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So, I'm wanting to convert my piranhas into drone piloted piranhas and having a hard time coming up with a good way to fill in the cockpit. Esentially my plan is to fill/cover it so i can place some drone heads and a few techno-controlly looking gizmos on there to still get the "open top" feel. Any suggestions?

You could take a page out of MD helicopters book and just strap the drone into the pilots seat.
I recommend covering the seats with a piece of plasticard and accenting the flat part with an antenna array and a couple of heat sinks.

The plasticard idea is pretty solid and I think that will work with what i was wanting to do. Thx for the pro-tips! If anyone else has any ideas i'm all ears.

Why not scrap using the Piranhas and actually use the Remora Drone from FW?


It's the same general size as the Piranha, but it'd save you a lot of conversion work.

I think you should just create a "closed cockpit" with plasticard and have done with.

Certainly I think the result should look like it has a completely new cockpit (even if you've really just covered it over) - I can't see Tau building Drones which could pilot a regular Piranha, doesn't seem very Tau-ish somehow.

Hmm, how practical would it be to shorten the fuselage? That would certainly help avoid the 'I stuck some plasticard on a kit' look.

Clang wrote:Certainly I think the result should look like it has a completely new cockpit (even if you've really just covered it over) - I can't see Tau building Drones which could pilot a regular Piranha, doesn't seem very Tau-ish somehow.

Hmm, how practical would it be to shorten the fuselage? That would certainly help avoid the 'I stuck some plasticard on a kit' look.

I feel the same way, I think I should have been more clear in my description. Its not necessarily drone pilots rather the entire piranha is the drone. similar to drones used by the US NAVY. I've even toyed with idea of taking the pilots and their controls and converting them into a sort of remote pilot command center (simply for fun and looks).

I would like to shorten the model itslef to lend it to the drone style more readily, however, I worry this might cause LOS issues/complaints when playing in local tourneys.

Do you have a specific drone in mind? Or just making a P into a drone.

I guess you could put the top of the drone sentry turret (FW product) on top of the pirhana (not sure in what way though).

Saintspirit wrote:I guess you could put the top of the drone sentry turret (FW product) on top of the pirhana (not sure in what way though).

No you couldn't, not unless you want something to look like a drunk man's AWACs system.

The drone sentry turrets are big, rounded pieces. A Piranha's hull is a fairly long, slender affair.

Hmm, if it's still going to count-as a standard Piranha, then yeah, keeping the same overall dimensions is sensible, to avoid arguments.

I guess that points your conversion in a certain direction. Since the back of the fuselage is pretty much just a crew compartment, it should be replaced by something similarly sized but more drone-looking - maybe a big pile of sensor arrays etc, which are designed to give the vehicle some special capability (high altitude, bad weather reconnaissance, whatever) which has no relevance inside a standard 40K game. I.e. it looks different for a good reason, but plays exactly the same.

Kanluwen wrote:

Saintspirit wrote:I guess you could put the top of the drone sentry turret (FW product) on top of the pirhana (not sure in what way though).

No you couldn't, not unless you want something to look like a drunk man's AWACs system.

The drone sentry turrets are big, rounded pieces. A Piranha's hull is a fairly long, slender affair.

Oh, I haven's seen them in real life. Nevermind then.

Rather than re-tooling a whole production line it does make more sense jsut to pull the seats out of the thing and use the crew compartment to house the AI array. +1 on the sealing up of the seats and making it look techy-like

Flinty wrote:Rather than re-tooling a whole production line it does make more sense jsut to pull the seats out of the thing and use the crew compartment to house the AI array. +1 on the sealing up of the seats and making it look techy-like

Problem is the seats actually give the Piranha model its structural integrity.

Surely this can be replaced by the mystical power of du'ct t'pe?

Bit of an update, I managed to make a successful conversion. I excluded the front seat entirely, however, the back is necessary as it happens to, pardon the expression, plug the butt end of the piranha. Would look rather silly without it.

I ended up sealing off the crew compartment/cockpit with plasticard and greenstuff. I then took bits from a spare SM Land Speeder i had laying around, chopped up a tau gun drone i wasn't using and affixed another gundrone as well. I'm pretty happy with the results. Here's a little teaser taken with my webcam (i'll get nicer pics up later):

https://skitch.com/wilmoore7/f5tam/cam

https://skitch.com/wilmoore7/f5ta4/cam