Imperial Guard Steel Legion Lieutenant 1

Way back in 2005 when 4th edition was very new, I started an Imperial Guard (Astra Militarium for you youngsters out there) army after "completing" my Death Guard Chaos Space Marines. In strange twist of fate in 2018 after "completing" my Death Guard a second time for 8th Edition, I hummed and hawed about what my next army would be, until I finally decided for second time, 13 years later that I would start an Imperial Guard Army.

This however I was not interested in going with the generic Cadia Model currently in use, I wanted to do something fun, something and so I settled on an old favourite of my from 3rd Edition: Steel Legion.

I have a thing for old Games Workshop models and games, and the Steel Legion fit the ticket perfectly. So slowly I started collecting. The problem of course is that aside from the standard infantry squad, most of the Steel Legion figures are discontinued, and I haven't heard any rumors of them being revived.

So I had to scour Ebay, the Old Hammer and Middle Hammer trading groups on Facebook, and ask old friends to find all the pieces I need. But finally I have everything I need to make a 1500pt build, so it is time to get painting!

I actually had the paint scheme for these guys selected before I bought anything!  As usual my paints are from Reaper Minis and if anyone is interested I will post my list in the comments below.

According to the Games Workshop Catalogues this fella's official model name is "Steel Legion Lieutenant 1". Back in 3rd/4th Edition You needed to create various levels of commanders for each section in your army. So your whole army would be lead by a Senior Commander, and each infantry platoon (made of of several squads of guardsman) would have to be lead by a Junior Commander.

There are indeed two different Steel Legion Lieutenants, and given this figure's similarities to the old Pewter Cadian Commander, I believe that this model was intended to be used as the senior commander.

But those does are long gone and in 8th I am currently using him as my Company Commander for my Spearhead Detchament.

Written by: Andrew Gregory