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Apart from trolling Dakka, I actually participate in The (GW) Hobby ^TM.  I preordered some tau crisis suits from forgeworld and I stumbled upon the lovely TX-42 piranha model.  Well, the model itself isn't that great, but I love the bits. And you can order them separately. That only means one thing: awesome conversion.

I copied this from another forum I posted looking for help in ideas:

Enter the variable fighter. Upon perusing the Forgeworld site for suits I'd like, I browsed the Piranha TX-42 model from Forgeworld and saw that the additional bits can be purchased separately. Considering the similarity in size to the piranha, I think it's perfect for use as a pair of wings with aerospace weapons (railguns) that can be back-mounted to a variable-fighter crisis suit. I currently plan to cut the jets off a crisis suit backpack, add the wings, add the side stabilizers (top left of bottom picture) to reinforce the wings to the body, and cut up the main fuselage to add to the crisis' body as extra protection and to make it look more like a transforming fighter.

I think I could use suggestions on what to add to the legs since they'd look exposed and unflattering if only the upper body was changed. I guess the feet will have to be remade too. (Here's looking at you, Blitz. I think those boot-like feet you made will look perfect as "landing gear" style feet that look like they can withstand some punishment. They may even double as Macross-style boosters.) What about the outside "shell" made of the piranha fuselage?  Macross has workable toys I've played with before that actually "work" in terms of transforming, but how do you think a Tau would do it? Macross has a lot of wings sticking out from random places that I don't think Tau would do and I'd like it to look like it actually transforms in some fashion so I can't just stick the piranha fuselage on the front. If you did that, you'd just imagine the suit  flying up while tucking his legs and arms in.

If anyone knows of a good picture for a macross valkyrie that shows which sections of the fighter get placed where from fighter to mecha mode, I'd appreciate it.  I don't have my toys with me or else it'd be a little easier.

Anyway, in my typical style long-winded posts, that's it. Comments/suggestions?

you are aware that GW now make a similar but not identical plastic Piranha kit? would be rather cheaper and easier to convert.

Are you doing this just as a fun model, or will it 'count as' something in a tau army? The conversion you suggest would make a rather cute Broadside variant, but you'll have the same problem as all broadsides - those spindly little legs from the crisis suit kit. At least you'll have the perfect excuse to replace them with three or four 'landing legs' for a sturdier model

Hm? I already have two piranha kits I sometimes use in my army. However, they have drone cradles at the ends of the wings. I don't need those. The TX-42 has actual wings where you can add laser guns (or rail guns) to the ends for epic space battles.

Anyway, guess I don't really need this here since I already have most of my idea worked out. It's just the details on the legs/arms that I should worry about.

Mounting a railgun to the drone on the wing would be cheaper than buying the FW kit to chop up.

Which is something he is more than aware of since he already owns some of the GW kits....