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I wanted some Tau allies for my Necrons, but didn't feel like using the actual models. After a few months of looking for and ordering stuff online, this is what I ended up with:

Commander. Puppet's War Ripper Suit with Mantic Forge Father head.


Fire Warriors. Mantic Forge Father Steel Warriors.


Broadsides. Mantic Forge Father Iron Ancestors with Puppet's War dreadnought missile launcher arms.


Missile Drones for the Broadsides. From Foundations of War.


And finally, a Riptide. Gundam kit (Geara Zulu) with some GW bits and plasticard.


Group shot


Painting isn't really worth showing off, but I tought someone might find the conversion/kitbash/counts-as interesting.

I'd suggest a bit more highlighting on the edges of the Broadside and Riptide.

Overall though it's a really nice and uniform look that fits in with the army.

Looks awesome!

 Savageconvoy wrote:
I'd suggest a bit more highlighting on the edges of the Broadside and Riptide.

Overall though it's a really nice and uniform look that fits in with the army.

Broadsides have more edge highlighting than shows in the picture, I blame camera flash. The riptide, however, looks like I'll need to improve it a bit, both in terms of making the lines more uniform in thickness/brightness and adding more highlights.

That's pretty cool. Clearly a lot of work and effort went into those, and they look good to boot.

*Seal of Liquid approval*

Nice clean look on the assembly of the Riptide proxy, well done.

While these look great, they make me think some kinda space marine variant not tau lol.

Still very well assembled and painted.

Have to agree with vineheart01, don't really strike me as tau at all, more of a SM army. Well executed and presented all the same though

Very unique and awesome. Great work.

This, to me, just screams 'Squats'

 BrotherOfBone wrote:
This, to me, just screams 'Squats'

It's supposed to. I didn't mention Squats, because the riptide doesn't really follow that style (couldn't find a big enough model with similar style and proportions to those Iron Ancestors I used for broadsides), but these are very much supposed to be abhuman mercenaries that are working for necrons.

Very imaginative and creative. We need more of this type of visual variety.

Excellent use of different manufactures mini's

Looks great.

Really cool! Lookin' good - what you've done with the Iron Ancestors is great!

Looks nice. Personally green isn't my thing, but I think they look good. I'm not sure what the tournament rules are for conversions, but for your sake I hope these get by even though they aren't really like GW models at all for the majority of it.

 Commander_Farsight wrote:
I'm not sure what the tournament rules are for conversions, but for your sake I hope these get by even though they aren't really like GW models at all for the majority of it.

That's never been a problem around here, as long as the models are easy enough to recognize. Couldn't take 'em to Warhammer World, though.

Ok, got the new addition painted. Transports with Objective Secured are the new big thing, and getting one for the firewarriors was an obvious thing to add to this detachment. If firewarriors look like squats, what does their transport look like? "A hovercraft" was what immediately came to my mind, and after looking around the internet for a while, I found this thing on ebay:

First, here's WIP shot and a size comparison with a real devilfish. As you can see, the hull is very similar in size, but it's missing the engines on the back. I thought about adding something like that, but couldn't really get it to work. I might take the real model with me to tourneys and use it as a reference if there's a question of whether or not the model should be 25% obscured or not. Then again, I'm fine with my opponent (or a judge) deciding if it is or isn't.



And here's a couple of shots of the finished model. Armed with a rather large burst cannon and some smart missiles. The model is from Daemonscape.





I also decided (after comparing him to an actual battle suit) that my commander was too short, and made him a new base.

Could we maybe see them next to some of your crons?

Great stuff.

Great job. I love the minis, though I'm not a huge fan of the green. I think a contrast color would really help things stand out.

Also, those look a lot smaller than the GW models. That may cause a problem at a tourney, as it could be considered modeling for an advantage. I would definitely boost the height with the bases.

New stuff above.

 Las wrote:
Could we maybe see them next to some of your crons?

Great stuff.

Thanks.

I don't have all my necrons with me right now, but I'll take group shot of the main list I've been using these with when I get them back.

 Freytag93 wrote:
Great job. I love the minis, though I'm not a huge fan of the green. I think a contrast color would really help things stand out.

Also, those look a lot smaller than the GW models. That may cause a problem at a tourney, as it could be considered modeling for an advantage. I would definitely boost the height with the bases.

A contrast colour is the one thing people always say about improving this colour scheme, and I have to agree, more or less. The trouble is, I have something like 7000 points of necrons (and I wanted these allies to have the exact same colours my necron vehicles have), so adding a new element to all that is a lot of work. Then again, I might add it to just these and not the crons, if I could decide which colour and where exactly to add it. Any ideas?

As for the size, it varies from model to model. The riptide is a bit bigger than the real one, broadsides are about the same, firewarriors are definitely a bit shorter but a lot bulkier (well, they are dwarves). The commander got a new base for just that reason, he was definitely too small earlier.

 Las wrote:
Could we maybe see them next to some of your crons?

Here's what I'll be taking to a tournament next week. Also featured are some "kroots" (next to the riptide) that I painted up today, because firewarriors + devilfish didn't really fit into the list. The models I used are some old Warzone plastics I got for free. I'll probably replace them at some point if I find something nicer.



Sorry about all the clutter in the background. The only table big enough for this was my painting table, and it tends to look like that...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
For anyone interested, the list pictured above is this:

Crons
2 Command Barges (SempWeave, Mindshackles, Scythe)
2 Courts, 2 Stormteks each
2 units of 5 Warriors in Ghost Arks
3 Annihilation Barges

Tau
Buffmander (The usual + FNP)
Riptide (Ion, SMS, EWO)
10 Kroot
3 Broadsides (all Target Locks) + 5 Missile Drones

1850 points

What I plan on bringing to a tournament and what I actually end up playing are rarely the same thing, so here's the actual list:

great stuff.
i really like your broadsides. i wonder how theyd scale up to an actual broadside?

I see a GOUF!!!!!! or is it gouf custom...... zarssss btw excelent need more of them tho... and a lectro wip.