Fousands of 'em - A Praetorian Guard Army
Original Entry - 3rd of September 2026
So, with a heavy heart and a bank balance that doesn’t quite match my ambition, I’ve decided to start a new Imperial Guard army and shelve my old Vostroyans.
Before diving into this new adventure, I wanted to share some thoughts on the Vostroyans and what ultimately led to me losing interest in them.
Firstly, they’re a fantastic-looking army (the models rather than egotistically bragging about my own collection), and that was a huge part of their original appeal. They were also released while I worked for Games Workshop, meaning I was able to order the bulk of my collection using the fabled staff weight discount. Unfortunately, their unique appearance eventually became something of a curse. The range is not only old and long out of production, occasionally resurfacing at eye-watering prices, but it was never particularly extensive to begin with.
There are no Vostroyan meltagunners, no rocket launcher teams, and no autocannon crews. The rest of the range also suffers from the limitations of the old white metal era, with pre-sculpted poses throughout. Once you build an army of any size, the same miniature appears again and again in exactly the same stance.
To fill the gaps, I turned to third-party companies in the hope of expanding the range and adding some variety. The problem is that even the closest alternatives never quite capture the Vostroyan aesthetic. Wargames Atlantic's Les Grognards, for example, are far more French than Cossack. With some careful conversion work, they can certainly be made to look more Vostroyan, but they always end up feeling like the Vostroyans we have at home.
The second reason is partly my own fault, although it’s compounded by the first. I painted my Vostroyans in a non-standard colour scheme. I think that would have worked perfectly well if I’d stuck exclusively to the official Games Workshop models—assuming I could have found more without re-mortgaging the house. Instead, my collection became a mixture of original GW sculpts, third-party miniatures, and assorted bits and pieces I’d picked up over the years.
The end result is an army that, to me at least, no longer feels like Vostroyans. Somewhere along the way, it lost its identity. Would the third-party models blend in better if I’d simply painted everything in the traditional red and gold? Probably. But I didn’t. So while the army isn’t going anywhere, my renewed enthusiasm for the Imperial Guard left me wanting to start again from scratch.
The funny thing is that this new venture isn’t actually all that new. Like most of my adult hobby projects, the idea has its roots in my childhood collections.
Back then I collected Cadians. I owned a handful of the original white metal models, but the vast majority of my army came from the plastic kits that remained in production for the next couple of decades. My dad is a huge Napoleonic enthusiast—he even has the Battle of Waterloo recreated in the loft in 1:72 scale—so naturally I painted my Cadians as redcoats.
It was sometime later that I discovered the Mordian Iron Guard and the Praetorians existed. Unfortunately, my paper round money was never going to stretch to an entire metal army, even if you could still order the models from the legendary Mail Order Trolls.
So, when I started thinking about which regiment should form the basis of my new Imperial Guard collection, the Praetorians immediately stood out. Recent fan artwork depicting them with white flak armour over the traditional red uniforms really sealed the deal. The new Cadian plastics, combined with a simple head swap, looked like the perfect foundation. Better still, red jackets and pith helmets are a far more forgiving look when incorporating third-party models than the highly distinctive Vostroyans.
The new Cadian kit is definitely an improvement over the old plastics, although I’ll admit it took me a little while to warm to them. Nostalgia is a difficult thing to beat.
That said, I’ll still be filing off every single knee pad. They’re an awful addition.
The proportions and poses are much better than the old kits and are part of Games Workshop’s wider move away from the exaggerated heroic scale of oversized hands and weapons. The downside, however, is the way the models have been designed. If you sculpt ten unique poses, those poses are naturally going to look better than a kit made from interchangeable legs and torsos. The trade-off is that every vox operator, every grenade launcher trooper, and every specialist ends up standing in exactly the same pose.
The older kits might not have looked quite as dynamic, but they gave you options. Your vox operator could be standing still, running forward, or posed however you wanted. Now, without extensive conversion work—which I fully intend to do—every vox operator is marching along holding the handset to their mouth in exactly the same way.
In a strange twist, we’ve almost come full circle. The old white metal ranges were limited by fixed poses, and plastic kits were meant to solve that problem by offering greater flexibility. Ironically, the newest plastic kits seem to have forgotten one of the biggest advantages plastic was supposed to provide.
For my first unit, the models were built as per the instructions, albeit with head swaps from Reptilian Overlords. The packet of heads I ordered were sold in multiples of 18, so I annoyingly cannot use them for a full 10 man squad again. Somewhat frustrating but I guess their assumption was the sergeant would always be helmetless?
I also have an original squad of ten metal Praetorians. They’d seen better days and needed a little repair work before I could get them ready for painting. Originally bought with the intention of creating a “British Bobby” Adeptus Arbites gang for Necromunda, they were eventually paint-stripped and given a new home in this latest project.
I decided to use the old metal sergeant as an officer. He’s considerably more ornate than the plastic Cadian sergeants who will make up the majority of the army’s NCOs, so promoting him seemed like the obvious choice. He certainly looks the part.
For the facings and cuffs, I opted for Lincoln Green, inspired by the 11th Devonshire Regiment of the British Army of the era which helped provide the historical inspiration for this Imperial Guard regiment. Given that I live in Devon, it seemed like the perfect fit.
To square away the differences in uniform, I’m treating the old metal models as the Light Company, while the new Cadian-based, carapace-armoured models will form the main battle line.
And there we have it—the project is officially underway. Bit by bit, I’ll be adding to the regiment and expanding the range, so be sure to check back and follow the progress.
Comments