Tau Stealth Suit Conversions

A freind of mine over at A Tau Beggining is an adult returner to the hobby, much like me, but unlike me, didnt do much modelling last time round. He has been painting his stealth suits and I think he has a wicked scheme for his army, and his painting is remarkable considering how long he's been at it.

His problem is he's got at least nine of these guys good to go and is finding them a little, well static.

I offered to have a go at making a few a tad more dynamic so he threw a box at me.

the very first thing I did was assemble the few multi-part components so I could see what this kit was made of. It's not very complex and really dosent allow a wide range of motion or dynamism. odd, I thought for something with a jump pack.

That very feature was what I decided to make the most of, flight. so off came the first guy's feet.
and those neat littl discs on the ankles, I'll put those back later :)

Then I positioned the legs as swept back as I could. that left a little ugly ball and socket visible at the waist, but we'll GS that in later.

I stuck a pole up his.. vent.

and then re-attach the feet.

We'll come back with GS later and re-form ankles. then we can glue those nifty ankle discs back on

Thats him kinda done. I know, I know I screwed up the weapon. I've never built this kit before, and it just fit so well like that i didnt question it. theyll get pulled off and put on right. i promise.

I also didnt attache the shoulder pads for him, as i had no clue which ones he had on which side on his other blokes.

okay, two left.

I wanted to try for "about to touch down" as i like doing that with Assault marines. so off comes one foot.

and with the careful application of a rod up the... vent. and a pinned foot (yeah yeah, ankle, GS later :P ) he kinda looks right.

okay so he's probarbly the weakest of the lot, but it's really not a hugely versatile kit.

next fellow got a more ground based repose.

First thing was to cut through the thigh, well away from any sculpted detail

then mount the legs at a jaunty angle in the upper torso.

like a fool I didnt clearly photograph the next step, but basically you pin the legs back on, in almost the same place, but rotatedmaybe 40 degrees in line with the new facing of the model.

the result looks something like this

a little GS and no-one will ever know :)

This is the closes I came to a post GS group shot.

But this fellow is still my favourite :)


These should look wicked when painted up in my mates scheme.

As always I'm happy to hear your thoughts, but also, why not pop over to his blog and let him know what you think. maybe chivvy him along to get them painted :)