I went with a model range I adore, Orks. This gave me lots of conversion opportunities, fluff ideas and a fairly basic paint scheme. The most important thing is the models, what do you want them to look like? WW2 inspires a lot of people, some like savage trices, the list is endless with IG. Once you get the models, the rest becomes so much clearer.

Another reason I went with Ork models is painting, I'm terrible at it. Orks let me go with a drybrush scheme and a dip finish, very easy but looks perfectly fine. I just know myself well enough to not spend a lot of time painting, I hate it and it's not in my skill set.

There have been a lot of snags on the way for me as well, like going back on conversion ideas and model problems but I'm more happy overall than if I'd gone with Cadians. Worth it.

 

You did however paint those Necrons white

I get stuck into fluff. If i don't have a theme or a background for the army i just can't do it. Painting the odd character here and there when i'm bored keeps me going. I also find that if i paint the Sergeant first and do a cool conversion on him i tend to do the Squad.

Another thing i do is run two armies at the same time. One i batch paint and knock out quick which gives me something to play with and the other army is the one i spend time on and convert. It's expensive but hey, doesn't bother me!

If I play with an army before it's finished being painted it doesn't get finished.

 

Simmer down lads, simmer down.

Thank you firstly for all your wonderful replies and thoughts. Would like to address some of the comments above first:

If I play with an army before it's finished being painted it doesn't get finished.

One Squad (10 mens) and/or one vehicule at a time. I don't assemble all of them at once and when i go on a buying spree i hide the other boxes/sprues out of sight. I start despairing when i stare at too many unpainted/unconverted.

This is too true. It's hard to resist the lure of proxied models and half finished vehicles being used to 'play test' the army list. But yes, more often than not, this will lead to the army becoming permanently unfinished. I now have a new rule: play with painted models only. Play smaller (500pt) games if necessary, but painted models only.

you just need to overcome the daunting feel you have about the converting and get to it.. once you start lining up 5 or so finished models it won't be so hard to keep going

Very good point. It's often thinking about a large project that slows it down. Last night I sat down, cleared the whole desk of previous half-finished projects (literally brushed it all into a box lid and put it under the table). I started fresh with 5 IG Veterans for a whole evening and am very pleased with them. Just grinding through the initial hurdle and spending time with a few models was very rewarding. I'll post some pics later tonight, but might save it for another thread entirely.

Pig Iron Productions makes sprues of heads and helmets that should work well with Cadian models. That would give your army a unique look with little additional effort or cost on your part. [snip] ...What is your regiment's fluff?

I've tried using some Pig Iron heads already, but ultimately after raiding through my whole bits box collection and dry fitting various body parts, I realised it was the Cadian legs (with 'skirts') that I really disliked. I'm now using some Scout legs, which fit perfectly.

No fluff yet, which brings me to the next comment...

It's ALL about background/fluff/coolness. [snip]

Edited down for length, but thanks for your input Cadaver. Your regiment sounds really cool. But I agree, if you don't think your army is 'cool' then you're never going to muster the will to complete a whole army. I watched a ton of The Wire this weekend (grimdark police drama) and it's really inspired me to create some riot-police style guard. A bit of a mix between Planetary PDF and Arbites.

 

it's getting started that's hard

it's daunting to know you have to convert stuff before you can play(with finished models) and to paint so many basic units up to your own standards (which for most enthusiasts, is pretty high)

you just need to overcome the daunting feel you have about the converting and get to it.. once you start lining up 5 or so finished models it won't be so hard to keep going

it's similar for painting except for the basic troops it's best to find a technique for your scheme that lets you go at a faster pace such as ignoring trying to paint the grenades different colors or hitting the pins with metal.. just forget about it and move on.

When ever i'm converting or painting i like to pace the final parts out so that batches of models will be finished at the same time.. makes it seem like they get done faster. then i line them all up near where i'm working, lets me see my progress. this is especially helpful in fantasy armies because you can set them up in their ranks and files.

not that you didn't already know all of this but it is always important to remember that it's the thinking about doing it that's so hard. i always feel this way then i have lots of stuff to paint but once i actually start i have fun with it and time starts flying.

 

nope i am still as hyper about guard as ever, same for bt, if i had the money. well.. you wouldn't stop hearing me going on about how proud of my army i am. after spending god knows how many hours i ahve to spend to make it look decent and to my level of satisfaction.
Whatever gripped you first for guard just think back and hold that though and expand on it, it always helped me...but then again i never painted more than 15- models at once. within a 5 month period.
thanks
antique_nova

 

One Squad (10 mens) and/or one vehicule at a time. I don't assemble all of them at once and when i go on a buying spree i hide the other boxes/sprues out of sight. I start despairing when i stare at too many unpainted/unconverted.

Does mean i have to play lower point limits when i start a new army tho. But hey. At least that way i get them finished without feeling sheer utter despair while staring at 50+ unpainted troopers. (Tyranid friend assembled 4 full squad worth of gaunts/hormagaunts a few months back. He still can't get around to painting them. In his words "So many blank stares... it's... creeping me out!")

So yeah. One squad at a time. I keep the sarges/characters for last as a reward to myself...

 

I want to make them unique in some way but I'm finding it hard to get excited about.

Pig Iron Productions makes sprues of heads and helmets that should work well with Cadian models. That would give your army a unique look with little additional effort or cost on your part. Alternatively, you might convert sargeants and officers only; nobody looks at the grunts anyway. I use leftover shields and spears from my fantasy miniatures to make my sargeants stand out.

I can't decide on a colour scheme

Use a base coat of medium green or brown, then use light green/brown for detail and then put a green/brown wash over the model. It's easy to do, a little variation will give you a reasonably good camo look and since the colors are close enough you won't have to do too much touch-up. I did this, only I used brown and red; my regiment fluff is that they usually retake lost ground, so they have 'camo' to help them blend in with the mortal remains of their predecessors.

What is your regiment's fluff?

 

It's ALL about background/fluff/coolness.


Pick something that you thing works well, in the background of 40K, and run with that. Invent your own background, or take something that already exists, or simply modify something.

Run with that! And trust me, it helps if it's a little dark - this is the grim dark future, where some random passerby picked up that glass you'd just decided was definitely half empty and drained what was left. Then smashed the glass. And set fire to the table it was resting on.

That's the world of 40k - so run with it!



Eg: My current project, Ultramar PDF, sounds fairly plain up front. But now I digress - their general has just been executed by a chaplain for yelling at Marneus Calgar for not supporting his troops enough, and this is during the tyrranic war era.

But the catch for the boys in blue? The regiments IS very well known, and liked. They are called PDF, but aren't really anymore - they fight all over the Ultramar Segmentum, and even futher afield. Disbanding them would be a blow to morale, so instead? Keeping the execution secret, they assigned massive amounts of commissars to the regiment (for "training"), rounded up all the general's most loyal troops into penal legion units, and threw them at the forefront of the fighting, to hold of the tyrannid hordes.

Plan backfires a little - most of the commissars actually think it is for training, and thus: to hold off the hordes, they thought it would be a good idea to conscript every able bodied man, woman and child in the process. And were quite successful in the process (albiet with horrendous casualties).

So the regiments fame grows further, and the smurfs are secretly pissed 'cos they get to keep using the Ultramar symbolism.


So: Now I have an army I want to build and play with! Theme? Win whilst taking as many casualties as inhumanly possible!

 

I was really inspired with my IG by the Ciaphas Cain books, they're a great read, funny and full of fluff. You really get a feel for how the guard army operates and my enthusiasm bloomed when I finnished them.

As for the models themselves, I found the basic guardsmen actually rather easy to paint as they haven't got too much detail on them (unlike my empire footsoldiers- GAH!). Some fun conversions on characters/sergeants, a bit of fluff and voilà! a fun army. Mine is based on a small hive world force from a planet near cadia. They therefore use the cadian standard equipment as they have no supplying forgeworlds of their own draw heavily on the styles of cadians and valhallans.

As for your army, whay not catachans? You can do some very "in your face" armies, loading up on things like flamers, heavy flamers and other such jungle weapons. As for a colour scheme, how about having a black army, most armies I see are pretty caucasian so an entirely black army would be very cool.

 

I personally play with Catachans because of the variability in their uniforms. This means that I can paint each trooper individually. I have a standard color scheme but the details of each model may be different. That way its not so monotonous.

Also if i get bored I try to make funny conversions with my guardsmen. For instance I absolutely hate putting together and painting heavy weapons teams because they take so long. So I've used the man-trap plant including in the sprue to do awful things to my guardsmen. I have the plants eating ammo, being used as a close combat weapon, and sneaking up behind unsuspecting guardsmen.

My personal favorite is a guardsman meeting a terrible end at the teeth of the man-trap but refusing to go down without first loading his mortar.

 

I find that a couple of things motivate me:
Watch a movie/read a book, if watching saving private ryan or the Band of Brothers series doesint get you motivated to at least play a game with guard, then find another army

Paint a character model, I at least enjoy painting (in quick hourish blocks of work) and working on a Senior officer/commissar/etc gets me ready to take on the 100 guard afterwards. I find that saving a cool model to paint at the end of a big project helps too, a reward for getting through a horde of grunts.

have a comfortable/accesible work area, I can't paint without music so i always have speakers near my work station, or nothing gets done. I also found that moving my painting station from my cold basement to right next to my computer made painting alot easier; long loading time? paint a face! got 20 mins? finish an ogre!

Some projects will take a loong time, dont force yourself to finish it if you really dont want to. Remember this is a hobby not a job... As long as you are having fun you are moving at the right pace.

 

i am not sure but i think most would agree, the thing that inspires anyone including me ^^ about any army. is the artwork. because that is the first thing you really see. seeing the artwork and models themselves makes you curious. the fluff or stats then draw you in and keep you in. do you agree?
thanks
antique_nova

 

I had an original idea for my Cadians: They were going to be a paratrooper, commando regiment. Each squad I ran were veterans, and had a lot of Valkyries and vendettas. After picking up some Grey Knight Terminators and playing with them (I had yet to paint my army), I started noticing my army started doing better.

Now? They're the 1st Cadian Daemonhunters.

Them, along with nameless other regiments were sent to deal with an Orkish Waagh! They dealt with it, but things got worse when the actual cause of the Waagh! was a Chaos worshiping cult. Daemons started pouring onto the world and, by the hundreds of thousands, Imperial Guardsmen died or converted to Chaos.

When the Grey Knights arrived to fight back the daemons, they found that a small group of Guardsman had held out for nearly three months against the Chaos hoards, and had rescued (and protected) a fairly sizable city. Impressed that these men and women seemed to be incorruptible, the Grey Knights utilized them in retaking the planet. At the Conclusion, the Grey Knights reported the Imperial Guards stationed on the planet KIA.

In reality, they were inducted into the Daemon Hunters. Blessed, and battle hardened, every battle they fight is alongside their grey knight allies. While they bear the colours of a homeworld they will never see again, they, and the attachment of Grey Knights to the regiment, honour the memory of the fallen by having a golden Pauldron, blessed by priests and offering protection from Chaos. To the Grey Knights, they know that these soldiers are rare among humans. The Grey Knights always keep an eye on the Regiment when fighting chaos, but since their induction, not a single soldier has ever turned.

 

No offence but that's not an original idea, a ton of people would like to play that style but the cost is prohibitive.

The fluff is your own so that's good. Also, no more Termies in the Valks if you did not know. You didn't mention if you did it or not but just so you know.

 

As opposed to being positive and assisting in the thread, you decide to decry someone else post.

Good lord.

*golfclap*

 

I already assisted it earlier and I was mostly making sure you knew about the Termie thing. Your business if you took offence, I had no malice.
eace:

 

Hats off to anyone who only plays with painted models. If I did that I'd never get a game in. ><

 

Amen to that. I've always had a love of modeling and playing, it's the painting I'm scared of.

However, my brother and I worked together for a while with great results. He liked painting.

I've found that heavy weapon platforms offer a ton of cool conversion opportunities. My advice to you is paint a squad at a time, as others mentioned, but use the serg and the heavy weapons as motivational pieces. A few converted regular troopers can lift you spirits too and give the force some unique qualities.

Here is a link to a post with pictures of a few of my models.

http://www.librarium-online.com/for...line.com/forums/imperial-guard/129807-heavy-weapon-conversions.html#post1195320

Good luck.

 

I'm sympathetic as i just started playing IG. I now have enough to field a 1750 army (2500 if i add my daemonhunters) and have yet to buy a leman russ.

My recommendation is to make a painting list and switch it up. My painting schedule over the past two months has been as follows (just as an example):

1) company command advisors: they're cool models, pretty simple, and the Master of Ordanance lets you "test" a scheme for your guardsmen
2) 20 guardsmen and a PCS with flamers: rapidly painted (i dip them) just to start bulking my force
3) a chimera: to get excited about IG tanks, and practice wethering
4) Round out my kasrkin IST's: they count as veterans and can go in a chimera and valkyries
5) valkyrie: as they are awesome models and i've never painted a plane
6) 6 heavy weapons teams: 'cus it's guard
7) Another 20 guardsmen
8) 2 commisars: to take my time on models that reward a little patience, and change up my colour scheme
9) Kreed and Kell: because it's guard

Current WIP's queue
1) second valkyrie
2) finish Kreed and Kell

Projected Queue:
1) Planetstrike: two bastions that happen to come with three turrets for hydra tanks
2) 2 basilisk kits: hot swappable chimera chassis for the hydra tanks
3) 2 demolisher kits

A little bit of painting every day has made a lot of progress. Not sure how i still have a job and wife

 

(sorry double-post)

 

Insparation

I just saw an odst trailer and that got me in the mood.:soldier:

 

Yeah that commercial looks very IG. I don't think they bury their soldiers that nicely, or often at all but hey, still cool.