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Disjointed Entity wrote:I think the Battlesuit will look fine if you put an Ork or SM infront of him being kicked!
Gotta love Martial Arts.

This. Even magnetize it so you can switch out the model being kicked for your opponent's army

Win, If you could do that, it would just make the model. Looks great anyway but just that little extra touch...

@Rawson, don't worry mate, they are still near the top of the to-do-list, certainly above the vespids in any case! Basically i'm still sourcing bits from various sites, the design in my head is pretty simple really but I want to keep them in keeping with the feel of tau which limits the parts available.

Parts I'm thinking are, Stealthsuit jetpack (cut from body), stealth legs, fw torso and arms, carbines with converted barrels and possible shoulder pads from somewhere. For the head i've got a really cool idea but i'm gonna leave that as a surprise. It might all fall through but it will be fun all the same!

@wm360, the way I was thinking is to just model the 'kicked' model on its own base that neatly slots in front of the suits foot! But I like the idea of a different model as per opponent!

@Evaelc, so that's at least 3 votes for crazy kung-fu antics!

So I had a couple of hours to myself last night but I didn't feel like painting so as if my WIP list wasn't full enough, I decided to start on the rennovations of another dread!

This guys been staring at me for a while now and i've used him a few times and he usually does quite well.

The missile launcher has never had much luck so it gets swapped out for a ccw which suits my style of play much better!

So the befores: (set your face to stun at the shear level of detail on this guy! )







So playable but needs a complete make over! I'm quite proud to admit that since I did this guy (many many many years ago!) my skills have improved drastically, hence the refurb of most of my BAs!

And about 20 mins later, I have this:



So now I have 2 dreads on the WIP list on their way to better lives!

Ta for looking!

Looks great, just simple changes can make a model look a ton better. However I see no Tau...

E_C

I searched around for pics that illustrate what I was saying about the left knee of the XV-9. These two are from http://www.blackfezstudios.com/2008_04_01_archive.html

The upper posing isn't great in those pics but the leg shows what I was suggesting.

@ Evaelc, Thanks mate! Bit of Tau up next!

@ Coyotius, thanks for those pics mate, I think I knew what you were saying but its always good to have a visual aid! I'll use them as reference with the next b/suit!

So, pretty poor performance on my behalf this week. All i've done is put a little paint on the 3rd GK termie (although not enough to warrant a pic). But I have be toying around with this Tau Infantry squad.

Just a quick kitbash at the mo.

Only a quick mock up of the torso/jetpack but let me know how it looks!





I'm not using the bare head but thought i'd put in as you get a better feel for the design.

Also I did think of a pretty decent "name" for the type of suit but for the life of me can't remember it! :(

So any suggestions name/fluff/modelling wise then feel free to share!

Thanks for looking!

Tau Jump Infatry FTW!

I really like the necron bits you used (it takes some vision to get the necron stuff to work!)

My only CC would be to make the jump pack a bit more integral looking. Maybe like so:


Keep it coming!
Rawson

I have to agree with Rawson, it looks a lot better like that.

Agreed guys, that does look better! Nice one!

Hmm names .... something to do with Fire falling ...
Oh sod it, I vote Sky Soldiers cause I'm unoriginal haha!
I love the concept though. Are you going to be shortening the helmets to fit?

Yeah the front view looks amazing but with the adjustments the backpack would look just as good. Also if you mold the 2 torsos together it would be quite cool. Maybe you're already going to do that...

My input for name/backstory

T13 Sliders,
Being a stealth trooper comes with risks and some of the fire caste are attracted to these risks. Sliders take the risk to another level, competing to preform trick shots and stunts while fulfilling orders. No longer confined by the bulk of a battlesuit these jump infantry are mobile, hard hitting and accurate. Although frowned upon by the upper ranks of the military they are still respected for their talents and effiency.

@Disjointed, Sky Soldiers? . . . Hmmm . . . Not overly Tau like! As for the helmets i've got a couple of ideas lined up but I need to find the bits first, the std FW are just too big and if I shave them down they just look weird! The idea in my head is sort of a visor type thing. Hopefully i'll have the bits soon!

@ Evaelc, I will be molding the torsos in the simplest sense due to my severe lack of gs'ing skills, it will be more filling the gaps to try and blend but hopefully the arms will cover most of the sides anyway! As for the name/fluff I think you're bang on the money! Just the sort of thing I was looking for so thanks for that! If you don't mind I think i'll make that "official"!

So no pics to share but I do have a painting/modelling session booked in tonight so hopefully i'll have plenty to share tomo!

Thanks for looking!

Emperors_Champion wrote:Also I did think of a pretty decent "name" for the type of suit but for the life of me can't remember it! :(

What about attaching them to the pathfinders? Pathfinders are already deployed in a variety of tasks (markerlighting targets, sniping, etc.), why not add jump infantry? If I remember correctly, vespids have a lower armor save than firewarriors? Maybe the same as pathfinders? I don't really understand the nomenclature for tau, but you could call them PA suits, for Pathfinder (aerial).

Pathfinders and Firewarriors both have a 4+ save, Vespids have a 5+ save.

Enigma Crisis wrote:Pathfinders and Firewarriors both have a 4+ save, Vespids have a 5+ save.

Well, that's what I get for not checking the codex.

Maybe they wear less armor to reduce the overall weight and thus make flight easier?

yeah, they should have a lesser armour save. Can't wait to see more. Also I think there should be a bit more to their backstory...

Ka-Kor (Swift Air) Aero Rifle Platoons.

I thought maybe the "deep striking" type guys could be more closely aligned to the Air Caste, I know the Fire Caste are more the fighters but maybe these guys were trained in special tactics by the Air Caste?

Disjointed Entity wrote:Ka-Kor (Swift Air) Aero Rifle Platoons.

I thought maybe the "deep striking" type guys could be more closely aligned to the Air Caste, I know the Fire Caste are more the fighters but maybe these guys were trained in special tactics by the Air Caste?

I like the air caste idea, but it would require a lot of sculpting which would create a problem:

Emperors_Champion wrote:due to my severe lack of gs'ing skills

Hey, Champ: know anyone at the FLGS that has good GS-fu? That could make the air caste idea work...

How about they are Fire Caste members, but they have strong ties with the Air Caste?
You could fluff it so that the Jump Packs were designed for Air Caste Pilots to evacuate ships, so some Fire Caste members are trained by them?

Disjointed Entity wrote:How about they are Fire Caste members, but they have strong ties with the Air Caste?
You could fluff it so that the Jump Packs were designed for Air Caste Pilots to evacuate ships, so some Fire Caste members are trained by them?

That sounds sweet! Nice work, DisjointedEntity!

Everything is coming along wonderfully! I've been working on some Stealth Suit conversions myself but it's been a while. Once i've got the Tyranids out of the way i'll maybe get them on Dakka and finish them off. Sadly they are nearly finished so i can't steal any of your epic ideas!

Be aware I've effectively stolen all of that, I based it on the USAF Pararescue Teams, but if it works! haha

I don't really like to post to my own blog without pics but I just wanted to let you guys know that I am reading all your replys and absolutely loving it!

I just hope that now they've got their own little bit of fluff I can make the models actually worthy of all your expectations!

I've managed to get hold of some bits I needed for the heads and I've dry fit the (stealth suit) legs onto the "T13s". Nothing too amazing but I'll try my best to get some pics up tomo.

I've also been checking out the stat lines of the Firewarriors vs Vespids and basically blagging my way through the fluffy stuff.

Heres the stats

__________Firewarrior______Vespid_______T13 Justification

WS___________2____________3_________They're better trained? Not a good start, a little help here I think!

BS____________3___________3_________ No reason needed!

S_____________3____________3_________N/A Again!

T_____________3____________4_________Little tricky this one as I would like to say more armour but that gets nurfed by the whole 4+ vs 5+ saves! So again help here please!

W_____________1____________1_________N/A (see I can do the easy ones! )

I______________2____________5_________Right then, my way in thinking is that the special helmets (yet to be seen) have some sort of mind/senses enhancer?

A _____________1____________1__________N/A

Ld_____________7____________6_________Ok! So the drop in Ld can be explained with the whole Fire Caste commanders frowning upon Air Caste tactics/training like what Evaelc said!

Sv_____________4+___________5+________They have to wear more aerodynamic armour giving more manoeuvrability but less protection?


So as you can see, there's a lot of question marks in there. I did say I was pants at the fluff stuff but I think using the stuff you guys have come up with it shouldn't be too difficult to fill in/justify all the stat changes.

So as always, let me know what you guys think and I'll hopefully be putting up pics tomo!

Thanks for checkin' in!

My little 50cents worth

WS-Being so much closer to the front line, resorting to hand to hand becomes more frequent. Because of this they require greater knowledge in this than standard shas'la.

T- here is where I think you should deviate from the vespid stat line drop it one maybe. maybe bumping a point up elsewhere such as BS, reasoning that there is an intergrated targeting array.

I- right thinking just needs a nice bit of fluff to tie it in a pretty ribbon.

Ld and Sv - I see nothing wrong here.

Here are a couple of ideas to poke around for the fluff.

T- same with WS trained in Close Quarters combat so they skin is tougher?

I- through use of their jump packs they are able to crash into a fight at astonishing speeds.

LD- Team Shas'ui is like a Drill Sarge/Ranger motivating his squad to do better.

T would work the same way as Sv.
Due to the armour being a lighter composite it allows them to move quicker, blocking more blows (T), but cannot provide the same level of protection against ranged attacks (Sv)

Evaelc wrote:
WS-Being so much closer to the front line, resorting to hand to hand becomes more frequent. Because of this they require greater knowledge in this than standard shas'la.

Sounds good to me, I'll be putting that in!

T- here is where I think you should deviate from the vespid stat line drop it one maybe. maybe bumping a point up elsewhere such as BS, reasoning that there is an intergrated targeting array.

I don't really want to tweek the stats as some players may take offence/dislike to this. If I were to bump up the BS and keep well out the way all game (like tau should) they would argue that this is cheating!

I- right thinking just needs a nice bit of fluff to tie it in a pretty ribbon.

That's where I was hoping you'd come in!

Enigma Crisis wrote:
T- same with WS trained in Close Quarters combat so they skin is tougher?

Hmm, I see where you're coming from but I think we need to get a bit more technical! They are Tau after all!

I- through use of their jump packs they are able to crash into a fight at astonishing speeds.

Oooooooo very Blood Angels like! And prehaps a bit Orky! I'll definitely try this tactic just to see what happens!

LD- Team Shas'ui is like a Drill Sarge/Ranger motivating his squad to do better.

The Ld actually goes down so I think we'll have to go with the Drill Sarge/Ranger having no/less concern with his leaders instruction and taking his squad off the rails a little!

Disjointed Entity wrote:T would work the same way as Sv.
Due to the armour being a lighter composite it allows them to move quicker, blocking more blows (T), but cannot provide the same level of protection against ranged attacks (Sv)

This could work, I was actually thinking along the same lines myself today. Think of Batman (newer films) where he changes his suit for more flexible gear, he's a Tough bar-steward but a well placed shot will miss the armour plates and penetrate the newer/flexi stuff!

Soz to use the "red pen" everywhere but I figured it was the easiest way to respond to all the advice!

Nice work once again, I think we can safely put the stat lines to one side now! And get on with the actual models!

So I managed to get some pics (after frantically trying to find my camera charger!).

Here's how the stealth suit legs look with the torso;

(still all dry fits at the mo hence why the jump pack hasn't been modified yet!)



Forgive the major focus issue but I was getting rushed by the terrible two year old!

I think the scale of the legs vs the FW torso works well here because of the necron back bulking it out. When the parts list is finalised I intend to get a lot more dynamic with the poses!

Any thoughts?




I also managed to get some painting done and finish my first (and only) Grey Knight squad;

Apothecary;


Nemesis Falchions;


Daemon Hammer;


Nemesis Warding Stave;


Brotherhood Banner;


Family Shot;



I don't know why my pictures keep coming out blurry once I've uploaded them! Any tips on what I'm doing wrong would be awesome!

Anyway, I've decided not to continue with the Grey Knights, between the Blood Angels, Tau, countless other projects and systems and that trivial little thing called life, I'm just not in a position to start another army.

They are up on ebay at the mo if anyone is interested!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/220959323414?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1586.l2649




Anyways, thanks for looking, thank you everyone for your feedback and advice it really does make this sort of thing worth while!

Keep checking back and hopefully the new bits for the T13s will turn up soon!

Looking great, the GKs and the Tau Airborne!

Enigma Crisis wrote:
I- through use of their jump packs they are able to crash into a fight at astonishing speeds.

I like this idea a lot!

Emperors_Champion wrote:
Here's how the stealth suit legs look with the torso;

(still all dry fits at the mo hence why the jump pack hasn't been modified yet!)



Forgive the major focus issue but I was getting rushed by the terrible two year old!

I think the scale of the legs vs the FW torso works well here because of the necron back bulking it out. When the parts list is finalised I intend to get a lot more dynamic with the poses!

Any thoughts?

I think the stealth suit legs will actually help you with the Toughness fluff, as they look beefier than normal firewarriors. I don't really know the Tau fluff, but maybe something about genetic modification or special physical training in high gravity to handle the extra weight of the jump pack and to compensate for the reduced armor. Hows that sound? That would also tie in with the high initiative...

WS - They're all Shas'vre, special secret squirrel assignment...aka volunteers for a prototype. (See Stealth Team entry)

T - yeah, basically the armor is all I can think of too.

I - Again Shas'vre plus perhaps reflex conditioning / suit augmentics / chemical enhancement?

Ld - Side effect of said chem enchancement? Maybe not volunteers after all but Shas that have had some disciplinary issues?

Sv - hmmm, sacrifice of mobility? But how to explain T? Unless the battle stims add T and I and minus Ld.