2014: A year in Review

Roll that D6

Its about that time of the year again! 2014 is drawing to a close and 2015 is on the way! What a year it has been! This year started off with a new case and my Imperial guard army becoming a completed project. As this year draws to a close this blog will continue to expand with new content. 2015 is going to be a exciting year full of new projects, new models and expansions. 

First off is going to be the start of a full Victoria Miniatures army full of "Border world Rangers". These models are excellent resin models and contain large amounts of character. I will intend to do a full review on Victoria miniatures that I had planned to do in 2014. Also in the works is my Tau army that is being painted up in a brand new color scheme. This scheme is the result of a lot of trial and error. 

Tau scheme and paints

 Secondly I have also started on my Menoth force. Although no models have been shown yet, the force is well underway. The miniatures market paints have allowed my color palette to expand.  There might be plans to redo my Forge world models in a new scheme in 2015 but that for the moment has been back burned. One of my Valkyries has also been stripped of its paint and a new planned paint job is in the works for 2015. How many of these goals I achieve is still unknown.

As always at the end of the year, Its time to review the top 3 projects. This year has seen many exciting and new things come across my work bench.

#3 would have to be my salamander command vehicle that i built out of a old hellhound. The model was in rough shape when i got her but after some tough love and care she was restored and commissioned into my Padrus 8th armored force. She is still unnamed at this point but the model was one of my favorite to work on!

#2 was  my assassins that i worked on for my inquisitional army. This assassin named A-68 was done up with eldar parts as well as imperial guard, space marine and warhammer fantasy models.  

#1 then for 2014 is a hard choice. Overall i think it would have to be the heavy weapons teams that i redid from scratch. These models took the most time but the end results were way above what i had expected! Although the number of models in the group felt like they were going to take forever, the task actually went by really quickly once the army had gotten started again. It was a proud moment of accomplishment for the year and left me room to start with my tau army.

 As this year comes to a close I want to thank everyone that has kept with this blog! Knowing that people read and watch this blog helps to motivate me to accomplish these task. If you like what you see please become a follower and tell your wargaming friends about this blog. Every little bit helps!
Also leave a comment or just say hello, Every little bit helps! :)

As the year comes to end all i can say is keep rolling those dice. 2015 is coming with many new and exciting projects, Stay Tuned~!

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Dramtis Personae: The Assassins Awake (Part I)

Thought for the Day: "The Officio Assassinorum knows, beware of what you speak....."

All files pertaining to A-68 have been deleted...
Log in noted....
Alarm alarm unauthorized intruder...
Data terminal shutting down......

Today's topic is on the Temples of the Assassins. This will be a two part series on the assassins that i have made so far. The first one to be covered will be my Eversor Assassin. This assassin code named A-68 will be my first model that I show on here.

A-68 or Assassin 68, is a member of the temple of the Eversors. His mission is to directly find the enemies leadership and end them as quickly as possible in the name of the Emperor.  This project came about due to my desire to have a few models out of the Data slate: Officio Assassinorum (OA).

Eversor Assassin Codenamed A-68

Whatever A-68's human name once was, he no longer answers to it. Instead he is under the watch of the OA and often called upon by Inquisitor Adrastia to help track down Inquisitor Umarus who she is currently tracking having declared him a heretic after his destruction of the world of Haven.

68 began as a Eldar model that was cut down and modded to have slimmed features. Originally he was going to have the trademarked skull helmet and still may (If i can ever find my bits that i had). His power weapon was made from a catachan war blade and a few bits from both the Imperial Guard and Warhammer Fantasy Battle Militia kit.

The paint job was my own mix of 50/50 Abaddon Black and Storm Vermin fur. This mixture gave me a perfect black color of the look of 68. The flesh tones were a simple job of Kislev Flesh with agrax earthshade on top. A small mixture of P3 Coal black was added in for the Tattoo aqualia on top of his bald head. I also hope to someday be able to get custom resin bases for these model like I have for nearly two thirds of my Tanith. Only time will tell.

While 68 might not look like much his fellow assassin is a custom made Vindicare assassin that I will be showing off soon.  68 has yet to see combat on the table but it is my hope that soon I will be able to unleash the power of the OA upon the enemies of the Imperium.

Until Next time and part II


File Closing down....

Symbol of the Officio Assassinorum

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"Like Ghost from the night"

           In an attempt to keep myself motivated with this blog I've decided each week i'm going to try to post something of my work. Last time i posted a picture of my Pardus 8th armored Salamander (still unnamed by the way) that i had bought from Ebay.

Having shown the pictures to Pwnzilla 789 and Renegade09, I felt that i had not truly accomplished what i set out to do with this dream vehicle of mine. So one bright Saturday afternoon i tore apart the Salamander and put her back together.

The new design was based upon the Set-Back Chimera popularized by "The back 40k" blog that i had used on his tutorial to build my own set back Chimera that had been given to me for my birthday. The new Chimera has been built and assembled. She turned out really nicely and i hope to get her painted up soon.

Another key step that i accomplished was finishing my two Tanith heavy weapons teams (HWTs) of 3. With those now accomplished I have tidied up the last of the models I need to run my Tanith force.

While building the HWTs I was able to make another few figures to finish up my own verison of Ibram Gaunts Company command squad. These characters are left to right including Ana Curth, Gaunts aide, the priest, and his body guard. Im not sure i'll ever get the chance to run them as a command squad but the idea of two command squads is hard to pass up in a 2000+ point game.

With classes started up again and all three of us headed back to school im not sure how many updates we will be able to get in. So i hope you all can encourage us and keep us rocking.

Till next time keep rolling those dice and may the odds be ever in your favor!

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New Year, New projects: Hello 2014

       Welcome to the 2014 edition of Behind the Lines gaming!  As this new year gets underway a lot of change is coming to this blog. I will be attempting to post every 2 weeks on some project or another i may be working on. With graduate school starting soon this is more a hope than a true promise or schedule.

The case with troopers assembled in it

 First off, yesterday (January 2nd) this giant box came in the mail for me from Games workshop. Contained within was the new gaming case i had posted about last time. After cracking open the case, i found the case to be exactly what i had hoped it would be: A infantry case for my guard. As i finish up the Tanith 1st along with my Detachment D-44 I hope to be able to show them off in their new home. One of the problems was how to store my tanks and APCs. To solve this problem i went to Wal-mart and bought a giant carrying case of a toolbox. This behemoth was able to carry, measuring tapes (2x), all 9 of my heavy weapon teams, 3 russes, 1 chimera, 1 sentinel and 1 valkyrie with room to spare! A very good buy if i do say so. I have cut down my cases from 4 to 2.  Goal 1 accomplished for the new year.

What's in the box?

Rear View

 Second off, having gotten the Inquisition codex for christmas (as well as Carnage! and Kill Team) I decided to start on a small Inq28 force for myself and my brother to play. Readers of this blog know about Inquisitor Umarus and his band of Acolytes. The next warband I am starting on is for Inquisitor Adrastia from the Dawn of war: Retribution video game. Adrastia's warband is still a major WiP but after some major inspiration from the Warhammer 40k Facebook group, I assembled my own Vindicare assassin.                These were the unpainted versions of the assassin that i posted up on that group. Little lore has been written for this assassin but a few things are known. One, he is a she. Secondly, the model had been a orphan in her former life before being taken in by the order of the assassins. Im thinking of making her code name: XIII but i'm still unsold on that name.
           The model consists of many bits including a eldar legs, body, arms. a cut down bolter, a Kroot rifle , a Forge world Elysian ammo case, many Imperial Guard weapon bits and some some tough love and care. After the assembly was finished, i painted the model up to break up the feeling of painting Tanith trooper 135+

Front View of the Assassin

Even though the paint job is still very much a WiP on this model i am unsure how to proceed. Although i don't want the model to be all black, it seems only natural that a assassin would be wearing black. I think for the moment she will remain a major WiP. Next in the warband, I hope to make a mystic and a psyker. Each warband will have 5 members including the inquisitor.What models do you think would be good for a Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor to have in her warband?

    Since the campaign for Ventra Majoris II is over my lore is that Adrastia was unable to uncover the secrets that Umarus had hidden away concern the Havens 1st. Now without the proof needed to wage open war against him, Adrastia has moved her operations into the cover of black ops calling upon her acolytes to serve her. This secret war threatens to consume the two as their feud could turn into open warfare at any moment. While both the Ordo Hereticus and the Ordo Xenos have never gotten along, this disruption could cause a major break that would see one ordo turn on the other.

Current WiP

In my last post, i promised more secret projects to come this year. Stay tuned! The pieces are all coming together. Soon enough I hope to have more news on these projects.

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From the Skys........

Happy 4th of July to all my American Readers.

It seems todays update is only appropriate to be about things falling from the sky. In this instance my own Phantine of my Detachment D-44 and a part of the 44th Phantine Skyborne.


Update for the Phantine Side of things:


Early out of date pic. This picture was of Captain Remaus before his promotion during the Distilleri campaign.

Forge world Elysian models in the resin. I’m planning on eventually running enough of these guys for a small task for of Phantine Skyborne Troopers. Originally I wanted to replace the helmets to look

Prototype of concept.

And I could do it too by using the pilot heads from the Valkyries, except for the fact that i would need to buy:

A. More Valkyries for my skyborne and the helmets.

B. Replace said helmets with cadian heads to give the pilots heads.

C. I would only get enough pilot heads for 1 squad at most or 2 if i used the gunner’s heads too. I tried this concept with these guys and I kept them but I think I'll use them as inquisitional storm troopers assigned to my detachment.

original concept

So I emailed Dan Abnett and asked for how to get them right for a true Phantine Skyborne trooper. It’s true, Mr. Abnett does respond to his own mail and VERY fast. I got this within 24 hours.



Hello

I think they look very much like WW2 aircrew crossed with paratroopers, with the jump-packs being "jet pack" type units about the size and shape (and appearance) of an un-deployed parachute.

Any help?

Dan



This has leaded me to rethink the whole modern design. I start looking back into new ideas. I decided the Elysian’s would be the way to go in the end. Not only to distant themselves from the Tanith but to stand out on the table as one of my FAVORITE regiments in 40k.

A D-44 Phantine Trooper

My personal favorite and "Me" in 40k so to speak is Captain Jonus "SwampyTurtle" Remaus (sometimes misspelled Remanus) which is a title I earned from the 40kOnline IG board Chain of Command.

The Captain himself Jonus Remaus with "Liberus"

The Remaus Family is of Phantine. The brother Litilus is my Tech priest model and my character from Dark Heresy. Most of the family was killed during the conquest of Phantine by the Blood Pact but currently only Jonus and Litilus are the known survivors of the family. Mother Ophilia and Father Byrus have both been found dead at the hands of the enemy. The misfortune and stories of the Remaus family are some I hope to tell both through fan fiction and my own battles. Litilus is unaware his brother is alive having only heard that a man from Phantine named Jonus is working for an inquisitor =I= as his personal retinue.....

A Phantine Valkyrie. This one is the "Glory Hound" as seen earlier in the blog.




Fluff and story of Captain Jonus Remaus during the Ventra Majoris Campaign

A tall man in a tan uniform of a drop trooper regiment enters the building and heads towards the Tactical Operations center. Remaus stood out with his Mohawk shaved brown hair and his drop trooper gear hanging on his belt. His features had been used in the recent Phantine recruitment billets for the Skyborne.

Tall, Brown haired, Striking brown eyes, and with the inspiring words "From the skies!" on the poster had seen recruitment training for the unit tripled. With such small numbers in only around 200 troops and no land to speak of, the planet didn't have many ground forces to raise for the Imperial Guard. Instead, most units came in the form of aviators in squadrons.

Jonus decided to stop by the cafeteria and pick up some caf for himself. No use going into a jump tired he told himself as he poured a glass and looked around for a table to sit at. Finally spotting a open table, he headed over and sat down before opening his data slat to look over his squads gear and load out.

His back hurt and his muscles twitched as he remember his last jump on the brewery world of Distilleri. Then he had been under the command of a Major Tuesday. After the jump, his grav chute had failed to fully function and he had had to use what power he could draw to land. It hadn't been a pretty landing but he had survived...If you could call blacking out from the pain survival. He had woken up days later in a field hospital with a medicae nurse looking after him. By then the news of the invasion on Distilleri was but a distance memory. His officer promotion had come through later that year. In retrospect, Lt's bars looked good on him, it beat the hell out of being enlisted.

His reassignment had seen him pulled from the 40th corp to the Detachment under his old boss Inq Umarus. D-44 had been formed shortly there after and with his squad had seen the Detachment shifted across the galaxy to a new war zone. Umarus kept Jonus up to date on his brother Litilus but otherwise Umarus's promise of Jonus seeing his brother again were still that....just promises...

"Sir"

Jonus looked up to see one of his troopers coming over holding a sword

"It just came in sir"

Jonus smiled and nodded his thanks taking the power sword and attaching it to his belt "Liberus?" he said to his attendant

"Aye sir, she's sharpened and ready for action just as the Inquisitor swore it would be"

"Good work, return to the squad and see them ready"

"Aye sir" said his attendant before saluting and hurrying off

Feeling tired, Jonus got up and headed out into the hallway before walking over to one of the empty bunks laying about. he laid his drop trooper gear on the floor and laid down on the bed , closing his eyes and remembering that final time he had seen his older brother back on Phantine, back before his world had been turned upside down....

There was fire and there was smoke and God-Emperor....oh God-Emperor the smell! Looking to his right , he saw his buddy Rowland screaming as the enemy fire tore into his jetpack and then his body tearing off limbs before the body fell towards the ground below. Using his training Jonus hit the grav chute and prayed, hoping that those las shots coming towards him wouldn't hit him as Lightings and Valkyries around him blew up from the traitors fire. He remember his family, His mother Ophelia, His Father whom had died serving the Phantine Liberation and most of all his brother Litilus, These thoughts kept him sane as he dropped towards the enemy and the hell awaiting him below, the wind shaking him harder and harder......

It was only a dream, It was only a dream he kept telling himself as he got up shaking but he knew it wasn't and that that last drop on Distilleri has been one of the worst of his career......

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A walk on Dusk

Where oh where has the time gone?  May, June, and now July. Seems like this summer is flying by. Yesterday started our group star wars RPG. Set in the era of the Old Republic, our heroic jedi are flying off to save the galaxy or meet there destiny. Today, though is not about the RPG but some different tid bits from the far dark future. After ordering the Gaunts Ghost set in the mail and receiving it a few days ago, i was able to assemble it yesterday finally adding Corbec, Milo, Mad Larkin, Doc Dordin and a tanith trooper into my tanith 1st and only. Now this squad will be my new Company command squad and with the lay out of weapons, i will be able to use them for many different pieces of wargear and options. Milo comes with a bagpipe set  which i believe would make a excellent regiemental standard and Doc Dordin would make a excellent character for my medic upgrade (should i take it).  Colonel commisar Gaunt is of course being used as a Lord commisar or a Company commander based upon the point value. More on that later....

Today i was able to make a few hour into painting time and paint the death cult assassin ive been meaning to work on for a friend of mine. In our Dark Heresy game, this character is being run as assassin from the feral work of Dusk. The client wanted the colors of purple and green for the main robes and clothing so i decided to try something different on this.

Having worked on mostly tau and guard (to some extent) i decided to go for a feral look and the way to make this work was to make the clothing look ragged. This proved to be tougher than expected and preharps i should have gone green over purple instead of purple over green. I was able to get the look down eventually and tried to figure out how i would do certain colors due to limited paints avaible to me. Thanks to a friend of mine, i was able to secure the use of the purple (lich purple) and Thraka Green in order to to get the look just right....

                 

....However upon use i noticed that the green dried a darker color then i had been expecting. This was a shock but only a minor set back as i had been thinking over the color scheme for a few weeks now.

Alittle background on the world this assassin comes from. Dusk is a planet in the calixs sector bathed in low sunlight where almost every form of life is from fungal strands. From the Lexicanum, It reads:

Elana the Unshaken, an Imperial missionary who made it her lifelong goal to bring the word of the Emperor to the dark places of the Imperium. It is said that she bore a scar for each world she visited, and that upon Dusk she was savaged by predators whilst travelling in the wilderness. 

Having read the background, I finally finished up the character, leaving a few pieces of itesms sparled at his feet. a las pistol holder and a few items of interest his target was carrying.

The blades were my favorite part to work on for the whole project. Just alittle chain mail metal and one good stroke got the look just right. The throwing daggers proved to be more of a hassle but i was able to turn what was a mistake into a rusted look thereby saving the paint job.



Hopefully, Soon i will be returning to the Tanith, They have been ignored for some time now due to the DH characters. The inquistor Urmaus is done now and solidfied, however i am not yet pleased with the way he looks. I hope to have him figured out as well soon.  Once thats done you can expect to see him on this blog and he might even get a paint job if he turns out to look really good.  As for the arbities and others, well only time can really tell.....

Finally i leave you all today with some thoughts on the working of building this model. While learning more about my own painting skills and what it takes to handle a paint brush, i was thinking about this characters back story. Walking on a world in darkness with your tribe and eventually being able to go out into the larger galaxy seems galaxies apart in terms of life styles. One being the day to day survival of your people, the other, the day to day survival of your species as a whole. When you look into it, This assassin is just doing what he know, but on a much larger scale.

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The start of Something new!

Well everyones gotta start somewhere so here i am. I am a college student whom loves 40k and converting models in the hobby. I got started around 2008 and contuined from there. My new army of choice is none other than Gaunts Ghost from the Series of the same name by Dan Abnett. I am gonna to be taking tanks (Padrus) , stormtroopers (Phantine) and Troopers (Tanith) and through this blog hope to show you my take on the "Ghost Division" storming across the Sabbat worlds somewhere..

Its a dark galaxy....bring a flashlight and hold on....


Taking a break from my tanith for a moment (even though this is my first post on blogger)

Well my buddies and I are doing a Online RPG for Dark Heresy and one of them is running his character as a death cultest. Having said that i would, i attempted to build the character as best i could from spare bits. His character, Dorian Barbosa is from Dusk a feral world in the DH book and so i tried to make the look as "feral" as i could without too much interfence or making him look too primative. I took parts from Wood elves, tau, and a flagalant band to make him. Hope everyone likes him. Comments and ideas are welcome as always.

I tried to add as much as his gear as i could see here:

Gear: two mono-swords, six throwing knives, crossbow pistol and twenty bolts, las Pistol and one charge pack, autopistol and two clips, grapnel and line, equipment harness, 3 doses of stimm, protective bodyglove (2 points Primitive armor for Body, Arms and Legs), stone knife (memento), vial of blood (memento)

Tonight i was able to get it primed and worked on. Im hoping by the end of the week i'll have a painter for it. If not i may have to start this on my own.

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