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I am currently building some Supa Cyborks (Tau Crisis Suits) for my Ork army.
Imagine a Killa Kan having a menage a trois with a Matrix APU and an Aliens Power Loader.

Now I am kinda stuck.
The Crisis Suits are of the well known Fireknife version, armed with a Plasma Rifle and a Missile Pod.
The Missile Pod is handled, but I am unsure about the Plasma Rifle.

Since I am a nice person ( ), and due to the fact that the Crisis Suit will be represented by a converted Ork walker, I really want to have the gun say "Plasma" to my opponent so as to avoid any unnecessary confusion. But I also want it to be a clearly orky weapon.

Any advise, suggestions or shots to the groin from Dakka?



PS. Just to be clear. I have no interest in simply using standard Plasma Guns, Rifles or Cannons. Nor will I use a simple barrel and say; "It, like, shoots special bullets, you know...".

If you put a lot of wires, coils and tubes and paint them a glowy color like blue or purple, I think that could do. As long as it shows a glowy power source, I think it can be pretty reasonable to figure out.

I'd combine bits from an imperial plasma gun (especially the barrel), the original Tau version, and lots of cables and rivets.

see if you can find some of the old 2nd ed ork plasma guns on ebay ?

What are you doing to represent the difference between a 60mm armored walker and a 40mm toughness value model? Slapping tau weapons on a Kan and calling it a tau walker is confusing as all hell and is one of the main things I am not looking forward to in 6th edition and rampant proxy allies.

If I saw a Killer kan with an orky plasma weapon, you have a valid codex option for that... KMB Killer kan since Plasma guns are basically KMBs in the work world.

nkelsch wrote:What are you doing to represent the difference between a 60mm armored walker and a 40mm toughness value model?

Can you clarify what that difference is and what it entails rules/games-wise? I am genuinely interested in your input as it will help me avoiding any kind of confusion.

Slapping tau weapons on a Kan and calling it a tau walker is confusing as all hell and is one of the main things I am not looking forward to in 6th edition and rampant proxy allies.

If I saw a Killer kan with an orky plasma weapon, you have a valid codex option for that... KMB Killer kan since Plasma guns are basically KMBs in the work world.

In case it wasn't clear from my OP I will not simply be slapping tau weapons on a Kan, and you will not be seeing a Kan with an orky plasma weapon.
I take great pains to model the Supa Cybork as a distinct machine not confused with a Kan.

Also I will distinguish the "Tau" models via their paint-job.
I play Deff Skulls and therefore my army is heavily dominated by the colour blue (and green, but hey...it's Orks...).
The Supa Cyborks will be painted yellow as befits Bad Moons with enough teef to get the special Big Mek/Painboy treatment. No other models in my army are yellow making sure that my allies are clearly distinguishable from the parent army.
This I feel is doubly important as I wont be using "regular" Tau models.

I usually go to great lengths to make my models clear. As an Ork player I am well aware of the tendency for Ork armies to simply flow into a big green blob.
I feel that it is the responsibility of the Ork player to make such things as Nobs, Special Weapons and various armaments perfectly clear to the other player as a simple matter of courtesy.

When I get a bit further in the fabrication process I will be posting some pictures, and I would love to have your input then as well. I am sure it will be helpful to me.


I should also mention that I play with a regular group of four other people, so any issues that are strictly tournament-related are usually not to big a deal for us.

As mentioned there's some old 2nd ed ork plasmas floating around, can find some images of them with a quick '40k ork plasma' google images search.

I'm with flamingwalnut on this one, for wires you can use thin electrical cables, styrene(plasticard) tubes/rods for tubing. For a coil I'd suggest taking a piece of sprue and just spinning thin wire around it. For a barrel/frontend a semisphere or an eggshaped bit would be nice, drill a few vent holes into it and you're 'bout done.

Edit: keyboard gremlins snuck in a typo.

Steelmage99 wrote:

nkelsch wrote:What are you doing to represent the difference between a 60mm armored walker and a 40mm toughness value model?

Can you clarify what that difference is and what it entails rules/games-wise? I am genuinely interested in your input as it will help me avoiding any kind of confusion.

If I see a Killer kan, You have a codex option for Killer kanz. Killer Kans are no more a Toughness value than Power armor marines are a a tee-shirted ork.

If you had a Ork army with Killer Kan models and told me they were allied Tau, that is a Proxy or a bad 'counts as'. There are tons of way to make a unique converted model which actually represent the rules of the allied codex without simply being a proxy. Considering people are rushing out to Proxy allies, it is very confusing when I get told that Ork boy with a shoota is a Imperial guard ally.

Slapping tau weapons on a Kan and calling it a tau walker is confusing as all hell and is one of the main things I am not looking forward to in 6th edition and rampant proxy allies.

If I saw a Killer kan with an orky plasma weapon, you have a valid codex option for that... KMB Killer kan since Plasma guns are basically KMBs in the work world.

In case it wasn't clear from my OP I will not simply be slapping tau weapons on a Kan, and you will not be seeing a Kan with an orky plasma weapon.
I take great pains to model the Supa Cybork as a distinct machine not confused with a Kan.

Also I will distinguish the "Tau" models via their paint-job.
I play Deff Skulls and therefore my army is heavily dominated by the colour blue (and green, but hey...it's Orks...).
The Supa Cyborks will be painted yellow as befits Bad Moons with enough teef to get the special Big Mek/Painboy treatment. No other models in my army are yellow making sure that my allies are clearly distinguishable from the parent army.
This I feel is doubly important as I wont be using "regular" Tau models.

I usually go to great lengths to make my models clear. As an Ork player I am well aware of the tendency for Ork armies to simply flow into a big green blob.
I feel that it is the responsibility of the Ork player to make such things as Nobs, Special Weapons and various armaments perfectly clear to the other player as a simple matter of courtesy.

When I get a bit further in the fabrication process I will be posting some pictures, and I would love to have your input then as well. I am sure it will be helpful to me.


I should also mention that I play with a regular group of four other people, so any issues that are strictly tournament-related are usually not to big a deal for us.

I would like to see the difference between a Killer Kan with Tau weapons and a 'Super Cybork'. I have seen some amazing Tinboy conversions fromt he KANZ boxedset to the point they could not be confused for Kanz ever, but I have also seen 'This Kan is a broadside now'.

I just saw someone who made some Grot firewarriors which were awesome because they were done in such a way that they could never be confused with ork grots but fit the theme of grot firewarriors and make great allies. There were distinctions which showed the difference in armor value, weapons and toughness over the existing grots.

nkelsch wrote:

If you had a Ork army with Killer Kan models and told me they were allied Tau, that is a Proxy or a bad 'counts as'. There are tons of way to make a unique converted model which actually represent the rules of the allied codex without simply being a proxy. Considering people are rushing out to Proxy allies, it is very confusing when I get told that Ork boy with a shoota is a Imperial guard ally.

As I mentioned such confusion will not be a problem as I, once again, will not be putting down Killa Kans and say; "Thems Tau, them are".
I am kinda sad that you keep assuming that this project is motivated by a simple desire to field an ally combination in the easiest 'Ard Boyz-style proxy way possible.
This is motivated by a desire to do a fun and appropriate conversion of an allied unit.
Like the Ogryns I used for Nobs, the home-made Deffkopta (made before the official models were released) and the Leman Russ that I looted (back in the days).







I could simply plonk down my regular Tau Crisis Suits...but what would be the fun in that?



I can only hope that pictures (hopefully by next weekend) can convince you. I will make sure to make comparison shots as well.

hehehe, Krisis Soots, nice one.

Regarding plasma weaponry, I second the idea of tracking down some old Orky plasma weapons. They had a distinctive style and would be a great addition. Otherwise, I think the Lootas sprue has some Tau inspired orkified weapons (a fusion blaster I think, but the two weapons are relatively similar in purpose). What about some kind of super-tesla style weapon?

The ancient (2nd Ed?) plastic ork plasma guns are pretty low on detail by modern standards. But the basic shape's fine, so with rivets and detailing added, they might be ok.