deep in tau territory - a mod-log! (22/10: bolter-drones!)

[det]

I like the Speeder. The drones make it seem a lot more filled out and combat vehicle-like.

 

Thanx! :D the lines and simmetry came out nice, now i need to fill in the gaps and clean it up a bit!

 

 

I REALLY like this project. Sure, its kind of a canon violation but its all in good fun! I like the tautech integration on the vehicles best of all. Some of the models look slightly off propotionally, but on a table it will be really really cool.

 

Personally I'd have filed off the arrow on that psyker's backpack, and probably done a little conversion work on the tau head you used for the marine. Y'know, just cause I have to throw a nitpick in there. :D

 

 

Went back again and looked at all the stuff. I stand by my statement that this stuff will look rad on a gaming table. You could rock some seriously cool scenario's and landscaping around em too!

 

Glad you like this project!!

 

He, the librarian's backpack...truth to be told, he was finished before all the tautech stuff started...but i see your point.

 

What kind of "little conversion work" on the tau head used for the second techmarine would have you done?? I'm curious...maybe i could pull it off and improve the model :D

 

Certainly i'll throw together at least one objective to be used with this army...and it will obviously some tautech pile'o'gubbinz ;)

 

The idea is to finish the force...thinking on how to convert the attack bikes...stock just aren't going to cut it IMHO...and then add battle damage to every single piece. I'm not yet sure how exactly to do it, but i'll think about it after everything is done.

[Chapter Master Ignis Domus]

I recently started on a pet project alot like this. This did, in one way, inspire me. I was thinking about what a AM Magos might do with a tau vehicle. (Un)Fortunately, I had a partially assembled Hammerhead to spare. I started adding various guns, armor plates, tech panels, and those shield projectors from the Macragge set to it. So I was thinking that you might want to convert a devilfish or piranha to its SM equivalent.

[agroszkiewicz]

Glad you like this project!!

 

He, the librarian's backpack...truth to be told, he was finished before all the tautech stuff started...but i see your point.

 

What kind of "little conversion work" on the tau head used for the second techmarine would have you done?? I'm curious...maybe i could pull it off and improve the model :D

 

Hmm, IMHO you should strip the psyker with simple green and cut off the backpack. Stick one of those nifty tautech peices on since they seem to be proportioned right to mimic a backpack. Easy conversion that will bring him in line visually with the rest of the squad.

 

On the second marine (which btw is freakin cool as hell), the head is a little on the large side. You could remove a little bit of mass with a the flat file in the GW needle set (only 12 dollars USD) or just carefully shave it with a scalpel. The files make it super easy to keep a nice straight line on the contour though. Clip those little nobbly things off the side of the head, then shave down the rear section of the head. If you are really OCD you could remove the head, do the aforementioned and also shave down the height on the neck cowl. Doing this would allow you to place the modified head further to the read of the "neck cavity" in the marine torso thereby creating the impression of a more massive chest.

 

All the complicated crap really depends on if you can get the head off without damaging it. Easiest thing for a quick fiz is to just clip the nobs on the side and maybe file a little off the top of the head.

 

Whatever you used for shoulder pads is a rockin peice! Really cool to see an easy part swap that looks visually cohesive.

 

Personally I'd rework the left side arm, but thats just due to personal asthetic. Proportionally it looks correct. msn-wink.gif

[det]

I recently started on a pet project alot like this. This did, in one way, inspire me. I was thinking about what a AM Magos might do with a tau vehicle. (Un)Fortunately, I had a partially assembled Hammerhead to spare. I started adding various guns, armor plates, tech panels, and those shield projectors from the Macragge set to it. So I was thinking that you might want to convert a devilfish or piranha to its SM equivalent.

 

hehe...they base idea was to marine-ize a piranha, but in the end i preferred it the other way round.

I'm still thinking of the possibilities with a landraider made from the devilfish hull and land raider trakks, but i still need to come up with a nice to simulate well the "assault vehicle" rule.

Hurray for inspiration!!

 

Glad you like this project!!

 

He, the librarian's backpack...truth to be told, he was finished before all the tautech stuff started...but i see your point.

 

What kind of "little conversion work" on the tau head used for the second techmarine would have you done?? I'm curious...maybe i could pull it off and improve the model :drool:

 

Hmm, IMHO you should strip the psyker with simple green and cut off the backpack. Stick one of those nifty tautech peices on since they seem to be proportioned right to mimic a backpack. Easy conversion that will bring him in line visually with the rest of the squad.

 

On the second marine (which btw is freakin cool as hell), the head is a little on the large side. You could remove a little bit of mass with a the flat file in the GW needle set (only 12 dollars USD) or just carefully shave it with a scalpel. The files make it super easy to keep a nice straight line on the contour though. Clip those little nobbly things off the side of the head, then shave down the rear section of the head. If you are really OCD you could remove the head, do the aforementioned and also shave down the height on the neck cowl. Doing this would allow you to place the modified head further to the read of the "neck cavity" in the marine torso thereby creating the impression of a more massive chest.

 

All the complicated crap really depends on if you can get the head off without damaging it. Easiest thing for a quick fiz is to just clip the nobs on the side and maybe file a little off the top of the head.

 

Whatever you used for shoulder pads is a rockin peice! Really cool to see an easy part swap that looks visually cohesive.

 

Personally I'd rework the left side arm, but thats just due to personal asthetic. Proportionally it looks correct. msn-wink.gif

 

Uhm...the libby backpack...i could just remove it and give him some tauified one. He actually runs around with the comand squad, which has nothing tau really...it has an eldar piece to determine the "apotechary" though...uhm...point taken though. Once the army is built, I'll gop over it again doing battle damage all over and streamlining the look of it.

 

The techmarine head...uhm...i could easily remove those little nobbly things. Concerning the neck height I'm not too convinced, partially because removing it is not that easy. Once I get the bitz for the servo arm I'll post it up and see if the proportions somehow are better.

 

thanx for the tips man, much appreciated!!

 

by the way...i "krrotified" quickly the tac squad and the snipers...nothing major, just some nice posing and some kroot bitz. Now at least they're not stock and have some character. Here they are:

 

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z179/detted/DSCF0006-8.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z179/detted/DSCF0007-9.jpg

 

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z179/detted/DSCF0010-5.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z179/detted/DSCF0008-8.jpg

 

C&C welcome!

[Newtype]

Read through your thread and I realy like the idea and conversions you have done so far. The Marine Scouts with the Kroot rifle bits makes a lot of sence. Well done!

[Captain Mick]

Looks promsing, well done :lol: .

[Chapter Master Ignis Domus]

I like the guy holding both bolter and pistol. I did something similar with a space wolf to get a matrix look to him. For the assault vehicle, you could cut a hole in the front of the devilfish, stick a door from the back on there, and have two burst cannons from a battlesuit inside mounted on turrets. I did the same thing on the back of my AdMech Devifish, except I put the cannons on the side in the two niches below the engines.

[det]

Read through your thread and I realy like the idea and conversions you have done so far. The Marine Scouts with the Kroot rifle bits makes a lot of sence. Well done!

 

Thanx!! :)

 

 

I like the guy holding both bolter and pistol. I did something similar with a space wolf to get a matrix look to him. For the assault vehicle, you could cut a hole in the front of the devilfish, stick a door from the back on there, and have two burst cannons from a battlesuit inside mounted on turrets. I did the same thing on the back of my AdMech Devifish, except I put the cannons on the side in the two niches below the engines.

 

Uhm...well, I'll remember this idea, thanx! ;)

[Firepower]

One of the reasons I gave up on my old Tau was that I never had that skill for chopping and smacking together odds n' ends to make something particularly awesome. Now I have to figure out whether to admire you, envy you, or hate you (as any proper Templar likely would, all that xeno corruption!).

 

Keep posting more crazy kitbashes while I try to figure it out :P

[Battle Brother Ardonis]

You gotta be kidding me with this right. Not only does a space marine train for centuries to use his own gear at the exclusion of all others, the psycho indoctrination wouldn't allow him to use non-imperial tech. Sure its cool to say if there is a close association with the Ordo Xenos means they are more likely to use Xenos tech what about the Ordo Malleus, they don't just hunt

Daemons they go after anything that is heretical including 'loyal' space marines that are deep behind enemy lines needing to use Xenos tech to live. There are countless examples in the canon where marines that are separated from there supply lines don't resort to using inferior tech to live, a few that come to mind are Shrike behind Ork lines, Uriel and Pasaneus on Medrengard in Dead Sky Black Sun. Not only that the size of a space marine would mean that it can't fit in tau gear even if it wanted to. As soon as the chapter got back to imperial space they would be investigated by everybody and probably found wanting.

I'm all for using different army kits in the same army and using counts as but it has to fit. for example I'm using Assault models with just the single jump pack from the sang guard box and Gargoyle wings with the Night lord Upgrade Blister and some other chaos iconography as Raptors.

[Kelamare]

wow rain on this guys parade :)

The fact is he has some inventive conversions with tau tech an his back drop story is something with some far fetched ideas but personally i would like to think this would be something more in line with Dorian Heresey Ultra marines with there tech tradeing an who knows maybe in that realm of thought the smurfs just might send covert ops into tau space to steal the tech an got cutt off just as much as this guy would like to say

[Yogi]

You gotta be kidding me with this right. Not only does a space marine train for centuries to use his own gear at the exclusion of all others, the psycho indoctrination wouldn't allow him to use non-imperial tech. Sure its cool to say if there is a close association with the Ordo Xenos means they are more likely to use Xenos tech what about the Ordo Malleus, they don't just hunt

Daemons they go after anything that is heretical including 'loyal' space marines that are deep behind enemy lines needing to use Xenos tech to live. There are countless examples in the canon where marines that are separated from there supply lines don't resort to using inferior tech to live, a few that come to mind are Shrike behind Ork lines, Uriel and Pasaneus on Medrengard in Dead Sky Black Sun. Not only that the size of a space marine would mean that it can't fit in tau gear even if it wanted to. As soon as the chapter got back to imperial space they would be investigated by everybody and probably found wanting.

I'm all for using different army kits in the same army and using counts as but it has to fit. for example I'm using Assault models with just the single jump pack from the sang guard box and Gargoyle wings with the Night lord Upgrade Blister and some other chaos iconography as Raptors.

 

You gotta be kidding me right.. You are aware this is just a game with table top minis. Not everybody has to make their army under your guidelines.

 

Great work OP, I love the bike.

[Brother Kovash]

Wow Brother Ardonis just step back for a moment and let det have his fun. He is the one paying for the models and bits, he is allowed to use them as he pleases. He has come up with a creative back story, and while it may not be canon, it looks like a lot of fun. I wish I could be half as imaginative as det is here.

 

 

I love the scouts. Any chances you'll be using railguns somewhere in your army? Maybe for lascannons?

[det]

...wow ladz, no problem! thanx for the support and all the kind words!! :DD

--I'm not going into fluff discussions since this, after all, is the modelling section, so only models get discussed here.--

 

Railguns...the idea was to use some on a landraider thing, as dornian heresy ultra do...but for the moment it won't happen.

Or as a conversion beamer (idea2) which would fit the stats also more or less. But we'll see.

 

For the moment here are some updates:

 

land speeder finished:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z179/detted/DSCF0012-3.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z179/detted/DSCF0011-4.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z179/detted/DSCF0013-5.jpg

 

"telion" gubbinized...hard to convert it in the real sense of the word, thus i just did some minor converting. -sorry for the pic quality but my camera just doesn't love bare metal models!-,

To integrate him in the squad visually I gave him the weapon tip as the snipers, but without the knife part, since it just didn't seem right. I have him however a knife made from the knife part of the kroot rifles butt and a standard marine knife grip...ho he has a kroot-knife-thing too.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z179/detted/DSCF0020-3.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z179/detted/DSCF0021-2.jpg

 

tautechmarinebiker recieved storm bolter and plasma cutter:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z179/detted/DSCF0025-2.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z179/detted/DSCF0024-4.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z179/detted/DSCF0023-3.jpg

 

an objective, quickly put together from bitz:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z179/detted/DSCF0018-4.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z179/detted/DSCF0010-6.jpg

 

I'm thinking about the attack bikes, which will be the last unit i built for this army this year. I'm going to australia the 30th december with an opne ticket, so it might take a while before i blow the dust away from my beloved minis...oh well, let's not get stupidly sentimental.

the idea is to remove the sidecar and have instead a monowheel drone attached to the bike...what do you think of the idea??

[Captain Mick]

Looks good, well done :D .

[Hyaenidae]

So, when are we gonna see a Dreadnought Hybrid?

[Kelamare]

I dont reply much im more of a lurker here Im personal friends with a man from another board named Greydeath who Tauized his marines an always loved the work. An your work has been really nice to fallow dont mind the occasional puritan an keep up the good work

[det]

thanx everybody!! :lol:

 

-I'm really considering the expansion of this army...uhm...soo many ideas but i need to replenish my bitz box completely: so far this project, alongside some generous looting my orks made, has completely finished my tau bitz...he...-

 

I know about greydeath's work...very cool and inspirational!! :lol:

 

tau dread...hehe...in the very beginning i should have had two, but then the trade went badly as someonehad already nicked them from the guy, so no dreads. But the idea remains: methinks that ironclads -although i don't like the concept that much- would be a nice conversion...all covered in tau pieces, arm modified with tau weapons...or a venerable dread, armed don't know how, maybe even an odd setup like assault cannon and ML would come out nice as a conversion...dammit, foodfor thought!! :lol:

[Chapter Master Ignis Domus]

TauTechmarine is looking great!

[Battle Brother Ardonis]

It pains me to see perfectly good well sculpted models that look awesome in the kits that they come in reduced to what has been posted. The models don't look awesome they look like bitz have been slapped together hoping they would fit, they don't, case and point the tau tech marine biker and the tech marine with the 'anti-grav wheelchair from det's previous post. What displeases me more is you guys that encourage such blatant pointlessness, as for raining on this guys parade, it's called being brutally honest but Kovash your right they are his models and its his hobby I just hate to see perfectly good hobby get turned into this. As for 'inventive conversion' I've seen similar conversions like this in my local GW store and I gotta say they"re on par with what i see here perhaps a tiny bit worse at least you haven't tried to blend nids in with them. That's perhaps one saving grace.

[dagon]

Agreed - half of these things look like a handful of tau and space marine sprues got tossed into a blender with some glue. The concept is good, but the execution badly needs some work.

[Hemal]

Guys - I note bpth opf you are first time posters - so read the rules. The =][= is watching - brutal honesty can still be constructive - I think that his is rather well executed, the Tau look is not "in your face" as much as could've been the case. Still needs to have some polish, but I think the OP has got a good thing going...

[Warsmith Aznable]

Well the "No Fun Brigade" is showing up in force, it seems. And providing such constructive criticism, as well.

 

Some of these conversions aren't pretty, this is true. But the stated back story is a force trapped deep behind enemy lines and scrounging. So in that respect even some of the more odd decisions fit.

 

But taking it back a little, some of us just don't want to do armies that look like all the other ones. Some of us want to do something different. It's a big damn galaxy with 10,000 years of history, and any army represents a tiny fraction of that time and exists in a tiny part of that big galaxy, and represents even just a slice of that units history.

 

So maybe when they get back to Imperial space they will all be put up against the wall and set on fire. And maybe a Black Library book hasn't been written about what they're doing yet. So what? He's enjoying himself, and some of us are interested in what he's doing.

[Chapter Master Ignis Domus]

He's come up with a good reason for them to be like that, the models look great, and the idea seems like it could go a long way. Sure, it's probably not canon, bt many of us will do completely non-canon things all the time. For instance, I have fond memories of an ork marine trukk that I made a longish time ago. This is entirely possible. On Librarium-Online, I saw this guy who had come up with a taumarine codex and made excellent fluff for it. Det took the time to do this and spent the money on the models. So please don't insult him and criticize his modelling in a non-contstructive way.

[det]

:P...cool down ladz. Thanx for all the positive support, much appreciated.

Concerning the "non-constructive criticism"...it's just that. If battle brother ardonis & dagon want to "insult" me/my models they are welcome. I won't simply answer to completely non-constructive criticism. I'm sorry to have offended them in some way but please let's all grow up. Hope you didn't create an account just to comment here though.

Welcome to B&C, enjoy your stay ans surf around...there's much to see!

If you don't like the models just say so in a polite manner, maybe even going as far as suggesting how to improve them.

If you like the models...well, I'm happy and hope you enjoyed the thread.

 

OT: Bitz arriving soon...I'll finally be able to finish the 3 techmarines giving them a suitably rippy arm. The tac sgt will get his combiflamer and the ML guy will have a new shiny and cool head.

 

Then the attack bikes...concept is there, just need to start.

 

Off to a game I go... ;) damn difficult to play these marines though...10 years of only orkiness just bias you: No 50+ dice when charging, only a small bag carries 2500 pts (used to have 2 full bags for 1850 pts more or less), deployment is quick. "What? I rolled a 2-5 and still made a save?? Cool!" etc...