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I have seen a few, and i emphasis a few pictures of tau buildings or rather structures, but not not much in the relm of bunkers and fortifications. So i want to build a few. Maybe even something big. If you have any ideas or even better pictures, and furthermore ways of making such things. Please let me know, I am a total newb to terrain, but have painted 2 armys about lvl 3 in the blue table painting scale. So I have and idea of how to paint base and do conversions, but making things out of nothing I am rather clueless. Please enlighten me!

The problem there is that the background clearly states that the Tau do not make fortifications. The Tau modus operandi is based about movement and quick strikes, rather than static attrition.

Still Earth caste builds structures on the planet's they absorb into their emprie. They will also abandon them if it would be benefitial to them as they value lives over land.
If you have access to it the WD that was released in the month Planet Strike came out has a Tau Bastion in it made out of a plant pot and a few other things, they basically tell you what they used, but not how.

Then there's cool pictures on Google like this one I just found.

Here's a link to the blog of the guy that own's those Tau, it's on Warseer. I don't think he own's the terrain though, as that dome on the far left is the bastion I was talking about. Hopefully you'll be able to get ideas from this.

Tau military doctrine holds that maintaining a strategically disadvantageous position for the sake of holding it is stupid; once you've disrupted and destroyed the enemy forces, you'll have all the time in the world to consolidate territory.

That said, good fortifications can go a long way toward making a position more strategically advantageous; and of course, from the tau perspective, it's to the species' strategic advantage to defend its Earth/Water/Ethereal caste citizens with more vigor than a chunk of land not occupied by civilians would be.

I generally envision tau structures as prefabricated, easy to put up, easy to take down, and cheap enough that they don't care too much about abandoning the position. They might be wired with explosives or something, so that once the tau have decided to abandon the fort, they can prevent the enemy from occupying it instead. And of course, forms are rounded.

So generally, less underground bunkers, more low walls that can be used as cover, or higher walls with firing ports. Only one point of entry for foot/wheeled traffic, if that (mostly for the Broadsides; most other Tau units can go over walls, remember). Tau cities would be well-planned and built in an organized, space-efficient manner, so lots of tall buildings and long, wide streets in a grid; minefields can be used to control which streets the enemy passes over, while windows make for great sniping positions. Tau would be frightening in urban warfare, given their range (and thus ability to shoot out of windows) and their general stealthiness; if you've played Dawn of War: Dark Crusade think of the mission at the Tau stronghold for inspiration.

Prefabricated or rapidly built on site using advanced construction techniques.

For example, basic barricades would be sprayed using a kind of foam which sets hard after a few minutes.

Any sensible fortification uses the earth for its basic cover, so Tau forts probably get dug rapidly by automated construction machines and drones, and some of the dug up material is fused into slabs of hard material for roofs. The walls would be plated with pre-fab sheets of composite material with high defence against radiation, heat and kinetic attack.

n0t_u wrote:Still Earth caste builds structures on the planet's they absorb into their emprie. They will also abandon them if it would be benefitial to them as they value lives over land.
If you have access to it the WD that was released in the month Planet Strike came out has a Tau Bastion in it made out of a plant pot and a few other things, they basically tell you what they used, but not how.

Then there's cool pictures on Google like this one I just found.

Here's a link to the blog of the guy that own's those Tau, it's on Warseer. I don't think he own's the terrain though, as that dome on the far left is the bastion I was talking about. Hopefully you'll be able to get ideas from this.

that looks awesome i want to build it, but it looks hard. not the painting mind you but the molding It also looks like he has drones with some kind of translucent shield made out of the large bases from the devilfish and hammerhead. What are those like battle shields blocking line of sight or giving cover saves. I have never seen some thing like that but would love to use it.

I saw some shield drones once that had a clear plastic bubble around them. It looked great.

Have you checked out the CoD book? It has some Tau defensive terrain made out of spare railguns and assorted bitz.

As for more significant buildings, I envisage domes and towers when picturing Tau. To that end try browsing garden centres for interestingly shaped plant pots and other assorted bits.

I happen to know that the shield generator was made by cutting some small frisbees in half if you're looking to replicate that.

I also recall some eldar terrain that was made from candlestick holders, dunno if you could adapt that for Tau.

Good luck, and post whatever you make!

I'd imagine a Tau barracks looks like a quonset hut with the corners rounded off and no windows.

hmm now what about packaging polystyrene?

that comes in weird shapes suited for the shape of the thing packaged.

dunno. just a thought

Stuff you can use for Tau.

Plastic flower pot = tower.
Plastic flower pot drip tray upside down = landing pad.
Various kinds of domes and towers can be got from various household containers such as chemical bottles, room deodorant thingies, and Brylcreme containers.

Just look around, there's lots of stuff out there.

n0t_u wrote:Still Earth caste builds structures on the planet's they absorb into their emprie. They will also abandon them if it would be benefitial to them as they value lives over land.
If you have access to it the WD that was released in the month Planet Strike came out has a Tau Bastion in it made out of a plant pot and a few other things, they basically tell you what they used, but not how.

Then there's cool pictures on Google like this one I just found.

Here's a link to the blog of the guy that own's those Tau, it's on Warseer. I don't think he own's the terrain though, as that dome on the far left is the bastion I was talking about. Hopefully you'll be able to get ideas from this.

That's in warhammer world,
I saw somewhere a hovering tau settlement made from upside down plastic bowls

n0t_u wrote:Still Earth caste builds structures on the planet's they absorb into their emprie. They will also abandon them if it would be benefitial to them as they value lives over land.
If you have access to it the WD that was released in the month Planet Strike came out has a Tau Bastion in it made out of a plant pot and a few other things, they basically tell you what they used, but not how.

Then there's cool pictures on Google like this one I just found.

Here's a link to the blog of the guy that own's those Tau, it's on Warseer. I don't think he own's the terrain though, as that dome on the far left is the bastion I was talking about. Hopefully you'll be able to get ideas from this.

I like the twin linked railgun on the bunker. ( top left )