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I am making a tau army ATM an a thought crossed my mind... What if a tau put power armor on? So I plopped a unhelmeted fish head on some power armor and it looked neat. Now... How could I make his feat look right since they are hoofed?

Tau are significantly smaller than space marines which might kick up a scale issue. Not sure if the GK range has some human sized people in power armour (still taller than tau I believe) that might look more suiting. Since the boots are power armoured it might not matter that they arent hoof shaped on the outside.

Snag the legs from one of the stealth suits. They actually are an OK match up.

We play a bit of a freeform game that is more or less based around the 40K background and one of the guys did what you mention...sort of.

The legs are from the XV25 kit. Head is a fire warrior head. Torso is from the space marine kit (imperial junk shaved and replaced with Tau junk). Weapons are tau as well. He uses them as shock troops for an army which is sort of based on Commander O'Shovah - less shooty...more pokey.

Yeah that sounds pretty tight, this sounds like a project I. The making for me some time soon! Thank you.

The only other thing I might add to the idea was he went ahead and sort of changed up the backpacks some. The regular SM backpacks didn't look the part, so he sort of shrank the back half of the big XV-8 armor to SM size and cast new ones in resin (though they were more curved than square...a bit like Forge Worlds XV-9 suits).

If you wanted to go the extra mile - you would resculpt the hands - but most people don't realize that minor of a problem unless it is pointed out to them.

I'd love to see his pics

He is busy chasing goats in the Hindu Kush right now - so it will likely be awhile before I get a chance to take any pictures.

I'm not even going to ask rofl - ok nvm - chasing goats??? Could not resist!

Pretty much. Least that is the official, unofficial response to things.

That is so awesome lol.

This thread has taken a turn for the intriguing...

Tau already have power armor, they're called stealth suits and crisis suits. Tau aesthetics don't match up with Imperial aesthetics at all.
E: Outside of Gue'vasa or something like that anyway. Convert away if you want to.

O yeah this is for non fluff purposes just to make some cool models.


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Eldarain wrote:This thread has taken a turn for the intriguing...

Agreed lol

Brother SRM wrote:Tau already have power armor, they're called stealth suits and crisis suits. Tau aesthetics don't match up with Imperial aesthetics at all.
E: Outside of Gue'vasa or something like that anyway. Convert away if you want to.

The Tau suits are more gun platforms than assault suits. He wanted something that looked more the part for close combat rather than run and gun. Because of the size of the XV-8s and the layout of the Stealth suits - he decided to go with a conversion. While the design differences between the Tau and Imperial are significant - because the details (skulls, rivets, aquilla) were removed and replaced with appropriate Tau markings it wasn't actually noticeable. Combine that with the Tau legs, helmet, weapons and backpacks and it becomes even less noticeable.

I don't recall the exact background which he was going with (whether it was part of O Shovah's break away sect or something like special forces to deal with Tyranid infestations in space stations and the like (you don't want to be firing off rail gun rounds in there). In any case, they looked the part fairly well.

Proiteus came up with a great concept that I stole for my Zealots:



It uses stealthsuit legs and arms with a Marine torso. It looks rather ace I think.

I agree with flinty, marine torsos with steakth suit legs look pretty cool

my mechanicus HQ uses the same concept

Yep - like I said - the legs are a pretty good fit. I think he used one of the other torso marks on his though (either that or he had sculpted the groin guard pattern to extend up the rest of the way to the chest). I had always liked them myself, and have been meaning to do a squad or two of them to help beef up my Tau army.

Wow when I saw the thread I thought it was gonna look crap but if they are similar to Flinty's then I want some. Shame its gonna take 3 boxes worth of models to make em, CSM/SM, Firewarriors and the Stealth Suits.

Not too bad compared to GW retail prices.

Set of three Stealth suits are $15 from Battlewagon. 6 heads for $5. 10 chests for $5. 10 arms for another $3. So - you end up being in for $70 or so to do 10 of them. Good bit cheaper than a comparable number of Terminators.

Flinty wrote:Proiteus came up with a great concept that I stole for my Zealots:



It uses stealthsuit legs and arms with a Marine torso. It looks rather ace I think.

Those look crazy good.

Thanks, Mad4Minis. Linked below is the thread from Proiteus that inspired me.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/349436.page

There is much more awesomeness on that page

Thank you guys as these models do look pretty ace...I am all the sudden intrested in tau.... as an army an not a just plying around lol.

I have now started my own take on these. So far I have got a couple done to a basic level using the minimalist torso fronts, think they are mechanicus ones, with just a few rivets along the top and a mechanicus type symbol in the centre.

I will then start using white milliput to fill under the 'rib' area and build up a Tau type chest front similar to battlesuits. I will probably reduce the 'waist' of the PA chest by removing the 'belt' area to better conform to the Tau steathsuit legs I have used. will post some pics when I have them in a week or so.