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For my Elysian Army, I want to model a drop trooperr with a red beret and say that is my commissar b/c I think the commissar cap would look rather out of place with the Elysians. I'm just wondering if its fluffy or possible for a commissar to wear a different hat to be more practical seeing that not even Guaunt wore a different hat.

The hat is the symbol of commisarial authority, so no fluff wise. However you can paint and make ur models however you dang well please and noone will stop you.

 Somedude593 wrote:
The hat is the symbol of commisarial authority, so no fluff wise. However you can paint and make ur models however you dang well please and noone will stop you.

What about Inquisitors? Also, any way you would be able to justify the Commissar beret?

inquisitors are like ghosts.... they could look like anybody or anything as long as its human. you could say it got shot off by a venom cannon while he was putting his chainsword in its brain.

 Somedude593 wrote:
inquisitors are like ghosts.... they could look like anybody or anything as long as its human. you could say it got shot off by a venom cannon while he was putting his chainsword in its brain.

lol, good one, I'm going to be using that

Given that Commissars are one of the few organizations that is uniform accross the Imperium you would have trouble justifying an alteration.

Of course you could say that the "Commissars" are actually just a Military Police officer corps that has been assigned to your regiment by Sector command to keep order. They happen to wear Berets. Ruleswise they are Commissars.

Grey Templar wrote:Of course you could say that the "Commissars" are actually just a Military Police officer corps that has been assigned to your regiment by Sector command to keep order. They happen to wear Berets. Ruleswise they are Commissars.

Better yet, make these MPs part of the regiment as per its homeworld's military standards.

Sector Command having some sort of MP sounds a bit fishy/redundant (as this is a Commissar's job), but there's nothing to say against the planet's own PDF working this way.
Would work better with a non-Elysian army that just looks and feels and plays like Elysians (since if you'd do such non-standard stuff with Elysians themselves, you're basically making a precedence for all Elysians), but I don't think that people will really bother on such a miniscule detail. Most gamers don't engage in the same level of fluff nitpicking as I do.

 Lynata wrote:

Grey Templar wrote:Of course you could say that the "Commissars" are actually just a Military Police officer corps that has been assigned to your regiment by Sector command to keep order. They happen to wear Berets. Ruleswise they are Commissars.

Better yet, make these MPs part of the regiment as per its homeworld's military standards.

Sector Command having some sort of MP sounds a bit fishy/redundant (as this is a Commissar's job), but there's nothing to say against the planet's own PDF working this way.
Would work better with a non-Elysian army that just looks and feels and plays like Elysians (since if you'd do such non-standard stuff with Elysians themselves, you're basically making a precedence for all Elysians), but I don't think that people will really bother on such a miniscule detail. Most gamers don't engage in the same level of fluff nitpicking as I do.

Since Elysians can take commissars in IA8, I thought why not take commissars; But the Commissars more for fluff purposes then anything for my Elysian regiment. In my actual list, I'm going to be taking Company command squads for my HQ unless its at 2000 pts for which in that case, I'll take a Lord Commissar as a cheap HQ for my 2nd FOC. I never really liked GW's commissar models and they look rather out of place with their impractical greatcoats compared to the Elysian's practical portable equipment.

For my fluff, I thought of this: The Commissar over time, adopted the doctrines of the Elysians to keep as light and practical as possible but at the same time, still needs something to maintain his authority and thus, takes on the Beret as it is something an officer would wear and doesn't give away his position as much as his commissar cap.

Commissars are less about practicality and more about maintaining morale and discipline, striking both fear and awe in to the soldiers under their sway to motivate them to fight harder for the Imperium.

Thus, the unique uniform and very, very nice hat.

 Melissia wrote:
Commissars are less about practicality and more about maintaining morale and discipline, striking both fear and awe in to the soldiers under their sway to motivate them to fight harder for the Imperium.

Thus, the unique uniform and very, very nice hat.

Berets can be intimidating/inspiring if done right

I agree that if you're going to take commissars with berets, you've got to counts-as the commissar. The commissariat proper is all about strict order and discipline. They have a uniform. They must wear that uniform, and exactly the way that the protocol dictates. Commissars are not known for their individuality or their willingness to bend rules for the sake of creativity and flare.

As for inquisitors, they can wear whatever the hell they want. They're inquisitors.

Of course, if you give an inquisitor a beret, he's going to look silly, a la this old mockup I made:



And Che was neither intimidating nor inspiring. He only is to those people who look at a picture of him taken 60 years ago and forget that he was a failed wannabe warlord.

PresidentOfAsia wrote:

 Melissia wrote:
Commissars are less about practicality and more about maintaining morale and discipline, striking both fear and awe in to the soldiers under their sway to motivate them to fight harder for the Imperium.

Thus, the unique uniform and very, very nice hat.

Berets can be intimidating/inspiring if done right

But the hats are much sexier (And harder to draw )

 DeffDred wrote:

PresidentOfAsia wrote:

 Melissia wrote:
Commissars are less about practicality and more about maintaining morale and discipline, striking both fear and awe in to the soldiers under their sway to motivate them to fight harder for the Imperium.

Thus, the unique uniform and very, very nice hat.

Berets can be intimidating/inspiring if done right

But the hats are much sexier (And harder to draw )

I just decided to rework the beret commissar out of my fluff cause the Catachan beret head would look funky on the Elysian bodies anyways,

There's one rather practical question though - how commissar's cap is worn in case of airborne troops. IMHO for time of actual drop, it'll be not on the head, but reliably fixed somewhere else - as it's kinda against regs if it'l be lost to the winds.

chyron wrote:
There's one rather practical question though - how commissar's cap is worn in case of airborne troops. IMHO for time of actual drop, it'll be not on the head, but reliably fixed somewhere else - as it's kinda against regs if it'l be lost to the winds.

What about the rest of his uniform such as his great coat?

You could model the Commissar with his regular hat wedged in his belt and sporting a beret becasue he just made a jump.

PresidentOfAsia wrote:

chyron wrote:
There's one rather practical question though - how commissar's cap is worn in case of airborne troops. IMHO for time of actual drop, it'll be not on the head, but reliably fixed somewhere else - as it's kinda against regs if it'l be lost to the winds.

What about the rest of his uniform such as his great coat?

Well he's wearing that so unless the wind tears his arms off then it will stay on...

Yeah but the uniformity is for those "dirty stinking leg" Commissars....If this guy is leading a drop troop army....then he needs to sport the Airborne beret. Sky Soldiers!

Honestly I think he can wear whatever hat he darn well pleases. He's the one that can BLAM people for whatever reason. Are you really going to tell the guy who can exicute you if you so much as look at him funny that he can't have a beret?

His superior might.

Though, frankly, Commissars are universally Schola-bred and thus highly indoctrinated, and uniformity is one of the most obvious indicators of discipline, which is what Commissars are all about anyways. It'd take quite a lot to push the stickler-for-rules out of their personality.

And since when do Elysians wear berets, anyways? I've only ever seen them with helmets.

If you want to do a Commissar, do him like a Commissar. If you want to do something else ... call them something else. Problem solved.

He could also possibly face punishment for swapping the hat out anyway.

But, they do get slight variations from time to time. Very slight.

Is there an existing Droptroop Commisar model?

It could be possible that commisars are issued several types of uniform adjustments/modifications.

Imagine a guard regiment assulting a colony of mining heretics within an astroid belt.

The Administratum gather some sort of specialist regiment that excels in void combat.

Commisars attached to those regiments wouldn't tighten their caps and hold their breaths.

They'd swap it out for a stylized helmet with rebreather.

So why couldn't a droptroop commisar have a cap better suited to windy conditions?

Like...
One with holes in for the wind?
Or a hat with a propeller on the top

DeffDred wrote:So why couldn't a droptroop commisar have a cap better suited to windy conditions?

But then why wouldn't he wear a specially marked variant of the helmet issued to the drop troopers instead, when he's already "adapting"?

I imagine berets still fly away when you parachute through the air, so it's not really like if a Commissar would actually gain something compared to a hat (which could possibly be fastened via chin straps btw). Of course that's just a personal opinion, but if it was my army it'd sound just a little too fishy to actually come off as an explanation rather than a (poor) excuse to do a deviation out of pure real world preference.
If it's that important, may as well just ignore the fluff and make that explanation unnecessary.

I think what we'd all like to see is a commissar in a tricorn.

FUND IT!

 Testify wrote:
I think what we'd all like to see is a commissar in a tricorn.

I do not care for tricornes. Now bicornes are manly hats, the hats of Admirals and Field Marshals.

Buttons wrote:

 Testify wrote:
I think what we'd all like to see is a commissar in a tricorn.

I do not care for tricornes. Now bicornes are manly hats, the hats of Admirals and Field Marshals.

Commissar is a lower rank than Admiral/Field Marshal. A Lord Commissar though, sure.

Oh yea, didn't you say this guy was supposed to be a lord commissar? Isn't that about as high as it gets in field commissars? Lets say he "goes native" and wears a special commissar beret in the field, and his regular hat for more formal occasions (like meeting with superiors) He'll wear one hat at a time and keep the other in a ditty bag or something. The beret doesn't need to be simple, it could have all the bops and bobs of a regular commissar hat, but in beret style.

It's your army and you can model it however you like. But fluff-wise it's completely wrong.