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Well, I've always felt that the Tau Pirahna was one of the worst models forgeworld has produced. I've always felt that it looked like it was flying backwards. So when it came time to add a few pirahnas to my Tau force, I had to do something. I know that a long time ago I did a search on other coversions for this kit and you have probably seen something simular. I know that I got the structure idea from many different sources so I can't claim 100% originality here. Add to that the only plasticard that was used was just to bulk out the engines a bit more for a better fit. Nothing radical, but I think the model looks tons better. Obviously, I need to use a little green stuff to smooth out the rough parts and there are some mold lines that still need a little cleaning. But the canopy, driver body and chair, co-pilot body, and fusion gun are still not glued in place. Lots of room to get to all of the details when painting time happens. Ohh yeah. The fact that the wings tip down and the engines are at a slight angle is intentional.










I use 5 seeker missiles in my list. I'll be putting two on each pirahna. I wanted them removable for smaller games, it will also make keeping track of what vehicle still has missiles over the course of the game. I'll just pull them off as I use them. The last pic show the vehicle with the drones and missiles off. This is probably how it will look at the end of most games.

wow! I myself think pirahnas look pretty cool but that pirahnas got some guts now! He looks like he's in a mini-starfighter and it still looks very tau. very neat, a squadron would look very very neat, make more!

Jedi 76

Don't loot too shabby at all. Only thing I think I'd change is to turn the wings around so their curve follows what their fliers look like.

I think it looks to cool to to be a pirahna you should make some VDR rules for it. Call it something else, thresher like the shark.

nice. not sure about the angled wings , I'd like to see them horizontal. and as Aduro says, maybe reversed, i.e. the narrow end at the front?

Where did you get the canard winglets?

Everything you see came from the Pirahna model itself with the exception of the two seeker missiles which came from the standard devilfish or hammerhead kit. The white block is plasticard.

I'm not really sure what canard winglet are, but if your talking about the fins at the front of the craft they actually come attached to the bottom of the engine block on the original model. I just cut them off and moved them.

Yeah, I'm going to throw my vote in on reversing the wings. I think they look great set back like that, but I think they'd look better with the curved edge forward.

Thats really cool. Tau gunship fun. I don't think it would look as aggressive if you reversed the wings. Would be better if the intakes sloped forward rather than back, but that would mean chop and change etc.
Make a couple more of these, there great!

I think it looks great as it is. It would look equally great with the wings reversed.

The inverse dihedral (the way the wings slant down) might be cool if the entire wing and engine assembly was mounted lower on the hull, so the top of the engine was level with the cockpit edge.

The canards are the little winglets on the nose.

I hate to offer criticism because I think you're done a brilliant job. So please take my comment as ideas not criticism.

Having been with Jayden, I can attest that the wings in the opposite direction was looked at, but with how far back the engines were to be positioned, it made the visual balance of the model way too off. Rear-loaded, as it was.

The current way is better, IMO. Also, while the angled wings look a tad odd when looking at the model from the nose, it makes it look much better from above - where you will normally be viewing it when it's on the table.

Neat conversion, love the missle magnets!

I'm not quite sold on the wing angles, though. 'Spose that would look better with several of them side-by-side.

But I do really like the "canard winglets", though.

Thanks for all the comments guys. I still have one more to build so I'll look into some of the suggestions. St. John mentioned that it could probably use twin tail fins pointed slightly inward to bring it all together. Those would have to be constructed of plasticard, but I think it would be a good idea.

Nice stuff. I actually think the standard Piranha looks better, but these have the bonus of resembling the larger skinks, which is a very neat touch.

Edit: What am I saying? Skimmers, not skinks!

These look much better than the Forgeworld or the GW ones. Bravo!

Wow, very nice take on the standard model.