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.

For my next army (after recently completing my Noise Marines), I've decided that it's finally time to do a Squat army. With the impending release of the Tau codex, I thought it would be rather appropriate to do a list based on that new book. As a result, the idea behind the army will be the (admittedly standard idea) that a Squat world was isolated from the Imperium (as happened to many worlds prior to the Crusade) but rather than getting all dark-ages with tech, they managed to keep a handle on how to use their stuff.

Here are the initial designs for the next army project. The first "Suit" is based on a Battletech Raven, the second is based on the Mad Cat. I'll probably sketch out Stealth Suits at some point, too; I'll have to see what the Riptide is based on and how tall it is before I can make a decision as to what design I'll use for it. I'm still deciding as to whether or not the foot troops will use Hasselfree Grymn or Mantic Forgefathers. It might depend on how many Fire Warrior units I need to actually field.

The plan is to scuplt/build the individual parts, then reproduce them through resin casting for assembly. This should give me some decent poseability when I put them together. I am also currently planning to, long-term, add some allied "Space Marines" to fill in some holes where needed.

The designs are using the following assumptions for the new Tau models:
-Crisis Suits: 40mm base, 60mm height
-Broadsides: 60mm base, 75mm height
-Riptide: Unknown

The first stage of assembly of the foot and leg assemblies of the smaller battlesuit have been completed. The foot is four separate pieces, so the toes can be articulated over/around terrain. The "knee" allows for 90 degrees of posing range.

This is the basic assembly, I'll be adding additional detail to both the lower and upper leg pieces. The foot is probably ready for casting after I do a little bit more cleanup work.

After some thinking and looking over reference material I finished up the legs for the smaller battlesuit by adding some detail in places and reducing the size of the balance "spur" behind the knee:



After that, I brought out the Lego bricks and set up mold boxes to create the molds for the leg and hip assemblies. The foot and toes got a single piece mold, the others their own two-piecers:



Finally, a test cast of the whole leg assembly, without any cleanup work beyond flash removal. I'm totally happy with the legs and pelvis, but the feet did not cast up well at all. I suspect that the parts are just too small to effectively do in this way, I'll see if I can either get some lower viscosity resin, or if I need to just rebuild them to be a bit easier to cast up. Overall, though, I'm definitely happy with the state of the model. The next step will be to figure out the best way to construct the cockpit area.

I have built a torso for one of the mech bodies. I had intended to build the "Crisis" one first, but after actually doing the construction and winging it more than I should have been, it actually came out far more suited to the Broadside or Riptide mechs (the head is 70mm from front to back, which is far too large for a unit that'll be deep striking).

The "Head" portion is two pieces that are separate from the main Torso block, so I can use them as the start for the Crisis torso which I will have to ensure is significantly smaller. I'll also start building the legs for the Broadside suit (based on the Mad Cat), and start figuring out how exactly I want the Riptide equivalent to look.

I can't wait to see more, but the body looks a bit big for the head.

 Deacis657 wrote:
I can't wait to see more, but the body looks a bit big for the head.

Yes, the whole torso-head part is way too big for those legs; I had intended to build one far smaller to fit those legs, which I'll have to redo.

The "head" part and the rear "body" part, though, ended up coming out just as I intended for the larger mech, as in the Mad Cat from Battletech (below). Once I have legs to fit that torso/head, it should look much better.

I can tell already this is going to be fantastic.

You can cast INSANELY tiny detail if you've the right silicone and right resin. May be worth checking you have the best stuff, as size of the parts cast shouldn't be an issue.

Since I decided that the first torso that I built was far too large for the Crisis battlemech equivalent, I decided to push that one up and make it the Broadside torso. As such, I needed to build a smaller one for the Crisis suit. These are the results: just about 50mm in length rather than over 70mm, and about 1cm narrower than the "B" torso. Far better suited to deep striking in while mounted on 40mm bases.

I really like this concept, but the legs look very small compared to the bodies.

After a bit of a misadventure with some really, really bad mold-making medium (my local shop changed molding rubber brands and the new stuff was... less than optimal) I visited a less-local shop to restock. This allowed me to create molds and test casts of the legs for the "B" suit.

Casting the legs, the cockpit, and a couple other small side projects (using leftover rubber from each stage) used an entire pound of Alumilite silicon, so it'll be a little bit until I can cast up the torsos. In the meantime, I'll probably start to work on the weapons and the third leg segment for the "R" suit.

I was going to have a comparison with a standard Crisis suit, but the model snapped off at the ankles as I was carrying it upstairs. *sigh* The brief comparison I was able to get showed that the "C" suit was probably about 30% taller than a standard Crisis suit, so I'll have issues with getting cover for the suits in the army. S'okay, though, I'll manage.

Coming along nicely.

I had a few mishaps over the last month or so... the smaller leg mold got destroyed by my leaving resin in for too long, which caused it to tear the detail right out of the mold. After that I had to wait until I could afford to replenish my silicon supply. Then this happened:



That's what occurs when your part is hollow plastic and you don't properly secure it to the bottom of the mold-making box.

So, it's been awhile! But this past week I managed to remake the small leg part mold and casted up eight copies (plus 8 feet sets) to get started on the Riptide-class mechs.

So far I have assembled one set of legs:


The legs with a test-fit torso, and then a comparison with all three suit sizes (the two on the right are 100% "test casts" so they're a little messy):