I am looking at once again taking Vanilla Marines and IG to NOVA. I was thinking of running two blob squads of IG versus the vet squads I ran last year. The issue I have is I don't have 70 IG. I do have 70 cultists and most have similar looking weapons. I also want my final full IG army to be traitor themed (I removed the Imperial Eagle off of them).
Let's look at this from a few different angles. There is a strong part of me that feels an IG army should use IG models painted the same. My cultists are mainly painted to look like Alpha Legion to match my CSM army. I am running an Imperial Fist color scheme and blue/green would just clash (I guess that's the fashionista in me).
On to Cost. I own close to 70 cultists if I don't actually have 70. I have 50 built and at least another 10 sitting unbuilt. $20 before any discounts by buying the cheap 5 man boxes. IG could be done for $120 (before discounts) buy 12 boxes of the 5 man and have standard IG with las. They look like IG because they are. I could also buy the Dream Forge models 4 boxes of 20 for $168. They look cool but not really IG like.
Every time I decide that the cultists are good enough, I keep thinking it will look tacky. Thoughts?