Monday, January 16, 2012

Heavy Infantry for Gün Schwarm

New recruits for Gün Schwarn
I've been painting a lot of historical stuff over the past few weeks, but decided to "clear the palette" a little bit this weekend with a small sci-fi project - some "heavy infantry" for the Gün Schwarm in the form of 28mm Kasrkin/Storm Trooper models from GW.

A "schwere" infantry fireteam, with an officer and a grenade launcher
A bit of back story - I had acquired about 10 of these figures from fellow conscript Mike F in a trade about a year ago (there you go Mike - I knew I would get around to them eventually!). 

The officer figure is cool, but I'm not sure removing your breathing equipment is a great idea in the SpaceKreig setting...
These figures are some of my favourite GW castings.  The current plastic guardsmen are not all that pleasing, but these models are really, really sharp - bulky, armoured, silly guns, cool poses that convey action without excessive or unrealistic animation. Unfortunately, they receive billing as some kind of elite/special forces-type trooper in the "current" version of the Imperial Guard codex, but with all the hoses from the weapons, heavy back-packs etc. I can't see these guys zip-lining, drop-deploying etc.  The other storm trooper figures fit that bill very well in my view (FWIW I think those are also amazing figures in their own right too).  

Special weapon troops - melta gun (L) and grenade launcher
I see these more as sci-fi "heavy infantry", deploying out of APC/IFVs etc and doing some heavier lifting/shooting than the regular lads can manage, especially in built-up environments.  The heavier armour protects better against blasts, IEDs, terrifying claws and other things.  In fact, that is how these models first came out (the "Kasrkin"), and at one time they could be used as a "troops" choice. 


Another angle on the support weapons, showing the backpacks
Back when these models were first released, I painted 30 of them for a core of a force that would eventually balloon into the large horde/collection of "blue" guardsmen I have today. This force org is no longer valid under the "current" codex, not that they ever managed to achieve much more than serving as speed bumps for Dave V's Eldar.



The second fireteam, with the melta gun
So I have painted these extra fellows in Gün Schwarm colours to serve as "schwere" infantry in the fight against Kommulism. It will at most amount to one 8-man squad in a SpaceKreig game, or a pair of fireteams for a Tomorrow's War-type game, but it was fun to paint up some of my favourite models while watching some great (San Fran vs. New Orleans) and not-so-great (New England vs. Denver) NFL playoff games. 

The new recruits on maneuvers with the "Space Hetzer"
It would be neat  to add more of these models, but we'll see - I'm not even sure if they are still available, or if they have been resigned to the dustbin known as "Finecast".  I also hear rumours that GW is doing up storm trooper type models as a new plastic kit, which could be interesting, but there are always GW rumours.

I hope these will see some action soon, and we all know how newly-painted figures totally dominate the tabletop.

6 comments:

Dangerous Brian said...

Lovely paint jobs.

GW seems to have a strange idea of what actually constitutes "elite". These days they just tag anything with slightly heavier armour as "elite" and leave it at that.

I'm pretty sure Storm Troopers are juts that. Troopers for storming entrenched positions. Sure, that implies a certain mind-set and physical toughness, but it's certainly not the definition of elite.

Gunrunner said...

Sweet paint job, Greg. When I painted 28mm, these figures were some of my favourites. The painted ones were sold, the unpainted ones are in the hands of my infinitely more talented son!

Jay said...

Very nicely done. They look great photographed.

DaveV said...

Great looking figs, Greg.

I got a squad of these guys years ago, and now regret getting rid of them.

The old man said...

Very nice work.
I've got 40 of these guys, nowhere near as well painted up though.

Although I do prefer the previous generation of stormies to them, those models are still some of my favourites.

Remos said...

Hey Dangerous Brian, what do you think of scout/infiltrate/DS-reroll unit with AP3 gun and possibility to commit meltacide?
Thank God Stormtroopers are elite.