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!

Read more »

Phantine Air Corp: Tornado's are coming!

                     Since today is July 4th, I've decided to bring you another Phantine Air Corp article. Long time readers of the blog will note that on July 4th, we here at Behind the Lines celebrate American Independence Day. The last few times have been about the Phantine as seen here and here as examples. So we figured we would continue the tradition of talking about airplanes and paratroopers.

Well a while back, I joined the 40k Aeronautica group on Facebook. This group is all about the Air Club. People post their own home made aircraft as well as official GW / FW models.Its a very exciting group to be a part of. The community is great and the admin team is super. Since aviation has always been one of my interest, it seemed like a natural fit for me. Warhammer 40k and airplanes? Whats not to like!

One of the admin had some skills with 3D design and set about designing his own aircraft to use in 40k. This quickly took off (groan I know) and in time the group had funded the design. The admin promised not only patches, but also buttons, pins, and a full model of his first design. The "Tornado" fighter.

The community came together and with the promise of a new aircraft, we set about making it happen. This project will be the first of hopefully many new designs. It  has tightened the community together. The Admin team has already started working on new designs and future aircraft that they hope to be able to bring to the table top.

Lets talk about my experience as a backer. Although the wait was long, it was worth it. This was the first true "community supported" project that I have backed. However, when the cast came in, the models were shipped very fast. The admin team has kept everyone up to date on the process and the project.

 When I got my model about three days later It arrived in a standard packing box. It was in a baggy with not only the model pieces but also my backer rewards. After washing the model pieces in warm soapy water, I sent the model to a friend to assemble. This was because at the moment, I was working on the Blood Pact Commission, which I hope I will be posting more of soon. After it was assembled and primed it was sent back to me. What I got back in return was less than perfect. The model had been rushed and the tail was bent.

I stripped the model and took it apart over the course of a few days. Then after everything was apart, I set about reassembling it. The model is easy to put together. It holds together very well. It does not eat a lot of glue, so you can fit things together quickly. My advice would be to use very little glue in assembly. A little will go a long way on this project.

It should be noted that this project does not come with missiles, bombs ect. You will need to have your own or buy some from other sources. I used GW Valkyrie missiles for mine in my second build. The Original build my friend used was the GW Chimera missiles. Both will work.

It must be noted that this model is MUCH smaller than a GW Thunderbolt or Valkyrie. I like it however. It looks like a fast air to air fighter that it is mean to be.

 I haven't had time to airbrush or paint the model since it was reassembled. Life has been very busy as of late.I hope to break out my airbrush and get some work done soon.

Now I would like to take some time and talk about how this model will be used on the table.

It could be either a Lightening or a Thunderbolt depending upon the players wants. Im going to run it as a Lightening fighter since I own two thunderbolts already. This Lightening will be a part of the Phantine XIX. Also known as "Orbis" Squadron.

 In the books, Orbis squadron was described as deep grey with their fins and tails painted a deep blue. For this aircraft, Im planning to use my standard mix of Basalt Grey from Vallejo for the body and then use a GW Kantor Blue for the blues. The Cockpit will be a mix of many blues that I have collected over the years. For the engines, I will be using a gold color.

To all my fellow Americans, Happy 4th of July! and to the rest of the world Happy Wednesday!

Leave a comment, say hello or just let us know you were here. We enjoy hearing from you. Also check out our Patreon page. Even a 1$ per month would help us bring you new content. If you like what you see please consider donating. Every little bit helps.

If you want to pick up your own Tornado then head over here

Until next time!

Read more »

Tau Codex: Warlord Traits and Dreams

Hello everyone, my name is Jerry and today we will be talking Traits, my feelings on them and just a general review of them. Jon will be posting this for me but lets move on.

To start off, I would like to point out the “Named Character and Warlord Traits”. Of the six named characters, there are two from different Septs, the rest are T'au. So if we want to run a Battalion or Brigade from another Sept, we HAVE to have either a Fireblade or a Ethreal in it because of the COMMANDER limit. Already not a fan.

Another thing I would like to talk about is that we only really have three “types” of Warlord (excluding Longstrike and Darkstrider). We have the Ethreal, the Cadre Fireblade, and the COMMANDER. When looking at a lot of these traits, a lot of them seem to have been built for suits in mind. Precision of the Hunter, A Ghost Walks Among Us, and Examplar of the Mont'ka come to mind, but we have a limit to one per detachement

There is good too though. For example my favorite Trait thus far has been Through Unity, Devastation. This thing takes your average gunline and makes it a slightly more deadly or turns your Crisis Suits into Assassins. Say you have a Fireblade with this Trait and you've got fourteen Pulse Rifles that have a target within Volley Shot range. On average, with only re-rolls of 1, because that is all I use my Fireblade for is Markerlights, they are needing to save against sixteen shots, and of those about five are at -1. Now my math maybe a little suspect, but those Sixteen shots alone would usually kill any infantry in their way. But those Five -1's, when going up against stats like 2+/3++ *Cough*Custodes*Cough* give that little edge on possibly nicking more health off it. Hell, it helps against most MEQ in general and can even flat out kill some GEQ. The idea is that whether you're spamming pulse fire, or Ion cannons, it makes your dudes that much more lethal.

                                                            The Good

Through Unity, Devastation: Like I talked about above, this Trait gives all your 6+ wound rolls an additional AP when within 6” of the Warlord and against a single unit. Helps that gunline focus fire and annihilate more armored foes. Best part is it works on any toughness.

Academy Luminary: What's not to like? It increases the range of your three HQs abilities and gives you an additional CP. I personally haven't thrown it on anybody but Aun'Shi and a Kroot blob, but the thought of throwing it on a Commander, and advancing a gunline Via Mont'ka to cover a large swath of board without losing aim is great!

Precision of the Hunter: So this is one of those Traits I mentioned earlier that was meant more for a suit. I cannot think of a good reason a Fireblade or Ethreal are re-rolling 1's vs. MONSTERS and VEHICLES when most things that have that keyword they will be wounding on 4+ or worse. If it wasn't for the fact it is really, really good on a Anti-heavy 'Mander, this would be Bad. But when I get to re-roll wound rolls of 1 against things I am wounding on 4+ or better, yeah, really helps when my Fusionmander is burying 3 Blasters into a tank and really wants that gooey Marine or Guardsman inside.

Seeker of Perfection: Again another suit made Trait. For each 6+ hit roll, +1 to wound roll. The Fireblade is not pumping out enough shots to make this reliable and the Ethreal will most likely die before it can really see it's use with it's 5+ save in melee. Kinda in the same ballpark as Precision of the Hunter in the sense that it is great at making sure your shots go through, but feels more like it is built for large volumes of fire with weaker guns. Say for example a Coldstar decked with burst cannons and HBC. He is going to be wounding most things you wanna throw volume fire at on 3+ so adding 1 for every 6+ hit is kinda neat and it seems to stack with Overwatch. So it seems that every time you hit in Overwatch you get to add 1 to your wound as you need a 6 to hit in Overwatch as Bork'an Sept.

Hero of the Enclaves: This thing is awesome! Now T'au should never in their right minds get in melee, but when it comes to the Farsight Enclaves, sword range is where they like to be. And no Trait better emphasises this fact than by letting you Heroic intervention 6” and basically as long as you don't stay in melee you get to re-roll FAILED hit rolls. So even though average 'Mander is hitting in melee on 3+, that “all failed rolls” part makes you that much more of a Kung Fu badass. And with Fly, there is no reason you aren't making sure the conditions for the Trait aren't met. By far this Trait is the most reliable and possibly the most potent...as long as you have some Fusion blades because you still don't have melee weapons and still have AP 0, D1 fists.

                                  The Bad

Exemplar of the Mont'ka: So let's start off with Mont'ka. Back in the Chapter approved, this rule read “Your Warlord can Advance and still shoot as if they hadn't moved this turn”. Frankly kinda busted because then my Darkstrider (who I got a tonne of use in Index) or Shadowsun could just run down the field and in Darkstrider and a Fireblade's case, Markerlight on 2+ still, and on Shadowsun she could bounce up to some tough guys with her min 9” move and blast them in the face with her Blasters. Now with the Codex out, Darkstrider no longer get's this, nor does Shadowsun and Fireblades are more prone to standing around with their gunline. I can see it's use on a non-Vior'la Fireblade keeping up with some Carbine warriors still wanting Markerlight, or maybe a COMMANDER that want's to save points instead of being a Coldstar but otherwise is overshadowed by Vior'la Tenant.

Through Boldness, Victory: Great if you didn't already hit on 2+ and usually is able to re-roll 1s's. Also doesn't work during Overwtach, which admittedly would be busted, and not when outside 12” which is when all other armies -1 to hit ability no longer applies. It's good when you no longer have re-rolls, and  when you have lost you mind and are allowing something to stay within 12” of your Warlord without being an Assassin or Meat Grinder. Risk is too great for a payout that you easily get already.

A Ghost Walks Among Us: Let's bring back Darkstrider because he gets this. Pretty good for him because he gets to be all zippy on the field with his 7” Vanguard, 7” move and now +6” advance. Other than that, not that great. Ethreal can get it, but only good thing I see coming out of it is keeping up with Kroot mob. Fireblade is prone to standing around and if he advances he can't shoot anything that turn anyway (unless Vior'la but even then only the rifle can be used) and when it comes to COMMANDERs, there is the Coldstar who has a better movement (though I am unsure if you can stack it with a Coldstar as the Trait says specifically when rolling a dice).  The point is that it seems the Units that would get the most use out of it are heading into melee, which we don't want our Warlord most of the time (see above, Hero of the Enclaves.) or have a unit that does this better for 18 points more.

                                  The Ugly

Strength of Belief: I hate this thing. It reminds me that T'au have no Psyker defense, have no reliable mortal wound generator (see Seeker missile) anymore, and the thing is useless anyway. First off it is put on our Tank Commander. Other than a handful of guns, there is nothing else but Psyker powers that dish mortal wounds. And most Psyker powers that do mortal wounds hit the closest unit. I don't know about you, but my Longstrike is far away from any Psyker unless it is Grey knights or some Eldar units that like to get close. Even then there is a unit in between Longstrike and that Psyker.When not on Longstrike, the only time I see it's use is from snipers, but sniper rifles and most other weapons are not reliable mortal wound generator to see it's use unless you opponent spams those things.

Overall I think when it comes to Traits, there are some that will see way more use than others, but overall I can't say we did terribly. Next time I will be Talking Tenants and kinda do an overview much like this for it.

Read more »

Tau Codex: 8th Edition Review

The Tau are back! March 17th saw Games Workshop release the first 8th edition codex for the Tau Empire and what a codex it was! New Sept Tenants, Stratagems and even a list building restriction found nowhere else in the game. Tau really did get it all. However after getting the codex, I decided that it was worth a look through. These will be first impressions from the codex between myself as a veteran Tau player and Jerry2die4 as a brand new Tau player. Each of us has written a segment of this article. We hope that both the veteran players and the new players see what has come out of the Eastern Fringe.

Jon's thoughts as a Veteran Tau Player

First off, the good. TAU SEPT TENANTS! Finally! This is something that I've wanted since 4th edition for the Tau. Now that we have six sept tenants, we have the ability to actually have some uses for certain units. Since my Jar'Kia sept is a world that was taken by the Bork'an Tau, I felt it was only natural for me to take the Bork'an Sept trait.

Next comes the warlord traits and there are a lot of them. Tau got a few in 6th and 7th when the warlord traits first came out. However this edition has seen the number raise drastically. Each Sept is getting its own trait and this allows for the player to have a lot of say on how their warlord is run. I plan to have my commander running a triple Ion blaster and some shield drones. However, the 1 Tau Commander suit per detachment is kind of a bust. More on that later.

The Stratagems that  Tau got were really nice. We even got the return of the Doomsday bomb from 4th ed. A pleasant surprise for those long time tau fans. I think as a Tau veteran player, the most noticeable thing about the codex was a the number of options that it opens up. I like how each stratagem allows for the flexibility of play. A tau player should be able to pull of between 10 and 15 command points allowing many tactical options for the average player. Stratagems allow for the Tau player to be able to play his or her army with a lot of synergy. Whereas the Imperial Guard is about numbers, Tau is about fire power in the right spot at the right time. Each piece of war gear and stratagems allows a Tau Shas'o to be prepared for anything and everything.

Victory for the Tau over the Forces of Chaos

Now on the bad and the ugly....

First, Crisis suits are still very expensive. The base cost for a crisis suit is seemingly too high for the output of damage that it does. With the loss of Crisis suits being troops, the usefulness of the unit has gone down. This also damages Farsights ability to "Farsight Bomb" the enemy with crisis suits.  Secondly, the uselessness of the Tau Key word for Jetpack. When keywords first became a thing, it was hoped among many Tau players that this keyword would allow for us to Jump-Shoot-Jump. However in the codex, the Jetpack keyword was not given any abilities. In essence, its useless.
Riptides, although better priced are still very expensive and usually die very quickly. Other units like the forge world Barracuda went up in points and are not worth fielding. Another problem is that some of the Special Characters like Shas'O O'Ralia are unable to be fielded due to their specific Sept Keyword which is not in the codex. At the moment, taking O'Ralia is more of a hindrance to you than to the enemy.

Now the ugly. The elephant in the room. The only 1 Commander rule for Tau is a major hindrance to the army at the moment. With no other army facing this restriction, Tau seem to have been (un)fairly treated in the restriction of their main HQ unit. I never used the Commander Spam and I understand why it was removed. However, what we got in return put a hamper on the army as a whole. For those who like to run multiple commanders, the limitation is going to hurt. With the March FAQ coming soon, hopefully this issue will be addressed.

As the codex starts to gain some age, Tau players will have to adapt to the coming meta. Already many list are aiming for as many command points as possible. The Tau Septs with their special rules allow for players to have all types of play be it defensive or offensive. Time will tell where the codex falls in the power levels. As a long time Tau Veteran, I am both excited and hopeful to see the army recover from its index era and move onward into 8th.

Tau'va Shas'la!

Read more »

2017: A Year in Review

Well here we are again! Seems like only yesterday we were starting another New Year. This year has seen a lot of changes in both myself and this blog. Every day brought something new this year and the world has kept on spinning. We here at Behind the Lines Gaming would like to wish you a Happy New Year.

The Tanith and Imperial guard have gotten a lot of attention this year. I can safely safe that most of those units have been painted. 2018 should see some additions to the armies.  The Tau as noted earlier will be getting reinforcements with the Riptide battlesuit and hopefully a few more surprises. The Adeptus Mechanicus army is growing with the additional purchase of a skitarii army pending at the moment. More news on that soon! Finally with MK III of warmachine out now, I have gotten into full swing of painting those miniatures. Hopefully i'll be able to take them out for a few games.

As always we plan to do a Top Three projects we have done this year. Located here, the Gallery is a page dedicated to the top work on completed models we've done each year.Give it a look and let us know what you think!

#1 This year was the Matlida Battle Tank Review coming in at 1,649 page views. I got the Matilda tank as a birthday present this year and so I was thankful to have one! It is a beautiful model and a joy to put together. I first posted pictures of it after I had airbrushed it German Grey and Black-Grey. It always get compliments on the table and is a real head turner. Victoria Lamb out did herself with this model! Hopefully in the future I will be able to pick up a few more!


#2 Behind the Matlida was the Mortian Tank Review I did. This review came in at 1,511 page views. The return of the Mortian was a pleasant surprise. I had never thought I would see the return of this tank but it turned out that this post was to be my second most viewed post of the year. I even got a comment! Makes me sad I sold my old Mortian tank.

#3 This was a odd third place but coming in at 833 views was my Review of Menoth Paladins. This was one that I did not see coming! The Paladin review of my Menoth models shows that our reader base has some fans that are interested in War machine! The Paladins of the Order of the Wall were really fun to paint up during football season and so came in at 3rd place on the list. Hopefully next football season I'll get a few more done up before the games.

As the year comes to a close I wish to thank my loyal readers and those who follow me. It makes writing these post easier knowing that some people read them and enjoy the content of them.If you like what you see please become a follower of the blog or leave a comment below! Every little bit helps

With that I wish you the best in this ending to 2017 and a happy start to 2018! Keep rolling those dice and stay tuned for many new exciting things to come in 2018! 

Read more »

Product Review: Matlida Battle Tank "Fury"

Today I present to you another product review. This time from Victoria Miniatures. Long time readers of this blog will know that I have done a few Victoria Miniatures reviews for her Border World Rangers before but never a vehicle.

The Matilda Battle Tank has been on my list of "to buy" items for a long time. This Battle tank was a gift from my friends for my birthday. They bought me not only the tank itself, but also the gun pack and the sponson pack. Shipping took the normal amount of time to reach the US from Australia and was not bad at all. When the tank arrived, it arrived it a single box with the bits in one part of the box and the main tank located in another box. The Tank was then washed and dry fitted together.

The casting on the tank is beautiful. The way the turret guns fit into the turret is flawless and does not even require magnets to work. It should be noted that the tank also has spots for magnets built into the sponsons. Assembly was easy and once I got started it was hard to put it down. I was able to assemble the model in one sitting but after that it was a few weeks before I could get the courage to airbrush her. When I finally did it was well worth it. I have taken the model to my local store many times and get questions about who makes it all the time. It is certainly a conversation starter and eye candy for the table.

I think sometime in the future I certainly will be ordering a few more! Victoria Miniatures has hit a home run with this model. I would certainly recommend this model to anyone looking for a change to the standard Leman Russ. If you are a fan of historical tanks but want a touch of science fiction to your 40k models you cant go wrong! Let me know your own feelings on this beautiful tank! In the mean time I got to get back to painting her.

Until Next time!

Read more »

Mortian Battle Tank: A Review

Today I present to you a unscripted post. Mostly because its Here for only a limited time. The Mortian tank! A popular favorite with the Imperial Guard Community has returned and with it the limited chance to get a very nice tank.

I first encountered the Mortian tank in 2015. At the time, I was looking to get out of Game's workshop models and move onto 3rd party stuff. The Mortian tank instantly became a favorite while doing a casual search online. It had everything I wanted. The look of a Panzer with the proportions of a realistic looking tank.

However, I soon found that the designer of the tank had not had his stuff for sale since 2009. Nonetheless, I searched through google and found his site. In a desperate bid to get a trio of the tanks, I sold of my Leman Russes and ordered three Mortian. With  that done, I also found a 4th from a mutual acquaintance. This Mortian you see in the picture was the tank from the mutual acquaintance. When i received it, it was in harsh condition. I was able to fix it up and put it back together as best I could. Finally, I got it into a game against necron. I have pictures from that game but since it was so far back, I don't really remember the details. Needless to say, the model was a absolute delight to play. I soon primed it but then things took a turn for the worst. After 2 months, my orders had not come in yet. Digging deeper, I found that the site was down and with it my order had been lost. It seemed as if the company and the designer had dropped off the face of the earth. I was able to get a refund through PayPal and that was the end of my hopes for a trio of the Mortian. I sold off my Mortian on Ebay for next to nothing and pushed it from my mind. I was disappointed and sad. Mad Robot and Victoria Lamb both had tanks coming out soon I heard. So I waited.

Every so often I would look online at Leman Russ tanks and see the Mortian and remember that it was no longer available. I tried another route and bought three Leman Russes from Game's workshop but soon tired of those too and sold them off to a friend. However with the Mortian now back (Even as a kick starter) it hold a special place in my mind.

The model is beautiful, easy to put together and looks great on the table. For those of you who want a tank that will be sure to turn heads and get comments from people around the gaming table I would highly recommend ordering one (or three!) They really are worth it in the end, even for the rarity factor alone, I would suggest at least 1. They'll look great at any photo op!


Below are some battle report photos from the Battle i used it in back in 2015. I don't remember any of the turns so its best just to leave the photos here.

Until next time!

Read more »

Updates and Reviews: Tanith First and Only and Warmachine Cards

                          So what has been new with me? Well first off, I got a new job starting this month! Finally I am able to get some use out of my degree that I went to university for four years for. I also quit my old job and started looking towards getting a second Master's degree in order to shore up my current one. You might also notice the new look for the site. I felt it was time for a change so I have changed the site to a new theme. Enjoy and let me know what you think? Enough about me for the meantime though, lets get to some miniatures.

2016 Menoth Deck

A little while back I ordered the 2016 version of the Menoth Deck for Warmachine. This new deck for MK III really did come with a lot of new updates to the game. I even got a game in with the MK III rules. Needless to say I was caster killed but the list nonetheless allowed for me to better understand the new rules. I really enjoyed being about to get out and game for once in a long while. The deck came with enough cards for every model that I had and seemed to be fit to handle alot of new miniatures I hadnt even seen yet. Hopefully Soon I will be able to return to Warmachine and get a few more hours in.

Our local game store in the area has died leaving us that game with a problem. The nearest store is a hour and forty five minutes away, a distance that i dont feel like driving just to game for a few hours to turn around and drive home again. This has caused my ability to game to be lessened but my painting has also suffered because of my busy life and the lack of wanting to paint due to not playing as much. Nonetheless I have forced myself to paint and thats what I am wanting to show off to you all today!

As a running series, I usually try to place the header images with what the topic of the day will relate to. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Today, we will be covering the first five newly painted models of another Tanith First and Only Squad I started working on.

5 New Tanith ready to go!

This 5 man squad of Tanith was a welcome start to my painting again. The process took about a week to complete and each model was given special attention to make sure it was up to par. These lads are going to be a part of first platoon under Colonel Corbec. While no character names have been given yet, the models are now sitting besides there comrades in my case. Hopefully sometime soon I will finish the next five members of the squad and complete them. This army is mean
t to be my dream army and someday I hope to add in some more female models once they come on the market. The Tanith are on the march and my Sabbat Worlds Crusade army is growing.

Action shot of the Battle for Hive Valediction

Just as a quick add, I posted this action shot from a blog post a while back. Thanks to Jayson Molyneux of the Facebook Astra Militrum / Imperial Guard group for making it look like it was taken in the heart of battle. Looks really nice and well done!

Keep Checking back for more!

Till next time.

Read more »

Product Review: Gideon Tank by MadRobot Miniatures

Look at that Armored Beauty

Its time for another Product review! This time coming from MadRobotMiniatures.

 A quick disclaimer: This was not the first time that I had ordered from the Mad Robot (AKA: Steve) but it was the first time that I had done a significant dollar value order that I felt it would be the proper time to do such a review.

So without further ado, lets get started. The concept for the Gideon Tank first appeared years ago with this concept art piece seen at the top. There it stayed until Steve was able to acquire the rights for it and started in on making this beautiful piece of 40k fan work into a 3D model. After following this project for months, a full view of the tank was finally released in Spring 2016 before its release date in the Summer.

The Tank in 3D render form

When my birthday rolled around I was able to buy myself three of these tanks to start off my armored company list. Steve was very kind and helped walk my through the process of making sure that the order was completed fully. He even allowed me to use my points on his company store to add to the order. A huge thank you to Steve!

Once the models arrived (very fast and in wonderful condition), I set about putting them together. The video on the MadRobot Facebook page allowed me to quickly understand how this beast was meant to be put together and assembly was flawless and fast. It should be noted that there are areas on the bottom of the treads that need to be sanded or shaved off if your OCD about your miniatures like I am. Im not sure if this was part of the casting process or just my batch but it did not hinder the model in any form. Next it was off to be primed before being magnetized. I would highly recommend that for this beast, you get a set of N52 strength magnets in order to make the best use of this bad boy.

Unprimed

So once I got my supply drop in I started painting this tank. First, I primed it in a light grey. Then I did a airbrush spray of German Grey on top of it. One that had dried, I did a Vallejo Grey-black on the treads and the hatch. The Tank commander (Captain LeGuin of the Pardus 8th) was done with Vallejo Khaki and then a brown agrax earthshade wash. Then on top of the German Grey I did patches of Vallejo Basalt Grey.  From there I also did the wheels in Basalt Grey and then did the metal colors. All of the windows were done with a blue base and then a layer before a glaze was added.

Once the colors were done, I added a nuln oil on the metals before a highlight of silver was added.

Leman Russ Tank for Pardus 8th

Rear View

This tank has multiple variations that can be added or taken away from the tank with magnets or putty. Steve has done a excellent job of making this tank a one of a kind German- Tiger-ish tank for those historians among us. My Pardus 8th Armored is done up for city fight colors so I might add one more lighter grey before I call it a day.

Front View

Overall, I would rate these tanks a strong 10/10! Steven and his company have made a strong alternative tank for our favorite wargame that any gamer would want to have multiples of in his or her army. If you are a fan of treads, this tank is a must for your army. For me, it was my love for history that made me want to add this to my army. I know for certain I am going to order at least a few more to finish off my Armored Company. Once the Plasma and other missing variations are released, I can strongly say this tank becoming a top candidate among Tread heads wanting something new in their army.


Until Next Time! Happy Gaming!

Read more »

Two Commissars walk into a bar and......

Col. Commissar Ibram Gaunt

Finished painted model

This has been a post a long time (we're talking early February?) coming.

Here we have three of the most famous Tanith First and Only Characters. First off we start with the man himself, Ibram Gaunt!

This model was ordered from Brother Vinni's Sci fi line. The model arrived from the Russian Federation and I immediately wanted to paint it and put it together. After cleaning it in a wash of water and soap, I put it together and started working on the famous Colonel-Commissar himself. Like all of my Tanith models, I tried to keep Gaunt as close to the book description and art as I could.

This model seemed to gather a lot of discussion about it due to its color choices. That stuff has already been mentioned in a previous article, hence why i wont go into it here. Needless to say, it turned out perfectly fine for how I wanted it to be. I still intend to add some Longbeard Grey dry paint to the base but otherwise the model is done.

In one of my recent games, Gaunt was able to kill a necron tomb lord on his last wound with the bolt pistol. It was roll worthy of the heroic commissar

Commissar Hark? or Ludd?  Not sure yet

The next model is another commissar model again by Brother Vinni! This model was suppose to be Commissar Cain from the Commissar Cain series but I instead used him as a stand in for either Hark or Ludd. Im not sure yet. The model was washed and put together. The paint scheme was similar to how Gaunt turned out.

This model has not seen much play but was a fun model to put together. With another Commissar ordered from Madrobotminiatures, I hope to finally decided on if this is Ludd or Hark. What do you think my fellow readers?

Finally we have our last model from Brother Vinni. Known as the "Heavy Gunner" on his website, this model was a perfect stand in for "try again" Bragg. This model was a bit of a pain to put together but in the end, was probably my most successful model. The knee pads and the details added a large flavor to the model allowing him to feel like the gentle giant that Bragg is described as in the books. Even though he will always have his BS 2 shooting (at least in the tanith codex i use), Bragg remains one of my favorite characters from the series.  Everyone who's read the series know what fate befalls this hero. Hopefully this model does the character pride.

"Try Again" Bragg

With this article, I can finally finish up my backlog of articles I had planned to do over the months. I think from now on I will instead take them one at a time. As the year draws closer to a end, I intend to start working on updating the site for 2016. What would you like to see on here? What new details should we add. In the future, we hope to add a few guest articles from Pwnzilla, Bandogora and others.

Keep checking back!

Read more »