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Hey everyone me and a couple of roommates decided to get into 40k and after getting some figures and trying to understand the codex the best i could i have some questions. I picked up Astra Militarum and after looking through the codex i saw the Tank Commander can issue orders and thought itd be a good model to have but after looking on games workshops online shop they dont sell a model for tank commander, is there another model i have to buy that converts? Same with the commissar, being as they cant issue orders, are the base prefecto commissars able to be turned into something that can issue orders like a company commander? Sorry if my question is stupid but thanks for the help in advance.

The Tank Commander is a specific Leman Russ; make sure you can tell it apart from your other Leman Russes and you'll be fine. The Commissar is a separate entity in the Imperial Guard's chain of command, he doesn't issue Orders because that's not part of his function. Lore-wise there are Commissars who have entered the primary chain of command (Gaunt of Gaunt's Ghosts is the famous one) but there aren't rules for doing it because it's supposed to be a weird special case.

The Tank Commander is just a dude in a Leman Russ. Just model the Tank Commander's tank differently so that you know it's the one with a commander in it (different paint job, dude sticking out the hatch, w/e you want)

By specific Leman Russ do you mean one of my choosing a specific model? How would i go about getting a company commander model?

The official company commander is in the Command Squad box (the one with the longer coat and the swagger stick). For the tank commander you just pick one of your Leman Russes, there is no specific variation you're supposed to use for commanders, though I think it's customary to make sure there's a dude poking out of the top hatch (the bits should be in the kit).

if you want to, don't glue the hatches to the tops of the Leman Russ turrets. Then, you can change the one to the commander. You don't even need an infantry model sticking out of it. If you want, use a pintle mounted weapon to designate it, just make certain that you and your opponent know when you pay for it so it is functional (and when you don't, and it is purely decorative). Call it a Commander's Cupola.

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Astra-Militarum-Cadian-Command-Squad-2019 has a picture of a Cadian Company Commander

Part of what you are talking about is called "converting". It is a somewhat common activity in the hobby where you take a model and convert it into either an existing model you don't like the official model for. This is sometimes due to aesthetic reasons and is also sometimes for cost reasons.

People often save the spare "bits" from the sprues for each model they build in a "bits box" and then you use your spare bits to convert models. I personally keep a big plastic box with the used sprues as I find it easier to find stuff that way.

Try looking for videos on youtube with search terms such as "How to convert a commissar into a company commander."

I don't play imperial guard (the old name for astra militarum) so wouldn't know the specifics for this conversion, but generally you are looking to have the right weapons and to add/remove the most recognisable parts.

The commisar head/hat looks quite distrinctive so that might be one of the first things you replace in a conversion. The arms also look different.

For the Leman Russ Battle Tank, I would take a look at the pictures here https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Imperial-Guard-Leman-Russ-Battle-Tank-2019

As already mentioned, if you build three LRBTs with the hatch closed and a fourth LRBT with a rider in the hatch and say to the person you are playing "this guy is the tank commander" they will 100% understand you.

Alternatively, you could build them all with a rider in the hatch, paint them all the same, but give the first three blue stripes and the fourth one red stripes and say "red stripes is the tank commander" and again they will 100% understand you.

As it has been said, bits for company commanders come in Cadian or Catchan command squad kits, and part to distinguish a tnk commander come in Leman Russ kit. But there is not a specific way you need to model them, you can use any model that has roughly the right weapons and perhaps looks a tad fancier than a normal trooper/tank.

Kapy wrote:
Hey everyone me and a couple of roommates decided to get into 40k and after getting some figures and trying to understand the codex the best i could i have some questions. I picked up Astra Militarum and after looking through the codex i saw the Tank Commander can issue orders and thought itd be a good model to have but after looking on games workshops online shop they dont sell a model for tank commander, is there another model i have to buy that converts? Same with the commissar, being as they cant issue orders, are the base prefecto commissars able to be turned into something that can issue orders like a company commander? Sorry if my question is stupid but thanks for the help in advance.

It's just a special character Leman Russ, so the Leman Russ you get with the Start Collecting can be a Tank Commander if you want.

If you want it to stand out, you can give it some paint marking to denote it as a command tank [mine have colored diamonds painted on their turret cheeks, because diamonds are command tanks in the late-war british tactical sign system]. You can also do something like model all your other Leman Russ tank commanders as buttoned up with only the Command Tank tank commander riding open, or anything like that. They also have an upgrade sprue that has "command vehicle" bits for all factions, the IG bits are this huge ugly aquila thing to stick on the back.

Just an FYI, Tank Commanders generally self-buff with their orders, because they can only issue orders to tanks and any order they could issue is almost always more effective on themselves than on a BS4+ tank.


As for the commissar question, a Commissar Lord [again, no difference in the model] can be assigned a warlord trait to learn to issue 1 order. I don't really recommend doing so, it's kind of a waste of a warlord trait, just get the Command Squad box for your Company Commanders.



As a side note, "Tank Commander" is a terrible name for the unit and may result in some confusion. A tank commander is the person who is in charge of a tank, the guy who is sticking his head out of the hatch. All tanks have a tank commander, you can model any of your tanks unbuttoned if you want to and it doesn't change what unit they are. A Command Tank is a tank that is occupied by an officer that leads a tank unit [the unit "Tank Commander"]. Modern [and Imperial] Command Tanks are just normal tanks except the tank commander is also in charge of all the other tanks, but in the past some of them had special fixtures like being the only tank in the unit with a radio or having a dummy gun.