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This is the first P&M blog I've ever done, ordinarily I work on whatever strikes my fancy at whatever pace I feel comfortable with, but this time I need some motivation to finish against a deadline.

Cangames is a 3-day gaming convention, including a 1500 point Warhammer 40,000 tournament, held from May 16-18, and my current Tau force feels a little bit dated and lacking. And oh, yes, there's a Hall of Heroes tournament at the local battlebunker, which rumour (aka, the staff) has it will be Cities of Death.

So, I'm overhauling my Tau with some new Battlesuits, Piranhas, and a new paint scheme, to go from a semi-mechanized force to an entirely mechanized force.

Here is what I have now:

Assembled and Painted in old scheme
3 XV-8 Battlesuits, 2 XV-88 battlesuits, 36 Fire Warriors, 1 Hammerhead

Assembled and Primered
2 XV-8 Battlesuits, 2 XV-88 battlesuits, 24 Fire Warriors, 1 Devilfish, 4 convertable devilfish/hammerheads

(Partially) Assembled:
2 mostly assembled converted XV-8 battlesuits, 1 somewhat unfinished converted XV-8 suit, 1 mostly unassembled converted XV-8 suit, 1 mostly assembled converted XV-88 suit, 1 mostly unassembled converted XV-88 suit

Unassembled:
Several XV-8 suits, and XV-88 suits, lots (80+?) of Kroot, 3 Devilfish, 1 Skyray.

And here's what I need to have done (assembled and painted) in less than a month:
7 converted XV-8 battlesuits
24 fire warriors
2 Devilfish
2 Piranhas
2 Hammerheads

In theory, I should have no trouble, but I've never managed to pull off a modeling and painting project on time, so this will be a first for me.

I think my first step is going to be to do the Piranhas, that will get me ready for the Hall of Heroes, I'm not that worried about painting for that event to be honest. I'd much rather have the opportunity to field test my list before Cangames. If I have time, I'll throw together more converted suits so I don't have to mix and match unconverted suits, but that'll be touch and go for this weekend.

Photos to follow.

Still no photos... needed to charge the battery for my digi-cam. Last night I took one Piranha off the sprue and cleaned the flash. I intend to assemble it tonight.

Well, unfortunately I didn't make as much progress as I wanted. I wasn't able to get started in until after 8pm and then I started messing around with some ideas as to how to keep my flight stands from falling off when picking up a model to move it... Which was a success by the way, put a ring magnet on the inside of the model in question, and a stack of small disc magnets on the flight stand with the poles all pointing in the same direction and it works like a charm.

But, with all that, I only managed to get the sub-assemblies of the first piranha completed tonight.

So, here's where I started last night:


Here's where I left off last night:


And here's where I got to tonight:


Nowhere nearly as much progress as I wanted, but I have a better grasp now of how the piranha is supposed to go together, and I'm thinking I'll at least prime the sub-assemblies, so the cockpit isn't left with odd spots of no colour.

On my to-do list for tomorrow: Get the other piranha de-sprued and partially assembled.

On my to-do list for the weekend (after the tournament), take photos of my whole army.

For some reason your photos are bringing me to this page: http://images.atragon.org/upgrade/index.php and not your photos.

As for your log, I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do with Tau ^_-

Oops, I forgot to finish the upgrade process for the Gallery software I'm using after I started it last night (What can I say, I was tired.) I'm in the process of finishing the upgrade now.

Last night was good, I managed to get ahead of target. My goal was to get the 2nd piranha de-sprued and up to the same state as the first one.

Instead, I managed to do this:


And get the mostly unassembled converted XV-8 assembled. It still needs finishing (magnetizing the weapon mounts, cleaning some of the joints, filling small gaps with GS, a real base), but it's ready to rock with some weapons blue-tacked on.



On my to-do list for tonight: Get both piranhas assembled and primered. Unfortunately I'm out of 1/8" rare earth magnets, so I'll be using blue-tac to hold the weapons on for now.

Bonus objective: Decide on config of crisis suit for my commander, and finalize army list for tomorrow.

Not quite as much progress as I wanted to make last night, but a decent amount none the less.

Both prianhas assembled:


Both of the chin turrets are just tacked into place, and I need to go back and smooth out the seams with greenstuff, but they're assembled at least.

And, a pair of crisis suits tacked together into a Deathrain config.


Unfortunately, I'm one suit short of where I want to be, all of my converted suits are in use, as are my pair of straight up Fire Knife suits, which leaves me without a really good choice for one of my commanders' suits.

I don't have the model to go with a FB/SG/VRT/SI Shas'El, and I don't have quite enough points to throw in a MP/PR/SG/HWMT Shas'El. This leaves me with the choice of either a TLPR/MP/HWMT Shas'El, or a TLPR/MP/HWMT/Bonding Team Leader, and enough points left over for Flechette Dischargers for both devilfish in my list... choices.

My to-do for today: Finalize list, get Piranhas squared away for transport, play 40K, take photos of my army.


Micro-update: List finalized, Piranhas squared away. All I've got left to do is get everything packed up and head out to play some 40K.

For the curious, my list for today is attached.

So I went 1-1-1 at the HoH.

Game 1 was a crushing victory against Eldar in a High-Ground mission (take and hold the building in the center). Highlights included my squad of Fire Knives popping both of the opponent's Wave Serpents, killing several of the aspect warriors inside, and my Piranhas hunting down and killing his Fire Prism. The only loss on my side was a single Death Rain.

Game 2 was a draw against mech Tau in a maximum carnage (kill the other guy) mission, he had 3 Railheads, 2 FW teams in fish, 2 stealth teams, and a commander. He got first turn and popped one of my HHs and stripped the railgun off the other. I was rather happy to pull out a draw. Highlights included my railgun-less Hammerhead popping his last functional HH from behind with its SMS, and my FK team getting raped by one of his stealth units. 1 FB shot = 1 dead suit, 6 BC shots = 2 wounds and another dead suit... Do'h.

Game 3 was a solid defeat against Dark Eldar in the Rolling Thunder? (Attacker sets up within 12" of a short table edge and has to make it off the other short edge). I was a bit too aggressive with my setup, which let the DE get in amongst my units and start the rape. Thankfully I managed to pop enough of his transports to keep him mostly on the table. Highlights included a Piranha that did 2 wounds on a Talos from within 6", and a cross-table shot that took down his Ravager from about 5" away... one turn after it burned down 2 of my Fire Knives... Do'h.

Lessons learned: Don't be so @#%&( aggressive with my suits, I kept putting them into harms way in the 2nd 2 games, and I paid for it. Also, hunting down AV13 skimmers without any Railguns sucks.

My to-do for tonight has changed. I found out that there's a siege going on at the Bunker tomorrow, and I've got Galruch sitting around in need of assembly and painting. If I can get him done in time, I'll probably show up and see just how much carnage a 700 point dragon can cause.

Sounds like you had a good time overall ^_^. I miss actually PLAYING 40k...I haven't done it in some years now. Some day I'll get back to it...

So the entire army is assembled now?

How much longer must we wait to see the first painted piece!?

Not quite assembled yet, I still have to go back over the Piranhas with green stuff, convert 3 more crisis suits (the 3 Fire Knives were unconverted suits) to match the 4 already done, and then magnetize them. Oh yes, and magnetize the Piranhas whenever my magnets arrive.

Then I'm ready to paint.

I'll get my colour test FW posted sometime tomorrow to show what I'm shooting for.

Micro update Well, I somehow managed to snap or dull my entire stockpile of #67 drill bits after managing to pin 1 joint on Galruch, so, no siege tomorrow. Darn. I guess I'll work on my Tau some more then.

After spending a sizable portion of the day screwing around with some computer problems, picking up some stuff, and tidying up my work area, I didn't get much done today...

Having said that, I've uploaded the photos I took at the HoH tournament here:


The test mini for my new paint scheme here:


And I've decided to take a (hopefully) quick break from Cangames prep to throw together a Sniper 'Drone' team, except using Fire Warriors instead of drones as the snipers. (I bitzed a supply of rail rifles a few years ago. Did you know that GW redesigned the rail rifles at some point?)


My to-do for tomorrow, get as much of the sniper team done as possible. I'm planning 2 running, 5 standing/kneeling to shoot, 2 prone, and 3 spotters. I'm thinking the majority of the challenge will be in making prone FCWs.

Having had about 0 energy after work today, I (unfortunately) didn't get any work done on the snipers. However, I did see a pretty good idea to make Ghillie suits, I'm thinking of doing a hooded cloak for each sniper and spotter using 4" gauze as a base, though I haven't quite figured out how to do the strips yet, I'm leaning towards either static grass, or some form of dried herb.

On the bright side, it looks like the prone FCWs will be easier than expected as I'll just need a rough shape to go under the cloak.

To-Do for tomorrow: Actually get work done on the snipers.

Bleh, as much as I hate to do this again, I made 0 progress today. I was stuck at work until ~8:30 and didn't make it home until around 9:15.

On the bright side, if everything goes well this week, I might be able to get my hands on some time off next week.

Ahh, progress.

I got the first 3 snipers assembled tonight, 2 prone and one kneeling. The rest (2 walking, 2 standing, 2 kneeling) should go together much faster.




It's a fairly simple conversion, take a pathfinder rail rifle and stick it on a firewarrior body. The only real conversion work is to cut down the backpack and move it to the hip, the arms on the prone guys, a simple leg bend on the prone ones, and removing a bit of the helmet so the antennas fit properly.

I've also cut out some gauze to use as the base for some ghillie cloaks, once I figure out what material to use for texture, I'll take a swipe at slapping them on.

To-do for tomorrow: Get the other snipers assembled.

Good news and bad news:

The good news is that I've assembled a full sniper team consisting of 9 snipers and 3 spotters. The bad news is that I finished assembly 2 days later than I wanted to.

Why is this bad news? Because I've got an apocalypse battle coming up next weekend and I need to assemble 3 crisis suits and either 3 or 6 stealth suits for then. And it takes me quite a bit longer than I'd like to do one of my converted crisis suits. So I don't have time to finish the sniper teams off (ie, greenstuff and the cloaks). Thankfully I'm not planning on using them for Cangames, so I'm not too badly off.

Anyways, here are some photos of the sniper teams in their bare state:



And my to-do for tomorrow: Clean and de-sprue 3 crisis suits. Bonus points for getting the legs and arms chopped for posing.

Good progress, but no photos tonight... 3 de-sprued crisis suits is fairly boring, isn't it?

So I managed to pull off my main goal tonight, get 3 suits worth of parts cleaned and de-sprued. They're all ready for me to start assembling.

(Un)fortunately, I'm going out for a round of golf after work tomorrow, so I won't be home until somewhat later than normal. Ah well, such is life.

My to-do: Get the torsos assembled, get arms and legs chopped, get burst cannons put together. Bonus points for getting the heads converted.

That's a lot o' snipers ^_^.

Good to see you keeping with your blog.

Good luck with Golf tomorrow!

So, instead of golfing after work today eating up most of my time, I woke up to find myself the proud owner of a sore throat, I stayed home from work today and rested instead of golfing.

However, I did manage to find the energy to get the torsos mostly assembled, the arms and legs chopped, and half cleaned up, and the defiler sensor arrays cut down to size.



However, I didn't get started on the heads.

So, to-do for tomorrow: get the torsos completed, get the heads done.

Progress, but not quite as much as I wanted (close though).

All 3 torsos are complete with the exception of the shoulders. (I extend them out from the body a bit to gain more flexibility in arm poses).




All 3 heads are complete.


Burst cannons are glued, and the arms and legs are cleaned.


To-do for tomorrow: Get shoulders done, prep all weapons for magnetizing. If there's time, start magnetizing. (I'm out for dinner tomorrow, so less time than normal will be available for modeling).

Unfortunately I got home later than expected, so I didn't get anything done last night.

On the bright side, the megabattle that was scheduled for Saturday has been canceled, so I've got an extra day to make up for the lost evening.

Anyways, to-do for tonight: Get shoulders done, prep weapons for magnetizing, magnetize weapons and suits.

Quick update:

I haven't gotten as much done as I wanted to in the last few days... mainly because I underestimated how much time prepping and magnetizing 7 suits worth of weapons would take, and also how much greenstuff would be required on each of the suit torsos.

So, bottom line, here is where I'm at now:

2 suits are almost done, they just need some work with a file once the greenstuff has cured, and the "electronics package" added to the left arm.

2 suits need one set of magnets added to the right arm, some file work once the greenstuff has cured, and the "electronics package" added to the left arm.

3 torsos need some file work, magnets are done.

3 sets of arms need some greenstuff on the left shoulder, and the "electronics package" added to the left arm.

3 heads need the greenstuff work done on them.

After that, I will be ready to assemble the 3 unassembled suits.

Then base all 7 of them.

Then I need to go back over my two piranhas and clean them up a bit (I didn't do post assembly cleanup when I built them.)

Bottom line, I will see how much work I manage to get done tonight, if I can't get all the suits at least assembled tonight, I will fall back on plan B - bring my Iron Warriors to Cangames, they're all assembled, I just need to paint some of them. Which sucks, but I may not have the time to assemble AND paint the Tau in time, and the Cangames tournament requires painted minis.

Nice to see stuff is still moving along. What colour scheme are you thinking of using for your Tau?

Moving along, yes. Moving along quickly enough, iffy.

Here is the test mini for my paint scheme:


And now back to work. Am I insane to try to paint 1500 points of Tau in 4.5 days? (Note, I have the week off, so that's full days).

I worked on a tau army in much the same paint scheme.



Maybe that'll help you with a few ideas here and there for your group.

Look`n nice. Alot like what a friend of mine is doing as well. Main difference is he painted the greys as black.

Another quick update,

4 suits are ready to be based, 3 suits are ready for assembly.

Unfortunately, this means that I have the following items left to do for my Tau:

Assemble 3 Crisis Suits
Clean up 2 Piranhas

(Re)base:
24 Fire Warriors
7 Crisis suits

Paint:
24 Fire Warriors
2 Hammerheads
2 Devilfish
2 Piranhas
4 Drones
7 Crisis suits.

And I'm just plain not sure I've got the time to actually do all of it in time for Cangames.

Alternatively, if I were to field my Iron Warriors, I'd be looking at the following action items:

Assemble:
Add extra Armour to one Rhino
Finish jump pack for Demon Prince

Base:
10 Chaos Marines

Paint:
10 Chaos Marines
2 Chaos Rhinos
2 Defilers
1 Dreadnought
Touch up DP's jump pack.

Which is a much more manageable list of stuff to do, but unfortunately the list isn't quite as strong against armour as my Tau are.

I guess I'll sleep on it and see how I feel about it tomorrow.

Freaky... the Tau colour scheme that I have been working on is almost identical as well (basically grey_death's scheme but with blue instead of red and yellow grass instead of green grass on the base). Even freakier is that my marines are very similar to grey_death's marines too. Either great minds think alike, or get out of my head

Well, unfortunately I'm going to have to put my Tau on hold for the time being. I just don't think I can get it done in time for Cangames.

I've completed suit assembly, but that still leaves basing them, and re-basing 24 Fire Warriors... and then painting them, 4 tanks, and 2 piranhas.

So, I'm going to put them aside and work on getting my Chaos together in time. Which is a much easier task as detailed in my previous post.

Ok, change of plans yet again. After I pulled out my unpainted dreadnought and started to paint it... I just couldn't muster any enthusiasm for it.

So, I took another look at the painting requirements, and if I'm willing to accept a mixed scheme, I can drop the 24 fire warriors, one hammerhead, and the 4 gun drones off the list by using ones painted in my old scheme instead of my new one.

So, the Tau are back on the front burner.

And an update:

The suits are based and primed. I'll start painting them tomorrow.

I'm trying to figure out a good method of doing flight stands for the various fish in my army list, worst case, I'll use standard GW stands with blue-tack again, I'll see if anything comes to mind.

On the to-do list: Take photo(s) of primered suits. Paint suits. Re-primer 2 DF and 1 HHead, paint them. Clean, Prime, and Paint 2 piranhas.

Edit:

One idea that comes to mind is to embed nuts of appropriate size into the vehicles, and use shoulder screws of the right length. Just screw the vehicle onto the base when you're ready to rock. Unscrew it to store.

Only problem I can see with this is finding small and long screws for drone bases. Or I could keep on using stock bases for the drones, they aren't posing a problem for me at this time.