Written by Richard Boulton | 28 July 2010

So, I thought I'd start a blog on an idea that's been floating round in my head for probably a good year or so. When I first got into 40k this time around (just after the new Marine codex was released, so not long ago) IG would've been the last army that I'd look at; they're just like a current day military force, why don't I just play Flames of War?! (Actually I wouldn't mind giving it a go). The new codex changed my mind though, it's full of great options for any number of themed armies. I realise there seems to be a tendency for many mech Guard armies to be quite similar at the moment, but if you're not playing in an ultra-competitive environment you could have five Guard players with completely different styles of army. There's loads of great models to be had (including obviously the Valkyrie), some great fluff to be followed and some fun units to try out. Another big plus point for me is that because everything is so cheap you really have a lot of flexibility in building your force; coming from playing Marines this is a breath of fresh air, points are so tight for my Fists that it's difficult to fit a balanced force into 1500 points and still play some of the more 'fun' units I would like to.

Another way in which I would like my next army to be different to my current one is in the paint scheme. When choosing the Crimson Fists I had decided that whilst I would be happy for my Marines to be blue, the happy sky blue of the Ultramarines really didn't feel rugged enough for a force of elite soldiers. The dark blue of the CFs, along with their great background story was the reason I went with them. I definitely don't regret it, when I put the effort in they can look very nice indeed. For my next army though, I really feel a need to be a bit brighter. For one I'd just like to see some variety in my carrying case and on the tabletop, but it's also about my painting skills. With my Fists being so dark there's no opportunity for me to learn layering, I can't build up from a darker colour to a lighter one - in fact I start with Necron Abyss and add washes to make it even darker! Yet when I painted my Librarian in his Ultramarine coloured armour, I enjoyed the change in style, and want to do more.



I have a few ideas for more colourful armies - I'd love to do Iyanden Eldar, or Evil Sunz Orks, but the idea I have for Guard combines the colour with a codex which I am really excited about. As you can probably guess from the title, the idea is for an army of Guardsmen that are stationed somewhere somewhat snowy. By somewhat snowy I mean it's like a constant blizzard. As such the Guardsmen need protection from the elements, and I've always imagined them fully helmeted. Whoever I choose as the HQ I might leave with no helmet, just so he looks incredibly hard (like the colonel, or whatever his rank was, in Avatar), but aside from that possibility, I really want every model to have no skin showing, suggesting that they cannot be exposed even for a few moments. My problem here has been how to do it - Forgeworld do some nice looking Cadian helmeted heads, but they don't sell them separately. There's the Elysian drop troop heads which they do sell separately, but I don't like them much if I'm honest. Up to recently I'd been considering giving up on full helmets and going with the breathing masks from the command squad frame. I could get these from Bitz Box or some equivalent and kit out all the troopers.



However someone seems to have the same idea, because no bits seller seems to be able to keep consistent stock in, and I'd hate to be halfway through an army and have to wait a considerable length of time just for these to pop up somewhere. Luckily I've found another solution. Looking around on various 'third party' miniature websites, I came across Pig Iron Productions, who make a variety of heads which they sell separately, and which look (from the pictures at least) incredible. There's three different styles I'm looking at, so let's run through them.



These are the standard infantry heads. They look great, I'd be pleased to have an army full of them. However there are more options to be had.



These heads are labelled as being for heavy infantry, but I prefer the look of them to the standard heads. The visor is larger, and I'm hoping for the visor to be a prominent part of the model (I'll mention why later when I talk about the paint scheme). Also the mouthpiece on the standard head sticks out quite considerably and could look a little weird I'm sure. These generally have a slightly softer look that I expect would fit better with the standard Cadian troops. But if these are the heavy infantry heads, what can I possibly use if I want, for example, Stormtroopers? Here's the best bit.



They look a little bit like grim reapers I think, not sure whether that's a good or bad thing though. Either way, the vast amount of visor space on there reminds me of the EVA suits from Halo 3, which are apparently intended for high orbit and actual space mobility. It seems like that works well with the idea of drop trooping (i.e. deep striking) Stormtroopers.

So there you have it, the likely helmet options for the Guard army I'm yet to start. As far as the paint scheme goes, I'm not going to be after just some vaguely snow-like camo scheme, I want pristine white uniforms built for an environment that is absolutely covered in deep snow, but obviously with decent shadowing through layering up from a darker colour, probably a grey-blue instead of a pure grey. I'll do a post another time with more specifics about colours, when I know what the specifics are likely to be of course. The only other thing I have set is the visors, which I want to use to inject some real colour into the models. They could be blue to tie in, but then I'm not sure they'd add the amount of colour you'd need in an army that is going to be 90% white. My current thinking is orange visors, building up, from the top left to the bottom right, from a dark brown to a pure orange. In my head it looks awesome, but it will require some test models at some point. I guess I've gotten this idea from Halo again, the picture below shows the kind of orange colouring I'm picturing.



So that's the plan at the moment. I'll do more posts on other aspects such as the paint scheme, the actual list etc, and then following me actually buying and painting this army. It'll be a very slow process for two reasons; firstly I really can't justify the money it takes to start a new army yet, I've only just moved out and now have to think about rent and such. Secondly, as this won't be my primary army (and also to prevent me spending too much money on it), I'll be using it as an opportunity to take my time with painting, and hopefully avoid the pressure to get squads done so that I can put them on the table. This should also allow me to go the other way with my Fists, and not worry so much about making them look perfect, or being annoyed that some of my earlier models look really crap, since they will be my 'gaming' force rather than the one I focus my painting attention on.

I'd love any comments on the heads, or potential paint schemes, themes for the army that would work with the heavy snow idea etc.