Today’s post brings us a pair of models that I painted back in the 1990’s that just got a touch-up to be renewed for tabletop duty in the 2020’s. We have a pair of the second-wave Imperial Guard Commissars, from 1989, incorporating the separate plastic arms.

The fellow on the left is the model that had Carapace Armour, much like the original Imperial Guard Command Squad models, and to so emphasise this, I used the plastic Space Marine arms of the day, as they featured that little bit of lined detail on their under-shoulder-pads, and given the description of Carapace armour of the day, you could think of it as like a version of plate armour, so if you think about the arms being plasteel plate rather than powered armour it works. Depending on the viewing angle of this model, they look either terribly unbalanced or just fine, actually. 😀

The old-school paintjobs on these were (I felt) worth preserving. While I wouldn’t paint them the same way if starting from scratch today in terms of the bright red belts and the parade-white pouches, they still look quite decent and I feel would fit into any of my own Imperial Guard armies from the Rogue Trader days through to today.

It’s sort-of a cheat to count these as models completed in April 2022, as they really just needed a touch-up and a couple of chips and bits repainted, but that’s also because I wanted to leave the original paint intact as much as possible – sure, the chainswords are a wee bit bright, but we’re not talking about some of the skittle-impersonator models that have needed much more drastic repaints over the years, so in many ways these two were best left alone. Either way, they’re now table-ready and ready to execute traitors and cowards in the Emperor’s name once again!

If you enjoyed these Oldhammer 40k models, why not take a peek at my just-restored Ogryn Sergeant post from 2014 for more retro-40k goodness!