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This conversion idea come about for two reasons. Firstly I had seen some incredible conversion work done on Tau suits to fit them into a Kroot army by a fellow called stayfrosty (see http://stillfrostyconversions.com/?cat=4 and http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/7761-Brandon%20Vallee%20Kroot%202.html?m=2&w=600).

Secondly, I recently played my Salamander acquaintance who fielded 4 dreadnoughts. “Fine” I thought, as I laughed at the thought of my broadside unit easily claiming 4 kill points. The trouble was that my shield drones got blown up and the broadsides fled the field in disgrace (not for the first time). So instead of buying more broadsides at £18 a pop, I thought I would try and convert some of the numerous crisis suits I have lying around. You can easily pick up crisis suits for £6-£7 on ebay as they are much more common than broadsides and don’t have the metal parts. Stealth suits and Sniper drones tend to be cheapish as well as people buy them because they look cool then realize they’re among the most over priced fragile units in the game! Anyway….

Material:
1 set of crisis suit parts, preferably half melted by excessive poly cement
1 stealth suit body (both halves)
1 kroot head
1 canopy, stolen from a model aeroplane kit
2 Magnetised Sniper drones
Several 3mm dia. magnets
Several 1mm dia. magnets

Tools:
1mm hand drill
3mm hand drill (or ‘pin vice’ as Brother Bartius would say)
Paper clips (or other, more professional pinning)
Superglue
Poly Cement
Sharp craft knife
Snips
Pliers



Step 1: First thing is to take apart the crisis suit, which had been welded together with far too much poly cement. I had to use the pliers to break the legs off in order to re-posture. Be careful where you apply the force as it’s easy to break the leg instead of getting the leg detached from the torso (I did this!). Nothing wrong with a bit of battle damage!

Step 2: Cut the lower leg off just below the knee joint, using a craft knife to follow and cut the curvature of the knee joint on both sides, and then using the pliers to break the lower leg off from the main leg.

Step 3: Chop the foot off the lower leg at the ankle ball joint (again the previous owner had pretty much melted the poor thing).

By now you have a torso, 2 detached legs, 2 lower legs and 2 feet.



Step 4: Decide what posture you want. I decided this guy would be kneeling so there was a bit of slicing of the hip leg joint using the craft knife. I didn’t bother pinning these parts.



Step 5: This is a good time to magnetise his hard points – drill into the groove that is already there, this will save some labour.



Step 6: Drill 1mm hole into foot and lower leg. Pin lower leg at the ankle end. The picture says it better:



Step 7: Poly cement the lower leg in a kneeling position (the lower leg will be rotated 180 degrees from it’s normal orientation). Again a picture speaks a thousand words:



Step 8: Get the two ‘halves’ of your stealth suit body. Cut with the craft knife along the curved edge to separate the curved frontage from the body and jet pack. It is really easy to give yourself a nasty cut at this stage – please be careful!



Step 9: Drill and pin the stealth suit parts as per this picture. Then drill into the crisis suit chest on both sides. This would also be a good time to drill and pin the Kroot head of the pilot.





Really all that is left is the canopy. I took mine from the rear gun canopy of a Lancaster bomber. I think it was 1:72 scale. My Uncle was radio operator and gunner in a Lancaster in WWII. I wonder what he would have made of a Kroot rear gunner!



I had to strategically drill and pin the canopy and magnetise the inside edge of the stealth parts with 1mm magnets for this to work.



Re-attach the arms in any way you please. If I want to change the angle of the arm I just chop bits of sprue at an angle.



Oh yes and at this point you can attach your magnetized sniper drones.







If folks are interested I will keep this up to date as I finish him off.

Consider me intrigued

Interesting...

Why is the suit kneeling?

With the pose as it is I can half imagine a kroot on his back, like he's riding a krootox

Also intrigued, especially since he's kneeling... Is he Slow and Purposeful if he's shuffling everywhere on his knees?

Hi guys thanks for the feedback (good balance of + and - !). I had a go at re-posing suit 1. Results are below, still very much WIP




I also had a go at a second suit. Tell me what you think of him. Results are below:







Have alot of work to do but getting there slowly.

Interesting, but how is this a kroot broadside?

@The Ghoma

I would guess that the two sniper drones attached to his arms would be railguns.

Hm... I think the kroot heads are what make them kroot broadsides. So far, that seems to be it, though.

Kroot are suppose to be monsters in close combat right? Have you thought about doing some with power klaw style weapons?

The repose is more interesting than before, but I still want to know why he is on his knees. Has he lost already or is he concentrating so hard that he can't stand?

I'd assume its for extra accuracy/stability - not that @troy_tempest's Tau need it after my last game. Then again, they were actual Tau, not Kroot...

The new kneeling pose is better in this regard - looks less "defeated" and more "steadying". Only negative from me so far - picture quality has degraded :(

Keep up the good work!

Thanks for the responses. They seem to be mostly negative which is a pity. Nevertheless, in true British fashion, I shall continue undeterred! <lights cigar and quotes Churchill>

Well I'm no soldier but I do know that soldiers don't always spend their lives striding forwards into battle, especially when they are being fired on! Also, not all 40k models have to be in a highly idealised pose. This (IMO) is boring, and is also one of the reasons the thread existis i.e. to do something different.

I won't be tooling them up for CC a) because they are broadsides and b) because that would bring me too close to the work of stillfrosty. If you like the idea of kroot suits with power weapons I suggest you check out his coversions (link at start of thread).

And yes I'm using sniper drones to represent rail guns! They have to be good for something, right?!....

Remember - its not mostly negative, its simply mostly opinions - and yours is what matters the most! As another Dakka member commented on their own blog - sometimes the comments are just as helpful for determining what you *don't* want to do On the plus side - they show people care.

I have to admit i really do like what your doing. Frosty would be proud and then probably steal ur idea for himself

One thing you may wish to try is what ive done for the rainguns on my Kroot broadside.




Its 2 of the ariels from a Tau devil fish stuck side by side. and the main body of a plasma rifle from the suit. Missiles are from the terminator box set.

Gives you a similar sort of look to the rail rifles drones but also looks a little more dangerous. Even if you onnly get 2 of the arials you can make the insides of them wider by adding plasti card (had to do that for one since i could only find 3 arials.

Cant wait to see it all done.

This looks really good I like the use of sniper drones in there. Its given me some good ideas for my tau army, as I like including kroot models but I want to keep to the killyness of the firewarriors at long range.

I shall be looking forward to seeing more work from you. Keep up the good work.

Heh thanks dudes for the +ve comments and for sharing some cool alternative kroot broadside conversions.

a couple of pics:

I don't mean to be slamming your models. I'm just looking for a reason behind the pose, and "just because I want to" works very well!

That being said, while I intend to incorporate a unit of Kroot into my ork army, I don't play Tau... so I haven't a clue as to the pro's and con's of the broadside.

I like how the sniper drone broadside is coming out, and I am quite interested in where the kneeling broadside goes.

I've gotten into modeling because I wanted to show alternative aspects of the characters, not just charging into battle. So, I like that that is the case here, too.

I'll be watching

Heh - no worries! And the idea of the kroot crisis suit with power weapons got me thinking.. about using one of them as a 'counts as' for Farsight. As a rule I hate Tau special characters - the models are uninspiring and special rules are naff. But the idea of a kroot commander with a power weapon.... hmm very interesting thought!

Just a quick update - I've started painting both suits and also doing a conventional broadside at the same time to make the squad up to 3... By wednesday I hope to have painted suits to upload... may field them in Thursday evenings game!

Very intersting and well positioned models you've got going on here.
Consider me intrigued and subscribed.

I like the crouching and the poses although one thing I'd drop is the big disk of the drones without it I think you'd get a far more slim line look. The crouching makes sense to me as it provides stability making you more accurate....

You read about Tau always updating their tech. so kroot battle suits make sense. Plus wasn't there a kroot wearing tau FW armor in WD a few years back?

Thats funny my girlfriend said last night she thought the dics on the sniper drones look weird. However I'd still like to use them as sniper drones sometimes.. will see how the paint up goes and could maybe magnetise after that.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
A few pictures.. painting is WIP.. I decided to change the canopy on one of the broadsides.

Nearly done now:

The whole concept is great! I like the suits! Awesome work!

Looking good! Can't wait to see them in person...

Excuse for kneeling: he's shooting under something. Or hiding behind cover.

Having the kroot head showing like that makes it look a lot more like 'someone in a cockpit guiding the thing' and less 'someone wearing excessively oversized armour'. Which I prefer.