Filling Destro's Ranks

[Lord McCullen]

Hey all, for some time now my primary army has been the Iron Grenadiers. Accordingly, I want to customize some other figures to fill out various specialties that Hasbro may have missed out on. First of these is the horrifically coloured but nicely detailed Ice Cream Soldier who I've already acquired four of to repaint. My question now is what to do with them? What purpose do you guys see them fulfilling?

Also, given the price of Convention figures on the secondary market, I'm repainting Viper v.4 as Iron Anvils.

Are there any specialties that I really need to address? Anything that was an absolutely glaring omission from the Iron Grenadiers' forces? Thanks in advance.

[Net-Viper X]

I made a generic officer for my IG army that fills the same nitch as Cobra Officer would in a Cobra army. It was real easy too and next to no painting required. I took the head of an Iron Grenadier, the torso of Barricade, and the arms, legs and waist of the 92 Destro. Only thing I had to paint was the blue parts on the Barricade torso and add a bit of gold here and there to spice things up.

As for the specialists, I always treated the Iron Grenadiers more like a conventional army as far as uniform code, so all infantry wore the same uniform regardless of specialty. I just gave some of the Iron Grenadiers bazookas and heavy machine guns etc. and put a little gold chevron on a couple of their chests to act as Sergeants. It actually looks far more unified when seen as a whole compared to Cobra with all its multi colored specialty troopers mixed in.

[Lord McCullen]

I made a generic officer for my IG army that fills the same nitch as Cobra Officer would in a Cobra army. It was real easy too and next to no painting required. I took the head of an Iron Grenadier, the torso of Barricade, and the arms, legs and waist of the 92 Destro. Only thing I had to paint was the blue parts on the Barricade torso and add a bit of gold here and there to spice things up.

Actually, that's a great idea. Right now I have a custom painted figure who uses the parts from the Convention IG (IG head, Night Viper body) as my Sergeant Major, the character who appeared in the comics. I think I'll use your suggested recipe for him and use this one and any Convention IGs I get as regular officers.

As for the specialists, I always treated the Iron Grenadiers more like a conventional army as far as uniform code, so all infantry wore the same uniform regardless of specialty. I just gave some of the Iron Grenadiers bazookas and heavy machine guns etc. and put a little gold chevron on a couple of their chests to act as Sergeants. It actually looks far more unified when seen as a whole compared to Cobra with all its multi colored specialty troopers mixed in.

I was actually thinking the same thing for the most part. Since Iron Grenadiers are supposed to be very well trained and equipped, I figured they would be cross-trained in several different weapons such as SAW and anti-tank. That eliminates the need for any "SAW Viper", "Frag Viper" or "HEAT Viper" esque specialties.

I'm kind of conflicted on roles for the pre-existing figures, as well. I'm not sure I have the stones the paint all my minty, complete Targats and Annihilators anyway... Based on the comparative rarity and price of Nullifiers though, I had been considering making Targats the standard IG pilots.

[Net-Viper X]

Glad to hear you liked the idea about the IG Officer, I'm always happy to help out. I have a picture from my website here of what it looks like. I meant to paint his codpiece gold too but I forgot. :/


If your planning on painting up an army I would suggest finding some loose figures in worn condition so good minty examples don't get used up, those are only going to get rarer as time goes by. That also helps avoid the guilt that would come from painting mint figures.

I always used Annihilators to pilot my Dominators since he came with a heli pack and so must have some level of helicopter pilot ability. The small tinted cockpit windows also helped to tone down those terrible colors. TARGAT would make a very good pilot too though, his outfit looks like a fancy G suit and his helmet is very much a pilot helmet. He would be especially good if you plan to make some Grenadier jets or use them as AGP pilots.

[captainamerica]

I like the use of Barricade's torso for the Iron Brigadier.

I transferred Metalhead V1 and Voltar's heads onto Star Viper bodies, which are relatively cheap to find and already fit the IG color scheme. I usually put them in the Dominator, but they make good technicians/crew also.

[Lord McCullen]

Net-Viper: That is an awesome piece. I'll definitely do something very similar when I find a Barricade and a Destro in suitably rundown shape.

I transferred Metalhead V1 and Voltar's heads onto Star Viper bodies, which are relatively cheap to find and already fit the IG color scheme. I usually put them in the Dominator, but they make good technicians/crew also.

I've had the same thought, except I used Astro Viper v.2's head on my Star Viper body. To me, it really isn't a loss as I plan to just glue Astro Viper's helmet on anyway after a repaint and use him as either a Deep Six-esque deep sea diver or as an astronaut of some kind.

[Janus]

For an IG officer I just did a quick paint on the "ribbing" on the torso. I just put a coat of red on it. Made him stand out as an officer.

[Net-Viper X]

For an IG officer I just did a quick paint on the "ribbing" on the torso. I just put a coat of red on it. Made him stand out as an officer.

I did that to my entire army of Iron Grenadiers, the instant I took them from the package back in the 80's they got the ribbs painted red before I even played with them. I hated Hasbro getting cheap and ommiting paint apps, especially when it was one of the primary paint apps on the entire figure. I even went so far as to paint one red then reseal him back in the bubble, just to have a carded example that had the proper paint apps.

Its incredible how much improved the figure is by that red padding on his torso, kinda like how Hyrdo-Viper is improved %100 just by painting his vest black like its supposed to be.

[Net-Viper X]

I've had the same thought, except I used Astro Viper v.2's head on my Star Viper body. To me, it really isn't a loss as I plan to just glue Astro Viper's helmet on anyway after a repaint and use him as either a Deep Six-esque deep sea diver or as an astronaut of some kind.

Here is an idea for you about that Star-Viper if you would like to keep his matching head, there are two tiny modifications that will make it a perfect IG diver or space helmet.

First mod is obvious, the removal of the Cobra logo, which is simple as slicing it off with an xacto knife and sanding the spot smooth.

Second mod requires a tiny drill bit and a piece of paper clip wire. On the left and right side of the facemask Cobra logo there are little aerator tips angled down towards his chest. Drill a small hole into the bottom end of each of these aerators and insert a very short piece of the paper clip wire to act as pegs. Then you can attach to black hoses to those pegs and run it to a backpack and it will act as oxygen lines like the ones on Hydro-Vipers helmet.

Edits: I meant to add this to my last post rather than double posting like that, sorry guys.

[captainamerica]

I did that to my entire army of Iron Grenadiers, the instant I took them from the package back in the 80's they got the ribbs painted red before I even played with them. I hated Hasbro getting cheap and ommiting paint apps, especially when it was one of the primary paint apps on the entire figure. I even went so far as to paint one red then reseal him back in the bubble, just to have a carded example that had the proper paint apps.

Its incredible how much improved the figure is by that red padding on his torso, kinda like how Hyrdo-Viper is improved %100 just by painting his vest black like its supposed to be.

I was marvelling at your pics just before finding this thread. I plan to try that on at least one of my IGs.

Your cobra vommander and night viper are also amazing.