GURKHA 40k?

Bought myself some Anzac (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) heads from maxmini.eu, courtesy of wargamersworld.com, and am very pleased with my purchase, for you see I fancied making myself 40k-counterparts of the Gurkhas to scour the battlefields of the 41^st millennium! (For those not in the know as to the fearsome reputation of the Gurkhas, please see here, here and here).

I will admit that in this day and age, modern soldiers wear whatever uniform and kit given to them typical of the era (thus modern-day Gurkhas wear much the same kit as say British soldiers currently serving in Afghanistan), and using the Anzac heads with the slouch/ floppy hats may seem a strange ‘counts-as’ of Gurkha soldiers to some, but given that said Anzac heads are an approximation of the ‘Gurkha hats’ (Hat Terrai Gurkha) that I’m more familiar with as the image of the traditional Gurkha dress uniform as seen below (e.g. at parades, or as still-worn by the Gurkha contingent of Singapore), I think I can be forgiven!

(Obviously should someone else decide to make Anzac 40K soldiers that would be mega-cool too, but for my own purposes  the intention is to enlist Gurkhas in miniature-form to supplement my Cadian 512^th collection).

What I’ve done so far is I’ve collected the following bits with the intent of assembling them together as part of this new modelling project:

1. 2^nd-hand Cadian bodies from the Ecstasy Bay, marked for refurbishment/

2. A squad’s-worth of Cadian voxcasters (for backpacks)

3. Curved dark elf daggers – an approximation of the distinctive Kukri knives that the Gurkha’s are famous for using.

4. Said anzac heads to be used as ‘heads with Gurkha hats’. I'm hoping the heads/hats will work with Cadian bodies, as Catachan bodies with their oversized muscles don't seem to fit too well as seen in the picture below.

Image found on Google for 'Anzac head conversions' on Catachan bodies. Credit to 'Death By Monkeys'

I plan on using the finished result of my Gurkha 40k-‘counts as’ as either Penal Legionairres (to respectfully represent their combative prowess ,disregarding all fluff reference to the criminality of the Penal Legion unit entry), or either Vets or Stormtroopers. Going the Penal Legion route is the most likely, as my intended Gurkha-esque miniatures are to the a newly formed assault strikeforce for the 512^th Cadian regiment: ‘The Throatcutters’.

One thing though: I’m having trouble figuring out what colours should I paint their uniforms/armour?

Should it be the traditional all-over tan/khaki? (e.g. British army)

Or dark blue with tan hats (e.g. Singapore contingent)?

Should I stick with the 512^th colours (black uniform & grey body armour), with tan hats, this being an acknowledgement that Gurkha’s normally wear the uniforms of whatever regiment their attached to?

Or perhaps go with tan hats and uniform, but with grey body armour to tie-in with the rest of my army, but remaining distinct from my other soldiers (my Penal legion do the same, with their orange uniform/jumpsuits, but with Grey body armour).

I’ll paint up a test model to see if I’m happy with the result.

To be continued!

NOTE: All images used without permission.