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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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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Back to the Future or how did i end up here?

January 14th 2005. After going through my closet and finding a old flash drive i found these pictures from 2005.  Now i remember my start of the Imperial Guard army from 2009-2010. However these pictures are from 2005 so i guess I've been a Imperial Guard player long than i remember. How time flys. I don't remember what happened to this army. 

 At the time i was into video games heavily so i suspect it must have gotten sold off to pay for a video game or something.  Anyway enjoy the pictures of my first army. I still own the catachans which have become the base for my Tanith in some cases.  Anyway enjoy the pictures of my first guard army and tell me what you think?

J

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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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Farewell to Summer, Hello to modeling projects!

In the Grim dark future of the 41st millennium there is only war..

        Of course anyone that has spend time in the warhammer 40k universe will tell you that but you came here to see what has been going on with our blog lately. First off we must apologize for the lack of updates since January. With starting spring semesters and one of our own going to a Masters program the time to update the blog has become lessened over the course of 2014. This summer has also seen no reprieve from work, school, and other real life activities that have kept us from updates.

This article has been a weird place holder for some time now. At first we were going to do product reviews on a few items that we bought. We also discussed reviewing other games and Role playing games such as Fantasy Flights Games (FFG) Edge of the Empire. None of us felt that we could get the time to write what we truly wanted to say out.

 My Tanith Heavy Weapon teams have been stripped and are nearing completion of being redone fully. Having looked over them this summer, i felt that they were not up to the standard that i held for the army and decided to strip them and redo them. This summer also saw some birthday money, so i bought this eBay rescue job. She wasn't much to look at but a little tough love and care she was able to be transformed into a vehicle i had wanted for a while. My own Salamander Command Vehicle from the IA:1 2nd ed series.

The Ebay photos

  She arrived just as she looked in the photos and when i finally had the time post birthday experiences i quickly dove into making her shine. Pwnzillia and Renegade both showed up for my birthday which was a welcome occurrence as we hadn't hung out in a long time since i had graduated last winter. They surprised me with another chimera tank new in box so i'll be adding a 3rd chimera to my armored force. Now the question is should i make it a normal chimera or a set back chimera? Ideas? Discussions? Let us know below!

Primed and ready to be painted

Finished pics of the Salamander. Im thinking of naming her "Sally" but one of my brother's friends has recommended "Death Machine." What about you guys? What should this beasts name be?

Side View

Front View

Side View

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INQ28: a intro into a whole new world

"A small step into a much wider world" - Obi-Wan in Star wars IV

     Ever since i've started my first year of earning my masters, my time for war gaming has drastically reduced. Today i hope to show you what i've been working on in my free time since my last post.

Much of my time has been in the world of Greek and Military history concerning my major but when i find enough time, the dark future of the 41st millenium always calls me back. So what have i been working on? Well that depends. I went out and bought 6 2x2 foam tablets to build my own table with. These tablets have seen my brother and I taking over with games of Kill Team and INQ 28.

For those not in the know, INQ28 is the Games Workshop game "Inquisitor" set in the 28 mm scale using 40k models instead of the 54mm models that use to be offered. The game allows for a lot of customization and character building mixing elements of role playing and table top war gaming. My two warbands under the leadership of Adrastia and Umarus have been going at each other over many games. So far, Umarus's warband has been unable to silence Adrastia in her pursuit of knowledge over the events that happened over the world of Haven. To assist her in her shadow war, Adrastia has called upon a nearby Imperial Guard Regiment. The Carolean 232nd Rifles

The 40th Corp banner (www.40konline.com)

Also known in their local dialect as "Kungens eget" (The King's own). The men of the 232nd Rifles are a Imperial Guard infantry supply company attached to the 40th Corp. Seen here is Colonel Horn with his command squad  holding the flag of the 40th Corp and dressed in the 40th Corp colors.

 The 40th Corp is a collection of Imperial Guard players on the 40konline website located in the link above. Members can become a integral part of the 40th Corp and help to build a true feeling of comradery with not only other posters but the local "Chain of Command" (CoC) too. Given enough time any member can become a "Officer" within the chain for not only his friendliness but also his ability to be a good member on the site. The 40th Corp, also known as "Board 18" is always looking for new members and new regiments. I can say it was this community that developed my interest in becoming a guard player. Not only for the friendliness of posters but also the way certain events such as RPGs and Fluff stories were often used to add to the Corps background. Contact your local Imperial Guard recruiter today!

Next to them is Primaris Psyker Henrich Oskar also attached to the 232nd. Only a few members of the 232nd have been painted so far but time permitting i hope to have more finished soon. Other notable members include Sargeant Sigmund "Butterfingers" Grahn and Commissar Isidor. While Sigmund has been painted, im hoping to get his full squad done before posting them up.

Although these will only be a platoon at the most, i've already started writing a few back stories for their regiment and the world they come from. With their involvement now in the shadow wars of Adrastia and Umarus only time will tell what will become of the 232nd.

Till next time......

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