Fighting Tiger Heavy Support (Part I)
Unlike Codex Astartes Chapters (such as the Ultramarines), the Fighting Tigers do not organize themselves into companies. Instead, the Tigers divide themselves into two castes, or jatis, one based on each of Veda’s continents, Mahaduyana and Ghuyarashtra. Each jatis is identical in size (about 500 Marines, plus attendants) and organization. Each jatis takes its name from its home continent and its markings from the tigers found there.

Fighting Tigers who make up Devastator Squads or crew Heavy Support vehicles are Tigers of Agni; Agni is the Vedic god of fire. Because Jatis Mahaduyana has traditionally emphasized strength over speed, 6 of my 8 Heavy Support units are assigned to them. Basic colors are Fiery Orange and Chaos Black for Jatis Mahaduyana, Bubonic Brown and Bestial Brown for Jatis Ghuyarashtra.

Tigers of Agni
My Devastator Marines are some of the oldest figures I have. My squad from Jatis Mahaduyana is led by a Sergeant (below) built from "Rogue Trader"-era RTB01, 2nd Edition and 3rd Edition plastic bits, and a head from a 2nd Edition plastic Imperial Guard Storm Trooper. 

He is accompanied by five of the latest Space Marine models, bearing bolters, and four 1st and 2nd Edition-era troopers with heavy bolters (below). I painted the Sergeant and the heavy weapon troopers back in the late 1980's and added five bolter troopers in 2005. Thus, the squad is painted in a mix of the original and simplified paint schemes. 

My squad from Jatis Ghuyarashtra consists of a Sergeant, five new Marines with bolters, and four models with missile launchers. Like the Mahaduyana squad, they are painted in a mix of schemes.

One of the missile-launcher guys is a new Marine figure. The other three are RTB01 figures from the 1st Edition (or "Rogue Trader") era. The launcher carried by one of these RTB01 figures (below) is taken from a toy; the figure also holds a targeting device.

The other two heavy weapon figures bear missile launchers from the first plastic Space Marine set released way back in 1987. To jazz up the weapons, I painted a flame design on one launcher and a "shark face" on the other. 

Why no backpacks on some of these figures? Because the shoulder-mounted weapons kept the packs from fitting well on the backs of the figures. 

Predator Annihilator (“Tyger Tyger”)
Ever see drawings of those old Viking ships with the dragon heads carved on the prow? I used the same idea for this tank, with the tiger head coming from a plastic Voltron toy. The extra lascannon in each sponson is usually just for show, but sometimes I use the Vehicle Design Rules and treat it as an Apex Predator variant with three twin-linked lascannons. 

Tyger Tyger uses Imperial Guard tank treads for extra armor (see above left) and I added some spikes (painted white) on the back just for decoration. To make the tank a bit more distinctive, I put the gunner from the Vindicator atop the turret (see below) and mounted a hunter-killer missile (painted white with black stripes, for some contrast) on the back. This rear-mounted design is similar to the one used by several types of WWII Soviet rocket launchers.

Vindicator (“Tiger Claw”) and Whirlwind (“Sabretooth”)
These models won’t win points for originality but they work well together in games. I’ve modeled Tiger Claw’s hunter-killer missile using the conventional launcher (painted white and black to break the monotony). When I was building Sabretooth, I imagined that a Whirlwind chassis would be able to pivot backwards to help fire rockets over very tall obstructions; accordingly, Sabretooth’s chassis is tilted WAAAAAY back.

Land Raider (“White Tiger”)
Original "Rogue Trader" plastic model (long out of production). This tank was once Shiva Nagordarika’s command vehicle, so it has all kinds of accessories, including extra armor, a searchlight, dozer blades, an H-K firing from the left side, and an external storage compartment on the right. The pawprint emblems on the flags are pre-printed circular self-adhesive decals. The middle flag boasts a traditional Fighting Tiger battlecry ("Welcome to the Jungle") and the standard top (an enlarged replica of Shiva's helmet) is from a plastic toy robot.

Vedic Siege Gun
Slow-moving Vedic Siege Guns are used to defend the fortresses (or maths) of the Fighting Tigers on their homeworld, Veda: during the brutal attack by the Warband Bloodcomet, the Guns slew many a Khorne Berzerker. For protracted campaigns where heavy firepower is needed (such as the Blood Deserts of Auros IX Campaign), a few of the Guns may be transported to critical areas of the warzone.

My friend Pat made this model for me. The base is a cardboard platform painted Codex Grey and drybrushed with Space Wolf Grey. The actual gun is an Earthshaker cannon from the Imperial Guard Basilisk. You can find stats for the Vedic Siege Gun on this page.
 
 

Next page (pg 11): Heavy Support, Part II Previous page (pg 9): Fast Attack

Related Pages
Fighting Tiger Heavy Support
Tactics: Fighting Tiger Heavy Support
 

© Copyright Kenton Kilgore, April 2000 

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