For example, if it's a unit who turned traitor out of despair or desperation, they're probably going to be pretty beat up and used hard. So lots of rust, battle damage, crude iconography. If on the other hand, it's a "planetary govenor decided the Church of Slannesh sounded more fun", things will be a bit more neat and tidy.

Once you have your theme, it's time to start the converting. On vehicles, you'll want to blot out the Aquillas everywhere. Scrape 'em off with a hobby knife -- if it's a "desperate" type of unit, you'll likely want to leave the patch roughed up as though they did it in the field with an angle grinder. Plain white school glue can be applied in beads and let to harden to look like the blobs of molten metal you get from welding and cutting, or plasticard or even stiff cardboard (like a cereal box) can be cut up to form steel plates which would be welded in place to cover up those insignia. If you're going to spend any money on your vehicles, get a Chaos Tank Accessories sprue -- one or two pieces from this sprue per vehicle will go a long way to making them look Chaotic, and it should have enough on one sprue to cover 10 or so vehicles this way. Painting on icons will help get the point across as well, and keep in mind the character of the army when doing so -- the work of desperate traitors is probably going to look like graffiti, and poor graffiti at that.
For infantry, my advice would be to try and get some of the Cultists from Dark Vengeance; you won't field a whole squad of these guys, but maybe replace Sergeants with the pistol/cc cultists, and sprinkle a few of the others in amongst squads. The shotgun/sword Cultist Champion makes a great Commissar as well. Whoever you choose as your HQ, he would be a good place to invest a little more time and resources as well -- Chaos is very much a cult of personality, so your Warlord should look every bit a devotee of the Dark Gods.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

[The Weekly Wargamer]

Brilliant advice guys! I will get right to it!

[ElectricPaladin]

Brilliant advice guys! I will get right to it!

Be sure to post pics when you do.

[euansmith]

Use them exactly as they are and let fluff be your friend... "These Imperial Guard have only recently fallen to the siren call of Chaos, like 10 minutes go..."

[GrauGeist]

I would buy a lot of the Dark Vengeance cultists and swap arms / heads / etc. against regular guardsmen.

Buy a box of Chaos Marauder infantry, for actual Chaos bitz to sprinkle about.

[DWest]

I would buy a lot of the Dark Vengeance cultists and swap arms / heads / etc. against regular guardsmen.

Buy a box of Chaos Marauder infantry, for actual Chaos bitz to sprinkle about.
Go with the Marauders box, the DV Cultists are the push-fit type models, and so head and arm swaps will require sawing the pieces off.

[Kevlarshark]

you could try some of the heads from maxmini? they have some "evil heads" I am a big fan of the "fallen legionnaire" heads they are very cheap and completely change the look of a model.

[daboarder]

Greenstuff, shed tonnes of green stuff, a sharp knife and toothpicks.

[Nabterayl]

Something else you can do to deface Imperial symbols is just take a hobby knife and kind of hack and stab at it. It's less work than shaving it off completely, but still looks like the wearer is rejecting it. You can do a mix - remove some aquilas, physically mutilate others, paint over others, etc. Having the remnants of a few aquilas scattered throughout your force will not only save you time, it will create visual interest and will reinforce the idea that these guys are Chaos Guardsmen, not just unusually professional cultists.

[ElectricPaladin]

Something else you can do to deface Imperial symbols is just take a hobby knife and kind of hack and stab at it. It's less work than shaving it off completely, but still looks like the wearer is rejecting it. You can do a mix - remove some aquilas, physically mutilate others, paint over others, etc. Having the remnants of a few aquilas scattered throughout your force will not only save you time, it will create visual interest and will reinforce the idea that these guys are Chaos Guardsmen, not just unusually professional cultists.

This is what a like button would be good for...

[YorkNecromancer]

If you have a few quid spare and a bunch of IG, I recommend Pig-Iron heads:

http://www.pig-iron-productions.com/hd14-kolony-feral-head-sprues-2-p-10.html
http://www.pig-iron-productions.com/hd20-kolony-rebel-head-sprues-2-p-65.html
http://www.pig-iron-productions.com/hd26-masked-heads-p-91.html

Their stuff is great, and fits beautifully with 40K models:
http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb183/MaltonNecromancer/Summer%20Holiday%202013/2013-08-28133224_zps99c5ff50.jpg

As for autoguns, Anvil Industry's stuff is boss.
http://www.anvilindustry.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=60_87&product_id=156

Or, you could convert the lasguns into autoguns using styrene rod and these:

http://www.anvilindustry.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=60_103&product_id=146

Or just use styrene rod. You can do interesting things with it:

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb183/MaltonNecromancer/DSC00727a.jpg

This is an example of the autogun all my IG have. It's just a Cadian lasgun with styrene rod, but I think it looks quite nice:

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb183/MaltonNecromancer/DSC00338.jpg

[Boscolamb]

You might also consider using Kromlech heads (gasmasks) and putting them on Cadian bodies for some variety.

[Bigred]

I agree, the easiest and cheapest will will be aftermarket heads. There are TON of them out there, from outfits like Maxmini, Kromlech, Pig-iron, etc, and they are pretty cheap.

Mix in some plastic Cultists, leftover bits from CSMs, and Marine Scouts parts and you're pretty much there.

Then you just tie it all together with a cohesive paint scheme and basing.

We want pictures!

[Boscolamb]

Here is an interesting thread on converting into Traitor Guard (with photos):

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?23059-Dave-s-Traitor-Guard

[Dimitrios]

If you can get your hands on some Warhammer Fantasy Flagellants then that box will give you enough bits to help modify/ chaosify 10 to 20 additional guard. If you buy some spare round bases, the bodies of the Flagellants also make great cultists, as most are bare footed.