2018: A Year in Review

Another year has passed by. For those of you who are long time readers, you know that at the end of every year I write a blog post about the top 3 most viewed post of the year. I do have a quick aside though. From August to now, I have not had the opportunity to post much. I found a new job and it has kept me very busy. What that means for this blog at the moment I do not know. However, I do intend to do 1 post per month in the coming New Year. Just to keep this blog alive. I also will be encouraging guest writers to add to the blog with their own takes on their miniatures and models. Another idea I had was setting up a Youtube Channel and filming a few games to post here as well. Would anyone be interested in that? Let me know in the comments below!

The Tanith and the Guard army grew with new tanks and new infantry soldiers throughout the year. Mad Robot released his Rangers set which helped to boost the army significantly. The Ad Mech grew in numbers with more skitarii and Onager walkers purchased. I now have a 2000+ point army of Ad Mech ready to march across the table into the enemy.  The Tau were mostly ignored this year as the points cost and the army size made playing the army no longer fun for me. However with the chapter approved 2018, I might try to start playing them again. I started a Sisters of Battle army this year and grew it to 1500 points! I am ready for 2019 and the Sisters beta codex is giving me a lot of hope for things to come. The Menoth from Warmachine were also mostly ignored as well as the local warmachine scene is dead here.

What wasn't dead here though was Kill Team for Warhammer 40k!  I built 2 kill teams, one based upon the Tanith 1st and Only and the other built around the All Guardsmen Party. Both of those saw extensive play through our shops Campaign which was played over several weeks.

As always we will now look at the Top 3 projects were have done this year.

Coming in at #1 was the Blood Pact Commission which was done for my friend Matt
Coming in at 1,303 views this post was the most clicked on post of the year. Matt's Blood Pact is being build in response to my Tanith army and soon we hope to have a few battles from across the Sabbat Worlds to tell.

#2 this year was the Tau Codex review at 1,281 views. This post gained a lot of views following the Tau codex release. A lot of people disagreed with my ideas on what was said but I still stand by them. The codex review was a lot of fun and something I would like to do again.

#3 this year was my Imperial Guard Verghast at 1,013 views. This post was also a surprise to me. I had not expected  for it to be in the top 3. The idea of the Verghast models came from Dave Taylors own assembly of some troopers he got from Victoria Lamb. I liked the way he had assembled them and decided that my own Verghast would look like his.

With that I want to wish everybody a Happy 2019. Hopefully 2018 has been good to you all and 2019 will be even better. Keep rolling those dice and stay tuned. Many new things are to come in 2019!

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Commission: Blood Pact Infantry

First 5 members of the squad

"They hide their faces in snarling iron, but the cruelty in their hearts is manifest in their burtual deeds. We are lost and we are done. May the God-Emperor forgive our failure and protect our souls." - Last Transmission of General DeLesstt, Urdesh

Back of the first 5 members. Notice the cloak done up in the style of my Tanith

So I've been commissioned again and this time Im painting Chaos. I never really thought I would paint chaos. However since this commission was something that was close to the Gaunt's Ghost series, I decided that it would be fun to paint. The Blood Pact are the main villains of the Gaunt's Ghost Series. A chaos force that has built itself up as a massive threat to the Imperium in the Sabbat Worlds. Having read the entire series, I was excited to paint red, lots and lots of red after painting my Tanith army for so long.

These traitors are the first squad of Matt's new Blood pact army. In order to get them ready, I ordered them from Mad Robot Miniatures. His Crimson Pak models make perfect Blood pact! Next I washed the models in warm water and soap. After a 24 hour wash, I dried them out and prepared them for paint. After a lot of intense airbrushing, I saw these models primed and readied for paint. After they dried, I started to add the base colors. I used Vallejo red for the base.I then used Vallejo Black-grey for all the black colors.After a Nuln wash, I then highlighted the reds and blacks. The bronze was Games workshop Bronze and the silvers were Vallejo silver and Vallejo chainmail. Both colors were to help the models look closer to their artwork. Sharp eyed viewers will notice that I added some dead Tanith models onto the bases and that the sergeant is wearing a ripped Tanith cloak. This was a request by Matt, both as a personal joke against my Tanith army and as a way to connect our two armies together from the book material.

Second 5 members of the squad

My poor attempt at Photoshop

To complete the look of the models, I added in a special "blood wash".  Since I dont have Games workshop paints available to me here, I mixed my own paint using Nuln oil, agrax earthshade, 4 different types of reds and lots of matte mediums. It worked very well I think.

Back view

Matt did request that I not base these models since he wants to add them onto his chaos army. However, the few pieces of Tanith bodies, stocks, and guns helps to make the model feel as if it is on the battlefield. In the future, he hopes to commission me again. Eventually this army will grow into a full force. One that will rival my Tanith on the tabletop. Matt has already started talking to me about doing a few Blood pact Chimera for him in order to transport this squad across the battlefield. Before too long we might see a few Leman Russ Tanks.


Now onto other news. We here at Behind the Lines have set up a Patreon page. This Patreon would to support us in bringing you new content such as painting tutorials, gaming reviews, blog post and eventually videos. If you would like to support us please head over to here. Even 1$ a month would help us out to bring you more content. The team has been gearing up to add a lot of new content that we are excited about.

As always, leave a comment, say hello or just let us know you were here. If you would like to get a commission price as well you can message us here or on Patreon.

Until Next time!

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