Tau Riptide

I might need you to be a bit gentle with me, cos i’m feeling quite rusty, and there are a few things here i’m not happy with, but then my pictures are always extremely close and high rez and totally unforgiving :)

I need to thank the owner of this model, cos doing this form start to finish, starting with him with me, and finishing it off later, has properly got me fired up about painting again. I think mainly because i have a LOT in progress, and I've been picking at bits here and there, and doing things by the squad or putting batches together, and its made the accomplishment a long time coming.

This model went together so well, the new CAD designed kits just get better and better.

 

Colours were chosen to fit in with the army, which i hope this will, and that i haven't strayed too far.

A model this size deserves a few close ups, even if they do show some of the shaky work :)

  

And the secondary weapon systems are magnetised so that things can be tried out :)

Well there you have  it, and actual post with pictures, – wonders will never cease.

I’ve some pictures of ww2 reinforcements that didn't get posted, and a AAR in note form here somewhere, I'm also working on things i have of other peoples that i feel guilty for having had for so long and not finished. you know who you are.

there are some wolves on the block too, – I'm hoping to “finish” the wolves before guard or orks get a new codex and models, cos that could be uguly :)

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 :)

A Kroot distraction

SO a freind of mine has just started a Tau army, and he gave me a sprue of his kroot to assemble for him.

I reposed a few pairs of legs and tried to capture the dynamic feral feel of the kroot. i'm mainly posting these so he can see them :) but also to share why there arent a ton of ISt's on here, it being the weekend.

they all need basing yet, barrels drilling on the rifles and then priming.

heres the first
the main changes to him were to remove the second gun hand, and replace the knife blade with one of the skinning knives from one of the belt pouches

the secondan attempt to make a real "shooter", reposed the legs. initially he was aiming more "down range" but something about it wasnt right, i gave him a more elevated rifle and it seemed to come together, he's using the step to aim higher, simples :)

the third

this fellow has been armed with one of the kroot pistols after paring it out from it's surrounding belt pack, heck they have em, they might as well use em :)

the last one

Leaping over the cover at the enemy, a repose of both feet was requires to make it look right but overall i'm quite happy with thesae, and i had great fun building these kroot.

oh god, does this mean i now have to build an all kroot army?