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That also depends on how much needs to be done. If it is a whole arm you will need fairly large, but if it is just a weapon you might be able to get away with your usual magnets.

You can get very thin 1/4 inch wide disc magnets that are strong enough to stick a skimmer to a stand.

Which company was making 3rd party Tau bits (like variant crisis suit heads and such)? A buddy is hitting me up for helping him get his Tau force back in shape.

I know paulson games makes some weapon bits that fit crisis suits okay.

http://www.paulsongames.com/mecha_parts___54mm.html

 Mathieu Raymond wrote:
Also, as an aside. For those who want to go full gundam on a budget... Hobby Link Japan has classic designs for around 6$US. I can't imagine shipping would be prohibitive to the point of making it a moot point.

Yeah, but the budget ones are REALLY bad (soft details, no posability/articulation, horrible inaccurate designs). You've got to get at least High Grade to get any sort of quality. Also, HLJ shipping rates really are horrendous. However, if you live in the US or Canada Hobbywave has a nice flat shipping rate, and a decent selection, if rarely restocked.

Seriously off topic discussion aside, I really wish there was at least one pic of those flyers from below. They look aright from above, if you ignore the little SMS turret, so I'm hoping the bottom is somewhere between completely featureless, and ten-thousand-tacked-on-bits.

 Maelstrom808 wrote:
Which company was making 3rd party Tau bits (like variant crisis suit heads and such)?

Noone. But you may find these non-Tau parts useful (in addition to the Paulson parts):
Chapterhouse heads. http://chapterhousestudios.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=132
Zealot Miniatures (conversion parts useful to make female Fire Warriors) http://www.zealotminiatures.co.uk/#!__zealot-store

MajorWesJanson wrote:

Samurai_Eduh wrote:

 tetrisphreak wrote:
I'm more concerned as to how difficult/easy it will be to magnetize the Riptide suit as well as the new flyer kits.

I was actually thinking about this last night too. That big gun arm may be hard to magnetize becuse it will be so heavy. A pin and magnet arrangement may need to be implemented.

Just use a larger/stronger magnet. the 1/16 and 1/32 magnets with .1 and .3 pounds of pull force are fine for arms on infantry models, but a slightly larger magnet will work fine for the riptide. Good magnet selection means that even titans can be magnetized with force alone, no pins.

The only other thing I would do is possibly make dual magnet points to keep the weapon from spinning about on the arm. I magnetized my crisis suits and that's the only thing that can be annoying, though it isn't much of an issue it would look really weird on such a large model.

 Kroothawk wrote:

 Maelstrom808 wrote:
Which company was making 3rd party Tau bits (like variant crisis suit heads and such)?

Noone. But you may find these non-Tau parts useful (in addition to the Paulson parts):
Chapterhouse heads. http://chapterhousestudios.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=132
Zealot Miniatures (conversion parts useful to make female Fire Warriors) http://www.zealotminiatures.co.uk/#!__zealot-store

Ah....right...no one...my apologies.

Thank for the links to generic space cow/fish cyber suit bits which is what I really meant

Yes, I vouch for the Paulson quality for his space alien energy weapon designs. He casts really well and his... mechanized bipedal suit heads are good too.

Be on the lookout for his upcoming Mecha Front game as well!

Eldercaveman wrote:

 Ledabot wrote:
I hope it locks when your inside or you could jack it while the poor fellow is still inside.

Looted Riptide anyone?

More like faptau.

Cypher-xv wrote:
I'm curious what the FW team come up with to one up the riptide design. Will it be conversion bits or a whole new model?

That's a great point. It would be awesome to see a line of FW Tau Gundam ... or is it Gundams? Anyhow, people have been making Tau Gundams for years and it's interesting that GW is following the fans on this one.

 Brother Captain Alexander wrote:
Is it possible that I am the only one why awaits new Tau Codex because of the fluff that will be written in it?

No I posted the same thing many pages ago.

 NecronLord3 wrote:
I think there either is or was a plan for new updated crisis suits that should be larger at some point. Should make the transition to the riptide make more sense, as the crisis suits are undersized right now.

How do you figure that crisis suits are suddenly undersized?

Also, it'd be nice to eventually see the FW box redesigned with some female figs. Unless Tau females go straight to the top ranks or something.

 Manchu wrote:
Also, it'd be nice to eventually see the FW box redesigned with some female figs. Unless Tau females go straight to the top ranks or something.

Is it just me or would gender be quite indistinguishable under FW armour?
I know, it's a frequent debate but really once you get some armour (like that) and a helmet on there *shouldn't* be much of a difference. And aren't fire caste tau (male or female) generally bald?

 Manchu wrote:
No I posted the same thing many pages ago.

Really?
Didn't saw it, thank you. I thought I was the only one

Anyway, more news: Tau Hammerhead Gunship is no Longer Available at GW site.

It looks like its starting. The Tau Hammerhead Gunship is no longer available on the GW website. I did not know that this model was being replaced, but now it looks like it is at least getting a rebox.

Here is the link for those curious. I did a quick look around and did not see any other models that were no longer available (codex either), although I do not think they can be ordered now.

Thanks to Christopher for pointing this out.
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1620020

 Bolognesus wrote:

 Manchu wrote:
Also, it'd be nice to eventually see the FW box redesigned with some female figs. Unless Tau females go straight to the top ranks or something.

Is it just me or would gender be quite indistinguishable under FW armour?
I know, it's a frequent debate but really once you get some armour (like that) and a helmet on there *shouldn't* be much of a difference. And aren't fire caste tau (male or female) generally bald?

Well, Shadowsun certainly seems to have hair, so I assume hair is possible. There's likely a decent number of indistinguishable helmeted tau females in every FW box, but almost every unhelmeted Tau has been male. If they put out a plastic character for this release, a female head option or two on the sprue would go a long way to fix this.

 Bolognesus wrote:
And aren't fire caste tau (male or female) generally bald?

I only know of one female and as regards her, no she isn't bald. As to males, at least some of them have hair in the style of a prince's lock from Ten Commandments. Just going by these examples, it seems there is a difference between how Tau males and females style their hair. There also seems to be another physiological difference: the female Y-shaped facial apperature as opposed to the vertical male one. So, in sum, not saying I want Fire Warrior boob armor. But there's the usual argument of different proprotions, which IMO makes such a release less likely. At the end of the day, some female heads would not go amiss. I know Zealot miniatures currently makes some very nice ones, although I have never seen them atop a Fire Warrior body.

Personally I can see the FW people doing a riptide weapons expansion or varient, maybe with rail cannons or some nasty missle systems ( if they dont already have those as options), or some new flyers since that is all the rage, although the ones they already have are pretty awesome.

The nice thing about tau models for FW is the race's fluff gives them alot of design leeway, since its just new tech developments.

And yes every Tau player should be/ is looking forward to new fluff/background or anything new to read about..thats a pretty much a no-brainer there.

FW has a great understanding of Tau design. Remember Citadel's Tau entries for BFG? FW did a much better job. Maybe they will do something similar with the Sunshark. For the Riptide, I'd like to see some structural conversion options that make it look less like a scaled-up XV8.

I'm guessing they are re-boxing the Hammerhead to turn it into a combi Hammerhead/Skyray kit.

 Rainyday wrote:

 Bolognesus wrote:

 Manchu wrote:
Also, it'd be nice to eventually see the FW box redesigned with some female figs. Unless Tau females go straight to the top ranks or something.

Is it just me or would gender be quite indistinguishable under FW armour?
I know, it's a frequent debate but really once you get some armour (like that) and a helmet on there *shouldn't* be much of a difference. And aren't fire caste tau (male or female) generally bald?

Well, Shadowsun certainly seems to have hair, so I assume hair is possible. There's likely a decent number of indistinguishable helmeted tau females in every FW box, but almost every unhelmeted Tau has been male. If they put out a plastic character for this release, a female head option or two on the sprue would go a long way to fix this.

Fair enough. Still, don't officers have a bit more leeway in the style of their haircut than enlisted folks do?
I've always been a bit wary of the, let's say... explicitly... female look models tend to have when sculptors do include both genders so it's probably my personal taste getting in the way here anyway

 Praxiss wrote:
I'm guessing they are re-boxing the Hammerhead to turn it into a combi Hammerhead/Skyray kit.

or nixing it altogether, as the Skyray box is already a skyray/hammerhead combi-kit.

 Praxiss wrote:
I'm guessing they are re-boxing the Hammerhead to turn it into a combi Hammerhead/Skyray kit.

Rather, they're just removing the hammerhead kit, seeing as the skyray kit had the hammerhead bits in it already. Just throw in the new bits for whatever new stuff is in the codex for them and you're done.

Eldercaveman wrote:


Who says Tau aren't Grimdark?

Which faction doesn't laught about the Tau? Well, except Sisters of Sandwiches. Tau got no saying in the greater things and they aren't a threat to anyone. They are the "special" faction. "Special" as in nod and smile.

every one is saying gundam. to me the tau design is more robotech then anything else. ummmmm a flying robotech riptide.

If it transformed into a Sunshark, I guess it'd be more like Robotech.

I'm pretty excited about the Fireblades. People have been complaining forever about letting Firewarriors take special weapons, but as any Tau fan knows, FWs using something besides the Pulse Carbine or Pulse Rifle is strictly against their combat doctrine. Which is fine with me, as well as anybody who uses FWs properly. They are not Tactical Marines nor should they be used as such. Pulse guns are perfect for their role.

But it looks like the Fireblade can be tossed in to give them a bit more spicy flavor.

 Archonate wrote:
I'm pretty excited about the Fireblades. People have been complaining forever about letting Firewarriors take special weapons, but as any Tau fan knows, FWs using something besides the Pulse Carbine or Pulse Rifle is strictly against their combat doctrine. Which is fine with me, as well as anybody who uses FWs properly. They are not Tactical Marines nor should they be used as such. Pulse guns are perfect for their role.

But it looks like the Fireblade can be tossed in to give them a bit more spicy flavor.

Perhaps the fluff has expanded to allow them to add Ion weaponry to their training. If so I will be using pathfinder bits on firewarrior bodies if the Ion weapons have a good profile.

I think also drones will become a bit more versitile, the drones show with the riptide are called "shielded missle drones", so hopefully it will not be a riptide only kinda upgrade, and be army wide.

Bring on the droney goodness

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
I think also drones will become a bit more versitile, the drones show with the riptide are called "shielded missle drones", so hopefully it will not be a riptide only kinda upgrade, and be army wide.

Bring on the droney goodness

I think the Broadside will have the shielded missle drones as well...check the box art...looks like it.

I do like the fact that drones are going to play a bigger role in the Tau army, rather than something that feels more like an afterthought.

Well, tau aren't a direct threat now, but it's like this: You're a stagnating business, making okay profits and shrinking by 2% per year. Tau are the new kid on the block, making very little money, but growing by 25% per year, consistently. Pretty soon, at that rate of growth, they'll have the resources to surpass you (warp travel, super death guns, controlled grey goo). So an intelligent mega-corporation would take them over before they lose their stranglehold monopoly on the market (galaxy).

Grimdark aside, tau are scary precisely because they ARE an unknown. Would you rather be in the imperium, which sucks, but at least you're protected somewhat from nids, orks, necrons, etc? Or would you rather be with the tau, who havent really proven their mettle at all versus a real threat, and you have no idea how they actually treat humans?

OT:
Not a fan of the new sculpts, from what the WD shows (though the top-down view of the flyer isn't too bad), and not really a fan of some of the rumored rules. Looks like we're going to be pidgeonholed into spamming crisis suits, the new flyers, and railheads, to remain competitive. My first reaction to most of the content posted in this thread was "ew"; we'll see if opinions change when they release better pictures and 360's.

No math wizards who can find out the sixe of the model in realation to the base?

 spectreoneone wrote:

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
I think also drones will become a bit more versitile, the drones show with the riptide are called "shielded missle drones", so hopefully it will not be a riptide only kinda upgrade, and be army wide.

Bring on the droney goodness

I think the Broadside will have the shielded missle drones as well...check the box art...looks like it.

I do like the fact that drones are going to play a bigger role in the Tau army, rather than something that feels more like an afterthought.

The Broadside drones are smaller, or at least lack the lower hemisphere attachment that the Riptide ones do. I'd be willing to bet that only the Riptide gets Shielded Missile Drones, while Broadsides can take Shield Drones *or* Special Weapon Drones *or* Gun Drones.

There was mention of Heavy Gun Drones being in the new 'dex, as well as "Interceptor Drones". I've also seen (think on the Warseer forums) talk of Ion weapons being able to be taken on Drones as well.

Might be that GW is giving the "special weapon carrier" role to drones for the most part, when it comes to non-battlesuits. Could be wrong though.