Games Workshop Warhammer 40,000 Astra Militarum: Cadian Upgrades – Customizable Troops

The Astra Militarum line for Warhammer 40,000 invites you to tell the stories of countless soldiers drawn from a million worlds. The Cadian Upgrades set gives you a toolkit to personalize your troopers and tailor squads for the battlefield roles you envision. This upgrade sprue arrives unpainted and requires assembly, but it opens a wide range of visual options that can help your models convey character and purpose on the table.

What you get in the Cadian Upgrades kit

• 25 new heads with diverse designs, including female troopers, grizzled veterans with bionics, and rebreathers, letting you craft distinctive profiles.
• A full set of special weapons such as a meltagun and a grenade launcher to equip squads for varied tactical situations.
• Sergeant and officer gear including a power fist, chainsword, and bolt pistol to mark leaders and enhance poses.
• Battlefield accessories like shovels, sandbags, backpacks, extra pouches, and binocular arms to enrich bases and narratives.
• Full compatibility with the modern Cadian Shock Troops kit, so these parts slot into standard infantry squads with ease.
• All parts are supplied unpainted and require assembly, allowing you to plan color schemes and weathering from the start.

Ways to use these upgrades on the tabletop

• Customize squad roles and silhouettes, creating distinct fire support, close quarters, or command units within a single army
• Build narrative miniatures that reflect your army’s stories and campaigns
• Mix and match parts to produce unique sergeants and veterans that stand out on the battlefield
• Prepare scenery-friendly models that read well from a distance with extra equipment and pose variety

Because the sprue is designed to work with existing Cadian kits, you can gradually expand your force while maintaining a unified look. The combination of new heads, weapon options, and equipment gives you flexible options for how your squads appear and how they’re configured for different missions. When you’re ready to paint, you can apply color layers and weather effects that highlight the new details—without sacrificing compatibility or ease of assembly.

Craftsmanship and storytelling come together with these upgrades. The mix of head options, gear, and accessories supports a range of visual narratives, from veterans bearing the marks of hard-won campaigns to newer troopers ready for more demanding roles. By slotting these parts into standard squads, you can preserve a cohesive army aesthetic while adding individual character to each model. These choices are designed to be used as possibilities rather than guarantees, so you can decide how to present your units on the table depending on your preferred painting style and storytelling approach.