Warhammer 40K: 37 Years of Astra Militarum Minis
Take a look at all the Astra Militarum minis who’ve been defending the Imperium for over 3 decades – with faith, t-shirt, and a las-gun.
It’s been a very, very long road for the Imperial Guard who have perhaps the widest range of miniatures GW has ever done. Over the decades, 40K has paid attention to myriad worlds of the Imperium, each with distinct ways of war and cultures that made their way into the Imperial Guard range. Today we will be covering the basic infantry only. We will come back to the vehicles later. We will hit each of the major worlds and go backward in time from the most recent to older models.
A Word on the Imperial Guard Itself.
The Astra Militarum, commonly known as Imperial Guard, is the primary fighting force of the Imperium, so numerous in size that even the Departmento Munitorum cannot place a figure on the number of Guardsmen under arms at any one time; the lists of new recruits and toll of casualties can run into the millions in a single day. It would be unfeasible trying to put any exact number on the strength of the Guard; however, it is believed that there must be many billions of Guardsmen, divided into millions of regiments. This absolute numeracy provides the Guard with its main power; their ability to deploy in numbers that, eventually, result in victory. Attacking in seemingly endless influxes across battle-zones, charging forth under the cover of massive barrages, and delivering massed lasgun volleys, in the Guard the individual Human soldier may appear a lost thing, almost forgotten. Yet the actions of these anonymous soldiers daily decide the fate of worlds. The Guard forms the very backbone of the Imperium; without it, Mankind would surely perish.
Astra Militarum Minis – The Current Era
OMG, no one expected the Attilan Roughriders to return , but they have!
The Cadians got new Shock Troopers and Kasrkin, that really helped to modernize their range, with slightly more realistic proportions compared to the GW hallmark Heroic-scale of previous decades.
Gaunt’s Ghosts made a surprise reappearance recently. I love it when a plan comes together! With any luck one of these days we’ll see the Last Chancers in plastic.
The biggest shocker of the past couple years was out-of-the-blue plastic Death Korps that came with Kill Team Octarius. This squad is the modern replacement for the old resin DKoK Forge World range (below). But way more importantly, they have distinctive rules and equipment that hinted at their appearance in the latest Astra Militarum codex.
Astra Militarum Minis – “The Near Past”
He hates Predators!
We have been getting some very nice limited-run AM Catachans of late. The female Sergeant Jackson is solid!
Cadians defined the modern tabletop Astra Militarum. When people think of the IG, they think of the plastic Cadians – alas now a range with a shattered homeworld.. These just got redone recently with male and female heads, and more weapon options. It was about time!
Catachans define the next most popular range. These guys have been around for a long time, but GW has given them some modern upgrades and a snazzy Command Squad. On Catachan – every day is bandana day.
Stormtroopers – A Quick Aside
Let’s take a quick side trip into the elite of the IG, the Scions/Kasrkin/Stormtroopers. – who just got that brand Kasrkin new update (above). You can all argue about whether they should be technically considered “Stormtroopers”.
The current golden boys of the AM are the Tempestus Scions.
Before them came the metal Cadian Kasrkin (now replaced in plastic).
Before them was the old-school metal Stormtroopers – quite good models for their time.
Forge World Gets Its Marching Orders
Forge World got in on the action with two detailed resin IG ranges of their own. One of which turned out to be a fan favorite, and the other – not so much.
The Elysians were the paratrooper-themed army of the pair. They arrived with The Taros Campaign book.
While the Death Korps of Kreig are Imperial German and WW1 French armies blended together all the way. They arrived in The Siege of Vraks – and were just recently updated in plastic (above).
Astra Militarum Minis – The “Middle Era”
Now we dive back into the last 15-20 years for the post Rogue Trader era IG when we got to meet all kinds of metal ranges from across the Imperium.
The Vostroyan Firstborn arrived to give the Tau opponents in the Cityfight rules expansion.
The Mordian Iron Guard love a snappy uniform!
The Valhallans are experts at kicking butt on ice worlds – and using conscript wave attacks.
The Tallarn Desert Raiders rule the sands.
Armageddon Steel Legion know how to use Chimeras.
Attilans gave us Roughriders, now returned after almost 20 years.
The original Cadians were these metal guys.
While the Praetorians have been lost to the mists of time.
Special call out to the Gaunts Ghosts minis, out there causing trouble (now updated in plastic).
And the Last Chancers never turn down a mission. Hopefully one day they will return.
The Early Days – Rogue Trader
Now we go back to 1980s and early 1990s to see the earliest incarnations of the Imperial Guard
The Imperial Guard got their first plastic range in Rogue Trader. Here we see the impeccable fashion sense of those early Guardsmen. They came in a big box of 36 troopers in 1989, seen in this artwork in the colors of the Necromundan 6th “The Spiders” 30 years later, I wonder if the Necromundan 6th are primarily from House Van Saar – hence “The Spiders”? Hmm…
You can see some plastic sprues up on the upper left and the metal Officers and Specialists on the upper two rows.
WAY WAY Back…
Finally, we stop at some of the ancient metal “Imperial Army” minis from 1987-1988.
£2.50 for 5 models!
These are some of the oldest 40K miniatures, and you can see the variety of concepts that would later blossom into the IG (LOOK female troopers have been with the IG since it’s earliest days!).
~Who’s still rocking some of these on the tabletop and which are your favorites?
Honorable Mentions – “Ex Astra Militarum”
We’ve seen GW recently kick out some “ex-Astra Militarum” minis for both Genestealer Cults and Chaos. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if these guys count.
