Imperial Guard: Collecting an All-Plastic Army— Article by Adam Troke

Introduction

As Games Workshop continues to develop more plastic miniatures, it's becoming increasingly possible to build complete armies using just plastic kits. With the release of the Cadian and Catachan Command Squad box sets, the Imperial Guard army now has everything an Imperial Guard collector needs to assemble an entire army all from plastic – and what's best is that across all the kits parts are readily interchangeable, allowing for an unbelievable amount of converting, customisation and kit-bashing.

With this in mind we thought it would be fun to see what the Studio's high-speed hobby machine Nick Bayton could do with a few days and a pile of Imperial Guard box sets. The mission we set him was to unleash his Imperial Guard collector and assemble an army using only plastic kits. He'd be free to mix and makes parts and components from one kit to another (in fact, we encouraged him to do just that), but otherwise he wasn't to add any 'bitz' from any other source and to keep conversions using green-stuff and plasticard to a minimum.

Over the next few pages you'll see how Nick tackled the challenge, and how he got along with selecting, assembling and painting his all-plastic army!

Gathering the Troops

Nick's first task was to gather together enough Imperial Guard box sets to give him a decent-sized army. Different players have a different approaches to this task (I'm firmly in the camp of buying the box sets that I need to make a specific army list, while Nick opts for a slightly more natural approach). Nick decided to tackle the project by picking up a few box sets and seeing what he could make from it.

He started with a Cadian Shock Troops Battleforce, two Cadian Command Squad boxes, two Cadian Shock Troops Infantry boxes, a Valkyrie box set and a Chimera. These boxes provided Nick with loads of Guardsmen to get started with as well as some vehicles to add to his force.

The first thing Nick did was rummage around on the frames and work out exactly what this would enable him to build, and start choosing what he wanted from the different kits.

With a loose idea of what he could make from his enormous pile of frames, Nick sat down with a notepad, calculator and a copy of Codex: Imperial Guard, and wrote out an army list. With the boxes that he'd already purchased he worked out that he had enough miniatures to make a modest 850 points worth of Imperial Guard, and by adding a Leman Russ Battle Tank to it, he could round out the collection to a comfortable 1000 points of Imperial Guard - a reasonable starting for by all accounts.

With his army list written out, Nick set to work building and painting his army. His first step was to talk to the 'Eavy Metal team and find out just how they painted the miniatures in the Studio Imperial Guard army, so that he could copy it on his own. We've included these instructions as a stage-by-stage guide, which you can find here.

To add flavour and interest to painting the collection, Nick organised his army into three groups; Infantry Squads, Command Squads and vehicles. He then painted one of each, so that he was never painting the same type of squad twice in a row - this stopped him getting bored of painting the same type of miniature over and over again.

Mixing and MatchingOne of the things that Nick quickly found when building his all-plastic army was how enjoyable it was to mix and match the parts from one kit with another. The Citadel miniatures design team have done a fantastic job of ensuring that components are completely compatible from one kit to another (you can even effortlessly mix Catachan and Cadian frames), and Nick made the most of this by making a number of conversions and kit bashes throughout his army. On this page we'll show a few of the squads that Nick has included in the army – each of which includes subtle conversions.

If you want more ideas and advice on how to achieve simple, effective conversions and kit bashes, make sure you check out our Imperial Guard kit bashing article.

This Command Squad has a Heavy Weapon team added into it. To enable the weapon loader to reach the muzzle of the mortar more easily, Nick used a pair of standing legs found in the Command Squad, instead of the kneeling down ones provided in the Heavy Weapons Team box set. Other subtle swaps include using the sergeant head from a Cadian Shock Troops Infantry Squad for the Command Squad's sniper, the headset makes the

sniper look as if he's coordinating with his comrades on choosing the most appropriate targets.

This squad also features a few subtle swaps from one kit to another. The squad sergeant has 'borrowed' a spare bolt pistol, power sword and head from one of the Command Squad frames, giving him the look of a grizzled veteran complete with bionic arm and well-chewed cigar stub. The squad vox-operator has the kneeling legs borrowed from the Heavy Weapons Team (the ones not used by the mortar loader), and a sheaf of papers plundered from the Command Squad Frame makes him look as if he's reading orders or map coordinates.

Another squad with a number of simple swaps and conversions - this squad serves as a further testament to just how interchangeable the Imperial Guard plastics really are. Within this squad is the head from a Sentinel pilot, a Catachan Jungle Fighter (purloined from Adam Troke) and the Cadian Command Squad frame. Nick also did a few subtle hand-swaps in this squad and used a single piece of plastic-card to make a sling for one of the Guardsmen.

The Imperial Guard Valkyrie is a phenomenal all-plastic kit with a variety of options. When Building it, Nick made sure that he kept all the spare parts to use on future conversions. When building the crewmen he decided to use a sergeant head from the Cadian Shock Troops Infantry box – a simple and effective conversion that further personalises his force.

Completing The Force

On this page you can see Nick's completed all-plastic Imperial Guard Army. At 1000 points strong, it's a good-sized starting force and certainly has enough troops and vehicles to provide lots of interesting games as Nick expands the army more in the future.

Already Nick's started eying up a Basilisk squadron, and he's been fiddling with a squad of Catachan Jungle Fighters and a squad of Cadian Shock Troops with a view to kit bashing a Veteran Squad. It's a common adage among hobbyists that an army is never truly finished, and in the case of Nick's all plastic army; the fun is only just beginning! 

 

HQ Company Command Squad 50

  Power fist 15

  Heavy flamer 20

  Vox-caster 5

  Medi-pack 30

  Regimental Standard 15

  Krak grenades 5

     

TROOPS Platoon Command 30

  Plasmas Pistol 10

  Sniper Rifle 5

  Mortar 5

     

TROOPS Infantry Squad 50

  Melta gun 10

  Bolt Pistol 2

 

HQ Company Command Squad 50

     

TROOPS Infantry Squad 50

  Plasma gun 15

  Bolt Pistol 2

  Power Sword 10

     

TROOPS Platoon Command 30

  Power Sword 10

  Grenade Launcher 5

  Melta gun 10

  Vox Caster 5

     

TROOPS Infantry Squad 50

  Grenade Launcher 5

     

TROOPS Infantry Squad 50

  Flamer 5

     

  Chimera 55

     

TROOPS Heavy Weapons Squad 60

  3 x Lascannons 45

     

FAST ATTACK Valkyrie Assault Carrier 100

  Lascannon 15

  Multiple Rocket Pods 30

  Sponson Heavy Bolters 10

     

HEAVY SUPPORT

Leman Russ Battle Tank 150

  Lascannon 15

    20

     

    999 

To make the Company Command Squad stand out more compared to the rest of the squads in his army, Nick lavished detail onto them, paying special attention to the Company Commander and the Guardsman with the regimental standard. The end result is a striking centrepiece for his army.

Each of Nick's squads has the correct insignia - Nick took care to apply the Cadian Gate transfers to the right shoulder of each Guardsmen. If you look carefully, you'll notice that he's given each squad it's own squad number too - not only is this a nice thematic touch for your

Imperial Guard army, but it helps you remember which Guardsmen belong to which squads in the heat of battle.

Nick's Chimera almost escaped our notice when we were photographing it, but actually boasts a very clever little conversion - Nick has used the spare heavy flamer from his Sentinel and another from a Command Squad to give the Chimera a heavy flamer on both the turret and its hull. Nick's reasoning was that with such a formidable anti-personnel armament he'd be able to sweep most enemy squads out of cover with the heavy flamers and then advance a Guardsmen squad in to seize the ground from the enemy.

Another great touch Nick's included in his force is a quick-recognition system to help him group his miniatures into the correct units. Each squad in the army has been assigned a different colour, and each Guardsman in the squad has that colour painted on the bottom of its base - this way when he's taking the models out of their carry case, or he's sorting out his casualties at the end of a game, he can quickly identify which miniatures belong together. Simple, but effective.