"Cadians - Any hope for them ?" Topic

I have to admit I don't like Cadians that much.
They were good models when released but lets face it they are quite uninspiring for an Imperial guard unit when there are beautiful Vostroyans in lamelar armor, very cool colonial British Praetorians or iconic Steel Legion and Death Korps of Krieg..
(Hell even older metal Cadians while having some awkward poses were more interesting..)
Cadians are just somewhat uncool and wear silly helmets.

I converted and painted those and I like them very much, but they do not look Cadian any more:

Some time ago I fancied to paint something fast to chill out and done these in less than an hour.

And thats all, i have bunch of them for last 10 years and did not paint any before 2012..

And come to a conclusion that they could be Ok with different helmets, but they need to be painted in bright and contrasting colors to look Ok.
Maybe I should condsider head swaps ?
Why o Why GW did not make Krieg or Steel legionaries in plastic ??
Or anything not Cadian !

Has any of you done Cadians in some cool way (with cool heads maybe) ?
Show me yours Cadians !

Few more photos of those above on my Blog
link

PS: And happy New Year :)

I've seen them with Pig Iron head swaps. They look a little better.

I considered masked Pig Iron heads, because other ones looks a little bit to modern, but haven't seen them in flesh.

;)
New to this fancy techy stuff, so I still haven't replaced my old olympus with a digital camera yet!
My Cadian army has models going back to RT days. Ive painted them in dark blue blouses, green armor, and light blue trousers.
Recently I began to combine bits with sash and saber to reinforce my RT rough riders, I've also been adding the kepi and slouch hat heads to veteran squads and made a few snipers from the sash and saber bodies.
The stock GW kit is okay, but I like to find other bitz to jazz them up and keep my western 7th Cav theme going…..is any army ever completed????
This one is my favorite and has been growing since the 80's!

Head swap will do wonders for 'em…

Personally, I love the Cadians. The only complaint that I have is that they didn't have the weapon arms like the Catachans, which made customization much easier.

I do like the older metal Cadians, but the Praetorians and Vostroyans left me cold. Okay, the Praetorians were all right, and I hated the Vostroyans. Catachans, I liked, save for the over-muscling. The concept was fine, but execution was somewhat flawed. I still use 'em, as they make for great Necromunda Goliaths (or a Necromunda Goliath gang pressed into Imperial service…).

But I'd love to see plastic customization kits for Steel Legion and others – Salvar Chem-Dogs, etc. On the gripping hand, for some, part of the fun of customization is making those with the various parts at hand.

Hated Vostroyans, just too 'over done' for me. Great example of the 'needs more skulls, so we added more' idea.

I'd also like some customisation sprues for different units.

I will recommend the Pig Iron heads range. Can definitly make the units look better than 'bog standard' Cadians.

New to this fancy techy stuff, so I still haven't replaced my old olympus with a digital camera yet!

I miss my old Olympus SLR! It died one week after they stopped repairing them back in the 1990s. That camera was boss.

I don't know. I've always liked the clean, basic look of the Cadians. Maybe it's because I'm not a modern 40K player and am not exposed to all the 40K cooler and smack talk that I assume goes on in stores? Then again, I'm old.

Nothing too fancy, but I did my cadian figs with Pig Iron Kolony Milita Heads. It's a nice option because they have helmets, covered helmets, officer caps, bare heads, and even winter heads with the same gas mask so every fig doesn't have exactly the same head.

It's not night and day difference, but it's nice to be a bit different from most other folks cadians. Propotionaly, they're not exactly perfect, but it looks good to me. Also, it's quick, easy and very cheap.

Trooper

Sarge

Penal Legionnaire

Master of Ordinance (made from plastic parts)

Commander A metal fig with head swap and an eagle from a lasgun glued to the hat

You can see the whole gallery here:
link

For other options it's also worth checking out Victoria Lamb miniatures. They sell a ton of different bits that are compatible with Cadians in several different themes.

AWuuuu, your converted Cadians look great. I like the Cadian plastics b/c GW does a good job casting them; detailed and little flash. They're plastic and easily converted. And, if, you browse around a bit they can be picked-up at affordable prices such as through The Warstore. They seem to be the best plastic sf troops available. I've a bunch of WF Greatcoats but they aren't as good, although, WF's going to bring-out some new plastics which they're producing for another company that look promising… I don't have any of Mantic's Corporation troops? And, I've heard nothing but bad things about Defiance's German Grenadiers. As far as GW metals are concerned, I like the Kasrkin and Storm Troopers and would love to see plastic kits available for these troops. For metal alternatives to GW IG, I've picked-up Pig Iron's Colony Militia which are nice minis but not as detailed as GW metals.

Nice IG, ordinarybass!

Sorry i have never lost the love in my 753 regt Valhallans.

I've heard okay things for Defiance's Germans…..how few made it out. I have their marines, I don't recommend them personally. Not enough conversion potential. Mantic corporation troops are excellent, but perhaps too simple and have zero conversion potential and are scaled realistically, so they look very weird next to anything 40K.

had to read the post heading twice, my mind kept reading Canadians and not Cadians :-)

I like all the conversions and I like stock Cadians, too. They allow for easy customization.

TBH I really like the first 3 you did, I would stick to that theme.

Great photos Ordinarybass
I love helmeted head, it works really well with Cadians shoulder armor.
I might get those Pig iron sprues.
I actualy want them to look as uniformly dressed, faceles evilish grunts for the Inquisition, so

As to plastic set, i had much more use from Catachan desite newer gluing any of them as Catachans (especialy newer Catachan command sprue).
I am doing mostly Necromunda, and =I= Munda/ INQ28 Stuff
And they hands and heads despite over muscle look more generic, and I don't have to remove and greenstuff above mentioned armor plates from shoulders.

Those guys are example of what I am doing with Catachan and Cadian parts, and I found that despite my dislike of Catachans as an army (Vietnam era USArmy but not as cool looking as original Vietnam USAmy ?? ) Catachans.
( more detailed photos here link )

heres a guy with straight Catachan arms transplant.. he looks stupidly over muscled tho..

But it was easiest conversion ever..

I like Vostroyans because of their baroqueness and Winter gear and dislike for few details and wooden lasguns..
Valhallans had very good line as do Mordians and Tallarns.
Those older lines haven't had many poses but a lot of character !

Charles,
The figures you mentioned…
"WF's going to bring-out some new plastics which they're producing for another company that look promising… "

Are Dreamforge games Eisenkern. I don't have any use for them yet, but they are really nicely done figures. Worlds ahead of Defiance Games UAMC and WGF Greatcoats and look to be even better than GW cadians, though it's not entirely a fair comparison as the Cadians are nearly 10 years old.

dreamforge-games.blogspot.com
Proof that the shortcomings at WGF are their designers, not the manufacturing process. The figs are coming out this year.
They're also the ones making large plastic 40k'ish mecha.

Those are very cool indeed but aren't they to … well … proportional and human looking to work with GW ?

How they look close to space marine is just hilarious..

I considered them Grunts for Infinity.

I agree with most of the above comments. Except for Eldar Guardians, Imperial Guard are about the longest over due for a new multi-part plastics set.

I am not a fan of the currently avialable Imperial Guard models:

-the Catachans are old and overly muscled
-the Cadians are a bit bland and generic
-the Vostroyans are an abomination and typical of GW's recent tendancy to over elaborate models for no reason

I am lucky in that I have enough metal Imperial Guard as I liked most of the older metal ranges, especially Valhallans and Steel Legion.

I would LOVE to be able to afford to buy some Forgeworld death Korps of Kreig but way beyond my price budget for the time being. I may eventually get 1-2 squads of DKOK for use as Veteran squads next to my Steel Legion.

I liked the above connversions with Cadian plastic bodies and Pig Iron gasmark heads. They somehow looked more "Grim Dark" to me!

Cheers

James

you can get 10 death korps for about 23 pounds from China or Russia,much more affordable compared to 37 pounds from FW. Not that you should,but you can,tbh. no one will notice the difference.

what is expected price on those dram forge guys?