Phantine Skyborne! Ready to Jump!

Command Squad with Scanner

 For the men and women of Phantine, everyday is a fight for survival. Growing up living on mountain tops in closed off cities, the people of Phantine live above the polluted clouds of their world. Called "The scald" these clouds can kill a man in minutes should anyone fall into them. Therefore when the Imperial Guard came for a tithe on Phantine, there was no ground to muster the troops.

Two types of soldiers are pulled from this world: Airmen for the Air Corps and Drop Troopers from the Skyborne. Today we cover the men and woman of the Skyborne. First appearing in Dan Abnettt's Guns of Tanith, the Phantine Skyborne played a vital role not only in reclaiming their world but in the Sabbat Crusade.

A Phantine Sargent

"They were all big, powerful young men wearing cream-coloured quilted jackets and baggy, pale canvas pants bloused into the tops of high jump-boots. The sides of their heads were brutally shaved, leaving just a strip on their crowns. Not as a result of lice treatment, Varl thought. These men kept their hair that way. They were Phantine troopers. Skyborne specialists."  - Guns of Tanith

This description didnt do enough for me so I decided to email the man himself about how the Phantine would look. Dan Abnett was kind enough to respond (for which I am very grateful!):

"I think they would 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 

With this information in hand ive set about painting them based off the images I could of World War II aircrews and paratroopers. It is my hope that these are the best representation of the Phantine that I can do.

Scald Squad

My own Only War Character (Captain Jonus Remaus) is a modeled in this army as well with his power sword "Liberus". As a member of the 44th Phantine He is the leader of "Scald" Squad seen here.

Full army shot with Holm Squad on the far right

 The second squad seen here (Far left) is Holm squad. This squad is led by Sergeant "Cowboy". Cowboy was originally nicknamed Cupcake after a superior called him a "cupcake solider",In response, Cowboy bettered himself and during the Ventra Majoris crusade fought against Chaos to protect the world of Sigma Majorus. He is current serving under Captain Remaus and someday hopes to get command of Scald Squad.

My yet un named squad

Seen here is the newest squad of the 44th. This is my last unnamed squad. They are the newest recruits after the Ventra Majoris campaign. Currently they are on patrol with the 44th fighting against Necrons and Orks. Whether or not they can stand against the horrors of the galaxy remain to be seen.

After taking these pictures I realized that I forgot to add in the 2 lascannon sentry guns conversions I had done for this army as well.

The Drop Sentinel in the back is a converted regular sentinel that has been heavily modified to fit the drop role. Its been a big part of this army since the beginning and earned me a few kills of enemy armor during the campaign I ran with my brother against his (read: my) tau forces. It is now a constant part of my drop army.

In the mail I have 2 more surprises coming for this army.  While these are just the ground elements of the army, I hope to be able to show the air elements soon.

Write a comment, say hi or just let me know you were here! Every little bit helps.

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A Tau Crisis [Suit] Story

Panoramic Shot of the Crisis Suits

 So once again, its time for another update! This time from the far eastern fringes. In what is a first for me, I have finally painted all 12! of my Tau Battlesuits. For the advanced Tau player this might not be much but for a Cadre that started out in mid 4th Edition, its been a hassle just getting to this point.

Top down view of the teams

Every time Ive painted them I have never liked a scheme enough to stick with it. This time however I have found one that really spoke to me. I started with a few of my regular suits to get to scheme down and then proceeded to continue on with a new suit each week. Overtime, the suits started to get better looking which helped me feel as if they were getting done. All of the Crisis suits have been converted to some extent since my cadre is using the XV-46 Crisis suit, a variant found in the DeathWatch RPG series. Of course since there is no official pictures of the suit, I went with what i felt best could be achieved closest to the writing of the material. The XV-46 is used a close range suit, designed to work in hostile, close quarters combat such as ship boarding and Zone Mortalis type games. My Cadre however, has requisitioned a few for field testing against their common foes of Necrons and Orks.

Another view of Commander MirrorWater

All the Crisis Suits line up by teams

So whats next? Well im not sure if I want to return to do some more for my Imperium armies or stay working on the Tau. I thought out moving on to the Stealth suits but they get so little game time it wouldnt be worth it (although it would be fun to paint!). Other considerations are the (old style) broadsides which have been converted or maybe a vehicle or two to transport my Fire Warriors. Im going to have to see how time allows me to do these. Im hesitant to work on the vehicles without a airbrush due having always burned myself out on them,  Readers, what would be a good airbrush for a beginner?  Let me know in the comment below! As always leave a comment, say hi! or just let me know you were here. Every little bit helps.

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Thunderbolts of Phantine [XX Squadron]

Commander Jagdea in the lead T-Bolt
Sharp eyed viewers will notice that a cooling duct is missing
a replacement has been requested by the squadron

Here's a project that I've wanted to do for a very long time! A wing of two Thunderbolts from the Phantine Air Corp. First seen in Dan Abnett's Guns Of Tanith and later their own series Double Eagle, the pilots of Phantine remain my favorite Imperial Guard Regiment.

Since Phantine has no ground to muster troops on, their tithe to the Imperial war machine was in the form of pilots, each squadron being 12 (wo)men strong. My Phantine consist of both the Air Corps and their drop troopers known as the Skyborne.

This first T-Bolt is piloted by Commander Jagdea, first encountered in the book Guns of Tanith. Her piloting skills are shown to be second to none and she remains a top favorite character throughout the series as she flies Umbra 1. Since the wiki's are not much help on what the Phantine looked like, I had to resort to the use of the books themselves. They were described as:

"Matte Grey with copper plating on the exposed engines and ducts"

Umbra 2 and Umbra 1 from left to right

This gave me some idea on how to do my own models allowing them to have their own unique feel as close to the book as possible. The Second Thunderbolt is going to be flown by XO Milan Blancher in Umbra 2. Even though Blancher becomes KIA in the book, his character was too cool not to add and since my forces are suppose to be about the time of Sabbat Martyr (773 M41), its possible hes still alive at that point. Besides, with 32 kills to his name, this guy is just too cool not to make a model for!  Someday I hope to add a third and a fourth to the collection but the true goal will be to have a Marauder piloted by another famous pilot of Phantine.

Soon I hope to have my full forces done up in a picture for you all to see!  Keep checking back and leave me a note to saying you were here or just hi! Every little bit helps!

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Rise of the Jar'Kia Sept: A Tau story

Forgive me for being gone for so long. A lot has changed over the past month since I wrote my last blog post. So what do I have for you today? Well for starters, I have starter pictures to my Tau Army!  Yes I've gotten bitten by the Tau bug to restart my paint jobs.


Blog readers will remember a few shots of my own Jar'Kia Sept that I posted a last year. Well I've restarted with yet another new paint scheme. This time one that I am truly thrilled over and wanting to see the army to completion on.

First up, We have a Crisis team of Three suits army with plasma rifles and a missile pod. These are my main hunters and are used for a majority of the army. I usually run my army as a Farsight Enclave list under the command of Shas'O Water Mirror.

This Team is lead by Shas'vre  JadeStar and is the one of my favorite to run. With their killer combo, this team is often the first to go hunting for enemy vehicles or HQs to assassinate.  Their last game against Necrons however saw the team whipped out, yet JadeStar survived and has not forgotten her lost brothers and sisters.

Next up is my Commander, Shas'O Mirror Water. Mirror Water is considered by most to be a renegade. Although he hasnt broken ties with the Tau Empire yet, he has been known to eschew any Etherials that have been attached to his command. In his actions against Orks during one campaign, Mirrow Water lost nearly 60% of his Cadre in a three month long operation. This left him frustrated with the Etherials and their way of handling the Tau Fire Caste.  Whether or not he will strike out on his own to join Farsight is yet to be seen. Nonetheless, The Cadre has not yet returned to the Inner Septs for rearmament and relaxation. Instead, they have started to find similar minded cadres to join with in order to take the fight to the enemy. As long as Mirror Water feels that his Cadre can fight, he will continue to seek out the enemies that have killed his blood kin.

Up next is my new Cadre Fireblade named Dawn Fire. Commander Dawn Fire is a strict Tau Commander that believes that their is nothing that cant be overcome with the right application of firepower.  He has been assigned to work with Mirror Water in hopes that he can stop the Shas'O should he attempt to go rouge. Yet being the newest member of a veteran Cadre can be hard and Dawn Fire might soon himself at odds with his ranking commander.

Well thats all I got, as always leave your comments and concerns. Below is a full army shot as of 4/20 showing all that had been painted. Keep checking back and For The Greater Good!

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Battle Report: Battle For Hive Valediction

The table at the end and a wide view of the game

"As the Emperor Protects, so must we" - Col. Commissar  Ibram Gaunt

                   This past weekend I played my friend Salous against his new ork army. In response I broke out my Tanith First and Only that I haven't run in forever and went to war.

Saint Sabbat takes the lead for the Tanith!

The table was played on a F.A.T Mat by frontline gaming which was really really nice! Maybe one day i'll buy one of them because it added alot of feeling to the battle. So how did it go? Well the guard walked away with solid 4-1 VP over the orks. We played at 1200 points and I used a custom Tanith Codex by Chaos_Seerer from Bolter and Chainsword.



Deploy was the standard deployment and we had 4 VP placed around the table. Although I outnumbered the orks, it was still going to be a tough game since he was running a biker squad. This squad had no painboy so in that regard I was lucky! Still guard shooting and orders were a important part of this battle.

Turn 1 say him move up and into the guard lines. Two of the Pardus 8th tanks were damaged and a few Tanith were shot at. However most of the shots either missed or were off target.

My turn 1 saw me killed a lot of the bikers and a few of his orks. Guard effectiveness was played up to make sure that they huged cover and make sure that they stayed out of his charge range.

Turn 2 saw him shot and then charge my tanks. This was a really bad turn as two of the Pardus 8th tanks were wrecked. The game looked bad. On the other hand, the ork squad failed to get off a charge against one of the Tanith squads who were lucky to fight another day.

The Commissar and her men

My turn 2 saw my remaining tank kill a few Orks. The soldiers mostly focused on the bikes and killed off the biker squad except for the Ork warboss on his bike. Having no other options left, Saint Sabbat charged the Warboss. The war boss looked at her, and then checked his lucky stick. Salous rolled a one twice and the War boss killed himself with his lucky stick leaving the Tanith and the Beati very confused. The Phantine Vendetta took off a hull point and blew up the boom gun on the back of the truck.

Turn 3 saw him charge a Tanith Squad and whip them out but not before taking serious causalities. The Orks repaired the boom gun and set about shooting at the third tank. Finally his nobs killed my last remaining tank. the other orks took a few shots at the Tanith but did little

My turn 3 saw me move up to meet the ork squad and to capture the far left point. Another tanith squad moved up to the red building and moved to capture the point hidden in the red building. A few orks died and the Vendetta came on shooting at the truck again.

Turn 4 saw him move a few orks and fire his orks at my Tanith. Three Tanith died but the others went to ground and used their camo cloaks to hide from the blast.

My turn 4  saw me move my Saint Sabbat and her Tanith Squad into position to charge. It was at this point that Salous called the game.

So what do I think of the game? Well It was a strong guard victory. The codex played very well and the Tanith units felt true to the lore. I had a really fun time running my army the way I had envisioned them to play. The dice rolls were pretty equal between us so there was alot of back and forth in the way the game was played. At one point I was pretty sure I had lost when the orks war boss had not died to concentrated fire. However, it was lucky he died to his own stick.

The battle was over, and the Guard had held the Line.

"For Tanith, For the Emperor!"

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Pardus 8th Armored: Line of Death

Line of Death

Today we have another addition to the Pardus! I present to you, Line of Death. This Leman Russ Tank is commanded by Captain Le Guin, seen both in the Tanith First and Only novels as well as the Phantine novels. This Leman Russ Tank carries two auto cannons and a hull heavy bolter. Sharp eyed views can note that the side panels have had the words "Pardus" added onto them for detail.  This tank was a joy to work on and I hope that sometime in the near future I will be able to make them some track covers for the top area. Captain Le Guin remains one of my personal favorite characters from the Gaunt's Ghost series due to his loyalty and caring for his men.

Front View

WIP at the moment!

Sometime in the future, I hope to make it so that Line can join her brothers and sisters as a Battle cannon tank as well. The battle cannon piece was modeled on a converted Thunderer that I sent off to Bandogora for his birthday. Maybe he'll let me do a post about that soon enough! In the meantime I am letting Line of Death be my main hunter for heavy infantry and light vehicles. I hope to get a 4th tank soon to run as a Command Tank for the squadrons. We'll see how that turns out.

So what else has been going on here? Glad you asked! I've taken to working on my next flyer to paint up: my converted Vulture Gunship! This flyer is heavily armed with Punisher cannons and a heavy bolter meant to take down light targets. It will be painted up in the colors of the 352nd "Blue Nose Bastards of Bodney, a P-51D Mustang unit from World War II. However, in game terms, it will be from the world of Phantine for their aviators. That at the moment is a major WIP.

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Pardus 8th Armored: Drum Roll Please!

Drum Roll in her glory

So here we are with the second part of my Pardus 8th Armored update! Today I present to you  "Drum Roll" commanded by Captain Hancot. This tank first appeared in the Gaunt's Ghost series of books. Since my Tanith are working with the Pardus 8th I figured I would add another tank into their ranks. This tank joins Fury of Pardus as the second member of the three part squadron I intend to make up for my 2000 point army.

Front View

This paint scheme was the same as other tanks in my Pardus Armored. The only problem painting this time was that I've been sick with a very nasty cold. As Im sure many of you know, feeling sick and painting models is not a fun feeling. Nonetheless I was determined to paint up this tank for the weekend. There are a few bits I intend to buy for this tank so that it looks more uniform with the others. Also I'm trying to think of ways to jury rig it so that the side weapons can be added onto the tank.hopefully in the future i'll have something done up.

So whats coming in the future? Well Im planning to finish the last of these three tanks. That tank is currently sitting here next to me on my work bench. After that I intend to go back to the Ad Mech or maybe work on some Menoth from Warmachine.

Also, that secret project that I keep mentioning has made major gains in the last few weeks. In the near future I hope to be able to talk to you all about it. I hope you all are as excited as I am. For the moment I think Im going to go lay back down. This sickness is terrible...


Till next time, leave a comment, say hi or give me a follow, every little bit helps!

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