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Hello. I have a question for all you fine people of Dakka. I am currently making the "centerpiece" of my Tau army: A unit of 3 XV9 battlesuits with Shadowsun along for the ride. I'm not an expert modeler or painter by any standards, but I want this squad to look nice. I ordered in resin bases from Secret Weapon to match my army's theme and I cut the "fake basing" off Shadowsun since I plan to stick her on one of those clear rods you get with flying bases (finding a place to sink a magnet for that will be a completely separate issue...but I digress). I know that's not usual but the model just looks like it should be hovering to me! I will of course be using infantry sized bases for her and the three drones.

Here lies the question. I ordered the twin burst cannon suits since I believe they are the most generally useful and I wanted all the suits to be uniform. That said, I would very much like to run them with other weapons at some point, at least the melta options look quite tasty. Unfortunately Forgeworld hates Tau I guess, since the weapon options are easily swappable in the same manor as the riptide. They could be included in one kit but they sell three completely different XV9 kits; one for each weapon (along with a 4th weapon option that isn't even supported). Should I just glue the burst cannons on the arms and say "counts as" for any other weapons, or magnetize them on so that in the slight chance I either find or make additional weapon mounts I can attach them sometime in the future?

Adding to the complication is that I am currently out of magnets, so if I hold off to magnetize it will be another week before I get to build them. For obvious reasons I really want to get these things put together...they look awesome! Additionally I have done a lot of magnetization for my Tau army, but nothing on resin yet. So there's always the small possibility that I mess something up while I'm drilling and end up with a ruined model. Also I don't have a size reference for any of the additional weapons, so if I make some dynamic poses I might not even have room to swap weapons out if they are more bulky than the burst cannons.

That's enough out of me. Now I turn it over to you, what do you say?

IMO I always try to magnetized bigger pieces. I find it better to move and gives me options when building an army. However doing magnets takes time and patience to figure out what works for you and what you are trying to achieve. I myself just got done magnetizing a defiler. I have all weapons and head swaps but, the legs where not worth magnetizing for me. I wanted to but, in the long run they are more stable glued to one spot esp. If I am using it in game. I still haven't decided what I am doing with the claws .

You are correct, they don't make it easy for other weapons.

The burst cannon suits are the best to use, as with them the hands are separate from the weapon, where as the other versions the hand is part of the weapon.

Assemble the suits, just don't glue the weapon onto the hand if you are impatient. Magnetize the bottom of the hand later.

As for other weapons, I just scratch built or did conversions for the other non burst canon option - although to be honest, the burst cannons are the best ones (for my lists anyways).

best of luck!