Jump to content

166th Montrose Regiment


FlamingDeth

Recommended Posts

Hello! Now that my orks are starting to pick up steam it seems like the perfect time to have some hobby ADD and switch gears to something else entirely! As such, guard.

This isn’t the first time I’ve done guard! I had a force a bit ago and sold them as I didn’t want cadians. Nothing wrong with them, I just wanted to be a unique snowflake and have something different from everyone else, and was looking for a more antiquated aesthetic. To that end I bought one of these. I was originally looking for something a little more conquistador-ish (poofy sleeves and breastplates kind of thing) but when I saw these they looked easy enough to work with and I just kind of liked the look.

So here we go. Using my amazingly bad photography skills, we’ll start with a scale shot.

med_gallery_47416_14346_184857.jpeg

DV marine, one of these guys tacked together, actual Cadian that I somehow ended up with more of. They’re a bit smaller but the proportions are similar so they don’t look too out of place. It also means that my giant pile of marines aren’t going to look tiny next to them, which means I can be lazy and not truescale anything.

The challenge here will be making them more 40k. A couple gas masks or bionic eyes here and there won’t hurt, but the big thing is the weapons. I plan on making the barrels look more like lasguns, which is easy enough with basic plastic tube, but I also want to add magazines to them, which is trickier, as several of the rifles are shouldered so I can’t leave it right in front of the trigger. Suggestions welcome there, pics below for reference.

med_gallery_47416_14346_101341.jpeg

med_gallery_47416_14346_169650.jpeg

So not much, just unboxed them, but there we go! I’ll edit the title once I decide on what the regiment is called.

Edited by CardinalVirtue
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice. The old Fantasy Empire state troopers and handgunners will also fit into this aesthetic. As would green-stuffed beards and goatees.

 

The Conquistadors sadly excelled at using mastiffs to terrorize/dismember the Indigenous American population in the Carribbean (they literally killed off the entire native population of Cuba) so a counts-as squad Bullgryns squad of hounds would be perfect. And, of course, lance-armed rough riders would be aprpos.

 

I look forward to watching your Conquistador IG grow!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just to clarify, I like the aesthetic, not the tactics! Though honestly none of that sounds out of character for the Imperium regardless. Probably no abhumans, My main army is a dark angels successor and I don’t want to strain their relationship if I decide to ally them.

 

Rough riders are a thing though! My next purchase, now that I know that the scale is workable, will be the starter battalia box that comes with 24 cavalry. Considering going with Krieg rules too, just because I know they won’t get rid of death riders, but I’m not so sure about rough riders.

Edited by CardinalVirtue
Link to comment
Share on other sites

ECW eh? Should be a cool-looking regiment when it's done. :)

 

I think the issue you'll most likely have is definitely getting suitable 40k weapons at that scale. Never mind the lasguns for a moment; the special weapons are going to look *huge* on them unfortunately. :(

 

The best option that I can think of in terms of getting stuff that's closer to the right size is to use the FW Death Korps weapons pack. Of course, that's a rather prohibitive cost - even to kit a small platoon out.

 

The next best option that I can think of would be to have a look at Victoria Miniatures. The Mk1 Laser Rifles would probably work, and are rather more affordable than the FW stuff. Using something like these would save you the difficulty of trying to get the flintlocks looking more like lasguns, and would instantly give you that slightly anachronous 40k feel.

 

For special weapons, I would consider using the the multi-part Space Marine Combi weapons, as the non-bolter bits are quite slim and would suit the scale of the ECW models much better if used on their own with a little bit of fudging. The good thing about these is that even if bits-buying three or so is not as cheap as you'd like, you're at least getting all the components with each one (i.e., a flamer, a plasma gun, and a melta gun, not to mention the grav and the bolter part too). You get them in the Tactical, Devastator, and Blood Angels Tactical kits.

 

 

The old Fantasy Empire state troopers and handgunners will also fit into this aesthetic.

 

Sadly, they'll be overwhelmingly huge on these models - even by the "heroic" proportions that GW normally uses!

 

Of course, there's nothing to stop you using relatively cheap Empire handgunners with Cadian lasguns... That would work quite well in fact, and you could base Scions and such off Empire Greatswords too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, I plan on modifying the standard muskets to be more like lasguns or maybe even autoguns, so basic weapons won’t be a problem. I’m thinking about making the regiment relatively low tech so probably all grenade launchers for specials with autocannons and missile launchers for heavies. Maybe mortars too. I should be able scratch build those for the most part since they’re basically all just a series of tubes. I’ll probably have to come up with some better antitank at some point if I want to run them independently but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it, I don’t usually put a whole lot of thought into being competitive when I’m building an army. I do know that I don’t want to spend GW money for weapons, I’d be lying if I said that being $35 for 40 models wasn’t a contributing factor for choosing these as well.

 

Color scheme I’m thinking of at the moment — definitely subject to change — is light brown doublets with red sleeves like some of the ECW London trained regiments, with officers getting all kinds of colors because they’re wealthier.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While I will defend grenade launchers to the death (have 9 between three command squads), autocannons are not the best weapon we have even with its point drop, and the missile launcher is likely the worst of them all.  Maybe use bigger cannons to represent lascannons?  The mortars are definitely a solid choice.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

( but I also want to add magazines to them)

With that specific style why not make them seem as if they would be breech loaded. Make a cut at the at the lock to indicate the magazine is inserted from the top. they are modeled as if they are carrying charges,so each charge is a magazine ready to be loaded.

med_gallery_47416_14346_169650.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wither: the way I see it the good weapons change every book and edition, so I might as well make what I think looks cool and fits best with my fluff. I haven’t tried playing competetively in nearly a decade now, so I’m not worried about what the crunch says most of the time.

 

Walter and Danny: I had thought about those but I still want to put a lasgun mag on there. Right now I’m leaning towards side loading it like the old MP-18s and whatnot. I’ll play around with it and see what looks good.

 

Libris: mordians are the ones that get bonuses for group hugs, right? I don’t have the new book yet and haven’t put much thought into actual gameplay, but that sounds about right.

 

Pearson: hard to beat that price! After the battalia purchase it’ll have been about $150 for 150 models. That’s not bad at all.

 

 

Probably won’t be able to put serious work in until Sunday on the models, but I may be able to kick out some fluff tomorrow.

Edited by CardinalVirtue
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Eh, missiles are halfway decent now. They'll always suffer for trying to straddle the line between AT and AI, but they're not bad atm. As AT weapons, they suffer from being exactly one notch worse than lascannons. As AI weapons, they suffer from being VERY expensive mortars that don't ignore LoS. Against light armor or infantry, you'll almost not notice the difference.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Montrose is a system in the Gothic Sector near the Storm of the Emperor's Wrath that was only brought into the fold of the Imperium a few thousand years ago. Located on the opposite side of a minor xenos empire, it was rediscovered by the Black Templar, accompanying forces of the Imperial Guard, and a mechanicus expeditionary fleet after the unnamed xenos were eradicated during the INSERT NAME HERE Crusade in M38. There is currently one habitable world as well as mining and manufacturing bases on it's moon, but it's theorized that there were more in the distant past, judging by analysis of the massive amount of asteroids in the system, thought to be remains of planets destroyed in some terrible battle of past millenia.

 

Due to frequent meteor impacts and it's separation from the Imperium, civilization on the planet had difficulties advancing, it's residents living nomadically to attempt to avoid destruction at the hands of meteors. In the wake of it's discovery the mechanicus fortified the planet with a handful of orbital defense stations that while wholly inadequate for the purposes of invasion defense were quite sufficient for deflecting the occasional wayward asteroid. Leaving a token force of guardsmen, mechanicus, and preachers to help form the world into a productive part of the Imperium.

 

While the preachers imparted the imperial cult to the population, the forces of the mechanicus brought farming technology to a world that had quite fertile soil, and explored nearby for traces of lost technology. On the planet's moon they found long abandoned mining facilities, as well as manufactoriums capable of producing alternate patterns of military gear. While this equipment was deemed sufficient for local defense, it was more difficult to maintain that more standard patterns of military equipment and was never spread beyond the system. 

In the centuries and millennia since then, the population grew exponentially, with agriculture as their primary export and product for the imperial tithe. In it's current society, it is semifeudal, ruled over by a network of lords and nobles. In their tradition, the firstborn of each family inherits the entirety of the family's estate. However, this birthright can be taken by later children by means of making a name for themselves in military service, in which they raise an army from the constantly overpopulated peasantry, wage great battles for the imperium of man, and then return alive. Given the speed at which it was able to raise regiments of eager guardsmen, Montrose had become a popular location for inquisitors, explorators, and rogue traders to recruit small armies to prosecute their own projects.

 

After the  Maledictum opened, the various regiments from Montrose lost all contact with their homeworld, it's fate unknown, but in general are too occupied waging war to worry about it just yet. This story follows the 166th Montrose Regiment, commanded by Lord Phillip Hart, second son of Lord Arthur Hart. We'll see where he goes!

 

 

As you can tell I'm bad at names, so those will probably change, but that's where I'm at for fluff so far. As for missile launchers they just fit the theme and are silly easy to scratch build, probably starting with autocannons and mortars though, even though I hear that autocannons are also bad this edition. I may in the future try to model some "nobleborn" squads of some sort that are wealthy enough to acquire more advanced energy weapons, but not immediately.

Edited by CardinalVirtue
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not much here yet, but sort of prototyping out their lasguns. Things get complicated a bit with the fact that they’ve got matchlock fuses running down the sides of all the rifles, I have to decide if it’s worth shaving them off or just try working around them.

Here’s what we’ve got. Left side one has a magazine coming out the side, right one does not. Both have lasgun barrels.

med_gallery_47416_14346_193228.jpeg

I’ll probably settle for laslocks after all, but there will have to some more extensive modifications to make it convincing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.