ArbitorIan's Tau Army P&M Log

So, these have been another long project - I originally built my Tau in 2005 based on a few eBay trades and painted them bright yellow for fun. I started this project blog in 2010 when I decided to update them all, do some major rebuilding and conversion work, and give myself a lot more options. It's been happening in spurts of activity - the latest being the release of the 6ed Tau Codex.

The first colour scheme back in 2005 was a Burntlack Lemon Yellow Spray, Yellow Ink and details in Black and Red. Plus my dodgy old grass texture. The new plan was for a remodel and repaint. Same STUPIDLY yellow colour, but the details are a much more interesting selection of grays and pale blues, and the bases are transparent with as many flying as possible. The army has some pretty simple themes.

- No weird aliens! - I will convert some 'counts-as' Vespid and Kroot, though, and the 6ed rules have given me the opportunity for some Gue'vesa
- Lots of drones. I really have TONS of drones, so things like Snipers and Drone fighters are great.
- No Antennae - I don't like all the spindlyness, so no antennae on any of my models.
- Better suits - I'll be converting all my suits to make them look a bit better than the pidgeon-chest XV8 suits - hence the 'XV7' suits listed below.
- MAGNETISED. As much as possible!


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Table of Contents

Pg1 - Spraypaint tests, drones, early Fire Warrior tests
Pg2 - Crisis suit conversion, FW squad
Pg3 - Crisis suits finished, vehicles started
Pg4 - Hammerheads/Devilfish finished, Broadsides built and painted, two games
Pg5 - Skyray, more vehicles, 6ed update, Tiger Shark, Fireblade/Ethereal
Pg6 - Stealth Team, Fireblade/Ethereal finished, Barracudas started, Interceptor Drones, NOVA, more Fire Warriors, Ion Cannon


Painting and converting - old and new comparison



More comparison pics below...



Current projects

I'm currently expanding for 6ed Tau Codex with some FW Flyers and trying to finish off lots of old jobs

- FLYERS!! I don't like the new model, so I'll be building and painting two FW Barracudas and a Tiger Shark I bought off eBay years ago, and then converting them with magnetised options for counts-as Sun Sharks and Razorsharks. Oh, and finally finish off the 4 Remoras.
- Finish off my Pathfinder and Fire Warrior squads.
- Finish off some Ion Cannons for my Hammerheads
- Tau Rangers! Counts-as Kroot with Hounds and Shaper

For the full army plan, see below...



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First Post - 2010/04/27

First thing was to make all my battlesuits look that little bit better with a conversion stolen from Tristan Hoag at http://www.advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=15104

This is a XV25 stealth suit cut up. The XV25 head makes the battlesuit look a bit more hunched and powerful, and seems to make sense of the big pidgeon chest. I always hated the way the chest was huge with tiny arms and a tiny little head, yet people always tried to make them look graceful. I also used the XV25 shins to extend the legs of the suit. Since it looks a little LESS graceful and more stocky, I've decided to call them XV7s - as if they were the precursor to the XV8 suit.

This has been sprayed Burntlack Lemon Yellow. It's REALLLY bright, which is great. Last time, the Yellow Ink gave it a bit more of a rich texture, but now I'm going to have to see if Gryphonne Sepia has the same effect - let's hope!

Oh no! So, it seems that Gryphonne Sepia is NOTHING LIKE Yellow Ink.



This firewarrior has been washed half with Gryphonne Sepia and half with the remainder of my years old pot of Yellow Ink. As you can see, the Gryphonne Sepia provides a better contrast but lets the original flourescent yellow through, while the Yellow Ink stains the flourescent yellow a deeper colour while shading.

I WANT the deeper colour. Does anyone know a good alternative Yellow Ink that i might be able to get in the UK?

Or maybe I should go spraypaint hunting again? If the deeper yellow is the colour I want, maybe I should just get a spraypaint in THAT colour, and use Gryphonne Sepia for shading?

yeah,
I have at least one pot of the old yellow ink you can have... how many minis need covering/ how many pots do you think you'll need?

PAnic...

Wow BRIGHT YELLOW!!

Panic wrote:yeah,
I have at least one pot of the old yellow ink you can have... how many minis need covering/ how many pots do you think you'll need?

PAnic...

Well, the army is around 100 infantry, 15 Suits and 8 Vehicles, which is quite a lot! I have about half a pot left, but one and a half might not do it...thanks, though.

I went into Central London to browse the fantastic range of Montana Gold sprays, bought a couple, and tried them out on some old, really paint-heavy fire warriors. The previous test warrior is on the right - the model on the left is sprayed with white primer then Montana Mango (Ignore the lack of detail, the model had been painted a million times beforehand!)



It's a pretty good match, so I went a bit further and washed one of the Montana Mango models with Gryphonne Sepia, and then tried out a bit of my intended contrast colour on the helmet. Adeptus Battlegrey (lightened with a bit of Codex Grey), then Codex Grey and Fortress Grey highlights. Enchanted Blue lenses.

Obviously the wash hasn't worked as well on this model as so much of the detail is paint-obscured, but I think the general yellow colour is quite good....

So, some progress.

I've sprayed the battlesuit, drone and new Fire Warrior in the new spray mango, and washed them with Gryphonne Sepia. The pot of sepia had a fair bit of Baal Red and just a touch of Badab Black mixed into it, to give a slightly darker, oranger look. I've then started on the grey areas, and painted a couple of weapons. One thing I'll definitely be doing next time is removing the Battlesuit legs and painting them separately - the amount of detail I want to do on the back of the leg and front of the backpack is difficult if they're always in the way of each other..

Off on tour again, and taken a little box of stuff with me. This time I've got some of the drones and a fire warrior finished in the new scheme. I reversed the Fire Warrior scheme - keeping the armour yellow and the cloth dark grey...

They are looking good, really like the fire warrior.

And thanks for not falling into the trap of using red with yellow again! Grey is much more tasteful.

They look great! do you plan on doing any basing?

Firewarrior looks good, though I think it'd look better with blacklining, like you've got on the gun.

I'd love for my Eldar to play your Tau!

Your gundrones look like watchman icon o_O

legoburner wrote:And thanks for not falling into the trap of using red with yellow again! Grey is much more tasteful.

It IS, isn't it? Yeah, a lot of my armies have red detailing, and I thought my limited color palette this time round would be yellow, blue, grey, white. Nowt else...

Cjsuner wrote:They look great! do you plan on doing any basing?

Actually, since so much of this army is flying, I plan to mount the whole thing on custom-cut clear perspex discs. I'm just investigating the cheapest option - Litko do custom bases, but the international shipping makes them stupidly expensive. I got in touch with a few people in the UK at Salute though, I just need to ask for a quote...

The Dreadnote wrote:Firewarrior looks good, though I think it'd look better with blacklining, like you've got on the gun.

It probably would, but my brush control simply isn't up to it. Since the yellow is entirely sprayed, I don't have the ability to cover up any mistakes.

Tek wrote:I'd love for my Eldar to play your Tau!

This would indeed be the brightest game of 40k ever played. We'd hardly be able to look at the table for brightness...

So, I haven't got a huge amount done in the last week, but I managed to finish three pathfinders. I'm kinda against red for this army, but I was thinking of painting some red stripes/markings on the markerlights to make them a bit more obvious? Or maybe bright green would be better? Dunno. Anyway...

Looks good alot better then the original scheme!

Much better than the red and yellow
i like it, can't wait to see more.

Looking good! If you want to make the markerlights pop a bit more, I think green would suit the models a bit better.

Great to see what you're up to now! Admittedly, it's like some kind of giant JCB takedown, but nowt wrong with that!

Those look really good Ian, even though the scheme is not what you originally intended.

Is it just me, or do the drones remind anyone else of this?

yeah,
those pathfinders look good. I'm not sure which colour would be best to make the markerlights easier to spot... green sounds cool though.

I think that which ever colour you go with you should get some markerlight hit tokens that colour match to help with the shooting phase..


Panic...

I like it so far, the drones are turning out a bit like space wolves I think. Keep up the good work!

Great colour scheme, I like the suit conversion as well you need to add something their arms to make them match the stylin legs though, tau arms always seem stubby to me, unless you are going to mount the weapons FW style?

I like the XV7's they look great.
go for green markerlights.
Argh, everytime i see drones I think they are grining @ me.

So, my shipment of bases arrived - I haven't the rods yet to build the flying stands, but the clear disks are here for the infantry.

I got 100 25mm disks, 15 40mm disks and 15 60mm disks cut out of 3mm thick clear acrylic from Fenris Games - http://www.fenrisgames.com - for a total cost of £19 inc postage.

You have to be VERY careful rebasing on these. I had to varnish on the 'painting bases', then very carefully clip them away, trying not to damage the feet paintwork, then glue them exactly, trying not to get superglue over the clear base.

Anyway, the idea is that the infantry will tie in really well with all the flying stand stuff, and look good on any sort of table!

Fire Warrior (a little black got on his feet while painting oh no!)



Pathfinders (with green markerlight markings)

Clear bases just make everything look so much cooler, it's just a shame you have to be stupid careful with them...

Looks great. must be a pain in the if you get superglue on the base!

very clean painting style that's bound to stick out on the table.

And being tau that's alot of dakka... big mek stamp of approval

These guys look pretty cool. I love brightly coloured armies

looking nice. big up

Those look awesome kinda make me want to make a bright yellow army....

Maj. Kolbak

Y-y-y-y-y-y-yellow!

wow that original one was bright

I like it. They remind me of Bandai toys for some strange reason. I always knew that Tau didn't understand camouflage, now I have proof!

For Yellow Ink Privateer Press make some inks I'd guess they do a Yellow......

Those bases are fantastic!

Thanks everyone - since I'm still deciding on rods for the flying stands, I've been working on infantry for now. Here's the first little squad of fire warriors... only 25 more to go!!

:/

I dunno. You see people with massively detailed scenic bases, and yet the clear bases seem to look just as effective. Odd.

Great colour scheme, yellow is my favorite colour.

Great colour scheme! Though it's nog a conventional paint scheme for tau (stealthy camouflaged most of the time), I think it looks cool on the models. It gives them a clean look.
I allso like the conversion wtih the stealth suit head on the normal battlesuit.

And then the bases: I really don't understand why I haven't seen the transparant bases before.
Much better then for example the body of a dead marine mysteriously allways being near a general all the time!

yeah,
you should bring these to Nottingham.

PAnic...

ian i love your work. your armies have so much character. keep up the good work!

Thanks everyone - the rods finally arrived, so I've finished off the first Crisis suit and put that and the gun drones onto my home-made flying bases. 3mm clear acrylic rod, and I've drilled holes in my clear 25mm and 40mm bases to fit. I had to make the holes on the models wider with a craft knife, but in future I'll drill the correct sized holes into them before priming.

Nifty thats a great action Tau pose although really shouldn't he be jumping backwards?

LunaHound wrote:Your gundrones look like watchman icon o_O

I thought this too.
He should do the Sept markings at a diagonal angle, and in red.....

Really neat - and cuts down on time spent basing I imagine?

Looks great

If you're still looking at inks, Ian, Windsor & Newton do quite a good yellow ink - I've seen it used for gold effects, and it really adds to the richness.

And finished another 6 Fire Warriors, completing my first squad. Here's all the models done so far - I'm going to be finishing the Pathfinder squad and two more Crisis suits next...

So, got the other two members of the first Crisis team painted, but had a bit of a spraying disaster.

For some reason, this batch have come out all rough and textured - I'm not sure why. The spray primer and paint are the same ones I've been using for this whole army. I don't know if maybe I didn't leave enough time between the two different colours, or maybe it was the heat that day - it was the hottest of the year over here. Strange.

Anyway, since stripping them would bugger up all the GS conversion work, I resolved to just paint them up anyway and do another Crisis team later on. These guys can be a b-team for bigger games. Here's the three together - I'll do some proper photos when they have weapons. They look ok from a distance, but you can see in the closeup the horrible texturing.





Automatically Appended Next Post:
Here are the three suits, painted and with weapons. I guess they're not THAT bad, but I need to do some spraypaint testing before I spray anything else!

Just caught this thread for the first time. The stealth heads on the XVs look absolutely awesome. They really take what amounted to a rather sad looking mech and make it look like something special. If I ever build any more crisis suits I'm going to have to steal this idea.

Awesome work, will there be any kroot added to vary the bright color of the Tau?

Interesting scheme, looks like a MUCH brigher scheme to mine, except the armour and cloth colours switched

I like the heads on the crisis suits a lot. Good work thinking outside the box.

Lovely progress

Upon successful testing, I can now confirm that MY SPRAYPAINT WENT GRAINY.

Nothing to do with temperature or drying time or whatever, it just looks like it's right at the end of that can of Montana Mango and it's all gone grainy. Still good value, though. I've bought a couple more cans to get me through the rest of the models.

On the first post I thought the yellow was not going to work at all, but combined with the grey it actually works really wel! I especially like the drones. Also, whats up with the transparant bases? Something artistic or just lazyness?

Very nice yellow tau! Keep it up.

s.j.mccartney wrote:I like it. They remind me of Bandai toys for some strange reason. I always knew that Tau didn't understand camouflage, now I have proof!

Ah, but maybe they're fighting on the GIANT YELLOW WORLD OF GIANT YELLOW COVER? Huh? Um, actually, Tigers are kinda that colour, and I have some tiger stripes planned for the Stealth elements to come...

Arakasi wrote:Really neat - and cuts down on time spent basing I imagine?

Kinda - it's very simple to base them, but as before, you have to be very careful

Dysartes wrote:If you're still looking at inks, Ian, Windsor & Newton do quite a good yellow ink - I've seen it used for gold effects, and it really adds to the richness.

Thanks, a few people have posted other inks, but I think I've settled on my wash mixture now.

augustus5 wrote:Just caught this thread for the first time. The stealth heads on the XVs look absolutely awesome. They really take what amounted to a rather sad looking mech and make it look like something special. If I ever build any more crisis suits I'm going to have to steal this idea.

Thanks - yes, they do look a lot more 'complete' and less like the robot from Short Circuit now. However, now I have to figure out how to make the XV9 suits look like they're part of the same army!

Maj. Kolbak wrote:Awesome work, will there be any kroot added to vary the bright color of the Tau?

NOOO! Actually, this is planned as an all-Tau army. I might make some converted 'fightin' Tau' though, and I plan to do jetpack counts-as Vespids.

Timonth wrote:On the first post I thought the yellow was not going to work at all, but combined with the grey it actually works really wel! I especially like the drones. Also, whats up with the transparant bases? Something artistic or just lazyness?

A bit of both. As I said above, it's probably actually easier to paint a simple base rather than use the transparent ones, but I saw some transparent ones being used in a demo game at Salute this year and liked the idea. I'd already intended there to be a lot of drones and flying suits in the army, so the clear bases became a useful way of tieing in the flying bases with the regular ones. Oh, and this way they'll match any terrain I put them on!


Finished the first pathfinder squad and started work on the other six Crisis suits - I'll post some photos tonight!

I like the use of the Stealth Heads on the Crisis Suits, and I think the Yellow/Grey paintscheme looks really good, especially on the fire warriors and drones.

Will be keeping an eye on your progress.

mega cool pcs dude im loving the clear bases really sets them off dude, great work

So, update as promised. The drone horde grows



The first Pathfinder squad is complete - some are a bit grainy from the bad spray, but you can't really tell from here...



And I have six more Crisis suits converted and ready for painting (legs are painted separately). The suits all have magnets on the arms, but the squad leaders/commanders have additional points on the side of the arm and the jetpack for additional equipment.

Nice progress! what are you planing to add to your force after this lot?

Rose_Mountainz wrote:Nice progress! what are you planing to add to your force after this lot?

Thanks

I'd like to start on the XV9s but I should really finish another Fire Warriors squad and a Devilfish for the Pathfinders - then at least I'll have a useable force!

But the XV9s might win through...

I really like the conversion on the Battlesuits; they look very futuristic and sleek!

P.S. Is that The Edge in you profile pic? Or are you his evil twin?

Some_Call_Me_Tim? wrote:I really like the conversion on the Battlesuits; they look very futuristic and sleek!

P.S. Is that The Edge in you profile pic? Or are you his evil twin?

I really need to change that pic - people don't recognise me at tournaments unless I bring a cowboy hat...

Next question for the board - so I now have SIX xv9 Hazard suits from Forgeworld. I wanted all weapon options so I bought two each of Fusion Cascades, Phased Ion Guns and Commander O'Ralai (which is the only way of getting some Pulse Submunition Rifles). They're all a little different, but I'm going to homogenise them as much as possible - I have no intention of actually USING O'Ralai.

So what do i do with the shields? Answers on a postcard to http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/314659.page

Those are some bright Tau! Great work for pulling it off and making it looks as good as it does!

Ok, so after a day of painting and cramp in my hand, we have

Three more battlesuits (weapons pending)



And the last three underway

NINE SUITS BUILT!

Just need to do the weapons now...

Yeah,
They look awesome dude!
I can't wait to see the vespid!

Panic.

FINALLY, after a very long delay in which I was stuck in a theatre for two months, I've got back into the swing of things by getting the most tedious job out of the way - all of the magnetised weapons for my Crisis suits.

12 Plasma Rifles, 6 Fusion Blasters, 6 Burst Cannon, 8 Missile Pods, 3 Flamers and a couple of hubs to make shield generators from, all painted, given two coats of Purity Seal and then a coat of Humbrol Matt Varnish.

Right, ready for the next REAL unit. Should I get some more sensible Fire Warriors and vehicles done to get the army legal or just start on the cool FW stuff?

FW, FW, FW....

It all looks awesome mate, really eye catching!

You should paint whatever takes your fancy Ian, itll be more rewarding that way

yeah,
Vespid Vespid Vespid!!!


Panic...

You always deliver generous updates, good to see you back, where geting worried
And I vote ordinary troops or vespid!

Looks good, good to see your back.
I vote FW....get a manta....I joke, that thing is expensive as
But serriously FW has some very cool tau things that aren't a gigantic flying ship of doom that weighs a load.

Commissar Agro wrote:I vote FW....get a manta....I joke, that thing is expensive as But serriously FW has some very cool tau things that aren't a gigantic flying ship of doom that weighs a load.

There's already a Tiger Shark AX-10 in the bag that will eventually be painted - I can't possibly justify any MORE big heavy bits of resin!

Vitruvian XVII wrote:FW, FW, FW....You should paint whatever takes your fancy Ian, itll be more rewarding that way

Panic wrote:Vespid Vespid Vespid!!!

Rose_Mountainz wrote:You always deliver generous updates, good to see you back, where geting worried And I vote ordinary troops or vespid!

Thanks guys - although the Vespid conversions are going to be fantastic to do, they're going to be converted from various bits left over from the more 'regular' looking Fire Warriors, so I gotta do them first.

I plumped for getting a useable army together and so fished out a second Pathfinder squad and a second Fire Warrior squad. However none of the Pathfinders are really useable without Devilfish, and since I'm never one to do these things bit by bit, I spend the day assembling, converting and magnetising my seven vehicle hulls. Here's what today's construction haul looks like before spraying...



There are seven 'fish hulls in various states of disrepair - two are VERY paint-filled and will only really be for backup use.



Three of them have options for either Hammerhead or Devilfish turrets, so I can have 4 Devilfish and 3 Hammerheads, or up to 7 Devilfish. I didn't have a lot of Tau spares so I've used the weapon system round parts as hatches. The weapon systems will all have 'drone' tops. I have three Railguns and two Ion cannons magnetised as options.



Instead of fixing the nose-mounted burst cannon to some vehicles and not others, I replaced every nose section with the sensor array (building some new ones out of the old Crisis suit heads) and added a magnet to the side to hold the burst cannons.



And for final touches, there is another magnet in one of the engine slots, ready for Seeker Missiles.



I also ditched the little shield hubs and magnetised these two O'Ralai shields to use as Shield Generators for my Crisis suits.



A productive day of building - I'll start the spraypainting first thing tomorrow!

They look epic.

Nice to see you back. You really got a lot done of building done in one day, good job!

_Tim?

Nice motor pool you have there!
Good idea with the magentic burst cannon.
Keep up the good work!

I'll preface my comments by saying I usually HATE yellow.

Thats a great looking army!

The Gun drones are just screaming for a curved black line near the top-back turning them into hovering little smiley faces of doom.

Well whenever you said bright yellow you were spot on! But it looks really good though, kudos on your reflecting skills on the gems.

Just while the rest in being sprayed, I took some proper photos of my Crisis Suits, this time with weapons attached.

Pretty cool

Pretty DAMN cool!

At first I didn't like the yellow but I have to admit its growing on me. Nice work Ian!

Thanks guys. Just showing my daily progress at the mo - after popping down to an art shop yesterday to pick up a size 4 brush, I've got the vast majority done on the first vehicle hull.

I'm going to do a bit of research into doing the lines with a fineliner - I've been painting wash into the cracks, which works for this, but won't do as well on the older, more paint-covered models...




Automatically Appended Next Post:
And a little while later we have a much more complete tank that can be either a Hammerhead or a Devilfish.

yeah,
Looks really clean and nice...
(vespid?)

Panic...

I have never seen Yellow done so cleanly.

very nice, sire!

I really like the accuracy used in washing then highlighting the grey parts in the weaponary and such.

Nice smooth yellow too of that bright egg colour that I like!

I'm really digging on the clear bases dude, that stuff looks awesome!

Excellent looking army there Arbitor! The Yellow is very clean and very well executed. I just started a group of Tau myself, and I love the use of the Stealth Suit heads on the Crisis Suits, I might have to play with that for my Commander....
Granesh

Matrim wrote:I have never seen Yellow done so cleanly. very nice, sire!

Newt-Of-Death wrote:I really like the accuracy used in washing then highlighting the grey parts in the weaponary and such.Nice smooth yellow too of that bright egg colour that I like!

Granesh wrote:Excellent looking army there Arbitor! The Yellow is very clean and very well executed...

Thanks guys - I guess the simplicity of the large flat areas really shows on these larger vehicles. I always prefer to use a spray for these sorts of bright colours if I can. It means that you have to be careful when painting the recessed bits afterwards (since i can't paint over any mistakes!) but it's the quickest way to get the flat, smooth look.

I've finally got through three of these so far, with optional Hammerhead or Devilfish turrets. Now I'm off to spray the weapons...

Looking great mate!

Lovely yellow. Very neat!

Those look great, the yellow is really smooth. Nice job!

they look really nice , what environment do you have for them?

neil101 wrote:they look really nice , what environment do you have for them?

Thanks for the comments everyone - I'm not really sure what you mean by 'environment', Neil?

I rushed to get my first three vehicles finished in time for a game against Fifty last week. I managed to get enough Railguns and Smart Missile Systems done to equip two Hammerheads and a Devilfish and took some photos. The stands are made from the same sort of plastic base and rod as everything else - I made stands at different heights so that the vehicles look a bit more realistic on the battlefield. I used drone tops for the weapon systems but stayed with a grey-only colour scheme - the 'gun drone' option of the vehicles will be yellow, like all the other drones.

Looking great (and darn it you work fast). As a side note have you and panic any new battle reps for ous? I'm in the need for some great reading!

The clear stands and bases look great on the table. We played at mine, where I have a kind of arid/deserty board, and they really work well. Makes me want to do the same, but I don't really have an army it is suitable for.

Stupidly, I forgot to really take any meaningful numbers of pictures at all, though I did get a handful right at the start. I'll try to remember to post some up for you all to see what I mean when I get home later.

The yellow looks great in real life, very smooth. I think it is the grey with its very clean lined highlights that makes it work. The white detailing on both the yellow and grey helps tie the two areas together.

I think the crisis suits look very orange on the forums here compared to real life, where they look both smoother and yellower.

For the record, we played Annihilation, Dawn-of-War, and drew either 5-5 or 6-6. (Ian, I just realised though, I didn't check my Night Vision on my first turn to see if I was actually in range to shoot your command squad.)

Spray paint must really help get a smooth effect. I should probably invest in some white spray for my Tau vehicles....

It all looks great!

i, for one, welcome Tau Sept Lemon to the greater good! nice job with the heads on the crisis suits. it looks cool and is unique.

warboss wrote:i, for one, welcome Tau Sept Lemon to the greater good! nice job with the heads on the crisis suits. it looks cool and is unique.

Thanks. Well, it's about as unique as any idea stolen from AdvancedTauTactica can be!

Some_Call_Me_Tim? wrote:Spray paint must really help get a smooth effect. I should probably invest in some white spray for my Tau vehicles....

It really helps, but I would invest in a smoother spray than the citadel white primer. In fact, if you can, spray with White Primer, then use an Acrylic-based White Spray for the main cost. The Primer on it's own won't give you a completely smooth finish.

Fifty wrote:Stupidly, I forgot to really take any meaningful numbers of pictures at all, though I did get a handful right at the start. I'll try to remember to post some up for you all to see what I mean when I get home later. For the record, we played Annihilation, Dawn-of-War, and drew either 5-5 or 6-6. (Ian, I just realised though, I didn't check my Night Vision on my first turn to see if I was actually in range to shoot your command squad.)

NIGHT FIGHTING! Yes. Um, that would also have effected the very first shot of the game, where I blew up your Wave Serpent! If you have any photos at all, post them and I'll put them in this thread...

By environment i meant , gaming tables and scenery, eg buildings , forests, desert snow cityscape. because they are very bright , i thought it might be bacause you had a dark gaming environment. thats all ;-)

ArbitorIan wrote:Thanks. Well, it's about as unique as any idea stolen from AdvancedTauTactica can be!

ahh, that's why i didn't see it. i'll occasionally go to tauonline but not ATT. their initial posting restrictions turned me off; you should have to go through more restrictions/rules/security to put up a pic of your toy soldier than boarding an international flight, lol.

A pair of images from our recent battle. Unfortunately, there were no tanks on the table at this stage, and I forgot to take any more photos. :(

There are a few more photos in my gallery, including one that did something very interesting during auto-processing. I know auto-processing is optional, but I liked the effect enough to take it anyway!

As you can see, the bases work really well.

nice

That looks fantastic, I am a great believer on bright colour schemes and yellow is such a :beep: to paint.

Clear bases seem to be the way to go, those tau look fantastic, where did you get them from?

Ace! Very swish. What's next in the grand plan of Ian, dare I ask?

neil101 wrote:By environment i meant , gaming tables and scenery, eg buildings , forests, desert snow cityscape. because they are very bright , i thought it might be bacause you had a dark gaming environment. thats all ;-)

Ah, well most of my terrain is grey ( http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/270642.page ) and the last few armies I've done had bases to match, but I just thought I'd do something a bit different this time - and I'm always a fan of brightly coloured schemes - if you camouflage your units too much you end up forgetting to shoot things....!

IGPebble wrote:Clear bases seem to be the way to go, those tau look fantastic, where did you get them from?

I got them cut to order by Fenris Games ( http://fenrisgames.com/ ) - they did enough for the whole army (25, 40 and 60mm) for around £20 including delivery.

inmygravenimage wrote:Ace! Very swish. What's next in the grand plan of Ian, dare I ask?

Finishing off the other Pathfinder and Fire Warrior squad, hopefully in time for a game against Panic tomorrow night....

Great stuff Ian. Awesome work on those vehicles. Did you get one of those Micro Pigma pens in the end?

Brilliant city board dude!

And yes, your rate of work is incredible. I envy that.. lol

Got a second game in this week, against Panic's Nurgle Marines - battle report here - http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/326510.page#2092290






Automatically Appended Next Post:

Tek wrote:Great stuff Ian. Awesome work on those vehicles. Did you get one of those Micro Pigma pens in the end?

I've got a couple on order, but they haven't arrived yet. I got the yellow and brown ones - we'll see which works best for the paintier vehicles when they get here.

I missed these guys in these two tester games, so I've made them my next priority - Broadsides! I wanted them to be the same basic conversion as the other suits, but look more 'sturdy' to represent their lack of a jetpack and their 2+ save. Instead of lengthening their lower legs like on my Crisis conversions, I replaced them with a blockier 'shin guard' unit made from a Crisis head and a spare segmented Stealth shoulder pad.

They'll just have the SMS option as it looks a bit more 'in built' on the crisis suits, which I like. I never really use the Plasma Rifle option anyway. Ive also made the Railguns twin-linked on the same point - I'm thinking of putting something on the other shoulder to represent a Targetting Array...

After a couple of games, i REAAAALY missed having the Broadsides around. So I got them painted!

Newt-Of-Death wrote:Brilliant city board dude!

And yes, your rate of work is incredible. I envy that.. lol

Ah, thanks. I chose grey as I thought it would work quite well for open rocky terrain OR city/industrial - that stuff there is mainly old Necromunda scenery.

Regarding rate of work, I don't have a huge amount of time to paint, so I always try and pick a scheme that can be mostly spraypainted and washed - this way you can spend the majority of the time you DO have on the little details. Plus, since you spray and wash lots of models at a time, when you DO get time to paint, you can get a whole squads 'details' done in an evening...

I really like those broadsides; look a lot better then the regular ones to me!

I like them. They remind me of the colour yellow. I could imagine them fighting pink demons on a battenburg world (one of the many cake themed demon worlds) deep in the eye of terror. If you want inks use fountain pen ink it is ace. I wouldn't recommend quink but windsor and newton is good, they even do 'canary yellow' which i think would be very appropriate.

CommissarKhaine wrote:I really like those broadsides; look a lot better then the regular ones to me!

Thanks! They look convincingly sturdy, I think. However, I'm just putting together the first two Hazard suits and am surprised at how small the Broadsides look in comparison - these Hazard suits are HUGE.

Perkustin wrote:I like them. They remind me of the colour yellow. I could imagine them fighting pink demons on a battenburg world (one of the many cake themed demon worlds) deep in the eye of terror. If you want inks use fountain pen ink it is ace. I wouldn't recommend quink but windsor and newton is good, they even do 'canary yellow' which i think would be very appropriate.

Thanks, but I eventually settled on a mix of the GW washes. I use a pot of Gryphonne Sepia with a little Baal Red and Badab Black added to it.

Brilliant! I love the idea of having both the Rail guns on one shoulder, may have to steal that...

_Tim?

Some_Call_Me_Tim? wrote:Brilliant! I love the idea of having both the Rail guns on one shoulder, may have to steal that...

_Tim?

Please do!

-------

OK, so had a rematch with Fifty the other day - here's a full battle report...

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/339192.page

ArbitorIan wrote:

Some_Call_Me_Tim? wrote:Brilliant! I love the idea of having both the Rail guns on one shoulder, may have to steal that...

_Tim?

Please do!

-------

OK, so had a rematch with Fifty the other day - here's a full battle report...

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/339192.page

agreed, the big shoulder gun looks better than the standard model for sure (i've got one in my charlie's angel broadside squad below). i definitely like the cockpit pod head you have more than the standard too.

That high gloss yellow is just so... Tau.. awesome!

I actually saw (and posted a response) in the post that was a battle report so I am reposting this here as to not derail that one too much more.

I have been trying to get a yellow to work for my Trollbloods for a while now and the yellow of your vehicles is pretty much what I was looking for. I wanted to make sure I had your process down so I could steal it (if you don't mind).

1) Prime with Montana Gold Mango?
2) Ink with yellow ink
3) Wash with mix of sepia, red and black mixed together?

Thanks a bunch and great work!
Flaim

flaim wrote:I actually saw (and posted a response) in the post that was a battle report so I am reposting this here as to not derail that one too much more.

I have been trying to get a yellow to work for my Trollbloods for a while now and the yellow of your vehicles is pretty much what I was looking for. I wanted to make sure I had your process down so I could steal it (if you don't mind).

1) Prime with Montana Gold Mango?
2) Ink with yellow ink
3) Wash with mix of sepia, red and black mixed together?

Thanks a bunch and great work!
Flaim

No worries. It's actually a bit simpler.

I prime with GW Skull White spray, then spray yellow. I use the Montana Gold range, as they're readily available all over the UK, and come in 300 different colours. However, any spray acrylic-based paint should be fine. Mango has actually been discontinued by Montana, but they have similar shades (and about 10 shades of yellow anyway ) Sugar Lemon is their next closest.

I then have a custom wash mix made up. It's a pot of Gryphonne Sepia with about 15 drops of Baal Red and Badab Black added each. I do a single wash of this (NOT a dip), paying attention to the grooves, and brushing off any pools that form on flat areas before they dry. That's it.

For vehicles, I don't do a complete wash. I carefully paint the wash mix into the grooves of the vehicle. I find that the large, flat areas of the vehicles mean that it's very hard to stop the wash from pooling before it dries, so I manually paint in the grooves.

Hope that's helpful!

EDIT

Just read your post in the other thread - this (above) is the second method I tried. My Tau were originally sprayed with Burtlack Lemon Yellow spray (again, available from most good Grpahic shops, but expensive) and then washed with the old GW Yellow Ink. This is the first way shown in that P&M blog - the spray colour is very very pale, almost green. It worked, but when I came to repaint the army I found that I couldn't get hold of Yellow Ink any more.

The models that you see above, and in that battle report, are done using the second method - the Montana Mango and Custom Wash method I detail above. I think it actually gives much better depth.

The use of the stealth heads on your Crisis Suits and broadside, has totally transformed the model so much better than the original heads. It should be the way they come in the box. Great work.

Very cool Broadsides.

It reminds me of an Anime I saw once.

:-)

ArbitorIan wrote:

flaim wrote:I actually saw (and posted a response) in the post that was a battle report so I am reposting this here as to not derail that one too much more.

I have been trying to get a yellow to work for my Trollbloods for a while now and the yellow of your vehicles is pretty much what I was looking for. I wanted to make sure I had your process down so I could steal it (if you don't mind).

1) Prime with Montana Gold Mango?
2) Ink with yellow ink
3) Wash with mix of sepia, red and black mixed together?

Thanks a bunch and great work!
Flaim

No worries. It's actually a bit simpler.

I prime with GW Skull White spray, then spray yellow. I use the Montana Gold range, as they're readily available all over the UK, and come in 300 different colours. However, any spray acrylic-based paint should be fine. Mango has actually been discontinued by Montana, but they have similar shades (and about 10 shades of yellow anyway ) Sugar Lemon is their next closest.

I then have a custom wash mix made up. It's a pot of Gryphonne Sepia with about 15 drops of Baal Red and Badab Black added each. I do a single wash of this (NOT a dip), paying attention to the grooves, and brushing off any pools that form on flat areas before they dry. That's it.

For vehicles, I don't do a complete wash. I carefully paint the wash mix into the grooves of the vehicle. I find that the large, flat areas of the vehicles mean that it's very hard to stop the wash from pooling before it dries, so I manually paint in the grooves.

Hope that's helpful!

EDIT

Just read your post in the other thread - this (above) is the second method I tried. My Tau were originally sprayed with Burtlack Lemon Yellow spray (again, available from most good Grpahic shops, but expensive) and then washed with the old GW Yellow Ink. This is the first way shown in that P&M blog - the spray colour is very very pale, almost green. It worked, but when I came to repaint the army I found that I couldn't get hold of Yellow Ink any more.

The models that you see above, and in that battle report, are done using the second method - the Montana Mango and Custom Wash method I detail above. I think it actually gives much better depth.

Which method was the vehicles and which method was the suits? It seems from the pictures that there is an almost orange sheen to the suits. From that I assume the suits were done with your technique of the custom wash instead of the ink. I actually like both colors, but I am thinking the vehicle color would suit my trolls better.

flaim wrote:Which method was the vehicles and which method was the suits? It seems from the pictures that there is an almost orange sheen to the suits. From that I assume the suits were done with your technique of the custom wash instead of the ink. I actually like both colors, but I am thinking the vehicle color would suit my trolls better.

They were both undercoated white and sprayed yellow. The suits and infantry then had an all-over wash of my Super Custom Mix. For the vehicles, the wash was carefully painted in the grooves only, as I didn't want it pooling on the large flat areas. That's why the suits look slightly darker/oranger than the vehicles.

SOOO, another week away - this time I'm working in Germany all week, so I've brought along some painting work to do. The next three Devilfish bodies, and the black and grey paints. When I get back, all I should need to do is the white and blue markings.

I've also decided that the fourth unpainted Devilfish was too far gone for salvage, and is going to become some interesting terrain. I've replaced it with a Sky Ray kit direct from eBay. So, only ONE more Devilfish hull to paint after these three!

How big is this army gonna be when finished? Because you have around 6 Devilfish! I admire your determination!

_Tim?

Wow this is the first time Ive stumbled across your army and Im really impressed. Not only do they look really nice on the table, but clear bases!?! What a brilliant idea. Where did you get those again? I really think I might steal that idea for my Orks, The way they blend into the terrain is so much cooler

Best looking Tau I have seen in a long time.. any sniper drones?

Thanks everyone!

Some_Call_Me_Tim? wrote:How big is this army gonna be when finished? Because you have around 6 Devilfish! I admire your determination!

I think it's around 6000pts, but there's no 'set' list because of all the magnetisation!

KingCracker wrote:Wow this is the first time Ive stumbled across your army and Im really impressed. Not only do they look really nice on the table, but clear bases!?! What a brilliant idea. Where did you get those again? I really think I might steal that idea for my Orks, The way they blend into the terrain is so much cooler

The clear bases are from Fenrisgames.co.uk - you can order to have made as many as you need, and they're very cheap. If you're in the US then Litko Aerosystems also do custom clear bases. The shipping to the UK was REALLY high, though, and I found that Fenris were much cheaper even before shipping. Of course, if you're odering from Litko, you may want to take advantage of their amazing Space Corridor system...

Miss Dee wrote:Best looking Tau I have seen in a long time.. any sniper drones?

Thanks - YES, there will be some eventually, but they will be custom built, rather than the off-the-shelf ones...

All the basic greys finished. Tomorrow I'll get the grey highlights and lining done, then back to London...

Found some yellow ink for you.

http://www.waylandgames.co.uk/Privateer-Press/Paints-and-Tools/P3-Paints/PIP-93014-Yellow-Ink/prod_5388.html

Miss Dee wrote:Found some yellow ink for you.

http://www.waylandgames.co.uk/Privateer-Press/Paints-and-Tools/P3-Paints/PIP-93014-Yellow-Ink/prod_5388.html

Well, thanks very much for remembering me! But I'm kinda wedded to my yellow/red Wash mix now, and I might be a bit too far in to change inks!

----

SO, had a geek morning, and managed to assemble and paint some extras for the vehicles, as well as finish off the three Devilfish I started while away in Germany. I made the following..

- A Sky Ray turret, magnetised, with six magnetised Seeker Missiles
- Four Burst Cannon weapon systems for the Hammerheads/Sky Ray, with the good, covered, Burst Cannons
- Six regular drones for weapon systems, sprayed but not finished
- Three 'B-Team' Devilfish finished off.

Here's the haul, as well as an assembled Sky Ray with my new Bust Cannon systems. The Seeker missiles and Markerlights are tipped in green, which is the colour I'm using for all 'Marker' weapons. I used half of the Markerlight assembly on the Sky Ray wingtips, as I thought the full, long one looked a bit ungainly. The Seeker missiles attach to the Skyray individually, but the magnet poles are such that, when I'm not using the Skyray, they also attach to the additional magnet I put on all the vehicle hulls.

Not looking forward to having that Skyray shooting at me...

Very nice vehicles, I noticed that the burst cannon's mounting in the skyray looks slightly different from my own. Did you end up changing the top cover of the discs to remove the little light that normally sits there or did you just use normal drones discs instead? I also just recently put together and magnetized my skyray kit (as a hammerhead for now) so I noticed the difference.

Also, did you magnetize the burst cannons themselves so that you could swap them out for smart missile system or was that not a concern?

I love your color scheme, it looks quite striking. Keep up the good work

Tychron wrote:Very nice vehicles, I noticed that the burst cannon's mounting in the skyray looks slightly different from my own. Did you end up changing the top cover of the discs to remove the little light that normally sits there or did you just use normal drones discs instead? I also just recently put together and magnetized my skyray kit (as a hammerhead for now) so I noticed the difference. Also, did you magnetize the burst cannons themselves so that you could swap them out for smart missile system or was that not a concern? I love your color scheme, it looks quite striking. Keep up the good work

Thanks

I got the models for this army from a variety of trades and swaps, and a lot of the vehicles weren't complete. I didn't have enough of the 'weapon system' discs (the ones with the little light) to go around, especially since I wanted lots of options, so I decided to use the normal drone discs for everything.

I didn't magnetise the burst cannons themselves for these weapon systems - they're attached to the grey 'drone' disc (as you can see in the top photo). I just have lots of grey discs with Burst Cannons and SMS on them, and then yellow discs for regular Gun Drones.

However, I DO have some magnetised burst cannons, which are on the front mounting of the vehicles. Since any of the vehicles can be Devilfish, I attached the 'sensor' nose to everything. I then put a magnet in the side that allows me to attach a nose-Burst Cannon for when the vehicle is a Devilfish.






Automatically Appended Next Post:
And a little experiment. I have TONS of drones, and a load of spare pulse rifles. Add some thinly-sliced matchsticks and a downward-facing aerial, and we have a simple converted Sniper Drone! Hurrah. Only eight more to go...

Right, I'm off on another work trip - a week and a half in Southampton. I've assembled a little hobby case that fits in my suitcase. We have...

- 12 Fire Warriors with Pulse Carbines
- Odd Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifles and Pathfinders to fill out a couple more squads
- Gun Drones for Vehicles
- Shield Drones
- Sniper Team
- 2 Hazard Suit bodies

Let's see what I can get done in my downtime...

6ed Update

So, the project is back and I've updated the first post. Time to add to the army a bit for 6ed. I'm planning to add some flyers and some of the bigger suits, as well as a contingent of Allied IG (Gue'vesa).

I've started with the XV9 suits that have been sitting, sprayed yellow, in a box since (looks at last post) 2011. I've had to remove their heads and shoulder pads to make them a bit easier to paint.



I've then assembled all the bits for the Remora Drones, and magnetised the front parts of their seeker missiles so I can keep track during the game. Here they are with the Fusion Blasters for the XV9s.




We also got a game in at the weekend with 6ed. The Tau did pretty well against the Kan Wall, but I'm hoping the Remoras will be ready before I have to play Necrons!

Looking good! At this point, I'm holding off on buying more tau as I don't frankly know what new stuff will be added to the army and my carrying case is already completely full. I'm surprised that you went with the xv9 suits this late in the game.

Ooh! Self-necro! Good to see you back in action Ian, looking forward to more.

inmygravenimage wrote:Ooh! Self-necro! Good to see you back in action Ian, looking forward to more.

YES. It's ok if you do it yourself, right?

warboss wrote:Looking good! At this point, I'm holding off on buying more tau as I don't frankly know what new stuff will be added to the army and my carrying case is already completely full. I'm surprised that you went with the xv9 suits this late in the game.

All the models are already bought, they've just been in pieces for years. It's just a matter of which to assemble in this batch! I'm not sure what will happen to XV9s but they're relatively new models - I'd be surprised if they were dropped (though I'm not sure they'll make the Codex).

 ArbitorIan wrote:
All the models are already bought, they've just been in pieces for years. It's just a matter of which to assemble in this batch! I'm not sure what will happen to XV9s but they're relatively new models - I'd be surprised if they were dropped (though I'm not sure they'll make the Codex).

Forgeworld has never completely dropped a unit that I know of.. they just occasionally simply disappear from the 2nd edition of an older book when and if its done. In my case, I like the rules and am interested in the suits but don't own any and would rather wait to see if they go plastic with the next codex redo. Since you've already got them, that's a whole different ballgame and I'd do the same if I were in your shoes.

Here's the XV9s - not sure why they came out so grainy, and with different WB settings, but anyway these are in-progress photos. They're not quite finished, but good enough for the game tomorrow...

yeah,
scary!

Panic...

I love your yellow. this is great! thank you for sharing.

Panic wrote:yeah,
scary!

Those are d3 shot meltaguns on each arm...

eldartau1987 wrote:I love your yellow. this is great! thank you for sharing.

Thanks!

----

BUSY DAY. The first Remora is base coated and assembled - I'll probably only get one ready in time for tomorrow - we'll see if I get time in the morning to do anything...

Have you got any WIP shots of how to convert the XV8s with the Stealth Suit heads?

 dangermouse425 wrote:
Have you got any WIP shots of how to convert the XV8s with the Stealth Suit heads?

Woo! Long time to reply. No, I don't have any WIP shots, but it was really easy. I just carved off as much of the back of the stealth suit head as possible, and chopped the head mounting ring and centre part of the torso from the crisis suit, then used a bit of GS to fill the small gap. Really, really easy. It was the legs that were difficult!

-----------------------------------------------

PHASE 3 - 6ed Tau Codex Update!!


So, I've finally come back to these and with the release of the new codex, I'm on a Tau roll!! The plan is to convert up some new units, and finish some old ones. Current shortlist is as follows...

- FLYERS!! I don't like the new model, so I'll be building and painting two FW Barracudas and a Tiger Shark I bought off eBay years ago, and then converting them with magnetised options for counts-as Sun Sharks and Razorsharks. Oh, and finally finish off the 4 Remoras.
- A decent commander model, bigger and meaner looking than my current Crisis suits.
- Some alternate HQ choices - Ethereal and Cadre Fireblade (converted from another spare Ethereal).
- Marker Drones, Shield Drones, Missile Drones, special Pathfinder Drones.
- Finish off my Pathfinder and Fire Warrior squads...

So, here's the first thing. I bought this old Tiger Shark AX 1-0 from eBay a few years ago. It was half painted, the GS work was shocking and some of the bits (seeker missiles) were missing. It's spent the last week in a bath of Dettol with great results. I had to use a scalpel to remove all the GS work, and the primer has stained, but I think it's turned out well.

Reassembled and with Milliput covering any dodgy joins, which can then be sanded/carved smooth when dry...





Other parts. I've replaced the burst cannons with cowled ones, since I don't use the spindly ones (anyone want them??). I also widened the drone-holes in the main body with a scalpel so that the drones become swappable.



The Railguns got cut just below the barrel - the base section is glued into the model, and the barrels are magnetised. I'm going to make some Ion Cannon barrels so I can use it as a regular Tiger Shark, and some additional engine intakes/fillers for when it's pretending to be a Sun Shark.




I also finally got around to finishing off the four drones from the Ra'Lai set, which will be my Marker Drones. I'm waiting on my drill charging before I can assemble their bases.

Ooh! Good to see you back in the saddle. I take it you don't find dettol dissolved glue or made plastic rubbery them?

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Ooh! Good to see you back in the saddle. I take it you don't find dettol dissolved glue or made plastic rubbery them?

It didn't seem to do much to superglue, but it certainly softened all the green stuff that was all over it. The resin is fine, but it seems like certain parts went a bit sticky - the nose and a few bits of the underside. I can only assume that this was something do to with the paint used on those bits...

If you've been dettol stripping you might find (as I did recently) that if you get water in your dettol (if it anything less than clear) the it will strip the paint but rather than coming off loosely it will become gummy instead.

This can be resolved with another bath in dettol and/or a wash in nice hot water and a scrub wih a clean toothbrush.

This happened to my gangers on the second batch and can only have been down to water gettin into the dettol.

 notprop wrote:
If you've been dettol stripping you might find (as I did recently) that if you get water in your dettol (if it anything less than clear) the it will strip the paint but rather than coming off loosely it will become gummy instead.

This can be resolved with another bath in dettol and/or a wash in nice hot water and a scrub wih a clean toothbrush.

This happened to my gangers on the second batch and can only have been down to water gettin into the dettol.

I'm not sure, though, because it's SO localised. Very clearly defined parts/areas (nose, railgun vents) are affected and but the rest of the ship isn't and I didn't use any water at all. It's really not that bad, and i think the primer will solve it...

-----------

In other news, I'm waiting on these cool clear plastic flight stands arriving from www.lasercutcard.co.za, which should take about ten days.



In the meantime, I'm making up additional options. Shield drones, new pathfinder drones, and some additional HQ options. I have four Ethereals floating about, so I decided to use this special edition one as my proper Ethereal and convert another into a Cadre Fireblade. A few extra robes and Fire Warrior parts and done! I might give him camo robes...

Yeah

 ArbitorIan wrote:

that fire blade looks awesome, maybe give him a bonding knife instead if a wand in his right hand?

Panic...

 Panic wrote:
that fire blade looks awesome, maybe give him a bonding knife instead if a wand in his right hand?Panic...

Done!

Also, finally stripped and put back together all the XV15 Stealth Suits - seven in total. I didn't have enough backpacks, so I used the backpacks from the XV25 suits (I had loads left over from the Crisis Suit conversions, and still have enough for my Air Caste Vespids). They're a bit big, but I think they look ok. there's a fusion blaster conversion in there, and the Shas'vre has a marker light on his burst cannon.

Aaaand... painted!



I also got a quick paintjob done on the converted Fireblade and the Ethereal, ready to try out in a game this evening...

Love the work here, can't wait to see the flyers.

Well, flyers are next! I've been quiet because I've been doing a bit of dodgy recasting - in order to get all my flyer options done I need additional seeker missiles, additional weapon system turrets, additional ion guns, etc etc.

But, now most of that is done, I've been assembling the actual models!

Two Barracudas to start - they needed a fair amount of trimming and sanding to get them looking good, and all the bits fitting. I've filled in the gaps with Milliput, and also filled in the antenna holes - I don't like antennas. The model has a drop-down underside which exposes the seeker missile bay, but I haven't bothered articulating this - it can't be dropped in game, anyway, because the stand gets in the way!

These will have all the options for a counts-as Razorshark as well..



I then built the Burst Cannon turrets. Since I really don't like the spindly Burst Cannons, I cast up lots more of the cowled ones and replaced the barrels on them. I'm casting more of these turrets to hold the seeker missiles when it's pretending to be a Razorshark.



And lastly, the front gun. The two Ion Cannons will be magnetised, and I built these quad ion racks out of some Ion Rifles for Razorshark mode. I just need to find something suitable to mount them on...

ALSO

So, I've finally finished converting my Interceptor Drones. These are replicas of the large-size drone tops from the Barracuda/TigerShark kits, which I've put drone bottoms on and wings from the XV9 Hazard kits. The wings have to go on top, because the drop into the holes of the Tiger Shark rather than 'slotting in' like on the real Sun Shark.



I've also magnetised the seeker missiles for the Razorsharks and built some Missile Drones for my Broadsides.



And magnetised the front mount of the Barracudas



And finally, A REQUEST.

I have three of these Sentinel Missile Launchers lying around from my Drade Suicide Legion army (where they can't be used on the light Scout Sentinels), and I thought that they would made really good High-Yield Missile Pods for my existing Broadsides, with skulls cut off and the pointy missiles replaced with ball bearings.

Only trouble is, I need another three to make them twin-linked, and they're really hard to find online. So, if anyone has any of these spare, I'll happily trade you bits for them - I have lots of bits for different armies. I need three more in total.

Can certainly do you one if not all three mate. I'm working on sob just now if you can help out with that I'd be chuffed.

Oh dear. So, I really need to get around to posting decent pics of the finished conversions I ended up using at NOVA this year. The Commander, Rangers (Kroot), new Broadsides and Aegis Defence Line went down well, but I haven't taken any proper pics yet. My report is here... http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/549198.page



Anyway, all this laziness has prompted Panic and I to start using a KanBan board this year. It handily has all our unfinished projects on it, so we can get a load of half-finished things out of the way (and compete to see who can do the most).



So, this prompted me to get my infantry backlog out of the way. These guys have been sitting in Dettol for months now, and I need to start stripping other things, so I salvaged what I could and built the final of my Fire Warriors squads - this one with Carbines. Plus a couple of extra Pathfinders to finish them off.



Hopefully I'll get these painted this week, and then I can move the project into the 'Done' column on the board...!

Hey, I don't think I've said it yet but your yellow tau are coming along quite nicely. It's a very striking scheme. On your last post, I saw you had a request for Sentinel missile launchers for your Broadsides. A bit of a shameless self-plug here, but I think you should take a look at my thread (link in sig). On the first page, you should see the Broadside I converted using the same bits. I don't think they'd look good on the arms, but they look great up on the shoulders.

 bossfearless wrote:
Hey, I don't think I've said it yet but your yellow tau are coming along quite nicely. It's a very striking scheme. On your last post, I saw you had a request for Sentinel missile launchers for your Broadsides. A bit of a shameless self-plug here, but I think you should take a look at my thread (link in sig). On the first page, you should see the Broadside I converted using the same bits. I don't think they'd look good on the arms, but they look great up on the shoulders.

Thanks - I actually finished those conversions - double-staked on a shoulder looks fantastic. Haven't quite finished the arms yet, but I'll post some photos as soon as I do.

----------------

Had a chance to take some photos of some new guys I made for NOVA. Here are my Tau Rangers (since there are no Kroot in my army!). Made from Fire Warrior parts, Tau Tank Commanders, Kroot, Empire Militia bodies and Catachan parts! The head on the Tau Hound is from the Hazard suit kit...




Then the Commander, a mix of XV8 and XV9 Hazard parts, heavily chopped to make him look a bit more advanced. His legs have been lengthened and the two jump jets put together (and augmented with some Hazard thrusters). The shield is from the O'Ralai set.

Inspired work on those Tau Rangers.

 Arakasi wrote:
Inspired work on those Tau Rangers.

Thanks, Arakaksi! I'll be finishing them off at some point with a Shaper and maybe some sort of TauOxen...

------------------------

The KanBan board is slowly working! Last night I managed to finish off the final basic infantry guys. They've been sitting in Dettol for six months and sitting in boxes for YEARS before that, but all I wanted was a third full squad of Fire Warriors with Carbines. I painted them quickly, but I'm just happy they're DONE...



Also, finished another Pathfinder leader and an Ion Rifle conversion in the same batch. That's all the Fire Warriors and Pathfinders I'll ever need finished. (sorry for the blurriness)



And, another little project that has taken far too long, I bit the bullet and finally finished the two magnetised Ion Cannon for the Hammerheads.

Can't wait to see those flyers on the run.

Keep up the fabulous work!

Wowzers! Those are some bright Tau...

Looks great, though.