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 This force org is no longer valid under the "current" codex, not that they ever managed to achieve much more than serving as speed bumps for Dave V's Eldar.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.