Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

November 20, 2018 Update: Painted Models
November 15, 2018 Update: Kroot Guntractor
September 5, 2018 Update: WIP Painted Abhumans, Xenos, and Untrustworthy Majordomo
September 1, 2018 Update: Vulturekin and Painting WIPs
August 8, 2018 Update: Kroot Saar, Hard-Luck Imperials, Stalker Shaper, and Kroot Pathfinders
July 17, 2018 Update: Krootarii Rangers, Kroot Saar, Xenos Retinue, and Lore Inspiration
July 11, 2018 Update: Krootarii Rangers
July 3, 2018 Update: Abhuman Mercenaries and Steel-Scarred Veterans


So it finally happened. After almost a decade I finally have something worth posting about. Congrats to me.


”Rawr!” means “Congrats!” in Dinosaur

For background, let’s go on a journey back to the before-time (*waves hands around mystically*), to the prehistoric year ~2005. I move to a town for university and go to the nearby FLGS, where I discover the Tau Empire starter box. The robots and tanks look cool, to be fair, but what really catch my eye are the Kroot Mercenaries fighting alongside the Tau. I read as much as I can about them, and their carnivorous, mercenary ways really catch my interest. Fast forward to 2009 and I have decided to finally build a Kroot Mercenary Kindred, using the Chapter Approved list and the FW Taros Campaign book. This was the beginning of the Ironbeak Mercenaries. More to come in my 2nd post (so that I can have links).

Shortcuts: WIP Photos and Finished Photos.

Fast forward to last year (lots of stuff happened, little of any great importance) and the new edition of 40k ensnares me. I bite the bullet and decide to play, but what army should I use? I dig through boxes that have followed me on 3 different moves and find the remains of my 2009 Kroot Mercs, painted as well as I guess I could paint back then, and “converted” as well as I knew how. “This!,” I shout maniacally. “This shall be reborn with all the assorted skulls and personality defect I’ve accumulated in the intervening years!”


Like this, but 40k

And so we have this WIP Project Log for my Ironbeak Mercenaries. The premise, in a single sentence: "With their T'au allies mysteriously "disappeared" fighting the forces of the Mechanicum, the mercenary Ironbeak Kindred was left to scavenge everything they could from the ravaged forge world to repair their weapons, their warsphere, and even themselves." It takes a lot of commas, but you get the jist. Their T’au minders are gone, the Forge World they’re on is a blasted wreck, and there’s few enough of them that these Kroot resort to scavenging and scrounging to fix up their ship, and will take any job they gets them the parts they need to get off a dead rock.


It’s only mostly dead

So that’s the theme: technobarbarian scavenger Kroot on a Marsformed world. I want to acknowledge right here that the brain bug for this project was planted years and years ago when I first saw the Ar’Rak’s Kroot Renegades on the Hive Fleet Moloch website (RIP). If you’re out there guy-who-made-them, thank you!

We’ve all seen these guys:


I knew up front I wanted this to be a full conversion, counts-as army. My only real question was what it would count as. The T’au didn’t feel right, despite having the actual (lamentable) Kroot rules. I’m less interested in how well this army performs from a competitive perspective, and more interested in how well it’s performance feels relative to the theme. Although I reserve the right to counts-as Orkz if/when they get a book, I began this journey with counts-as Admech as my goal. There’s a lot of benefits inherent in this, not only because some of the rules feel right (negative to-hit modifiers, for example), but also because of the visual themes of a dead Forge World this lets me pursue.


Like this, but Kroot

But you’re here for the photos, right? Let’s get to that. The first models to get dug out and given a simple green bath were my Knarlocs. I have a whole menagerie of these, from the smaller Knarloc Riders, to the Great Knarlocs, to a custom/sculpted Greater Knarloc (scaled to the Dawn of War beastie). I went through several iterations of these guys, using a mix of Kroot, T’au, Gorkamorka, and Red Dog Minis pieces to try and capture the look I was going for. For the Knarloc Riders (counts-as Ironstriders/Dragoons), I built platforms behind the riders, used an unnecessary quantity of magnets, gorkamorka pieces, and free-because-nobody-uses-them havoc launchers to build modular turrets so that I could put whatever weapons I need to on them (which helps with counts-as). These Kroot are also worse for wear, sporting scavenged T’au and Imperial armor, with two of the Knarlocs even missing limbs (replaced with a Cygnar warjack leg and a Penitent Engine leg). They’re also covered in copious quantities of loot, gear, meat, and suspiciously-T’au-looking skulls.















Next up we have the Great Knarlocs. Given their size, I was going to run these blokes as Onager Dunecrawlers, but right as I began work on them the Forgebane box dropped and Warglaives came along. These felt a lot closer to what I was going for, and also presented a host of new bits and pieces I could use for my Great Knarlocs. They were so perfect, in fact, that I used the models themselves, with the idea being that these dead knights were scavenged from the wastes and used to outfit, and in one case repair, the Ironbeak’s Great Knarlocs. It was a pain in the...pain place to saw through that old-style FW resin, and I probably now have a respiratory disease from the dust, but it worked. A bunch of magnets and Red Dog guns later and boom! Two Knight Armigers!









The third Knarloc gets to stay an Onager, as the giant base gave me a great opportunity for a vignette as a playable model. I decided to combine my emerging style with an homage to the classics Baggage Knarloc to create a gun platform controlled by a Kroot with a laptop, using magnets and guitar cables (and a really cool barricade piece) to make this:



Last, but not last, I have the Greater Knarloc. Long ago I commissioned the core of this guy from someone on Kompletely Kroot. I then built a howdah using misc Baneblade and Deathkorps pieces and called it a decade (that was in 2009). This time, after stripping the paint and cutting him from his base, I finished sculpting his underside, face, and harness, and built a much more robust howdah and suit of armor for him. An incomplete old Chimera kit later and I was able to vaguely imitate this iconic scene from 1993 summer blockbuster Jurassic Park.







A quick aside before painting, but I have an overly ambitious goal to get two armies completely finished this year. Both of these (Kroot and Kislevites) I’ve been building/collecting for about 10-15 years. With this kind of deadline and motivation, I knew I wasn’t going to paint these myself. I’m still undecided on the Kislevites, but I knew from the beginning that I wanted my buddy Tim from Offworld Miniatures Studio to paint up my Kroot. I love the Mad Maxian, rough world style he can do, and he did not disappoint at all. We talked a lot about the theme of the army, the styles and colors I was interested in, and how they might look collectively. In the end, Tim went with Kroot and Knarlocs they had adapted to their red world, with scavenged gear still bearing the colors and markings of the original owners. This is especially visible on the Great Knarlocs and Greater Knarloc, as the Knight Armiger armor on each comes from a different house. I can’t stress enough how much I love the mottled red/orange/tan look on the Knarlocs and the blue quills on everyone (even though I was hesitant at the first mention of blue). I feel like it worked really well in the end.
The following photos are about 98-99% complete, taken in my first attempt to use a lightbox.

Knarloc Riders:






Great Knarlocs














Greater Knarloc






Where to next? With the first set of Knarlocs mostly done (I have 6 more on the way) I needed to take a break from giant dinosaurs and get busy on my infantry. I have only just started on them, so there’s nothing to show yet, but the general idea is that each unit has looted/scavenged/stolen/been paid with different gear from different enemies/victims/employers. This will give the army a hodgepodge look, even though each individual unit will be internally consistent. Hopefully this works out well and looks as good on the table as it does in my head. If not, feel free to tell me so later. Or now. This is the Internet, why wait?

Thanks for bearing with me. I hope to have more to show off soon.

Amazing post apoc Kroot warband, I'll definitely be following this. Keep it up !

Very nice! Great colour scheme for the knarlocs, very natural looking.

Love the bionic knarlocs - very cool.

Looks great, Faultie!

And welcome to non-lurking Dakka!

Man, that Great Knarloc with the twin gatling cannons looks incredible. This is some fantastic kitbashing/painting.

One hell of a post! Thanks for sharing so much dino-rider post-apoc Kroot goodness

- Salvage

Awesome stuff. I think I have seen your old threads and used them as a source of inspiration when I started my own Kroot mercenary force recently. Awesome to see you active with them again. I also agree that the mottled pattern on the Knarloc came out great. Any chance we can get a full army shot?

Well these are just lovely.

Thanks for the compliments folks! The army itself is still very much a WIP, but I’ve got at least a partial group shot (below). There’s a lot of in-progress and group shots on Offworld Studio’s Instagram too.

I’ve had less time to work on these guys than I’d like over the last week, but I have made a bit of progress. Nevertheless, I did manage to mostly-finish a couple of models. First off, we have two fellow Mercenaries—Grendl Grendlsen and Gor Halfhorn. These hardened Mercenaries are good at what they do for the price they charge, but most importantly to the Ironbeaks these adhumans have a nose for finding hard-pressed human governors willing to turn a blind eye to xenoheresy and pay upfront to get more soldiers in the field. Always good to have job leads!

Grendl and Gor: Space Bounty Hunters

Up next is the first real conversions of the last few weeks (sorry, world cup’s been eating my free time). The Steel-Scarred Veterans (counts-as Sicarian Infiltrators) are some of the most elite fighters among the Ironbeaks. These Kroot Mercenaries have suffered terrible injuries that in different times would have been the end of their soldiering days. The Ironbeaks don’t have such luxuries, so these grizzled veterans have been rebuilt and pressed back into service as elite ambush shock troopers.

The Steel-Scarred Shaper leads his kindred:



The general theme of these guys is: I love the Sicarian models and wanted to make a unit of cyber-Kroot in dynamic poses. Very complex motivation, as you can see. Combining Kroot and Sicarian parts turned out much easier than I expected. Bonus: I have a bunch of left over Sicarian weapons and bionic arms for individual characters in other squads. In the mean time, I think these guys look pretty good, or at least will once I get some of these mold lines cleaned up.



And a group photo:


I’ve got several more units in progress, each a counts-as for a different Admech unit, with scavenged/stolen armor and weapons. No pictures yet, but I’ve got a box of Van Saar, Pathfinders, Cadians, Skitarii, and even Khinerai ready to go. Stay tuned! Or don’t. It’s up to you.

Holy gak balls your kroot are epic!

Those are really spiffy! I like that you've give the tau bits a good beat up look. Often when people go this route you have really clean tau parts that look out of place with the Kroot. You've made them look like they belong together as it were.

Amazing work here. That custom Greater Knarloc looks fantastic all painted up, and the paint scheme that was chosen works really well for the contrasting beasts and riders. I made the mistake of painting my Kroot and knarlocs the same, so the riders end up blending in to their mounts, but the way the riders here are the lighter shade that is found on the beasts' legs is flawless.

I like that these new guys are very recognizable for what they are supposed to be. Great job.

The group photo of the painted models is awesome and I absolutely Love the new "Steel-Scarred Veterans" converted unit! Who knew Skitarii and Kroot would kitbash so well

Update: Krootarii Rangers

I unfortunately don’t have a lot to show this week, since I spent the weekend out of town and have been working late most days. However, I did get started on my counts-as Skitarii Rangers. I was going to start on my Van Saar conversions, but those sprues look daunting. After that, I opened the Tau Pathfinders box, stared at all the pieces, and then closed the box again. Thus, I went with one of the simpler conversions in this project. I already did one conversion of this nature before, when I had to build a gunner/harpoonsman for my Greater Knarloc.

Rawr!


I originally intended the Greater Knarloc to be a Stormsurge, and so gave it some gorkamorka harpoon cannons to serve as the Stormsurge’s firing anchors. The Kroot on the back would shoot them into the ground before the main cannon was fired, and then when it was time to move he’d just cut the ropes and reload the harpoons (the harpoon quivers are also magnetized). The gunner himself was converted from a Forge Bane Skitarii as an initial test. I originally intended to do all of the Kroot using Skitarii bodies, but I’ve since had second thoughts and want to make the army look less homogenous. This leads me to:

Shaper Ar’arakk’s Ranger Kindred

This conversion appears pretty straight forward. The biggest challenge is actually making sure I use the correct torsos with the correct arms, packs, weapons, etc. For the Kroot themselves, there’s 2-3 minor challenges that took me a bit to figure out. The first model required sawing and cutting and greenstuff and an hour of work (which isn’t really viable). But I learned a lot!

The first thing I learned is that the closed-mouth head is generally fine to just glue directly onto the torso, but the open-beak Kroot head requires a greenstuff anchor/filling to sit on. This mostly has to do with how big the chest is and how far back the neck slot is set in the Skitarii Rangers. Now that I know, it’s easy to go ahead and prep this.

Next issue is that Kroot torsos are longer than humans, so I need a spacer between the Skitarii torso and the Kroot hips. Initially I was taking unusued Kroot torsos and sawing the bottoms off of them, but even getting 2 spacers per torso, I would probably run out of torsos for other projects, and even if not I wasn’t as happy with how they were looking. The simple solution that I’m almost embarrassed to admit I didn’t think of until starting on the 3rd guy is just to use a ball of green stuff as a spacer and cut the stomach scale lines in manually. It’s super simple and, as said, I feel dumb for not thinking of it sooner.

The last thing I learned was just how much of the Kroot hips and upper legs I need to shave off to get them to fit under the robes. Unless you pull the models off their bases and look under their skirt (you sicko pervert, you!), you can’t really see what’s there anyway. Turns out, if I cut off the entire back of the hips and most of the upper thighs, the legs fit pretty well! This step varies a lot depending on which robe/torso is being used (see above about using the right pieces), and I shave down the upper thighs a little bit at a time, since I don’t want to take off more than is necessary. Anyway, enough blocks of text. Pictures time!

Shaper Ar’arakk

This was the first Skitarii conversion I tackled since the Great Knarloc gunner, and probably looks the roughest. Still, I like his sergeantly grimace and general pose. I’ll add in here that I love the sense of motion implied with each Skitarii model, and how each piece works together to impart a cohesive image. See again: using the right parts is important.

Ranger and Plasma Gunner

My next pair of troopers I made together, and this is where I think I really hit the stride on understanding how to kitbash these guys efficiently. Bonus note: I like adding little bits from the Kroot carnivore sprue on the infantry models, to help keep the somewhat barbaric feel of the Kroot even when surrounded by the trappings of technology. For example: the plasma gunner keeps his Ribs of Dubious Origin(tm) next to the plasma canisters for his gun. The low heat radiating from the canisters is just right to slow roast the ribs, and by battle’s end their talon-licking good.

Impracticalium Arquebus

All I have to say is that I love how stupidly huge the transuranic arquebus is. It’s ridiculously impractical and needs a monopod just to fire. Fantastically 40k isn’t it?

Anyway, that’s (sadly) all I’ve got this week. I still need to go back and clean these guys up, since my eyes aren’t nearly as good at picking out imperfections as a zoomed-in iPhone apparently is. Hopefully hobby day Saturday will be productive and I’ll have more to show next week.

Also, thanks for the kind words folks! Glad to see I’m not the only person on the world that enjoys this project (although I’d still be doing it even if that were the case).

Lookin' good, Faultie....

I'm looking forward to seeing your Van Sarkroot

It's a long time since I've seen such a big and stunning Kroot warband, let alone one with such ambitious mixing of kits and gorgeous painting. Definitely the right kind of crazy!

Nice work! Good choice of bits, particularly like the plasma guy and the arquebus fella. How about a tiny wheel on the monopod to enable him to actually move with it?

Those kroot hips, always needing to be filed down, who'd a thunk it when they're such skinny dudes. But those skitarii trench coats aren't as roomy as they seem. Almost every set of legs I've been playing with has needed shaving to some degree to fit correctly.

Holy shot balls!! This stuff is awesome!!

Update: Krootarii Rangers, Kroot Saar, Xenos Retinue, and Lore Inspiration

Well, it looks like I actually have quite an update this week. I finished the Kroot/Skitarii conversion, started on the Kroot/Van Saar, and read some army-inspiring fluff I had not seen before. Ideas abound!

Shaper Ar’arakk’s Ranger Kindred
As mentioned last time, this conversion is pretty simple, with just a few wonky steps mainly to do with attaching the legs to the torso and getting the arms to line up right (especially an issue for the Kroot with only 1 mechanical arm).

To finish out the unit, I needed 5 generic Rangers with rifles and a special weapon trooper. For the riflemen, I intentionally chopped up some of the rifles, leaving others unmodified, to give the impression that it is a motley array of newish rifles as well as some cobbled-together guns kept working through scavenging and merging them with other guns.


I started with these two models, and used them to experiment with the idea of using the Skitarii upper legs/baggy pants and attaching Kroot shins to them. The upper legs of Kroot and Skitarii are close in size, but Kroot have much longer lower legs. In the end, I think it worked well enough (despite them ending up just a teensy but shorter than a normal Kroot model), and I replicated this on one more Ranger just to add diversity to the unit.


Despite being a generic dude, I somehow like the top model in this photo the most out of the unit. Between the rifles (with slings) and the packs, these guys give me a real Great War vibe, and he really exudes that the most to me.


I’ve always enjoyed giving telescopes to Kroot, and actually have an old flying Shaper Council guy who is looking through one. I decided to revisit that theme with one of these guys, as seen above.


Et voila. I have now finished 2 units. What a great achievement. Only...5 units left. :( Oh well, progress is progress.


Shaper Ak’trey’deis Vanguard Kindred
As soon as I saw the new Fremen Van Saar models I knew I wanted to convert them into a unit of Kroot. What I would use them for is a whole other question. I’m currently looking at either the Fulgurite Priests (or maybe the other unit that comes in that box, I don’t recall) or the newly-released 40k version of Secutarii Hoplites. I really love the force field/shield pieces, and with a bit of begging, cajoling, and bartering I was able to acquire enough of them for a full unit. The question of which melee weapons to go with was answered by a bag of Custodes halberds someone gave me. I am told that when a member of the Custodes dies, his stuff teleports away, so I went in an sliced off the piece on the halberd that looked like a teleporter. Is there anything the Ironbeaks won’t steal? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯



I made the first test model, and it took way longer than it should, but actually less time than I feared when I first looked at the sprue. Seriously, the Van Saar sprue is a dream and a nightmare. Each guy is sooooooooooo variable and customizable, which is great, but that also means that any given
Van Saar model is ~15 pieces. The prototype guy isn’t quite done yet, as I’m waiting for a few bits from Puppetswar to arrive, but the basic form and style of the unit (and importantly for me, the way to build each model) is done. Among my favorite little things here is incorporating a piece of the tech-ponytail-thing into the Kroot’s quills, and the use of the full Van Saar arm on the shield side, as added protection.

The idea behind this unit is that this is a Kindred of highly-paid, elite melee shock troops that is hitching a ride with the Ironbeaks, and offering their services alongside them. Their form-fitting outfits and signature shield+spear fighting style makes them a dangerous assault force, while the forcefield style shield keeps them light and mobile. I obviously need a better name than “Vanguard Kindred”, but I’m sure I’ll think of something. Ideas?


Xenos Retinue
The as-yet-nonexistent Master Shaper of the Ironbeak Kroot Mercenaries is obviously a powerful warrior, but also a pragmatic leader and savvy businessman. Such is the life of a Merc, I guess. I want to make this visually evident, at least on the army display board, with an actual menagerie of various lesser-known Xenos in his employ. I’ve already shown he has a Beastman and Squat at least as contacts, if not companions, but there will also be a Jokaero weaponsmith among his entourage.



This was the first Finecast model I’ve had to assemble and I was...less than happy with it. The material is surprisingly brittle and I don’t know how I’d feel about a larger, more complex model made of the same stuff. Nevertheless, he looks fine and adds an esoteric element to the Master Shaper’s Retinue. He’ll soon be joined by a Sslyth bodyguard, and if I can figure out a good conversion, a T’au Water Caste envoy. Which leads me to...


Por'la Vior'la Kais'uam and the Grey King
It may shock you, dear reader, to find out that I enjoy the 40k setting and backstory somewhat. I’m always looking for new and interesting angles to explore, especially those dealing with armies I’m working on. Although it isn’t terribly well know, there are multiple fluff examples of rogue (and outright rebellious) Kroot out there. As the 8th edition T’au notes, after violence on the part of 4th Sphere T’au forces, the Empire had to deal with a full-on Kroot uprising on Ky’san.

Recently I’ve been made aware of two other sources of inspiration for the background of the Ironbeaks. The T’au Water Caste envoy Por'la Vior'la Kais'uam was introduced in the game Inquisitor, with a fancy model and everything. Despite his success, he was eventually driven to the fringes of the Empire for the crime of arming rogue Kroot with Fire Caste weapons (including hammerheads!) to help defend a T’au settlement. When he left, the Kroot (who refused to give up their new loot) went with him. His story ends with him out on the fringes with a ton of well-equipped Kroot (it’s just a character blurb for a game so there isn’t much content). Now I have an idea that I should model a rogue Water Caste model as part of my Master Shaper’s entourage.

The next great source of inspiration is The War of Secrets, which includes some great scenes about a Kroot Warsphere and introduces the Grey King, a huge Kroot warlord whose throne is a giant pile of looted weapons. His Kindred also features several individuals with prosthetics and augmetics, as well as a Vulturekin Shaman (flying Kroot psyker) character. Without spoiling anything, I’m sure you can guess what happens to a Xenos character fighting Primaris Marines in one f the Primaris product line launch novels, but he is nevertheless a really cool character and the scenes on the (admittedly small) Warsphere are cool. If you get a chance to catch this book for cheap, it’s worth the read, even though the Dark Angels basically behave as mustache twirling villains the entire time.

I guess my point in all this is that as ridiculous as my army concept is, it’s at least moderately based on a fluff-friendly foundation. Idk if you care, but it makes me happy.

Anyway, that’s it for today. See you all next week!

absolutely amazing!

Wow, there are so many fantastic conversions in here :O

The mix of Kroot and Skitari have come out looking brilliant, and very natural.

I love the quad gun thing on the great gnarloc, too. It looks mean as all hell.

Keep it up!

Awesome looking army of Kroot and Knarlocs!

This is some serious skills you have here ! Awesome job on your warband, i would love to play against an army as beautiful as that

I will follow your thread with interest

Very cool. Love the guy with the shield.

Really cool and creative! I like the color theme too!

Update: Kroot Saar, Hard-Luck Imperials, Stalker Shaper, and Kroot Pathfinders

Thanks for the comments, folks. It’s kind of surprising that the niche army idea of a mad hobbyist gets as many looks as I have, so yeah...an actual thank you guys! Sorry for the lack of updates. It’s been a heck of a few weeks, between travel and work and friends visiting in the damp, hot, gross, awful summertime. I haven’t had a ton of hobby time until the last week, but I’m back on track!


Shaper Ak’trey’deis Vanguard Kindred
In my last update I showed off the first mock-up if my Van Saar/Kroot mash-up. Since then I’ve reworked the design a little. Firstly, had to drill out those bolster barrels. Obviously. Jeeze, what was I thinking considering not drilling them out? Second, I decided to shorten the haft on the halberd-guns. Considering a Kroot is like 7+ feet tall, and the halberds were at least half again as tall as that, it seemed weird. I didn’t really like how they looked, so I shortened them all. This also helped wen I realized, upon further inspection, that I only had 9 bolter-halberd blades and 7 halberd handles. Thirdly, in the interest of time, I experimented on one Kroot using the upper legs of a Van Saar and just attaching Kroot legs at the knee. This didn’t look nearly as weird as I thought it would, since the Van Saar torso looks fairly long. So I chose the capris look and onward I went!



My first step after finishing the prototype was to create the boss (the eponymous Shaper Ak’trey’deis). Bosses need to look imposing and different, and fortunately the Van Saar kit came with just what I needed: a tactical box. By placing one leg on a tactical box, a good commander can inspire his troopers to daring feats! Adding in a random pistol from a Skitarii box, and voila! A boss guy! Then it was on to 3 other squad members.



One great thing about the Van Saar box is how varied the poses are. Using the torsos and legs, I was able to build a mix of active, dynamic poses for these Kroot, with some mid-stride on 1 leg. This is a big improvement from the 4 stock leg poses in the Kroot box, which are basically just 2 poses mirrored. The misc Van Saar bits and bobs helped further diversify the unit, as did various takes on the halberd-gun mashup, and the placement of the techno-dreadlock on the Kroot heads. The female torso even worked well and it’s hard to discern the slightly smaller Kroot among the others due to how dynamic the poses are. Can you tell which one it is?




Hard Luck Imperials
What good are Mercenaries without employers ready to pay them good money (or loot) to visit harm on their enemies? I ponder about how to show this on my display board, and settled on the Regimental Advisors set. The Master of the Fleet makes a good Imperial Governor, with that pose that says “I have to pay you to put drive off these [enemies], but I don’t have to like it!” And the Astropath has a great “nefarious advisor in darkened hood” look that really lets you know he came up with this idea as part f some grand scheme, likely to depose the governor.



On my display board, I’ll have these two on an elevated spot alongside the Master Shaper, with some other Kroot gathered around hauling away the boxes of weapons and munitions being given as payment—a nice little vignette in the midst of the army.


Stalker Shaper
Wargames Exclusive recently put out a model that simultaneously excited and disappointed me. The Greater Good Wild Hunter is such a cool, dynamic techno-(not)Kroot, and I love that. But I’m not really a fan of their scantily-clad models, and it’s especially weird for aliens like the Kroot because it makes no sense. Nevertheless, I ordered one to see how easy it would be to convert it to look less cheesecake and, to my delight, it was very easy.



The model went together quite easily, the quality was pretty great, and I really dig the mix of Kroot chest plate, leg/arm wraps, etc. with the mode advance T’au armor, sensors, and weapons. I don’t know what I’ll run this guy as, but I’ll think of something. I have another one that I plan to convert, likely as a member of my Vulture Kindred. The pose looks good for that.


Shaper B’aks T’bar’s Pathfinder Kindred
With half of my counts-as Hoplites done, I wanted a palette cleanser to let my creativity move somewhere else. I decided to try to convert up my first Pathfinder Kroot, and I don’t know how happy I am with it.



Yep, it’s a Kroot wearing ill-fitting Pathfinder armor and pants. What’s great is that T’au also have only 4 digits, even tho they aren’t opposed talons, so the only appendages I need to replace are the legs from the knee down. This guy, being the boss guy, wears no helmet because this is 40k. My subsequent models will be wearing helmets with quills poking out the back, much like the Van Saar/Kroot above. I’m sticking with the Pulse Carbines for now, but may end up changing the guns out for something else. I do like the obviously-renegade look, complete with the stolen Ta’lissera blade (which my T’au-playing friend assures me is near-heretical to the T’au), and plan to add a hanging T’au skull or two to most of these guy’s belts. When I got done, my first thought was that his torso looks way too long, but when I compare him to a normal, unmodified Kroot it’s almost exactly the same length. Which leads me to my second thought: Kroot have really long torsos!

But still...I don’t know how happy I am with doing a whole unit of these guys, or how well they’ll mesh with the rest of the army. In fact, making this guy has sort of changed the direction I want to go with this army. Whereas before I wanted to make each squad totally different, I think now I’d rather have a core of Skitarii-Kroot made entirely from the Skitarii kit, and just a few non-Skitarii models for specialist units and the occasional oddball unit member.

I’m really in a pickle on this. Anybody else have thoughts?


Anyway, that’s it for today. Thanks again for all the positive comments. See you all next week (hopefully)!

I like the pathfinder personally.
I'd say the only issue with him is the angle of his lower legs. It looks a bit off.

... this is bad for my self control. All these beautiful Kroot providing inspiration. I think the Skitarii-Kroot are my favorite so far but the VanKroot are a close second.

For the Sslyth if you’re willing to go outside GW for parts Reaper has several snake men that would provide a solid base.