A Tau's Struggle: HQ Shas'O Battlesuit

Shas'O Jar'Kia J'Kaara'Por Better known as Commander Mirrorwater

This story is the tale of one Tau commander out on the Eastern Fringe of the Galaxy. Shas'O Jar'kia Jkaar'a'Por (Mirror Water) was my first true commander model that i got when i was getting seriously into 40k. The model was a rescue job off of Ebay but immediately i knew it was the commander i wanted to represent my forces.
          The world is Jar'kia is newer 3rd phase sept world on the western edge of the Tau Empire near Imperial Space.It is a water world of many oceans and islands that the Tau took from a Ork warboss. Mirror Water and his sept were allowed to settle claiming it for the Tau Empire for their heroic stand in the name of the Greater good.
                    Many battles have been fought against Orks, Black Templar, and Imperial Guard units. This armies famous campaigns include: Malachite, Death at Squat Valley, and the Thanatos Campaign that lasted for many weeks against my own Imperial Guard forces when my brother played as them.

Fluff story from the Malachite campaign:

The ork wave had been pushed back,and the fuel station was held for now. Both Team Blue and Team Red had given their lifes for the Tau Empire. The lone Shas'la that had run from Red squad had been handed off to the Ethereals for motivational purposes. Commander Mirrorwater looked around the wreck. Comrades and green skin bodies lay everywhere. Marching throughout the battlefield, Mirrowater popped shots into any orks still moving and then finally once the reinforcements had signaled the all clear moved his forces back into the rear of the station ,sealing off the ork side. The Rok had hit the station causing a endless wave of orks to overrun it. The tau now knew they were facing a loosing battle against the greenskins. Mirrorwater hit his com, then signaled the drone to reach across the system to the Aun. While the news would be good, the victory had cost many lifes, and Mirrorwater was sure it would be foretold in ages to come as "for the greater good" but right now, all he wanted to do was rest. The time on Bork'an had been nice and relaxing, now the death and warfare was getting to him again. It would only be a matter of time before the Aun figured out his true alleigences and sent someone after his cadre. Yet, for now the taste of victory was upon him. Firing up his thrusts, Mirrorwater headed back to the center command station within the fuel depot.  

 Commander Mirrorwater on his display base

The display base

Here we see that Mirrorwater is not a lot like other tau and might have in fact gone rouge against the ethereal rule. Although he has not yet gone against the teachings of the greater good, he does desire a day when the Ethereal will let him and his forces hunt down the Imperials and Orks that have ravaged his sector. So for his base i wanted to do something that marked him out as my HQ of choice. First i wanted to be able to run him as Farsight, A generic HQ, or as the FW tau commander Shas'O R'myr which the model is based off of. The problem was that R'myr is on a larger base than a normal tau commander would be allowed. After some magnet tricks It turned out that I was able to make it work so that i could get both of them working on there. The design turned out well and im proud of how it looks. The Tyranid pieces were from a friend who had some extras from the old 4th edition starter set. Next came stripping off the old white and green paint job the person before me had painted on it. Once that was done i was able to successfully get my model primed and painted. The basing was textured spray paint. Something i found incredibly easy to use for such a cheap amount of money. (highly recommended over the GW paints).                                                                                                Other work has also been done on his cadre. After the events of the Thanatos campaign, The Tau were forced to pull out and leave the system to the Imperium of man. The victory might have been a total wash for the Imperium except for the fact that many Tau forces were left behind. Whether the world of Thanatos will ever be able to return to the Imperium is unknown. The Gue'vesa and the Gue'la rebels are already trying to petition the Tau to return. Inquisitional power in the system is waning. Soon war might return.

Model and Display Base

Fire-knife Hunter Team

Also seen here is the Tau Fire Knife teams ive been working on to accompany Mirror Water. His Cadre is slowly being painted and rebuilt to face off against the Imperium and other threats to the Tau Empire. I will be posting more pictures of the Army as it comes together. These Crisis suits seen here are fully magnetized and able to change their weapons.

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Iron Belle: A Chimera story

Victoria Lambs models

 So what do I have for you all today? Well originally i was going to do a massive article on Victoria Lambs Miniatures that I had order last Christmas and this past summer. That post was put on hold each time because i felt I couldn't do her models justice in a review. (I do like them though! and highly recommend them)

Seen here is my picture of miniatures that i ordered this past summer from Victoria Lamb. 1 order of camo cloaks and a couple of her Arcadian females bits.  These went into my massive Tanith army. More pictures on those later.

Iron Belle and her Leman Russ Brother

Today's story however is on the little chimera that could. I ordered her off of E-bay as a rescue job for 15$ shipped. I also ordered her twin, Leman Russ that i saw on another order for only 30$ Both of them were a great deal! After a wash in some LA's Totally awesome The chimera was clean and the Leman Russ tank had a deep dark blue and green scheme under her colors making me work harder to get her cleaned down to the primer or plastic. Once she was cleaned up, i clipped off the annoying wire (that i kept poking myself with) and christened her "Iron Belle" or Iron Beauty. With the forgeworld turret, she became one of my first Chimera APCs

"Irone Belle"

There was a few things i knew that i wanted to do with Iron Belle. First she was to be my transport for my Veterans in my Imperial Guard army or for my Inquisitor in my Inquisition army. Secondly, her paint scheme was going to match the urban warfare of the my other Leman Russ Tanks that i had painted up in the colors of the Pardus 8th Armored. Unlike the others Iron Belle was not given a gold skull and wings since she had no prior inquisitional service that i knew of.

Once i started to get the paint on her, she turned out to become better than i expected. The paint scheme quickly came together and the end results were fantastic. She has shown up in other battle reports that I've done over this blog but this is the first real post given over to her. The condition that she was received in was begging to be redone to fight for the Emperor of Man kinds forces. I let her get her wish.

"Iron Belle" side view

Meanwhile her brother tank, was also cleaned up and given new life on the battlefields of the 41st millennium. Whoever had owned her before had drilled out the barrels on the gun and let the tank fully move able. This let me with a very nicely done up rush that i was hoping to get into service quickly. How wrong i was! The layers of paint on the hull kept coming off. I counted 3-4 layers on this rescue job. Whoever had done the jobs before had painted over many layers of painted before them. Needless to say, This project came to cost me a lot of time. I ended up naming her "Lady" because as the paint came off, she became more beautiful. Here was a fully done up, barrels drilled Leman Russ tank hull ready for war.

I also did up Lady in her new Pardus 8th Armored paint scheme. She completed my trio of Tanks (King Lion, Lady and War Dog) allowing me to field a tank squadron on the table.

Here are Lady and Iron Belle today:

Side View

Front view

Side View

Another side view

  

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