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I'm starting my second russ, and decided that I want to have the tank commander's head poking out. I don't plan on ever running pask, but if I do, I want something to differentiate (all of my other russes will be hatch closed). Plus, in a non-pask world, he'd be the "sergeant" of the three-man tank squad.

Anyways, after trying out dozens of heads, I've finally made it down to two:





I like the leather helmet one because, well, he looks like a tank commander. A young, vibrant go-getter who wants to beat the crap out of you with his tank.

The gas mask one is a bit trickier. On the one hand, I like his regal bearing and sense of command. On the other, he looks sort of waifish, and the gas mask obscures a lot of the detail on the face.

What do you think?

It depends on what you want to convey when modelling your russes. Do you want the "rah rah rah!" of the romanticized army? An army that blasts everything in it's path and is damned proud of it? Or... do you want a Russ that shows the cold truth of war? That people die and that we live in a dark time? I would use the leather head for the former and gas mask guy for the latter.

I voted for the leather helm.

The gas mask looks more intimidating, so that's what I voted for.

I think the gas mask fits the body posture better. If he had his arms sticking out and standing up like the other body with the LR kits then I think the leather helmet would be better.

So, for some reason, my wife really didn't like the gas mask look. Said it didn't match the rest of my aesthetic. Also, she said it make him look like cthulhu, which gave me a chuckle.

I suppose part of the problem I'm also having with this decision is that the leather helmet makes the head too big, and the forgeworld one makes the head too small. I suppose I could always go with a guard sergeant head, as a bare-headed guy would rather match my aesthetic better, and be a nice middle ground. That said, there's something... I don't know... uncool about that option?

For me, the conventional tanker helmet just makes more sense; an officer's hat and gasmask, while cool, is impractical. I only use one because I had a duplicate of my foot commander's head, so I threw him on there so I could say it's the same guy, just upgraded.

I'm partial, however, to using the torsos which offer a little more dynamism; while many people are partial to the "Drive me closer so I can hit them with my sword" officer, you don't need to take that route; give him a pair of binoculars, or have him leaning on the cupola, etc. It gives them more character without having to be OTT.

Well, I could always have a story for the gas mask guy. He was blown up in a tank, and the explosion shattered his legs, and as he desperately tried to escape from the burning wreck, his lungs got ruined by inhaling the burning fumes. He now needs a respirator just to be able to breathe at all, and he can certainly still feel mighty whilst sitting atop his tank, even if he can barely walk.

And that's a part of it really, the leather helmet guy is generic, and that has its pros, but the gas mask guy ISN'T generic, which means it's easier to think of him as a character.

And yeah, my tank commander is going to be a bit more poised. I think the poster for this one is going to be: "Drive me closer! I want to - Wait, no. Let's just shoot them from over here."

Well, in a tank platoon, or an American tank platoon, certain tanks are NBC tanks. It would make sense that a tank would have a commander in a gas mask. I'm only saying this because I saw someone say it wouldn't make sense.

I voted "leather" head for 2 reasons.
First, with a leather cap like that he's either playing old school American Football, or driving a tank.
Second, you could use the other head on an infantry model easier than leather head.
Just my thoughts anywho.

I kind of agree with your wife. The leather helmet guy just seems more Foleran to me.

They'd both be helped a lot by a bit more dynamism though.

 Skoda wrote:
I think the gas mask fits the body posture better. If he had his arms sticking out and standing up like the other body with the LR kits then I think the leather helmet would be better.

I agree whole heatedly with this post. Vote Gas Mask 2013!

Gas mask guy looks chill, just sittin' there like 'Yeah, I have a whole tank to hide in, but I'm fine here.'

Gas Mask guy says helmets are for fodder.

So, the more that I'm thinking about it, the more I'm having a hard time with the leather helmet. As others have been mentioning, the torso just doesn't fit it. It works fine on my sentinel who has big, broad shoulders, but on this tank commander's lanky torso, it just makes the head look way too big.

That said, I'm still not 100% sold on the gas mask guy either, but what else could I do? Looking at my other options, all of the other "shouty" heads more or less suffer from the same problem as the leather helmet guy. If only there were some way to get that austere awesomeness on a proper sized head without also having a gas mask.

And then I remembered. In the process of making my stormtroopers, I had snipped the head off of one of the sergeants to make way for something else. I have an extra kasrkin sergeant head. It's a little mangled, but might that do?

So I made a mockup, and then photo edited the head to match the colors properly.



Now, I could always add a peaked cap to this guy to make him just like the gas mask guy without the gas mask. Of course, I could also fashion a leather helmet as well, as I've got greenstuff skills.

That said... There's something strangely alluring about doing absolutely nothing to him, and just leaving him bald.

What do you think, Yule Brynner as a tank commander?

It works, and if you want to be a little more tongue-in-cheek, paint some bruises on his head from banging himself on the cramped interior conditions of a Leman Russ.

He almost looks bored.

 Zefig wrote:
He almost looks bored.

That's what I couldn't put my finger on! His facial expression is wrong.
Good catch Z.

It could still make for a great poster

"Drive me closer. Or not. Whatever."

well, the facial expression is going to be the same one as the kasrkin sergeant.



Anyways, I had a friend over, and he like the shouty head options (I have more than just the leather helmet one, such as the original tank commander head that was supposed to go with this torso), but agreed that having a shouty head with such an otherwise non-dynamic pose looked strange.

He didn't actually like any of the options I had for him, but his least disliked one, incidentally was yule brynner.

I think I might be getting it close to narrowing it down to just the two of those, or, rather, to do a gas mask unless I can do something better with Dr. Evil driving a tank.

What is he supposed to be doing? A tank commander when out of the hatch is scanning, finding the enemy, finding his bearings, checking on his allies. he's not playing a computer game, which is what this body makes it look like.

If he were in front of a command console, then it would work, but he's not. He's outside.

Alright, I finally made my decision. I decided to go with the gas mask, and then spice it up a bit with a piece of hose.

Also, I threw a pair of binoculars in there. They're hard to see on the picture, but basically it looks like he's spotting, and has just recently took a break from looking through his optics.



So now I'm going to be able to continue on building the russ.

I thought I'd also show off a bit while I was here. It turned out that the oil barrel on my other russ was the only one I had, so I plyed my first attempt at making one of my own.

I see you've already gone with the gas mask looking commander and that was going to be my suggestion. I would think that if you use three russes(even if they are squadroned) it looks cool to have one that looks like a Platoon commander or leader.

That's really cool looking, great job.

Is that your Pask Vanquisher ?

Well, the guns will be interchangable, and I don't NEED the guy sticking out the top to be Pask. That said, that's probably how this tank will start its life.

 Ailaros wrote:
So, the more that I'm thinking about it, the more I'm having a hard time with the leather helmet. As others have been mentioning, the torso just doesn't fit it. It works fine on my sentinel who has big, broad shoulders, but on this tank commander's lanky torso, it just makes the head look way too big.

That said, I'm still not 100% sold on the gas mask guy either, but what else could I do? Looking at my other options, all of the other "shouty" heads more or less suffer from the same problem as the leather helmet guy. If only there were some way to get that austere awesomeness on a proper sized head without also having a gas mask.

And then I remembered. In the process of making my stormtroopers, I had snipped the head off of one of the sergeants to make way for something else. I have an extra kasrkin sergeant head. It's a little mangled, but might that do?

So I made a mockup, and then photo edited the head to match the colors properly.



Now, I could always add a peaked cap to this guy to make him just like the gas mask guy without the gas mask. Of course, I could also fashion a leather helmet as well, as I've got greenstuff skills.

That said... There's something strangely alluring about doing absolutely nothing to him, and just leaving him bald.

What do you think, Yule Brynner as a tank commander?

I'm thinking more Destro.