So I am calling it day on Varuna for the time being after having a pretty good year with them and turning my eyes to the rest of Pan O. I am set to give Military Orders a good shot and feel they should do well played into certain missions or mission sets. What is really intriguing me though is Shock Army so I feel they will also get a fair bit of play. My biggest problem for Shock Army though is that models have been discontinued so I'm looking at ideas as what to use. Regulars: seem like the lifeblood of SAA and I think I'm going to use fusiliers in general, just not sure on what to use for the sapper sniper Bagh Mari: I can only see myself using the HMG or Sniper profiles given the mixed link now and was thinking of using Bolts or having my Kamau pull double duty. Not sure if its worth building any of the other profiles Nagas: I have the sniper form Coldfront and have chopped the gun to look like a combi but looking for ideas for a second Naga Lt Rao and Kirpal Singh I cant see myself running and everything else looks like its something I can easily cover. If push comes to shove I can have Szally stand in for a Dragoe
Take a Fusilier Sniper and place a small wall in front of the model. Just high enough to cover the model up to the barrel of the rifle. Bolts would work well as the armor is very similar. I would focus on converting or proxying the HMG & Sniper loadouts first. Then in the future if you wanted to play or try a full Bagh-Mari link then obtain the rest of the loadouts. I usually cover all bases when buying/converting a unit in a sectorial so I have at least one of all the options. Mostly 1 model of every loadout (Boarding, HMG, Sniper, etc...) except for link-fillers which in most cases are Combis. Those are usually 2 or 3 depending on the unit's options. That sounds good to me. Rao can be nice choice to have in a link as he is a slightly buffed Combi Bagh-Mari. Therefore you could just use your proxy for a Mari Combi to represent him. Singh is simply an Akails and the Combi Akail would easily represent him if you wanted to try him out in a list. Szally would fit the motif of a Dragoe much better than the old model as the Nomad TAG has Lizard/Dragon aspects.
You could use Kamaus as Baghmaris. I've once didn't pay attention and airbrushed my Bagh-Maris for an event I planned to use VIRD for :P They're quite similiar and you will use similiar loadouts for both units. If you have Squalo, it has similiar pose to Dragoe.
I agree with these ideas. Though I do think that Bolts are better proxies due to their torso armor nearly matching the Bagh-Mari's. In the end my opinion doesn't matter. I would be interested in seeing what you choose @osoi as your proxy. If possible give us a pic when you've made your choice or maybe a battle report of your first match/matches.
I use Bagh Mari for Bolts in my NCA for similar reasons. Similar armour (including the thigh plates) and backpacks.
Fusiliers:Regulars Kamau:Bagh Mari Zulu Cobras:Nagas Echo Bravo:Akali (though most people have the Icestorm Akali, which is a great sculpt) It's very easy to port VIRD over to Acon. I'm repainting all my Acon right now, so I'm using my VIRD minis as proxies in the meantime, and I haven't run across anybody whose been confused or displeased with the experienced. Remind them every once in a while that Bagh Mari only have MSV1, and it's pretty easy to keep things straight. PanO units look pretty damn similar anyway.
And the Spitfire is still in production too. Yay verily yay. I concer with this train of thought. PanO's similar armor designs (which have been comically showcased by ADHadh Spoiler: Observe... ) are certainly a blessing in disguise for those who play the faction to proxy and convert.
