So, I was wondering what to post on the blog this week and thought that as I have been distracted recently on Rogue Trader things, I would do a post on the Rogue Trader era Imperial Army.
For those of you unaware, when Rogue Trader was initially released, instead of the Imperial Guard, there was the Imperial Army. The Imperial Army was essentally the same concept, a massive Galaxy-spanning low tech force of normal humans, but there was less background. There was an army list, Hylgar's Hellraisers, in the 1988 Book of the Astronimican, which included Squats and Ogyrns in it too.
This lasted until January 1989, when the new idea of the Imperial Guard was introduced in White Dwarf #109. Before then there were several releases of miniatures, many of which continued to be used in the later Imperial Guard range, and some that were not.
Personally I liked the ad-hoc early style of the Imperial Army. I started re-painting the miniatures from that time to a better standard a couple of years ago. Some of the miniatures that follow are finished, and some are an old colour scheme awaiting re-painting.
This is not an army I plan to complete painting in the near future. Despite the era of the army, I will probably field it from the later Imperial Guard list in 1989 (although I never liked the list due to the 200 point basic squads made expensive by the inclusion to me of an unnecessary 100 point las-cannon!) as Hylgar's Hellraisers army list is a litle odd. I also have an additional plastic/metal Imperial Guard army to this from the 1989 range of miniatures, but they require paint stripping.
I have presented the minatures from tjis part of my collection in conjuction with release adverts from the White Dwarf's at the time, and then added other complementary odds and ends I include in the army afterwards with descriptions.
Enjoy :)
The First 40K releases.
Imperial Light Trooper, and Imperial Garrison Trooper.
The Green and Khaki Brown paint scheme is the new paint scheme I am doing (or was doing couple of years ago when I was re-painted them).
Imperial Heavy Trooper and Imperial Heavy Infantry. The grey was my old paint scheme.
Ground Combat Trooper (looking very like a 'South-er' from Rogue Trooper), and a Telepath.
The Imperial Army release from White Dwarf #96, sculpted by Aly Morrison.
Sgt. Hikks, and Casualty
Trooper Cottrell, Sgt Howard, and Point Trooper Hulme.
Captain Henzell, Captain Armstrong, Female Trooper Vaskez.
Trooper Morris with a bolt gun, Trooper Jones with and Ork head!, and Trooper Brough.
Assualt Trooper Moss, Trooper Harrison, Comm. Officer Schimt.
Trooper Black, Lt. Olsen, Fwd Observer Smith.
Trooper Chow, and Reconaisance Trooper Kai.
Scout Trooper Pank, and Sniper Lang.
This first release of miniatures (except Sniper Lang) were characterised by the tighter fitting clothes, biker boots, and across the chest motorbiker style jackets.
Also, all the miniatures in this release (except Lang) are based on the same body type, Trooper Kai's, and are variation conversion sculpts from him.
The next release was in White Dwarf #98, and they are listed as designed by Aly Morrison (probably just Trooper Jones from the last release?), and the Perry Twins.
This is the first half of the Imperial Army release that month.
B-Tpr Gaxt, an awesome sculpted Beastman Trooper. Also, Medic Pointer, and Tpr Rothery.
Tpr Kelly with a Plasma Gun, Tpr Trewevas another female Trooper, and Tpr Caidan.
Captain Webb, Tpr Mosley, and Tpr Dick, the wounded Trooper model.
The second half of the release from White Dwarf #98, again, Aly Morrison and Perry Twins.
Tpr Lee, Tpr Langton, and Tpr Powell with a Bolter.
Tpr Laurel, and Field Officer Niven.
Tpr Rathbone Tpr Bruce. He has a lasgun behind his back.
Female Trooper Bush, Tpr Davey, Tpr Thomson with a bolter.
Sgt Lloyd, and Tpr Lifeson.
Lt Calvert with a power first, Tpr Lake, and Tpr Brock.
I recall from somewhere that Tpr Brock was a meant to represent Dave Andrews. A similar sketch of him is on page 260 of the Rogue Trader rulebook amongst the sketch of those involved with GW at the time 'Rogue Trader-ed up' .
Assault Trooper Hardy, Tpr Emerson, Tpr Bainbridge.
Trooper Hardy is a dismounted version of the Trooper on Jetbike later on in the blog update.
Tpr Peart, and Casualty .
The srtyle of the scultps of this release of miniautres is very different from the stylings of the previous release in White Dwarf #96. They have looser combat clothing, different helmets, and puttees over the boots. As these were mixed together with the former release of Imperial Army, it personally led to problems as the troopers seemed to have differing uniforms and so made the infantry feel less coherent. This was further compounded with the switch to the Imperial Guard and the release of a different style again metal and plastic miniatures in 1989.
Imperial Army Heavy Weapons release from White Dwarf #102. Sculpted by Michael Perry.
1&2, with Conversion Beamer and Heavy Bolter. The heavy weapons were seperate so you can match up differing bodies to different weapons for added variety. They are very much contiguous with the style of the White Dwarf #98 releases. It also allowed greater ease in the Imperial Guard army for the fielding of more exotic weapons.
3&4 with Conversion Beamers.
5&6, with Las-Cannon and Heavy Bolter.
In addition to the regular Imperial Army releases, there are several others that fit in well.
The figure on the left was listed as an assualt trooper or something similar on a Yellow release sheet from time which I cannot find at present.
Centre is a Merceenary is named 'Old World Jack', and the other is RT601 Adventurer 'Ex-Tech'.
The Trooper on the left does not appear in the White Dwarf releases, but again I think is on the Yellow Release sheet. He fits perfectly with the others in the range.
On the right is the Ogryn Hero (in need of a litte re-paint).
Medics.
In White Dwarf #102 there was also an article on Medics in 40K. These were the two Medics for the Imperial Army.
In that same issue was released the Medic on a bike.
The bike was the same one as used by Space marines. I don't think this miniature was widely released.
Imperial Army Trooper on the TSF16 Jetcycle.
This miniature is in the Rulebook on page 189.
He is a mounted version of Trooper Hardy, even down to the different looking boots.
The RT503 Imperial Landspeeder: the Imperial Army version.
The Army version had Army crew, a Heavy Plasma gun insteasd of the Space Marine Multi Melta, and Heavy Bolter on the front.
Imperial Army Rapier with crew member designed to stand on it. There were two variations of the early Rapier. This one is the Mutli-laser version.
The Multi Melta version with crewman.
The first version of the Tarantula, with las-cannons, and crew member.
Imperial Auto-Cannon.
Again, another limited release miniature. It is quite large, that is a 50mm square base it is mounted on.
The C100 Chainsaw Miniatures, useful for the early era of Imperial Army.
Astropaths; the Talisman one, and two Rogue Trader ones.
Inquisitor, Navigator, and female Psyker.
Three adventurers and Mercs used as NCO's and Officers.
Scout, Tech Priest, and Merc.
Iron Claw IC2003 Jump Troopers, designed by Bob Olley.
Next blog update should be Wood Elves as I intend finishing off the army over the next couple of weeks. :)
Lovely stuff, I'm collecting these guys at the moment. I agree that the Imperial Army floats my boat more than the Guard too.
ReplyDeleteSame here, I got into them nearly by accident during a hunt for advenurers and pirates but I have to say I've come to love them a lot, they look tough, dirty and very human to put it simply which is what I want for such an army.
DeleteVery nice collections and very good paintjob. It's actually very nice to see some models fitting so ggood with the rest because of the paintjob (thinking about some piartes, percs and the telepth)
Bravo
Thank you,
DeleteI agree with both of you that the old Imperial Army seemed to feel more human and gritty than the later Imperial Guard. I don't think it was until the Cadian boxset a few years ago that you could have that very ordinary and believable human feel for 40K.
One of the reasons I did an update on them is that I feel the Army era seems to be lost to the later Guard one, and also because I like the miniatures.
I plan to put them together according to the Hylgar's Hellraisers army list, but it's an odd list. Might ironically use the first Imperial Guard list or the tables from the rulebook, but just composed of the Army miniatures.
It took be ages to find the right the paint scheme, tried the Grey but it never seemed to work with the different uniform types and the Pirates/Mercs.
I don't plan on finishing them soon thuogh, too many other things I should be focusing on! :)