I admit right off the bat that the miniature which inspired this post was released quite some time ago (9 months at the time of writing) so I'm probably waaaay behind the curve in sharing these thoughts in relation to this specific mini. But as the principles apply to any model and I've only just gotten around to building the mini in question, now seems as good a time as any to pontificate!
Intended to inspire and motivate the soldiery of the Astra Militarum, the officers of the Commissariat are probably regarded with more fear and superstition than anything else. That is not to say that there haven’t been examples of those who haven't but cut from a different cloth, even going so far as to have forged genuine bonds with the men and women they have fought beside (such as Commissars Cain, Raine, Hark and Gaunt, for example) but for every one of these luminaries, there seem to many more who inspire more through fear anything else.
A Changing of the Guard
Indelibly woven into the fabric of what makes the Imperial Guard what they are, Commissars are a staple in most regiments across the galaxy, although there are some, most notably those raised on the planet Krieg, who are so fanatically devoted to the Imperium as to render the role of morale officers almost obsolete.
Luckily (or should that be unluckily?) for the regiments that aren't in this boat, the refreshed Astra Militarum miniature range includes a fantastic new sculpt of a Commissar wielding a bolt pistol and your choice of a power sword or chainblade. Stood atop some shattered debris and glaring menacingly, the miniature harks back to some of the classic designs of Commissar, though he is certainly more spartan in his attire than previous iterations have been, for example, gone is the crimson sash that has so frequently been described as being akin to a badge of office for the Commisariat.
To my mind though, the new sculpt fits perfectly alongside the more realistically proportioned and equipped Cadian kits (which are hopefully just the vanguard of a wider range refresh for 'the Guard’) but could equally sit alongside some of the classic sculpts so that if you were adding more than one Commissar to your collection they needn't all look the same. Despite my overall like of the miniature however, there was one feature that bothered me a bit.
“What is this trifling issue?” I hear you asking – well, it’s the fact that the Commissar wields a bolt pistol in his left hand, but at his belt he carries a holstered pistol (which I’m inferring is a laspistol based on the dimensions and style of the holster). I did say it was minor.
Before we go any further, perhaps I should explain why this minor feature bothered me before I elaborate on the solution I settled on to remedy it.
Boring, but Practical
In The Last Ditch by Sandy Mitchell Ciaphas Cain reflects that many commissars favour bolt pistols as sidearms as a result of their well-known loud and spectacularly messy effects, adding to their intimidation factor. Cain contrasts this with the more humble laspistol that he carries. While not as impressive he says, he rarely has to worry about running out of shots at an inopportune moment, making it better suited for keeping him alive in the field than a more ammunition-dependent projectile weapon might be. Indeed, in extremis the power packs for lasweapons can be recharged by placing them in a fire, though this does tend to massively reduce their effective lifespan. Once a bolt shell is fired though, it is of little further use to anyone - other than perhaps the casings being made into relics or marksmanship awards.
Now feels as effective a juncture as any to say that if you're not familiar with Ciaphas Cain, I'd recommend giving the books a read. They manage to capture much of the absurdity of the 41st millenium perfectly and are a brilliant foil to the Gaunt's Ghosts series.
Looking at the practicalities of laspistols from another perspective (though I'm afraid I cannot remember the source, but it may be well Cain again) some Commissars have a preference for them because lasbolts tend to cauterise the wounds they cause, making it significantly less likely that their uniform will require cleaning after meting out any summary executions than were a mass-reactive round used.
Accordingly, my headcanon of the 41st millennium has more officers of the Commissariat prefer las weapons to bolt weapons. Now I concede at this point that perhaps the miniature wields a bolt pistol in combat while the holstered laspistol is purely for dispensing matters of martial justice and I may be doing the sculptor of the mini a terrible disservice, and if that's the case then I sincerely apologise. I may also just be making much ado about nothing because it's just a toy soldier at the end of the day.
I digress. To my mind, the bolt pistol had to go, but what to replace it with? There were a few options that sprang to mind:
1) The hand of the weapon specialist from the Cadian command squad kit
Ably modelled by the specialist shown in this pict capture, I considered this arm very early on as the potential donor of new hand for the Commissar as it was suitably posed, in the right scale and was made of plastic, which would make kitbashing much easier. The main barrier to its use was tracking down another one as the parts remain in pretty high demand and they're rarely in stock on bits selling sites.
2) The powerfist from the Cadian command squad kit
The second option I considered was the power fist parts from the Cadian command squad as shown in this pict of a junior officer.
I toyed with this idea for a wee while to be honest as it occurred to me that it would allow me to create a character reminiscent of one of the classic metal citadel commissars from the 1990s - a miniature I owned and painted in the distant past.
While tracking down the parts for this kitbash were less of an issue, the more I thought about it, the more it became obvious that the change it would create would be too overt and what I wanted in this case was something much more subtle.
3) The augmetics from Cadian upgrade kit
Only in death does duty end
Regular readers of the blog will know of my love of storytelling with miniatures so it'll come as no surprise that as well a being a more practical kitbash, there was a narrative appeal to making use of the hand from the augmetic arm.
Unlike some of the cruder examples of augmetics one might find in Imperial usage during the 41st millennium the quality of the hand seems to be quite high. If you’ve read the Gaunt's Ghosts series, you might be familiar with the unfortunate tale of former regimental marksman Rhen Merrt of the Tanith First and Only and the impact that low-grade augmetics can have.
In this case though, based upon the aesthetics of the augmetic it wouldn't be unfair to assume that the hand is of a construction that is rugged enough for combat use while retaining dexterity and function not too dissimilar to the flesh and blood hand it replaced. We could infer from this that perhaps the Commissar is a man of means who has pulled strings and used connections to obtain a good quality augmetic. Perhaps his vanity has come into play here. Or, perhaps he is held in such high regard by his regiment and their task force that no expense was spared in procuring or manufacturing the replacement hand. I'd like to think it's the latter, but that probably speaks more to me wanting to see the best in people (even fictional disciplinary enforcers in the grim darkness of the far future).
Turning from the quality of the hand itself, we can also ask why it needed to be replaced? Our Commissar wields his sabre in his right hand, so perhaps his left hand was lost fighting some xenos or heretic foe. Or maybe it was lost in an honour duel or as a result of some infraction the Commissar committed as a cadet? Or, and admittedly this is much less likely, does he harbour loyalties to the Martian Omnissiah?
Summarily Executed
I realise I'm getting a bit rambling at this point, we can chalk that up to being officially middle-aged now, but I'll try and get back on track and answer some of the questions I've posed to build a brief narrative for the Commissar that started this post off. In keeping with my penchant for nerding, I've knocked together a wee 'in universe' document to tell the story:
Now, I'm not saying you should do this for your miniatures and collections, nor do I think I'm really conveying anything particularly new or innovative - but I do hope that this blog post might constitute some food for thought.
Firstly, if there are aspects of miniatures or kits that you're not keen on then maybe there's an opportunity to get creative in changing things up, whether its a simple kitbash or fully re-sculpting things, go for it. As I hope I've been able to show with Torvin Pallas, details make all the difference and switching them up not only makes your minis your own it can change the stories they convey and therefore the ones you tell with them.
Secondly, on the note of storytelling. It's not for everyone and there are many folk who collect, paint or play with little interest in narrative and fair play to them. I'm very firmly in the camp of enjoying the narrative elements of tabletop gaming and love spending time immersed in the stories that the minis I build and paint and the games I play or fictions I write featuring them can tell.
It doesn't have to be full on, deep-dive service histories and serial numbers, it can be as simple as naming your characters and giving them some heraldry when you paint them, or keeping a note of things that happen in the games you play that start to chart the history of your glorious (or nefarious) forces - the great thing is you can go as far into storytelling as you like and you can do it with almost any gaming system too.
Whether its something you already do, something you're only just beginning to consider, or even something that isn't quite your cup of recaff, I hope you've found this ramble through details and narratives an interesting read and until next time, happy hobbying.
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