12 - Imperial Guard Veterans Squad WIP

Here are four WIP (Works in Progress) Hardened Veterans that I'll be getting to soon. The image on the left is the first of the four. Let's call him Specialist Slagan. He's armed with a shotgun converted from a Space Marine Scout sprue. I had to, first, cut the shotgun off the Scout arm at the hand, then cut and file down the left hand which was gripping the shotgun at the barrel. After that, I just glued it onto an Imperial Guard arm from the Shock Troop box set. Turned out pretty well, I think, pretty seamless. The head with gas mask of Specialist Slagan is from a set of Pig Iron Productions bits I purchased on-line. The helmet on the Pig Iron head isn't an exact match for the Cadian pattern helmet, but it's close enough, especially when one takes into account the fluff of the Hardened Vets. In his left hand, I glued a Space Marine meltabomb, I believe it is, and will be counting it as a demolition charge. He is wearing a backpack from the Catachan Heavy Weapons sprue and a dagger from the Vampire Counts Grave Guard sprue.

Next, we have Sergeant Greyloch. At the moment, he has 3 different conversions, but I'll soon be adding a 4th major conversion piece which will fully bring him to life. The 3 visible conversions at the moment are a right arm from the Cadian Heavy Weapons sprue, a ribbon on his right shoulder pad from, if I remember correctly, a Space Marine sprue, and a Catachan head. The 4th conversion (which I've already done a dry test run on to make sure it fits) is a cloak from a High Elf sprue. The cloak will flow dramatically off his collar, giving the illusion of movement and dynamic action, I hope. Aside from cloak, Sergeant Greyloch will be getting a handful of fiddly bits in the form of pouches and most likely a holstered laspistol to round him out.

WIP number 3 is Corporal Ruddard. He's going to be a standard bearer. Due to the nature of how his feet are positioned, I couldn't get him to stand up on his own, so I leaned him up against a book. (It occurred to me later that I could have temporarily stuck him onto a base with some ticky-tack or something, but alas.) Ruddard's right arm wielding a plasma pistol comes from a Space Marine. Although the scale of the arm is slightly off compared to other Cadian arms, it helps that GW's (Games Workshop) models are all slightly exaggerated anyway, so the effect isn't too off-putting, I don't think. His head is a Catachan one, like Sergeant Greyloch's, and so is his canteen and sheathed machete. The feather dangling from the scabbard of his machete comes from a High Elf sprue. Glued to Ruddard's back is a pouch bit from a Warhammer Fantasy Dwarf Miner sprue. As for the standard which is left hand is supposed to be raising, I experimented with a banner and arm from the Dark Elf Warrior sprue, but the arm turned out to be way too puny. It almost looked like a shriveled up twig compared to the rest of Ruddard's body. But, it fit and it was one of the few left arm/ banner bits I had (the others are all right hand/ banner bits). Still, I'm going to keep searching for a more in-scale solution to the left arm/ banner problem, but I am willing to consider experimenting with green stuff on the Dark Elf arm if my search for the right bit comes up short.

The fourth soon to be member of my Hardened Veterans squad is Specialist Condan - the Special Weapon trooper. He's currently armed with a standard Cadian grenade launcher, but if I can get my hands on a Cadian Special Weapons bit, then I'll definitely swap it out for either a plasma gun or a meltagun. Condan's probably the least converted out of these 4 - his head is from a Bretonnian Men-at-Arms sprue, I think, while his backpack and backpouch are from the Dwarf Miner sprue and a Space Marine sprue respectively.

Well, I hope you enjoy a look at some WIP. I think I'll start doing more of these kinds of posts. Part of the pleasure, for me, about this hobby is all of the various ways you can let your imagination run wild when putting these little guys together. Converting is oftentimes even more fun than painting (while cleaning flash and mold lines is the least fun).

Oh, and by the way, the first two Hardened Veterans I posted are called Corporal Marsham (he's the dude with the 5 o'clock shadow) and Specialist Blacker (he's the dude with the claw). As for the squad nickname, I'm still working on it. Strangely enough, it's harder than I thought.