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Well its almost finished, just have some detailing and putty-work to do, then its on to the painting stage .






This was the trickiest part, but pretty cool, now to find terrain big enough to hide the APC's body and use the retractable turret. , gotta love TLOS.



Ok well that has been alot of fun, to build, now its only whetted my appetite for finishing my super-heavy.

I hope anybody enjoys this, cheers!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well I was not satisfied with the front turret and decided to do a re-do, so with some of the Komodai for scale, here's a quick pic.


Now I will invite recommendations for stats for this vehicle, since that is always the part where I seem to stonewall, so comments and suggestions are encouraged and welcomed, thanks again.

Well now the "Xeno pattern APC " is to the base coat stage, and here's the pics...




shown with a devilfish for scale .


Turret up.


Turret down.



Well now to decide the paint scheme for it, and I still am requesting suggestions for stats, so and Comments, or ideas are more than welcome.

That looks way better than I expected and really compliments the army and the turret slides *cloud*

Could use a standard Devilfish stat line or a SOB Repressor perhaps.

my guess would be more AV 14 12 10 transport cap: 15 BS: 3 or maybe even 2 just to balance it out a bit, give it the lumbering behemoth special rule from the guard codex and i think that should do it. as for total cost maybe 100 points or so? 50 if it's BS 2

Really great stuff here excellent job.


Steve

Brilliant

@ Tyrael, 100pts for a AV 14?? lol, think it's a bit juicy.. I would say AV 12, 11, 10 transport cap: 12 BS:3, weapons hull twin burst cannons, turret mounted twin plasma (or may uppgrade to something else, like fusion) special rules: tank May buy from the armory: 2 seeker missiles, disruption pod, decoy launcher blahablaha. and maybe 100pts.

I think that's more reasonable, yo got me dawg?

Wow I am really impressed with your fabrication skills. The sliding turret is very well done. Also a big fan of the camo scheme you have going there.

13/13/11
BS: 3
Transport: 14 (no 40mm/jet-pack/jump-pack models)
{hull} T-Link Burst Cannon / option - T-Link Flamer (free)
{turret} T-Link Plasma Rifle / option - T-Link Missile Pod (free)
2 exit points - sides
no fire points

Heavy Support Slot or Dedicated Transport for non-kroot, non-vespid auxiliaries - 80 points

- just my opinion of the top

Thanks for the comments and suggestions, I have read all the stuff so far, and I like where your ideas are going, I'm gonna throw out a rough cut idea for stats and see what you guys think..
AV: 12/12/12 ( based on the model it seems equally armored all the way round)
BS:3
Transport 12 (no large based or jet-pack/jump-pack models )
Hull: TL burst cannon/ option T-link flamer ( I like that idea )
Turret: TL plasma rifle/ option T-link Misslepod ( again nice suggestion )
2 exit points- sides
no fire points.

and now my most radical idea, after watching aliens about 1000 times ,
make it a FAST ground vehicle, would be cool to have something speedy and not grav, besides I always thought it had kinda a sports car lokk to it for a AFV .

120 pts base and can get upgrades from Tau vehicle armory.

Well keep the ideas flowing and I appreciate the input.

This thread is amazing. Love the Aux.

That is great!

Very good, i like the idea that you have taken the fact the tau use auxilaries and modeled some

Tis skill good sir. The conversion work that you and your wife have done is beautiful.

amazingly good looking army. I have been looking for the inspiration to start a new army, and i think your individual take on the expanding Tau Empire is the breath of fresh air i have been looking for.

I'm inspired.

I found this log today, and such amazing Tau sir! You make me wish I hadn't sold mine.

Excellent, keep 'em coming!

Great paint scheme, great conversions, great work overall, I really like those Tau

The alien APC looks a little bit empty with all that open space, maybe put a bit of extra detail on it while still staying true to the original Aliens design, or had freehand design maybe, I'm guessing that's just the basecoat of it.

Still, that thing is awesome!

Yes, it is just the basecoat, but it will look beter once he has put on the proper coat of paint and applied weathering and what-not.

I think it looks great as it is - an excellent interpretation of the Alien APC, brought into the 40K world ready to kick ass

Great army, the alien allies would look kickass on the battlefield
Can't wait to see the heavy skimmer finished. Looks like something that dominate apocalypse games

Well Thanks for all the great input, it is much appreciated .
I will have pics of the finished and painted Xenos APC, but I am still struggling with to Camo it or not to Camo it?

Once I decide then I will forge ahead with its scheme, in the meantime I am finishing my first Komodai Squad of 12 models, and will post pics when they are done.

This weekend hopefully I will begin the major hull work on my Leopard Shark superheavy, I can't wait to get that thing finished, it should be alot of fun, both on the table and fluffwise.

Again thanks for the wonderful input.

Go with a komodai camo scheme, keep the colours the same, but apply it in a different pattern (squiggly lines,
swirls or patches, for example.)

What I would like to see is how you made the skink "navy seals." What did you use for the arms and stuff like that. Did you cut the head off of one and replace it with a necron scarab? I really like the design and desire to put that into the Tau list I am currently working on.

Well since you asked I will try and give you a decent response .


Basically, I take a skink model and cut its arms into a firing position with its chosen weapon, that can be a bit tricky since the model has such tiny arms but with a bit of practice it gets easier.
Next get a Scarab model and chop off its legs carefully along the panel line between it's body and the legs, I then cut out the middle section of the body to acommidate the skinks head fin, then proceed to sand the underside of the scarab flat with a angle towards its head, once that is done.
Take the skink and flatten its head so that the scarab fits smoothly, with only the skinks lower jaws visible, I just cut it and sand it until it has the look and fit I want.

The wet suit effect is accomplished by greenstuff rings around its lower legs and shoulders, and more applied around the tail, terminating in a swim fin tail end, that can be a bit tricky as well since it is very thin, so I usually sculpt it apart from the model , and once it is semi-hardened, I then attach it to the tail with a greenstuff ring.

Its weapon is assembled from a pulse rifle and antenna bit, with the antenna from the Tau sensor bit from the firewarrior sprue.

The other various bits are from a massive stockpile I have of 1/35th scale WW2 gear, which I love to attach to add kit to my models.

Well I hope this has been useful for you and I am sorry I don't currently have any scarabs to do a step by step, maybe if I decide to make another pathfinder Geki squad for my wife I will chronicle that in pics. .

Thanks for the interest, and if you have any further questions feel free to post them here.

Really nice converting!

AWESOME!! Thanks so much for the rundown! Can we get a few more shots of the model, especially from the other side? I am curious how you did the shooting arm/hand? Also how did you do the supporting hand?

The Geki are really nifty and the Aliens APC is awesome have you looked at Sirath's work on his Tau 3rd Sphere Reclamation Force he's done some similiar stuff to yours?