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Basically, I have been revisiting the whole XV suit issue of "there is NO way a tau could squeeze in there"! debate! For those who visit ATT, these shots are a bit out of date now, but I will bring you up to speed as soon as- or just head over there to see the latest...

I have wanted for many years to get back into the gaming aspect and after having 3 games of Apoc in the last 6 months realised that If I was to have an army, I wanted it to look as good as possible. The current suits dont really do it for me and so after months of work I am now ready to present my vision of the suits that I have made and then will be casting up for my own force (9 Broadsides and 6 XV8's)

There is nothing that I would call ground breaking, but I think that the general aesthetic and new profile are better than the FW suits
Apologies for the shots!
Firstly, the inspiration shot:



Then the work as is:








What you see above is the bulk of the work (the upsizing of torso and the kit bash/ sculpt of the modular back packs) and then the 'batches' as they will be cast! One for the crisis and one for the Broadside. You will notice little extra details that can be bolted on like sensors, ammo packs and the like. In addition are some drones that I have created to fill the slots of decoy launchers and disruption pods. All the work is (in reflection of the shots) about 1 week from completion, so you will notice certain things that need to be done such as:
Adding the balls to the XV8 ankles
Elbow joints need to be figured out how they will connect and be poseable
Extra detail / armor on the side of the missile podsFilling of gaps.


Anyway, I hope that you like and look forward to your C+C!

Cheers
WaR'hound

Pretty damn nice so far! And these are actually more in line with my idea of a "piloted robotic suit" than the originals too. I can totally see these things beating the living daylights out of marines.

Would be nice to see a comparison shot with a regular suit to get a better feel for how big they are.

Just to jump 4 weeks into the progress, here are some more up to date shots after various c&c...













I am actually at the point of putting all the parts onto sprues for casting now, so this stuff is just the teaser really

SO what are your thoughts?

cheers

WaR'hound

Great conversions!

Will you post some instructions on how you did them? I can see you used to FW parts and cut the body in half and added plastic card.

Unfortuanatly, due to the sheer complexity and number of parts used- that is a very steep ask%-)

If there is something in particular that you need to know, then feel free, but otherwise, a "how2" is out of the question- sorry:-)

cheers

WaRhound

Very nice, the trouble is sooner or later you will find thwe statline for a crisis suit hard to justify.

They are halfway to knights already.

As far as I am aware the Tau pilot is curled up in a little ball and controlls the suit through neural jacks. There are closer to dreadnoughts than armour.

Wow! Bigger-ized Tau! Sweet!

those look very strong

Good evening ladies and gents.

Tonight I bring to you the beginning of the "The casting process"!

This process will, to be fair, be long and drawn out- more so as I am away for the next 3 days on a works field trip:-( However, what I hope to show are the key stages of the process and how simple it can be!

Basically this evening is where I will be pouring the first half of the silicone. This will nicely go off while I am away, so that when I return, I will just have to pull the putty off the back of it and then pour the second layer, before I can cast.

I must point out that at this point, my timetable will be thus:
Pour 1st half mould- XV8 suits
Nothing until Tuesday arvo.
Tues arvo: Peel the putty off, flip mould over, spray with sealer and pour second half of silicone.
Once that has been done, I need to impress the XV88 sprues into the putty and pour the 1st half silcone.
Wedneday: Check XV8 moulds, cut extra vent lines where necessary- pour 1st resin batch to test!
XV88 eel the putty off, flip mould over, spray with sealer and pour second half of silicone.
Thursday: cast 6 XV8 suits and 9 broadsides and assemble before the game at 5pm on Friday evening!

Hmm. AFter typing all that out- I have 1 of two hopes out there- and Bob's dead!

Anyway. Here is the start!









Cheers

Warhound
OH- and I have decided to stick with the stock feet and the back packs for the time being- I can always add 'bolt on' thrusters at a later stage.