In case you’ve been in a cave, the news out has been that Games workshop are going to be casting all their former metal minis in a new resin formula called citadel finecast, the idea being that the quality shown in the minis will be a lot sharper and the minis will be easier to put together and more game friendly. I for one fully support the idea given that I’m already a big fan of resin minis as it currently stands anyways. so this is good news and for warhammer 40k there’s a whole dedicated section (here), there is a little bit of a down side thought… Imperial guard don’t really have that may regular playing minis, and as it stands there are only two available – Commissar Yarrick (here) and a Lord Commissar (here), not exactly extensive, i think you’ll agree, especially when orks, tyranids and eldar have tons of citadel finecast minis. so it looks like us imperial guard fans are limited to Forgeworld stuff and plastics for the time being…i only hope Harker and straken will end up in citadel finecast in the near future.

Here’s the l0rd commissar unpainted, as you can see the detail is really sharp and the edges keep that sharp edge, also you’ll notice the mold hasn’t changed, just the material used, regardless i think you’ll agree its really improved the look of the mini. below is the Yarrick mini.

Warhammer 40k citadel finecasts - 40k Imperial Guard Blog read more at 40k Imperial guard

not sure where i found this or who painted it, suffice to say its a pretty awesome mini and a great imperial guard conversion (the gun has been converted into a sniper rifle), the jungle leaves on the base are also really cool and the paint job rocks.

Imperial guard catachan sniper conversion - 40k Imperial Guard Blog read more at 40k Imperial guard

really cool conversion of an imperial guard sly marbo, love the posing and the really cool explosive tipped bow and arrow…really cool

conversion Sly marbo - 40k Imperial Guard Blog read more at 40k Imperial guard

I didn’t really like the old metal version of Sky Marbo, but i still wanted to include him in my imperial guard army, especially given that as the ‘one man army’ he’s only of the hardiest characters the imperial guard can field, so I set about hitting my bits box and putting together this imperial guard conversion which is a little more in keeping with my imperial guard army’s ‘look’ and presents a more unique sly marbo on the battle field.

Imperial guard Sly Marbo conversion - 40k Imperial Guard Blog read more at 40k Imperial guard

this is a round up of various cool ideas i’ve come across, i’ve tried to credit these where i can but there are quite a few so apologies if i’ve overlooked any. these ideas, i feel, are all really great ways of making an imperial guard army more unique and original.

really neat idea where the cadian head is carved back to make it look like an old german paratrooper helmet. (by Doghouse)

neat idea where scrim has been added to an imperial guard cadian to help make this imperial guard sniper appear as if he has a gillie suit, really nice idea and brings more character to the snipers in an imperial guard army. by Dajohn

Really nice imperial guard mini, converted to look like an imperial guard at rest, the head, arms and hands were converted and the lighter and cigar were added, really neat. by Baylien

Perry Miniatures British Napoleonic Minis converted with a Death Korps of Kreig head, its a really neat idea, though as you can see from the photo the scale is a little off, still this is a really neat if expensive idea (given that DKoK minis are resin from forgeworld, meaning NOT cheap) by Dragunov

rally neat idea of using brass etched parts to convert this imperial guard lasgun, ideal for anyone going for that steampunk theme, i really like that the etched parts give a great level of detail that really adds to the look and feel of an imperial guard army. by earenciel

really awesome imperial guard conversions here, love the night vision goggles, and the rails on the lasguns as well as the various pouches and protection. really cool. by Treadheadz

really, REALLY cool idea, basically the entire imperial guard drone fighter is made from etched brassed, its just so detailed and full of character, from what i gather it seems that you could in theory design all your own brassed etched parts based on your own designs. by earenciel

I’m not a fan of painting vehicles, i just don’t have the patience, but i can appreciate the time effort and creativity that goes into a conversion like this, and i think its really really cool. made by Sonic_Monkey

cool imperial guard conversion ideas - 40k Imperial Guard Blog read more at 40k Imperial guard

so, following on from this article – here. this is the finish of my imperial guard converted Gunnery Sergeant, what i’ve done here is add a layer of highlight over the ink, which enhances the lighter areas, this gives the mini more depth and really brings out all the detail, as you can see from the face of my imperial guard converted Gunnery Sergeant. the whole process of converting, painting, highlighting this mini wouldn’t take very long if i’d only worked on this one mini, but i was doing quite a few minis at the same time. this being said it should only take about 3/4 hours done quickly. its not my best painted mini, but given this is more a mini for my imperial guard army i’m willing to slip a little.

converted Gunnery Sergeant Harker final - 40k Imperial Guard Blog read more at 40k Imperial guard

this is one of the nicest minis i’ve had the chance of painting, its a great resin mini that just works really well, barely any preparation, the detail is nice and sharp. its from Coolminiornot – here. i literally dropped all my other painting projects to paint this one up, but against better judgement i also decided this would be a good mini to experiment on, so i tried out the glazing painting method and i magnetized the base…for no reason other than to see if it would work.

as you can see the base isn’t too great but as its covered by the foot i guess this was a passable ‘error’ note the ‘lump’ there to better position the mini.

the bunny girl was sculpted by Emanuele Giovagnoni (poupee_canope) who isn’t just an awesome sculptor, but an amazing award winning painter as well. anyways more photos below, the first is of the face which for me was the most important part of this mini. hopefully you’ll all think it’s a fairly decent result?

i tried to paint the highlights on the bunny suit so it would suggest fur but that really didn’t work well, as a result i think this brought the whole mini crashing down to an embarrassing end.

Bunny girl finished! - 40k Imperial Guard Blog read more at 40k Imperial guard

so, after seeing that someone else made an imperial guard commander out of the same torso part from forge world (here), i decided i’d go the whole hog and finish painting my version of the imperial guard commander which i talked about here. the result turned out better than i expected, but not as good as i’d hoped…obviously. regardless it looks pretty decent, certainly for a playing army as opposed to as a display figure. Still, live and learn!

Converted imperial guard commander - 40k Imperial Guard Blog read more at 40k Imperial guard

this is my painting case that i take on the go with me, as you can see it contains all the stuff for any immediate projects i’m working on, i thought it’d be useful for you all to see how my painting rig was setup. where the paint brushes are there are also all my tools including clippers as such. along the right are all the minis and bits that i use, along the left are all the paints im using. as you can see i’ve got wire for sculpting, glue and even space for my camera.

i usually rest the whole case on my lap and paint on the lid. so far its been pretty cool working on this setup.

painting an army on the go - 40k Imperial Guard Blog read more at 40k Imperial guard

I found this awesome base and the metal laser cut etchings on this site (here) i thought both were really cool, the etched parts could be used to make a jungle theme and would look awesome on the bases on catachan imperial guards, the base is pretty awesome, in fact its so cool i wouldn’t use it as a base, but rather as some sort of command pod/thing on a commanders desk, it looks really cool though the runes and design mean that you probably couldn’t use it within an imperial guard setting, unless it was for some sort of captured xenos artifact.

Diorama parts - 40k Imperial Guard Blog read more at 40k Imperial guard