Advice - dressing all guardsmen different

[christopher300]

Hello

My guard army has rebelled against the Imperium of man and are fighting for the freedom of enslaved human and xenos worlds.

Anyways I am modelling my army to give a rebellious type feel.

One thing I am considering is having guardsmen all dressed differently. Essentially they will be cadians and I will remove the shoulder pads.

Do you think it would work well if all the fatigues were different to resemble that they are "off the street" as such. But then make the chest armor all uniform?

Would that work or do you think it would just suck?

This is just for starters, my other thing if that would suck is they will have an urban based camo.

I would probably have veterans a little more uniform to represent more elite folk.

I eventually plan to throw xenos fighters into my units so maybe elves, tau, green skins, lizards, rats, beasts etc to show all fighting side by side.

Also if anyone can think of how I could maybe incorporate a bit of dark eldar into the theme that would be good as my commander has basically escaped from being a dar eldar slave and in a revolt took over their weapons etc, and then continued to free other worlds and have the free men join the ranks. (A similarish story behind that of Spartacus)

[Adkenpachi]

He would be killed by the guard straight away via orbital bombardment. That aside I like your idea, I would probably give them all different combinations of fatigues making the tops and bottoms different. Like their wearing their casual clothes underneth (although once joining the guard they would only have issued clothes) so blue black or beige trousers with any coloured top.

You could also make their armour look 'used' with las holes/burns like they stole them from corpses or convert them slightly to look like bio suit type things like near the start of tanith first and only where theyre fighting possessed workers who convert their suits into armour.

[3ff3ct]

Try painting different types of camo too, and mixing in different heads from other ranges for more of a rag-tag look. Nothing says renegade like a few good beards!

[BG. Foster]

I like the Spartacus idea, I think you'd be able to get away with the mix and match uniforms. Have a back story along the lines of them finding a massacred guard unit and restocking with weapons and armour.

[egon]

Realistically speaking, most of the soldiers in your army would still have gotten their gear from the same place. Either they were a loyal regiment who rebelled or they defeated and plundered a loyal regiment.

That said, 40K is not realistic and there are a hundred reasons why they would have different styles of gear. Hell, even my loyalist guard army is pretty much mix and match (at least some squads).
My suggestion is that you start out with a few guys that have the "normal" standard gear. A solid uniform and identical armour and weapons. From there you can work out what gear would be different on the rest of army. Perhaps everyone painted a red X on the chest plate to show that they are part of the same group? Perhaps they ran out of black helmets and instead had to make to with green ones?

Also since most supply lines would be cut off they would also need to get their gear from other sources. Don't be afraid to throw in pieces from other armies. Maybe have a sniper with a modified kroot rifle or a heavy weapons team with a space marine missile launcher. Perhaps someone is carrying a tau shoulder plate instead of his own?

I'd also say it depends on why the rebel. Are they just a bunch of ragtag misfits that want to do what they please? Then discipline and uniformity would be lacking, the Syrian and Libyan rebels would be a good inspiration.
Are they a serious effort to free all species from the yoke of tyranny? I would imagine that they would be more disciplined and uniform. Take inspiration from the American revolutionaries and Finns during their war for freedom. Somewhat lacking in uniform equipment but only because they didn't have the means, not because they didn't want to. Try to at least make the squads similar but with a bunch of odd items here and there (pouches, knives, grenades, autoguns etc).

Good luck and remember to post pictures!

[Colonel Beauregard]

Even if your guard rebelled (mine did a similar thing) they would have to be wayyy out of the way to avoid detection by the imperium That means... no psychers to contact the imperium... no warp travel... You'd basicaly have to be cut off from the imperium of man to avoid utter annihilation.

If your imperial guard rebelled... it would need the support of the majority of the planet. My personal twist involves a distant planet that had multiple families and their private security armies fighting for power. Currently there are 4 main nations on my planet and they fight incessantly with each other over resources and domination. Some enlist the help of Daemons and they all band together against any outsiders (they consider all non-natives to be xenos scum). That said I have ideas for many types of armies. Tainted IG and such.

As for your models, if you're going for the guerrilla look, I'd suggest looking outside of Games Workshop for 'ragtag' bits. The IG armies they currently stock aren't really suited for the 'jeans and T-shirt' look. It's either Cadian stock troops or Catachan vietnam rambo types.

It would be really cool if you pulled off a Mad Max type army. Maybe look into some Cultist units and pick and choose what you want from them (give them different heads, etc)

It's funny that you say your veterans will be more uniform. In real life, most veterans/special forces are not conformed at all because their skills don't require them to be. They are so good at what they do, they don't need the strict regimentation of uniformity in order to achieve their objectives.