A classic Lieutenant sculpted by Mark Copplestone. This guy dates from 1989. Eclectic is the word that springs to mind looking at this figure design. I have opted to paint the trousers in a light grey with a red stripe on the side and to do the armour bits in black with gold trim in order to distinguish him from the enlisted men on the tabletop. Light grey (white) pants are very much inspired by the John Blanche painting officer standing beside the Commissar. Note that the plasma pistol is from a contempory marine model. I painted the gauntlet so as to give the impression of him having a robot hand…I hope he plans to only use it for good. Given the contempory rules for plasma weapons (which seem to be inspired by russian roulette) there is a pleasing touch of irony in him having a robot hand.
I love these Copplestone figures which deserve to have great paint jobs to show them at their best so I hope I haven’t butchered the paint job too much!
Next up on this project will be the rest of his command squad – Medic, Orderly (flag waving guy), Grenadier, Veteran Sargent.
TheOttoVonBismark 
Nice work on the LT theottoevonbismark, the white in particular came out very nicely. The figure looks like it stepped out of the Warhammer 40,000 Companion. Where you tempted to paint the jacket (rather than the cuirass) white?
The recoil on that plasma “pistol” is going to rip his (plastic) arm off 😉
You have a couple of the Commissars from that era knocking around too dont you? Is one of them going to join these guys? Not all older figures are better just because they are old of course, but I do like those old (Copplestone?) Commissars. The more recent figures are far too ostentatious and burdened with bling.
I didnt like the old Commissar with the necktie back then, but I would like to own that figure in particular these days.
Surely you mean to say stepped out of the Compendium book? The colour scheme is definately inspired by the box art on the 36 plastic guardsmen set of the era. I was indeed tempted to paint the arms white but as he has pockets I decided not to and to make the uniform sort of half formal like he throws on a combat jacket under that cuirass, but keeps the Cavalry officer style pantaloons. I am sticking to a basic rule of sleeves with pockets are grey and brown and sleeves with no pockets light grey. The Captian I will do later on is going to just have light grey sleeves and no pockets as the arms are from a sentinel pilot. I will give him white gloves natch.
http://www.solegends.com/citcat19911/c2039impguard-02.htm
I have “commissar 5*” and “commissar and powerfist”.
I wish I had the “Medic and Chain Sword” model. Look at the pose of that guy.
I am going to convert my modern “Lord Commissar” model ( the one that looks like Liberace could have dressed him) to a rogue trader with a simple head swop he is so ostentatious looking.
Ohh and if you think that plasma pistol looks big wait till you see my vet sargent with jump pack and two plasma pistols who is going to head up a retro assault squad
😉
Compendium of course, the red one. I never owned the Companion as I had all the articles in WD. I had about half of the Compendium in White Dwarf form, but the other half was solid gold stuff like the Space Marine and Harlequin army lists.
The two Commissars that you have look like the picks of the bunch, nice. The powerfist guy in particular.
Is the vet sarge getting an astartes jump pack or will he be getting the old astartes backpack serving as a jump pack, as per the Compendium artwork? Im guessing the backpack as the jump packs are way too big, even by 41st millennium standards.
Yes I like both Commissars over the other ones now that you mention it. The guy with the tie is kida fun. Was reading the rules for Commisar training squads last night as a matter of coincidence…perhaps a project for laters.
The jump packs will be the space marine backpack which was a jump pack really in the before time, as we used to refer to the turbine things as flight packs. The only picture of a guard assault squad with jump packs I am aware of has them using space marine backpacks. The Epic 40k models packs look more like the modern marine Epic packs.
Fluff wise I think it is fine to use marine backpacks as the idea of the backpack is a power generator for the suit with thrusters for Zero G movement AFAIR. It fits with the idea of STC technology that there would be reuse of the design from one application to another. Besides all that the marine packs look cool on those old models.
Otto.
Necktie Commissar wins third place.
I can only think of one assault guard picture and its that one with the SM backpacks. As for fluff, I figure that jump packs have to incorporate some sort of dampening field that reduces or negates gravitational effects. And if the subject weighs less/nothing as a result then the propulsion part doesnt need to be of aircraft turbine proportions.