Traitor Guard Planning: Troops

Since I've gone to the shiny, new Imperial Guard codex for my Traitor Guard planning, I've got a mind to really take tons of troopers. Of course, painting hordes of troops is *not* my specialty, but I guess I need to start somewhere.

I'm going to start simply with my two compulsory troops choices, which in Imperial Guard terms means a lot more figs than one would think. Two names really caught my eye in the Eye of Terror codex; the Sentrek Freemen and Discilian Apostates.

I'm sitting on two boxes of Imperial Guard troopers already, one is the twenty strong Catachan troops (yes, with the mondo muscle arms), and the other is a twenty strong box of Cadians. Each of these boxes will form the core of both my troop choices.

Regarding the Catachans, with their bare chests and Guerrilla look, they just scream to become Sentrek Freemen. I thought of just using them as is, but I'm thinking of adding a rather roguish head swap to them and with Pig Iron producing a lot of head packs, I may go there. Unfortunately it looks like the Warstore is out right now, but the Kolony Rebel Heads would work well with the Catachan flak vests and jungle look.

The Cadian figures are much more regimented and militant looking than their Catachan cousins, and for them I'll be going with the Discilian Apostates. The fluff on these guys says they were once part of guarding a religious higher-up who was taken down by the Inquisition. Using West Wind Productions' hooded Arthurian heads from their historically range I hope I'll be able to peg down that 'Cardinal' look.


You've just gotta have Plague Zombies...

Another tidbit that caught my eye from the Eye of Terror codex was Plague Zombies. Basically these were Mutant troop choices that had specific mutations. Obviously I'm not going to be able to pull off true Plague Zombies with the new IG Codex, but where will I find cheap, meat shield troopers? Oh right, Conscripts. I had originally planned to hybridize Guard components and WHFB Zombies to make these, but I don't know if I want to invest the cash for enough Guard parts to make them 50/50 figures. I may however buy some bots here and there to disperse throughout the unit to give them the appearance of Guard Zombies, plus, I should have plenty of Guard heads leftover from all the above swapping. Each of my two troop choices will have these 'conscripts' attached to them.