New Year, New Projects: Hello 2015!

Hello and welcome to the 2015 edition of Behind the Lines Gaming. As a new year gets underway we look forward to the new start that a new year will bring. Like last year I will be attempting to post every two weeks but again graduate school might  get in the way. As with last year, this is more a attempt to regulate myself than a true schedule or promise. 

First off, I will be starting off this year with a new army project. I am going to be attempting to create a full Victoria Miniatures army of Border World Rangers. This will be a ambitious attempt to create a true feeling Tanith first and only army of Non-GW models. A review of Victoria Miniatures will also be forthcoming once the start of the army arrives.

 Also I will be working on my Tau army to get it all painted. Some of my flyers have been stripped of their paint and will be redone once I can find time to get to them.  

In non Games workshop terms, I also intend to fully paint up my Menoth army for Warmachine. Right now this project hasn't been shown on here but it is coming along. nonetheless it is underway. (White is a pain to paint) but I am hopeful for the learning experience.

In other Gaming Related news for the New Year:

Also I will be starting my second season of the Edge of the Empire game that I am Game mastering. This time the heroes will head off into the galaxy to fight against the evil Empire. Although the hero's don't know whats in store for them, the galaxy is a wide place. Already in season 1 they had faced death numerous times before. This time they better be ready for true consequences. The Empire wont allow the Rebels to escape this time.

Also underway is a major ambitious goal of Renegade09, Pwnzilla789, and my own that I hope to be able to talk about in the near future. This goal is the largest yet to date but at the moment all is looking to be on track! Stay tuned for a major update soon. I hope that you all are excited as I am.

2015 is going to be a exciting new year that we here at Behind the Lines gaming hope everyone will be excited for! Stay tuned for a much more to come!

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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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Product Review: Miniatures Market.com

Here we are again, another Product Review! This time we are looking over the service provided by Miniatures Market.com. I was shopping for some paints on cyber Monday and stumbled across their store. The prices compared to my local game store were way better and the amounts of paint i needed were going to be expensive. Miniatures Market helped me to make that experience much easier. (Note: i am not being paid or anything else for this review)

The ordering was easy however i noted that their was a 4 day shipping delay due to the holiday season and what i believe was my reason for delay. I had forgotten to put in a shipping address for them to ship the paints, Once i fixed this, my status order went from: ready to ship to Completed. This is believed to be my own problem and does not reflect upon their service. Finally on Monday the 8th of December they shipped. I fully believe that my shipping delay was no fault of their own even with the holiday season. Still i was excited to see how the order turned out. The ordre arrived on December 10. 1 day earlier than the expected delivery date. The box was in good shape and all the paints were there in a baggie. I quickly got the box open and put the paints in there new home.

The new colors.

 The paints arrived and i tested out the Turqouise ink anxious to see how it work. All of the bottles were very nicely sealed and the paints arrived in good shape.

Now im not sure about the paint bottles but im not sure if i should keep them in their dropper bottles or put them into seperate paint pots? I think they would retain their life time better if i kept them in their droppers but the chance to have easier access is tempting. Im sure i'll figure it out soon. In the mean time the picture below shows them in their new home on my work desk. Hopefully given time i'll be able to start using these paints and give them a test on some of my miniatures.

So some final thoughts, Would I recommend Miniatures Market?  Yes. Their service and handling was quick and easy. Their customer rewards program made checkout a breeze and the fact that they had some of the best prices I had seen online left me wanting to make another order. I would highly recommend Miniatures market for all your war gaming needs when it comes to paints and supplies. The other materials I look at had wonderful prices as well although I didn't have a need for anything at the time. I intend to order again soon!

My Paint rack

Also of note was my own fun i had in Microsoft excel. I created a full layout for my Tanith First and only army as well as my Detachment D-44. Seen below is three platoons worth of troops and the three veteran squadrons of my Phantine. In the future I hope to expand it with regimental honors, campaigns, battles, and how they fair against each enemy they encounter. Once that is done i also want to do it with my Tau.   Till next time....

Tanith Layout of Platoons and Allies

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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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Pictures from the Eastern Edge

So what do i have for you all today? Not much to show in terms of pictures I'm afraid. School has been busy driving away all of my free time. I've also taken to running a VTT (Virtual table top) Role playing game over the net. Its a site called Roll20.net. If you haven't tried it out and your into RPGs its a must for all gamers.

This army started small and grew to around the 2,500 point mark. It has served me well over the course of four edition changes and has started to be repainted in a new Turquoises and white scheme that i hope to show soon! 

Also on the menu for today are my Tarantula Sentry Turrets. These conversions are made out of Heavy Weapon Teams from a standard box of Imperial Guard and some pieces of other kits to make them stand out as turrets. These turrets will be a part of my Elysian (Phantine) Drop Troopers and also used for other measures as required. Im not too sure on the basing but i hope to get them all done up soon. 

Till next time, Keep rolling those dice!

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