Imperial Guard: Building an infiltration expert

“I'm just a man who's good at what he does. Killing.”

With the recent release of the plastic Van Saar for Necromunda, the hobby community finally has plastic models that are wearing body gloves (armored in this case), something ubiquitous in the background (and was popularized, and maybe coined, by Dan Abnett) but curiously absent in model form. Having spent much of this year converting and casting Imperial Guard, I thought these new models would make an excellent foundation for converting a recon specialist for them (taking suitable cues from Metal Gear Solid, of course!). What started out as a relatively simple project rapidly escalated as I attempted more and more sculpting, both to distance the model from the Van Saar and to make the model fit its role as a master scout.

Although based on a plastic Van Saar model, I extensively modified it with green stuff. 

Previously I had converted a head from an Empire greatsword model, removing his hat and sculpting hair and a bandana, and decided it would be a perfect fit for the model that I was trying to create. Unfortunately, the head was a little larger than the stock Van Saar heads, and looked slightly out of scale (like it had with the aforementioned Imperial Guard that I converted). To address this, I added a thin plastic card spacer to the torso and both of the shins. I also had to add a spacer to one of the model’s thighs, which was inexplicably shorter than the other (it appears human anatomy has been compromised to achieve many of the poses in the Van Saar set). Having added the spacers, I set about using green stuff to make his body armor look more like a kevlar ballistic vest. In order to convincingly represent fabric (complete with fabric ripples), I had resculpt the exterior of virtually the entire torso. To make it look like he is actually prepared for combat, I sculpted a full harness, including a belt and padded suspenders, complete with all manner of small clasps and buckles. This allowed me to naturally add a host of pouches (the pouches came from the sadly discontinued Elysian Drop Troop command), a knife, and even a canteen.

I used thin brass tubing from Albion alloys to create a silencer.

The legs and arms were also modified, but not as drastically as the torso. I added a few armored plates, while trimming down those around the upper thighs, to allow for more freedom of movement for the character. Where the upper thigh plates were removed, I sculpted in folds of cloth, representing the fabric of his pants. I also attached a holster to his thigh and sculpted little straps holding it in place.

I gave him a lot of equipment to make him look like a more convincing recon soldier.

When thinking of the model’s weapons, I wanted to ensure that they were an extension of the character, rather than a dominating focal point of the model. GW often creates neat and enigmatic characters only to overshadow them with gigantic weapons that belittle their strength and personality. I was making a hard-as-nails recon trooper with decades of combat experience; that is far more interesting than a firearm. With this in mind, I decided to use one of the small automatic pistols that I converted for my Imperial Guard. To add a little variety and fit with the stealth theme, I decided to add a silencer to the pistol. To achieve this, I used two pieces of interlacing brass tubing. Special thanks to @apoteos_miniatures for letting me know about Albion alloys micro brass tubing, it is fantastic for creating delicate firearm conversions!

The recon soldier fits nicely alongside the Imperial Guard I have been building.

With the model complete, I am excited to begin painting him. I have not completely devised a color scheme, but it will likely have greys and other dark tones, to suggest his clandestine nature. Although the model took a huge amount of time to complete, due to all the detailed sculpting, I would like to try to make a few more in the future. I would be really great to have a small squad to accompany the Imperial Guard force that I am slowly assembling!

- Adam Wier