322nd Penal Legion ''Catachan Devils''

[lordnewbury]

Hello everyone,

After a lot of consideration, I have decided to run a Penal Legion list so as to enable me to roll with a collection of the different models we love on the GW Store. To this end, my basic plan is as follows - 

For Conscripts and Guard
Cadians - Good looking models that can be painted with ease, not to much detail needed on these.
Catachans - Nice looking models again, potentially strip away some of the 'additional extras' that come in the box.

Veterans
For this I was thinking of making use of Mordians, Vostroyans, and then Cadians with more 'additional extras' added to the models from the other boxes. Slightly pricier per box, but the models look lovely. Storywise - once a Penal Legionnaire has served for over a year they get moved up to Veteran with additional equipment assigned to them?

Let me know what you think.

For officers I was going for - A Collection of Commissars and a maybe Colonel Schaeffers model?

[cheminhaler]

Having thought about this before I prefer purely Catachan models painted grey for Penal Legion (even though the uniform can be green) but avoid giving them the machetes and try to shave the bandannas off with a modelling knife, or buy bald heads, as they look best for prisoners.

You can make them look more veteran by giving them long santa claus beards and different equipment, like shotguns, etc. But vets have too much equip to be penal legionnaires. In some circumstances they won't even be issued proper lasguns.

Commissars fit in fine ;it's their job policing criminal regiments.

[nutty]

Before I start rambling: don't let me or anyone else tell you what to do with your project, it is your army after all.

As cool as the idea of a mixed regiment like that is, it is going to be very difficult to make it look like a unified force on the table. If that's the vibe your going for; more power to you. I sold my catachans (used as penal legion/conscripts) a while back, because they looked like a different army when sitting next to my Cadians. Using Mordians as guards would probably work though.

If I was to do it again (and I might) i'd probably look into third party bitz sites and do a headswap. For example Anvil Industries does "jungle fighter head with helmets" which you could use for your veterans, leaving the regular Catachans with less gear tacked on to be used as conscripts. Those same companies often also sell extra pouches/bags/gear to stick on your veterans. A headswap usually costs around £5 per squad, which adds up if your doing an entire army, but is a reasonable investment to make a few squads stand out.

Just my 2 cents