Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So without finishing my last project, In true wargamer nerd style i have begun another one! This one's a little different an Imperial Squadron for Aeronautica Imperialis. I have 6 Thunderbolts, 4 Lightnings and 2 Marauder Bombers. Colour schemes will be themed around the ostentatious men of the German WW1 Fighter Squadrons, the Jastas.




An Imperial Navy fighter group from the planet of Kurfürst. Jagdgruppe (Hunter Group) 317 comprises 3 Jagdstaffeln (Hunter Squadrons), Jasta 80 a Thunderbolt Squadron, Jasta 1715 a Mixed Squadron of Lightnings and Thunderbolts and and Jasta 488/L a Lightning Squadron. It is quite common for Kurfürst fighter squadrons to be deployed in mixed groups of fighters, meaning they can provide the full range of aerial operations.

The planet is a temperate Imperial World, with a rotation and solar influence not unlike Holy Terra. Kurfürst features a good variety of terrains, tending towards deserts and tropical rainforests in the equatorial zone and a range of temperate plains and the expansive Ironwood forests. Somewhat lacking in natural refinable resources he main tithe and export of the world is Imperial Guard soldiers, this is complemented by a Naval base from which the Jagdgruppen are drawn. Although it has manufactorum capabilities Kurfürst's limited resources means that production goes wholly to supplying it's own Guard and Naval regiments and is unable to provide export to other Imperial Worlds.

It is widely believed, although unsubstantiated, that Kurfürst is belongs to a sector settled by the same colonists which settled the Imperial World Krieg. Several nuances of language and traditions are shared amongst a number of planets within Segmentum Tempestus. Despite this shared heritage Kurfürst never suffered the same atomic scourging that Krieg did. The men and women of the planet are as a result much less dour and fatalistic in their outlook.

Jagdgruppen 317 is an experienced combat unit. It features half a dozen notable aces amongst its ranks and the usual mix of experienced veterans and newer pilots. It's pilots are fond of displaying personal iconography and markings alongside the Squadron markings on their fighters, and this practice is encouraged by the Commanding Officers of the regiment for morale and 'esprit de corps'

The 317th Wing's flash displays the Imperial Saint Kára in her guise as the Huntress (a popular symbol amongst the Fighter Corps of the planet) wearing archaic armour and carrying a traditional hunting spear, her helmet is one is shown in the traditional Kurfürst style still worn by Infantry Regiments of the Guard and PDF. Unusually (especially for a fighter squadron) Saint Kára is not depicted in this badge with wings.



Onto the little planes!

To start off with I cleaned then assembled the little buggers, before i had a scheme in mind i sprayed them black instinctively. Then when i decided on light grey as a scheme i airbrushed them... and the result is...


A finish nearly identical to the Resin colour oh dear. Nevermind it's just the start. The mad sticky-taping begins for the next possibly too complicated for me stage!

I have had two intro games of AI, was enough to convince me to splurge on this project and buy me up some aeroplanes. I love military aviation and history combine that with my 40k fandom and it was a perfect nerdstorm.

I have made an attempt at a lozenge like scheme. With the same colours and using a neat floor mesh thing as a template. I initially attempted to replicate the lozenge scheme by cutting out a template of an actual pattern, but the results were unsatisfactory. This way I've done it now gives a fairly good 'impression' of it whilst remaining feasible to my sanity.

Here is the WIP of the aeroplanes.


The late war Pfalz with it's Silber-grau paitn scheme and it's Lozenge fabric wing are the inspiration for the base colours of my Jastas.


And here is the final result of the lozenge pattern. Now onto the hand paintbrush for the details and individual markings.

Ok got one fully painted up. I was a bit dubious about the camo on the wings at first but it really turned out pretty well. It was fun to paint all the little details. The decals are from the Imperial Guard kit.

Vizefeldwebel Ludwig Gaim

Ludwig Gaim is an experienced pilot in the squadron having previously served as a bombardier on a Marauder squadron. After gaining experience during the Supression of Mordox VII, Gaim applied for single seaters and upon completion of his training course was transferred to Jasta 80.

A steady and cautious pilot VzFw Gain has slowly been achieving kiills without reckless flying. His total now stands at 4, making him one away from Acedom.


His Fighter displays the Lozenge pattern camoflauge evident amongst all the Jagdstaffel's fighters, as well as the Jasta 80 markings of a Yellow horizontal stabilizer and elevators with black vertical stripes. His personal markings of 3 horizontal red stripes have been added to the nose of his Thunderbolt.

Leutnant Karl Jentsch
The Navy fighter pilots of Kurfürst are very often drawn from former Imperial Guard or PDF soldiers. As a result the ranking structure of the Jastas is often not entirely indicative of the seniority of the pilot as pilots often retain their previous ranks. Furthermore the Naval forces don't have unique ranks and use the same structure as the planets IG.

Lt. Jentsch's is a former Cavalry officer, formerly serving in the 1218th Aufklärung (Reconnaissance) Regiment. Although named Cavalry, Aufklärung units are equipped primarily with light fast armour, sentinels and motorcycles (Horses are in some use however especially in rugged terrain unsuited for vehicles.)

A new transfer into the Jagdgruppe Lt. Jentsch has already chalked up 2 kills despite a handful of combat missions. His eyesight and aircraft identification ability is exemplary. He takes great pride in studying up on any available documentation on enemy forces.

Karl's aircraft displays the tail markings of Jasta 1715, Blue striped with white. His personal markings are two chevrons on his nose marked in the green of the Aufklärung units.

3 planes down Great miniatures to paint these. I also got some new gloss varnish so will be re-doing the cockpits with a layer of that to give them a shine.

Jasta 80 Rotte being pursued by Ork Flak

The Rotte is the smallest tactical formation employed by the Jastas. The leader always protected by his wingman. Keeping close to his leader provides them both with mutual protection and another pair of eyes for spotting enemy aircraft. If one of them is attacked the other can rapidly swing out onto the enemies tail.

Leutnant Werner Steinhäuser

An officer of the Navy Lt. is the highest scoring pilot in the Jagdgruppe with 42 kills. Lt. Steinhäuser has become increasingly withdrawn and quiet over his years of service, and his fellow pilots have begun to worry about his mental state. Werner is not a natural pilot but is an excellent marksman, and is a firm proponent of hit and run tactics embraced by the entire Kurfürst Naval forces.

Despite his high tally he has repeatedly refused promotion, his fellow pilots postulate that the burden of watching his comrades being killed. They believe he dosen't want the responsibility for getting other men killed.


Leutnant Werner Steinhäuser's aircraft displays the tail markings of Jasta 80. It also displays his personal markings of a yellow and black vertical stripe down the fuselage as well as the rear fuselage being finished with yellow.

Very Nice Work. I like the pic in frront of the Fireball.
Can't wait to see the Bombers

Great to see someone else working on some Aeronautica stuff

A Lightning Strike variant. A Marauder is next in line. Quite a big beasty.

Oberleutnant Hermann Habich

A flight commander and 2IC of Jasta 488/L, Oblt. Habich is a former PDF Artillery Officer. An older man than the usual stock of Jasta pilots at 38, Habich is nevertheless an effective pilot and his long standing military experience makes him a good leader.

Most often leading ground attack missions Hermann has attained 7 air-to-air kills, and countless ground targets destroyed. The Jagdgruppe relies on him for the training of their new ground attack pilots and his loss would be a dire one.

Oblt. Habich's aircraft displays the Orange and Black tail markings of Jasta 488/L, his particular fighter is marked out as a Flight Leader by it's right rudder being painted in White. His personal marking of a set of Teeth is marked on both sides of the nose.

4 of them down On their flying stands.

Really nice execution of a complicated scheme. The added details really help add character. Thanks for sharing!

Well it's been 5 months but these little fellows haven't been forgotten, painted up this one today quite pleased with the nose-art. Stripes! I had done the skin first in the game Rise of Flight and then liking the scheme painted it up for my 40k Flyboys. I did say the Marauder was next, and it is almost finished, but i just coulden't help painting up another fighter.

The varnish is still drying but I was too impatient to wait

In Rise of Flight


Vizfeldwebel Erich Pütter

Vizfeldwebel is a dogged NCO pilot, although considered the best pilot in the Squadron a string of minor disciplinary infractions. Despite his great skill at flying his marksmanship is only average and he tends towards occasional recklessness in combat.


His score stands at 9 currently, his last one was gained as a result of a mid-air collision, getting so close to an enemy Tau heavy aircraft Erich pressed his attack so aggressively and closely that his tail boom clipped the engine of the enemy aircraft tearing it from it's mounting and sending the Tau aircraft crashing to the ground. Despite the damage to his aircraft Pütter brought his aircraft to a safe, if shaky landing.

Really nice stuff here! The only thing I question is your fluff. It has always been my understanding that the Navy is more standardized than the Guard. In other words, Navy units don't belong to a planet, etc. they belong to the Navy, and all are trained, equipped, supplied, named, and ranked using the same conventions. Squadrons are not stood up in regards to homeworld. Also, I'm fairly certain the Navy doesn't mix aircraft types within its squadrons/groups, but thats one of those things thats easily forgiveable.

Well that is the standard procedure i believe, however my argument is that the Navy is drawn from as wide a spectrum of cultures and planets as the Imperial Guard, and the Guard deliberately refuses to enforce an exact standardized protocol to the units in terms of dress/local custom, so why should the navy?

Furthermore the rankings would all be exactly equivelent of actual Navy ranks just in the local dialect (modern German oddly! ).

Although I can see on capital ships and larger vessels the navy being far more homogeneous in terms of a culture and attitude simply because of the smaller number of ships compared to the large amount of guard regiments, for small scale things like squadrons or wings (it would be no more than 50-100 pilots at it's maximum after all) I think it's entirely feasible for fellow world pilots to be grouped together within the Navy structure and hold on to their own traditions.

Well, the difference in that case would be that the Guard and Navy are two very distinctly different entities, and thats in order to prevent heresy/rebellion. While Guard units are stood up and equipped by their homeworlds, Navy units wouldn't be, because the powers that be wouldn't want a guard unit/world having access to its own air and space support.

To my knowledge, the only book that GW has published which really gives us that kind of insight into the Navy is Double Eagle and Imperial Armor Vol 1, where all the Navy squadrons were named something along the lines off 490th Imperial Navy Fighter Wing, 2nd Squadron 'Wyvern'.

The only exception to this is the Phantine Air Corps, which is said to be the only Imperial Guard/PDF unit in existence to fly aircraft. There is also the Enothian Commonwealth Air Force (also featured in Double Eagle) which was shown to fly more conventional aircraft of their own pattern until being wiped out/disbanded. I'm not really sure if they were PDF (which would self contradict Mr. Abnett's statement about the Phantine being the only flying guard/pdf unit) or what. The implication seems to have been that the Commonwealth was an independent organization outside the Imperium, one of the many planets/systems that were overlooked by the Imperium, until the Sabbat World Crusade kicked in and reestablished contact.

Well the Enothian chaps had to be a PDF unit of some kind since when the Imperium arrived they intergrated instantly and flew together on combat missions constantly, a pilot (more than one?) from that force also became intergrated into the Phantine, at no point did they say 'what the hell is the Imperium? ). I think we have to ignore Abnett on his Phantine/PDF claim.

Having a Navy unit with their own distinct name doesn't place it outside the Naval chain of command. Also the Navy is far more likely to be able to recruit members from it's own planet if they so desired if that planet had a spaceport considering they have to re-equip and repair from time to time.

The naval units of the planet are still distinct entities from the Guard, in that a Fighter squadron would be recruited from the soldiers of the planet, then they blast off into space and are assigned to a capital ship and do their business. A Fighter squadron certainly cannot help overthrow a Imperial held world in Rebellion, it has no means to transport troops or have any logistical support. The larger transports and capital ships are not planet specific of course (although probably initially manufactured/crewed from the members of a single world with replacements and such a ship serving in space would soon become multi-cultural)

Also i don't really understand how a 'Guard' unit of Fighters is actually different from a Navy squadron they still have to operate from a navy ship and be supported by navy personell and vehicles. Essentialy the only difference the 'Phantine' has between its Navy counterparts is it's name.

Anyhow the next update will contain a pilot who is an 'offworlder' to represent the men who are replacements. Probably within the Navy order of battle the squadron is listed as 3154th Imperial Navy Fighter Wing rather than their more familiar title

Actually, you hit on something there! IIRC, the Guard codex mentions that its not uncommon for Navy units to be assigned to a planet/operation/guard unit for extended periods of time. I think its perfectly acceptable that while they have an official designation within the Navy OOB, they adopt a more localized designation as they integrate with those forces.

True Furthermore there has to be PDF fighter squadrons of some sort, as Armageddon definitely had local fighter bases and squadrons present during the Ork invasions. Unless they were all ground based Naval pilots? Anyhow the only thing that says there is no 'PDF/Local airforces' is Dan Abbnets book i don't think that is recorded anywhere specifically in GW writing?

It would be illogical for a planet to not have any fighter aircraft for defence anyhow, not all worlds of middling importance can have have naval garrisons allocated to them and local 'moniters' and system defence ships are certainly also present in space outside of the Navy structure. Fighter aircraft as well could provide no major strategic advantage to a Rebellion.