Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi all!

This painting and modeling blog is mostly going to focus on my Imperial guard army, the Schola Progenium Task Force 888 which utilizes Cadet Commissars instead of Sergeants.
Basically the fluff I derived for a task force is this:

A Commissar is a human who is made of the stuff of legends: stalwart, never flinching, always at the front. They are not only vital to upholding the Imperial Cult in the Imperial Guard but also to keeping its moral high. However how are these grim, authoritarian figures forged? The answer is surprisingly simple yet elegant, for they are forged in the fire of the horrific battles of the far future.

One does not become a Commissar just by pulling a few strings: these men and women dressed in black uniforms are orphans of war, sent to the Schola Progenium to learn the ways of the Empire and of the glory of the Emperor.

To become a Commissar, one must first learn the organization of the Imperial Guard, and will often train with them. These possible future Commissars are called Cadet Commissars to denote their lesser status. They will either fight as leaders in Imperial Guard squads, or units of them will be led by an actual Commissar and tested that way. Those who prove to be too frail will often be sent to other parts of Schola Progenium, some are simply killed on the battlefield for cowardice.

Schola Progenium Detachment 888 is one of the thousands of Detachments specifically designed to train Cadet Commissars for eventual promotion. Its organization is unique, however, for Cadet Commissars take the place of Sergeants in units. An actual Commissar will then look over 2 or 3 units at once. Lord Commissar Copplestone considers this to be the best way for Cadets to learn. Each Lord Commissar from a detachment is basically given Carte Blanche to train the Cadets the way they feel best, but all agree that the best way to train a Cadet is to throw them headfirst into warzones.


So basically the army is a power blob army, of course with Commissars leading each blob. But instead of the traditional sergeant models, I am using other Commissars as cadets! Fun times. Anyway, now with the pictures!

Here is a Death Korps of Krieg Commissar, one who will lead a power blob. Something about Commissars really inspire me. Basically the most badass humans in the galaxy!


This is my first painted squad, I call them The Big Red One. In Rogue Trader, all Imperial armies would typically have a stripe on their helmet to denote what type of unit they are. In my army, a red stripe designates a line squad under a cadet commissar. Note the mixture of RT models and 2nd edition Cadians.


Here's a slightly more closeup view. It's too bad the picture is kind of dark, the models came out really well.


Ah, here we are. A much better picture of one of the Guard. This is Trooper Niall Saunders, from the Misfits gang of Thoth XXX. He is still famous for cooking minute rice from rations in less than a minute.


In order to assess the faith of the Cadets and also the Guard under them, occasionally a Chaplain will take a battlefield role to make judgment. (This is RT era fluff, dontchaknow!).
This picture has Chaplain Vengeance (he had his name legally changed) next to one of my unpainted Cadet Commissars. Note that the Cadet is an RT era Commissar.


Now for some fun random stuff! First up is a World Eater Space Marine, made from the RTBO1 plastics and one of the current plastic chainswords. He has a nice defensive stance going.


Hold onto your hats, we're going really oldschool here. On the left is Count Metalmane, I believe from 1986 or 1987, sculpted by Jes Goodwin I believe. On the right is a preslotta Chaos Warrior from a Bryan Ansell collection.


When will it end?! On the left we have a very old Imperial Space Marine, so old that the backpack was sculpted on! On the right we have a pre-slotta GW model which I've never identified. In game I use him as an Inquisitor.


Anyway, that's all for now! Hope you guys enjoyed this, because I have at least 60-70 more IG infantry to paint for Armies on Parade.
And stay tuned, more RT and 2nd edition models are coming your way. :3

Howdy y'all! Just finished my 2nd Imperial guard tactical unit and wanted to post some pics of my entire painted force so far. :3
I'm doing this for Armies on Parade so updates will be swift!

Here's both units. Big Red One is in front, and Burke's Bone Breakers are in back. The Schola Progenium Task Force 888 is notorious for its use of hive worlders and employing their vicious temperament to use in battle. The Bone Breakers in particular are quite nasty, coming from the Black Banner gang. (look at all those B's!)


Another picture of my entire force. At the front you can see Commissar Bokor, who is pretty much a huge douche. (According to the troopers I hear.)


Here's a better picture of Commissar Bokor. He is infamous for a quote which made it into the Imperial news in the sector.
"I like my cannon fodder to be competent"-Commissar Bokor.


A picture of Trooper Phipps. Phipps is from the original Rogue Trader Imperial Army model line. He is pretty badass too. I mean, come on. A bandana? Can't get too much cooler than that.


Cadet Commissar WIP. He's going to have a bionic arm with a power sword. Yeaaa buddy. Cadet Commissars rule, I wish they'd bring them back in 40k as an actual unit. However they are cool enough as models. :3


As if that wasn't already cool...here I have a small diorama of models fighting eachother!
Here the Schola Progenium task force 888 is engaging the notorious Tyrants of Asharzunipal, a warband of Khorne which overran the Asharzunipalian system several millennia ago.


End well, this shall not. Goodnight sweet Imperial Guard. :(


Who will win?


Anyway, thanks for looking! Please leave comments/feedback/insults as you see fit.

Gotta say, I'm pretty disappointed at the lack of no replies so far haha
It's whatever though, I'm still plugging along!

I recently acquired 3 more Rogue Trader commisars via eBay, here they are after being stripped of paint. My favorite is definitely the one to the left with the power fist and power sword. Looks like a major badass if you ask me!


Every single Commissar in my force! Have the 2 DKoK Commissars to the very left, then a bunch of Cadet commissars. In total (not including my tank commander commissar) I have 10 Commissar models. Overkill? Not really, considering that they are far and away my favorite part of 40k. They're all in various stages of completion but it's all good. They just need to be done in a couple weeks for Armies on Parade.


Oh, and speaking of Tank Commander Commisars...
This is such a cool model by Forgeworld. He just exudes an air of overconfidence and snobbery, pretty much everything that's wrong with the Imperium. Right now he's just a showpiece but I could see using him as Knight Commander Pask.


FIRST RANK FIRE, SECOND RANK FIRE!
This is a really cool picture, makes it look like there's a horde of guys behind the front line. Also FRFSRF is probably the best order in the Guard codex in my opinion, especially since I use so many models with lasguns. I've evaporated Ork hordes and turned Deathwing Terminator units (with a Medic, no less) into cinders. Just ask my friend haha
Say what you want about Cruddace but he made a really great Guard codex. Yes there are some poor units but there are some in every codex.


RWAR! This guy is a bonafide maniac, I love this model so much. One of my friends plays Orks so this is a perfect model to show what will happen to his army.
I think I will call him Maniac McGee. He's one of the original Imperial Army models, and still looks cool to this day.


Here's a WIP squad of Imperial Guard. Note the guy with the gas mask, he's also one of the original Rogue Trader Imperial Army models. He appears to be lobbing a grenade-take cover!


Now this is a bit off-tangent but here is my model for the character I am playing in my friend's Deathwatch Campaign.
His name is Nasser el-Varron, from the chapter Avenging Knights of the Cleansing Flame, which is a successor chapter of the Blood Angels. It's a really fun game, plus being a badass librarian helps!


Well, I hope you guys all "have a nice day"!

Looks pretty cool. ANd by cool I mean TOTALLY STUPID! Har Har Har. (I'm his RL friend if you can't tell).

Anywho, I definitely think that Maniac McGee and my maniac Nob holding a severed Imperial head should face off. After all, that matchup is mine to lose haha. And if he does, at least there are a few trillion billion more orks to stomp maniac mcgee into the dust. (btw his smile is creepy as all heck).

So stoked for armies on parade! See you soon.

-Varden

PS I posted just to make you feel better about yourself. When you get the reply email you will be so excited that someone replied btu then realize it was me

VardenV2 wrote:Looks pretty cool. ANd by cool I mean TOTALLY STUPID! Har Har Har. (I'm his RL friend if you can't tell).

Anywho, I definitely think that Maniac McGee and my maniac Nob holding a severed Imperial head should face off. After all, that matchup is mine to lose haha. And if he does, at least there are a few trillion billion more orks to stomp maniac mcgee into the dust. (btw his smile is creepy as all heck).

So stoked for armies on parade! See you soon.

-Varden

PS I posted just to make you feel better about yourself. When you get the reply email you will be so excited that someone replied btu then realize it was me

Haha, thanks for the support cuzz. You suck, ya jack@$$!

Also yeah we definitely need to have a maniac duel. Since 6th edition has character duels, we could totally do that! Go go psycho powers, hopefully my guy rips your dude's head off or something hahaha

Yeah I'm really excited for armies on parade+we get to do 6th edition tomorrow! Imperial guard got a lot of really cool buffs so I'm pumped there.

P.S. Brb killing self

I love the old school cadians and imperial army figures. It's a shame they changed their design so much.
You have quite the treasure trove with that collection and nice paint scheme too!

Hindenburg wrote:I love the old school cadians and imperial army figures. It's a shame they changed their design so much.
You have quite the treasure trove with that collection and nice paint scheme too!

Thanks man! Yeah I wish that they would have kept the design of the 2nd edition Cadians, they were so cool!

Also I really appreciate the compliments, thank you!

I will get some new pictures as soon as I possibly can. Today we had an Armies on Parade at my local GW. I didn't win but I did get a few votes so that made me feel pretty good.

Howdy y'all! Hahaha, I am a true Texan now

Anyway, I wanted to supply some more pictures of my army. These are all from the Armies on Parade that our store had this past Saturday.
I didn't win, however it was really fun and definitely a rewarding experience! Next year I will have a better board, however it was still fun nonetheless! That being said, here are some shots!

This is my Company Command squad. To fit in with the theme of Commissars, my company Commander is also painted like a Commissar.
It's a pretty huge command team. I have a Chaplain from my allied Imperial Marines, then I have a Primaris psyker (to the most right), and an officer of the fleet in the back. Note that the Commissar with the fist is named Lundgren, after Dolph Lundgren.


Blob squads ahoy!


Creeeed! I just use him as a Platoon commander because he is a cool, imposing figure even though I don't like using special characters.


The gang is definitely all here! Note that towards the bottom are a bunch of dudes in white: I have painted them like the Imperial Stormtroopers from Star Wars. I will get some close-up shots on them, got a lot of compliments from them. : )


[++My thoughts on 6th edition after playing one game ++]

Focused fire really hurts guard blobs. I played again my friend VardenV2's Deathwing army, so focus fire doesn't mean much against Terminators, who have a much smaller board blueprint. In fact I feel like a lot of the rules were written specifically with Terminators in mind however I will need to play some more games to really understand if that was the case, or if I just rolled really terribly while my friend's dice were so hot that I was surprised they didn't spontaneously combust!

On the bright side, melta bombs have gotten a TON better. Hitting on WS against most walkers instead of on 6's is a beautiful thing, especially since my friend's Orks are very walker heavy. I haven't played against them yet but I suspect I will be happy that I shelled out the points for them.

I have been thinking about replacing some of my model's power swords with power axes. Yes I strike at Initiative Step 1 now, but at least I can ignore terminator armor saves AND I get +1 str to boost! This means that with Straken, on the charge I have Str5 Ap2 weapons from my sergeants. I'm thinking yes. It seems like a cheezeball tactic but my friend said that I should if I wanted to. We will see. : )

Otherwise, I like 6th so far. My only "problem" if you will is that I'm pretty competitive and a bit of a sore loser! hahaha
So while I find the random stuff to be really funny in theory and on paper, in the game I don't really like them as much. I happened to come across a sabotaged objective which is why I mention this.

Anyway, take it easy guys and I hope you enjoyed the pics!

Schola Progenium Task Force 888 will fight on, new rules be damned!

Nice commissars and kudos for tackling an old school minis project.

The company commander, the commissar tank commander, and Commissar Bokor are particularly good.

The only downers were that arm that looks too big and the way a lot of your bases look out of place (wrong color and odd sizes).

Good luck with the army and sixth edition games!

JB wrote:Nice commissars and kudos for tackling an old school minis project.

The company commander, the commissar tank commander, and Commissar Bokor are particularly good.

The only downers were that arm that looks too big and the way a lot of your bases look out of place (wrong color and odd sizes).

Good luck with the army and sixth edition games!

Thanks for the response! It's been a lot of fun so far, and I imagine that the blog will continue to grow as I keep buying new stuff, especially with 6th coming out.

Yeah the thing about the bases and boards is that my friends and I made all of our boards for Armies on Parade so that they had elements of all of our bases. Otherwise I totally agree, they definitely look out of place. The arm that looks too big for the Commissar is also a stand in until I figure out how to make it a bionic limb. : )

Also appreciate the good tidings. Blob guard has taken a few big hits but I will keep trudging on. Worst case scenario I split them up into individual squads.

You don't like the bionic limb in the Cadian Command Squad box?

JB wrote:You don't like the bionic limb in the Cadian Command Squad box?

Funnily enough, I never even thought about that. Wellllllll then, I have a suitable alternative! Thanks for the recommendation.

At the same time, I should start getting some power axe bits before the price starts jumping for them.

Wow, so a year later I'm actually updating this. Great stuff right? Damn right it is. Because I now have more Guard (and squats!)

Played my first game in a while against my Dark Angels friend a few days back and barely eeked out a win. Going to need more guys to brunt the pain of Twin-Linked Terminator shooting on the ground!

First off, just got these guys out of a Simple Green Bath. Mmmm pine scented


I said there was gonna be Squats. Now lo and behold, Squats! I'm planning on using them as Heavy Weapon teams and artillery spotters for my Guard army.


Penal Battalion human bombs?! You bet! Too bad Penal Legionnaires suck but they're cool in any case. Of course, they need arms so if you'd like to donate some I will name a Commissar after you.


Here's my Company Commander (or Lord Commissar depending on the list). This guy has killed a lot of people during his time. Including Private Jimmy. Why'd you have to run away, Jimmy?


More Squats!



Anyway, I'm hoping to be having weekly updates now so stay tuned!
And as always...have a nice day!

Welcome back!

You get an exalt for the squats!
I love seeing RT and 2nd Ed miniatures.
All you need now is to get hold of one of these
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/Warhammer-40k-oop-metal-Imperial-Guard-Sentinel-/00/s/MTYwMFgxMjAw/$T2eC16ZHJIYE9qUcOu!CBQhzz9pB(g~~60_35.JPG

Blah blah, I'll be uploading more stuff blah blah...

Well I've been working at a startup business so that's taken most of my painting time!

I'm currently working on a Guard squad right now, so hopefully that should be done soon. In the meantime, I recently acquired these via eBay for pretty cheap-does anyone know what the heck these are?

They say HP89 or HP90 on the bottom and also are either the initials JO or MI. They look power armored so mobile infantry?





Also a current WIP World Eaters Heresy-era squad. You'll notice that their right arms are red and I did this for two reasons: 1 because it's a throwback to the old Rogue Trader world eaters which all had their right forearm painted red, and two because it allows me to differentiate them from all the other World Eater armies out there!





Okay, and yes I promise that I will be posting more Guard soon. :3