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Ok Well I guess to keep myself motivated I will begin a WIP thread here, it helps me to be able to chart my progress, and the C & C is a great source of inspiration as well, so now the pics.

Standard fire warrior team.


XV-15 Stealth team.


XV-25 Steath armor.


Hammerhead


Devilfish ( with nose art for killteam passengers )


Killteam ( 1st section)


Krooty goodness.


Heavy Broadsides, and special character ( center )


Greater Knarloc ( Carnasaur varient )


Geki pathfinder ( for my wife's Naval Tau force, sorta like a navy seal skink )


Geki pathfinder with Rail rifle ( compact version )


Medical Drones


Komodai assault troop ( Yet another Tau auxillary )

On the construction Que:

Early version of Super heavy Tau Skimmer ( Leopard Shark ) Turret, Still adding to it will be updating this often.

C & C welcomed and encouraged, and thanks for the interest.

very nice work, love the variety of troops and nice to see tau with a bit of camo. sweet.

Extremely nice work.

The camo scheme is nice, the detailing is good and the conversions are awesome, especially the new auxiliary troops. Looking forward to the Leopard Shark (Merkeva turret?)

Love the auxillary troops!

I like your overall look quite a bit and also the aux. troops, esp. the skinks in wet suits. The paint job is both crisp and fairly realistic looking - nice! I have to say though that the nose art on the devilfish just doesn't seem "tau" somehow.

Thanks for all the compliments, I appreciate it alot.
Trench.one Yeah I decided that the practical Tau would use Camo as much as possible, and since my sept and campaign are set on a lush temperate world, I went for greens and browns ( and I love tiger stripe style camo ).

Flinty : Thanks, and yes the first version will use a Merkava as a base, but when its all done it will be fairly hard to see it,( unfortunatly, I love that tank design ), MK2, and MK3 will be using a Le clerc and a Leo 2A6 for a basis, my rational is that these are each a design from compeating Industrial firms, and I will field test them to settle on a production model.
Also this Super heavy is a colabrative effort between Human and Tau engineers, so it won't be quite as curvy as a wholely Tau made one ( again thats my excuse and I am sticking to it ) I figured Human armor and frame, with Tau weapons, engines, and electronics, or something like that.

aromasin : yes I love my Auxs too, its a shame though how labor intensive they are to create , and I need to do so many of them.
I will be working a bit of fluff into their table-top use as well, the Komodai do not work well with Kroot, and I may do some kind of mis-behavior table for them if in close proximity ( just for fluffy sake ).

Kestral : the reason for the nose art is due to the commander of the Kill team is a Human ( Gue'vesa) and it reflects his big reptile mascot ( the Carnasaur ), in a bit of fiction I am working on he sort of befriends the beast in an encounter with some Ork Kommandos.

Again thanks for all the input.

Thanks for clearing that up!

I was kinda confused on why there's a human with them

That Leopard Shark turret just gave me wood.

Leopard Shark =s Warlord Titan?!?!1

I think a Leopard Shark could make a Warlord cry, actually

Thats a 10/10 ! Great stuff! The alien auxiliaries and the knarloc are just great, as is the nose-art.

They are really nice, all of them kudos for doing a different camo-y scheme for tau!

OK well after some more re-design work I think I have some more stuff for a update.

A bit of rounding and softening of the turret, I may make the square details along the turret edge to be Flechette launcher ports.

Closer look at the Co-axial Heavy Ion-cannon.


Business end of its Heavy Rail Cannon.


One of 2 air defense turrets that will be located on the forward hull, twin-linked long range missle pods, and long barreled burst cannon., the drone will fit into the hatch space on the turret.


The Rear main engines, with a standard devilfish engine for scale, the smaller engines will be mounted forward on the hull to act as manuver thrusters, with the large ones located at the rear.

Well I hope you guys enjoy these, and I sincerly apreciate the comments, it keeps me inspired to build.

that Tau apoc tank looks sweet dude keep up the good work ^_^

also love the Devilfish with the free hand on it, the XV88's and the camo patterns =D

I like it a lot. It looks very Tau, and very serious/practical.

Nothing makes me feel better than seeing such love and dedication put towards ones hobby. I salute you sir!!!!

Thank you gentlefolks for your kind words, I must admit Tau scratch builds are far more difficult to get right than IG or Orks, but I hope the end result is worth it, the front fusilage will be the deciding factor, but I have to wait for a Dremel tool purchase this next weekend.
In the mean time I am working on what I can without it, next I have to replicate the large engine for the other side of the Leopard Shark.

Oh well back to the assembly lab!

Brilliant work!!! That is all very impressive. The superheavy tank looks GREAT, very intimidating.

It's really nice to see some tau with a camo scheme - I've never understood why people seem to reckon tau are above disguising themselves!

Kroot look amazing - the splash of brighter colour really breaks them up in a eye-catching way.

Have you got any idea for rules for your auxiliaries yet? I'm just interested in what kind of stat line you're planning on giving them

Looking forward to more!

Looking pretty damn good. Can't wait to see this giant Tau floaty gunship

Well done.

I think your camo scheme is a fine example of effective camo and I really like the looks of it.
Plus, whfb dinosaurs as xeno auxillaries are an idea more Tau players should consider.

So keep up the good work.

( but stealing our L II A6 for the greater good = , evil xenos thieves! )

These are great!
I especially like the Geki and the Knarloc!

Great use of Lizardmen models, and that Leopard shark is a little intimidating at the moment...

One query, what is the Heavy Railgun on the Leopard Shark made out of.
Also, what the hell will the stats for that mofo be?
Str- 11? 12? Destroyer? Ap- 1 Special- Ordnance Barrage, Large Blast, maybe?

Thanks everyone for your helpful and flattering comments, I really appreciate them .

Scarper: my initial thoughts on the base stat lines for the Aux are as follows:
Geki WS:2 BS:3 S:2 T:3 W:1 I:5 A:1 LD:7 base save: 6+ (scaley hide )
special rules : Fleet, fieldcraft (+1 cover save ), Icy nerves (roll 3d6 for morale checks and take the 2 lowest ), Amphibious ( treats water as open terrain for movement )

Komodai WS:3 BS:3 S:3 T:4 W:1 I:3 A:2 (always counts as having 2 CC weapons ) LD:8 base save 5+ ( even scalier hide )
special rules: Icy nerves (roll 3d6 for morale checks and take the 2 lowest ), single minded ( roll 3d6 for target priority tests and take the highest ), vicious leap ( double Int on first round of CC if unit charges ), Arboreal ( may climb vertical (impassible) surfaces, as difficult terrain )

as for units to fit these guys in, I am still working on that.

1hadhq: Many thanks for your compliments, I have admired your many super heavy designs and sheer joy you must find in this hobby, truely a inspiration, and as to the use of a Leo 2A6, well you can't argue that its a pretty tank, and we will be treating it with the utmost affection...especially when its delivering the greater good .

Tim the Biovore: Yeah thats a serious weapon on it, I love just pointing it at some of my imperial tanks...and going boom!...dead tank!

Boss'eadbreaka : well its scratch built from various Evergreen plastic sprues, and the working stats for it are as built in VDR, and with a bit of cross-referance with official sources: S: D AP:1 range: 108" submunitions S:7 AP:3 heavy 1 7" blast
Mainly a superheavy hunter, but Marines won't like it much either.

and again thanks for the input, its always welcome and always enjoyed.

Awsome !

Very cool on all fronts, nice to see well done camo in particular!

This is the best Tau paint scheme i've ever seen, and very nicely executed too. The scratchbuilt superheavy looks like it'll be amazing!

Great Stuff, looking forward to seeing more of that Leopard Shark

Great colour scheme. I'm not a fan of the Tau generally just because they have a habit of lending themselves to lazy painting schemes (although I've seem some awesome clean schemes...) but I love the camo look, they feel like a real combat force now