Rogue Trader Era Imperial Guard Project – Imperial Guardsman

Got some good work done on this fellow so that I can finially say that he is one of my finished models, horray!  I am actually very pleased with how he came out as it is pretty much what was in my minds eye at the start of this project.  Note I have added black over the silver armour plates as it looks much more like the source material this way.

Rogue Trader Era Imperial Guardsman

I intend to have a fair bit of variation in uniforms between “squads” in any event as it helps to distinguish them on the tabletop and looks visually interesting compared say to 120 identically painted Cadians.  The tri-colour badge with a “1” character on it means he is from the 3rd platoon 1st squad.  I would envision this chap as being a regular guardsman of the line and so he has 5 kill markings on his lasgun being a veteran of several skirmishes.  His metalic armour, originally painted a matt black (and possibly painted in different colours in an ad-hoc manner for the terrain) has chipped near the edges from the wear and tear of campaigning in the 41st millenium.  He bears a blue stripe on his helmet as he is from a tactical company.  Additionally on his back he bears a squad badge (an ace) with some personalisation (which helps me to distinguish him from his squad buddies).  What is difficult to see from the picture is the squad number on his left shoulder plate and a check pattern (more gang stlye personalisation) on his right shoulder plate.

Rogue Trader Era Imperial Guardsman back detail showing squad badge

When I get around to doing “Whiteshields” (basically young newly trained Guardsmen) they will have much cleaner battlegear and bear a plain white badge with a white stripe on the helm.  Conversely when I do some grizzled veterans they will have much more personalisation with markings and non standard issue battlegear.  In this manner it will be easy to distinguish the experience level of models in the army for any potential opponent (as well as looking awesome).