Imperial Guard Marines

[Deleted]

Hi guys!
I'm making my army based off an elite force who still relies on man power and tanks (obviously, since you could never have a Tanith style guard army) and I was thinking of ways to convert them and make them into real bad-ass lookin' dudes.
here are my ideas:

Elysian respirator helmets
cadian heavy weapon backpacks
autogun conversion (bolter clip, shaved off front sight, and barrel)
tau photon grenades (representing something like a 40k flashbang)

comments?

[knight (M.I.A)]

Bolterclips are too big for the lasgun. You should perhaps think about another conversion possibility. Another point are the Cadian backpacks. They don't seem to fit completely in the picture (at least in my head, but unlike the first part this is not a fact but just my imagination)

[The Refined Gentleman (M.I.A)]

I beg to differ on the tanith style army. I'm having a go at it (i've still got the odd tank or two). I think we gamers should have the boldness to try strange army lists and tactics.

But a marines IG force is a good idea. You talking about something like the royal marines.

[Deleted]

yeah, either royal marines (which i admit, I know nothing about) or my own USMC. They're supposed to be like the American Force Recon guys, a bit stealthy, a bit armored, very well rounded, and highly elite.

I want them to have backpacks because they know that you can be stranded behind enemy lines for a long time, and you need to carry everything on your back.

Also, a couple of hours ago, I was looking on another website and found some metal heads of american WWII troopers, that are 3 pounds (about 5 dollars and 36 cents) for a set of 20. There are multiple sets, like steel helmets with netting, regular steel helmets, foraging caps, and other unique helmets.
I'm gonna use those instead of the ultra expensive elysian heads, even though they don't have respirators. They look really cool, and have facial hair.

Also, about the bolter clip and lasgun to autogun conversion: it does work, I've done it before, and it looks kind of like an AK47.

Will post pics when I get the chance.

[knight (M.I.A)]

I know what it looks like and have done that conversion before too. But the Bolter clip is just too large for the lasgun magazine hold.
I tried it before and didn't like it because it looks somewhat silly. I went to the local GW store and they confirmed it and told me to try greenstuff or a third party developer.

[Deleted]

I cut off the lasgun magazine hold, and just zap'a'gap (my hobby store's plastic glue) the bolter mag on. I'll post some pics in a little bit.

[knight (M.I.A)]

I know what you mean. I have done that before too. The magazines are too big. Especially thickness. The bolter magazine is nearly as thick as the complete lasgun. The length is ok too. Its just that the magazines are too thick. Nothing else...

[Ymmot (M.I.A)]

I think he means he cut off the part that the lasgun power pack fits into, making more room for the boltgun magazine, seems to me like it might work, espically if he goes something with the barrel, it'll just look a bit big and clunky, maybe they thriple stuff the mags, more rounds that way.

[knight (M.I.A)]

Ymmot that won't change it. The lasgun never gets wider at any place. and cutting down the clip holder would just make it look silly. Trust me. I destroyed many lasguns and boltguns that way because I wanted to do the same. The boltgun clip is and will be always too wide.

[Ymmot (M.I.A)]

looks like GW made the same mistake when they designed their own autoguns.

I still think its a matter of personal preference.

[knight (M.I.A)]

No. Actually the boltgun plastic clips are wider than the autogun clips. All tried already

[Ymmot (M.I.A)]

maybe, but only by a hair or two!
if you wanna be that attentive to detail then you could just get yourself a small file and shave it down a little bit.

[knight (M.I.A)]

You would need ta shave down actually quite a lot (for the size of the minis its a lot, otherwise it isn't much). But you'd actually have to shorten the clips and have to take of a bit from each side and the bottom. Basically that's enough to justify modelling your own with GS. Its faster, cheaper and mostlikely easier

[Commissar]

I've made a few; they look quite good, very nice, just takes patience.

[Deleted]

What about cutting the lasgun clips away, and mounting them sideways (on the right side of the gun; a boltgun clip sideways could work too). I think that would create a whole new visual style of gun, while it is still quite visible as being a kind-of-autogun.

I thought that this was something that was done on the Bren machine gun en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bren (but that has apparently the clip upwards) but I was mixing it up with the Sten machine gun : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sten.

But there must be guns/rifles that have the ammo clip sideways?

I don't have any minis right here so the scale might be completely off...

[Deleted]

yeah! the sten smg, used by british soldiers in WWII. Then maybe my heavy bolters could be like the Bren LMG, with the magazine on top...yeah, I like that idea

But then again, the bolter clip is pretty big for mounting it on the side! I'll have to do a conversion before I mass convert it.

[Deleted]

I remember something doing in the distant past that involved a sideways ammo cartridge, which looked a bit like a boltgun clip...

And then I realized that it was a Flak gun <blush>

(Image shamelessly stolen from the Internet) :


The FlakVierling even had 4 of those sideways cartridges!

(Another image shamelessly stolen from the Internet) :


So yes, a boltgun clip might be a bit too big to stick on sideways on a lasgun...

But how about removing the 'lasgun ammo clip' and sticking that on the right side of the gun? That will still be a bit 'to scale' so it shouldn't look 'too big'...

[Commissar]

Hmm, I might try that...
Maybe we can make our own AKs with the catachan rifles?

[knight (M.I.A)]

The Catachan Lasguns aren't bigger than the 'Cadian' ones...
So that won't work that well too

[Deleted]

They could be AKS-74U's? ever think o' that?

[knight (M.I.A)]

They're same length. But they aren't wider so the magazine still fits completely. And AKS-74U has a foldingstock and not a hard stock made out of steel or wood.

The main problem with the bolgunclips is that they're wider than the lasgun...

[cobaltsentinel]

Well, when all else fails, break out the plasticard and green stuff...

[jpwyrm]

I've done some autoguns with bolter clips instead of lasguns one and it doesn't seem so bad. You just need to make sure it is correctly aligned with the rest of the gun and voilà! easy autogun

By the way flashlighter, can you post some pictures of your IG marines? I'm curious to see what you have done, since I'm also doing an elite guard army.

Cheers!

JP