Soup\'s WIP Thread

[howtofoldsoup]

I\'m starting a WIP thread to get some thoughts on some of the Tau conversions I\'m doing and to show updates to my MiniExchange#9 progress.

My Tau Commander
This is one of the Forgeworld Tau Commanders (so worth it if only for just the extra articulation!), a gift from the guy who got me into WH40K a few months ago. I like the way he\'s coming along so far. The oversized base allows me to actually mount the sheild drones on the base and move them together without any problem.

I still have some touch-ups to do on the commander and have to finish the base, but I\'m happy with how he\'s coming about. I hope to have him finished Monday night.

Shield Drones
I hate the normal shield drone, which is just a drone without guns, but I loved the concept of a electrically generated forcefield that the drones would emit. Then I started thinking about how I would model it.

My first attempt (maybe I\'ll post it some day), was using a clear zip-lock container lid, with a kind of jagged electrical look to it. It was A) too big and B) looked funny. It was too organic and random for Tau. So then I began looking for some kind of curved clear plastic. I tried something with perfect circles, but that was also too big, and since I play with this army every week, I wanted something I could carry around without too much trouble.

Then I saw it, while browsing a local Walgreens. A tennis ball container. It was perfect. Very thin plastic, but sturdy. and the label was only glued on one strip along the side. At $3.00, it was cheaper than any bit I\'ve ever seen at GW.

The posts the sheild drones are on are nails that i\'ve ground down with a Dremel tool to fit the drone. I put a magnet under the base on both sides where the shield drones stand, so they don\'t fall off. I also have modelled but not primed a broken version of both the sheild drones which I can use to replace the broken ones when they go down.

Any thoughts or ideas will be appreciated.

Thanks,

\'Soup

 

[howtofoldsoup]

Tau Broadside Unit

Broadside Squad
The three broadsides I have I wanted to give a more unique feel to, rather than the out of the box look. I love the arm mounted rail gun look from the Forgeworld model and recreated that for my first broadside.

The second one I wanted to be holding a railgun \"rifle\" like a normal soldier would, but it came out looking more like a bazooka, but it\'s different and I still like it. The greenstuff on the knee came out a bit whack, so I\'m going to put a firewarrior shoulder pad over it, hopefully that will make it less obvious.

The third, and most recent conversion, I wanted to give the look like those hip mounted heavy weapons from Aliens that Vasquez and Drake used.

To do that, I reasoned, the battlesuit was going to need more than nubs for hands, so I took some hands off a Mech from some new collectable mini game for mechs (like HeroClix). The legs also looked pretty cool on that guy so I used them too. I created a handle out of some Styrene rod and the two shoulders I cut off the missle pods. I pinned everything together and voila:

 

[EPStudios]

Love the broadsides.

On the shield drones I\'d advise making atleast one shield drone that is actively stopping a missle or something. i.e. make a shield drone with an explosion right next to it and have the explosion look like it is hitting an invisible wall that curves around the shield drone. Something like that should be possible using green stuff.

Best of luck with yuor Tau army, they can be fun to play.

 

[howtofoldsoup]

Drone Detail

Yeah, I thought about doing that. I have an RPG that I mounted on a bent wire, to give the illusion that it was ricocheting. It doens\'t come through that clear in the picture, but I really like the look without any adornments.

My other idea was to paint concentric circles in a pattern like gun fire was strafing across one.

\'Soup

 

[demonherald]

Like the gunshot effect idea ...that would look pretty sweet.
Is it possible to make the plastic cover the whole model like a dome????? half a hamster ball or something similarThat also would look sweet.
I like the bazooka style railgun sweet idea and diferent.
good luck with them

 

[howtofoldsoup]

Hammer heads

Rail/Ion Heads!

This is my Hammerhead design (I have two).

Both have magnetized Ion and Rail guns. (Still have to get alternate SMS options)

It\'s hard to tell in these pictures, but there is a dark blue to light blue air brushed fade riding up the side of the chassis. It looks very cool in-person (and was pretty easy to do!). I get more questions about the airbrush work than anything else in my army.

 

[Arma]

Your white primer looks very smooth and clean - which do you use out of interest?

Also what colours do you use for those bases? I looked for a paint guide for those style colours but didn\'t find much.

 

[howtofoldsoup]

Originally posted by Arma
Your white primer looks very smooth and clean - which do you use out of interest?

Also what colours do you use for those bases? I looked for a paint guide for those style colours but didn\'t find much.

I used good ole GW white primer, though I\'m convinced that their black primer gives a better finish, it\'s harder to work with if you want bright colors.

I use some really cheap \"Apple Barrel\" paints on the base. I use three colors.

• First I paint glue onto the base and apply flock/sand.
• Let it dry (I use a hair dryer to speed up the process since I\'m impatient).
• Then I use a watered down medium dark brown (which would be a GW bestial brown equivalent) over the whole base. I water it down so it\'ll fill all the appropriate creases and spaces.
• Let it dry.
• Dry brush with beige/tan color
• Dry brush with an off-white (GW Bleached bone equivalent).

Make sure you use a decent dry brush. Using a normal paint brush for dry brushing is hard to manage and doesn\'t give that decent of an effect. Something soft and wide like a small make-up brush is what I\'d recommend.

The bases come out pretty consistent.

I wrote a big article on drybrushing on my website. You can read it here.

\'Soup

 

[Ogrebane]

Nice stuff Howto. Your color scheme is very distict. Not sure if its the photo but on the RH gun on the commander it looks like a mold line. Tisk tisk cant have that.

I think the rocket exploding on the shield drone is a great idea good luck pulling it of tho I wouldnt want to tackle it.

I think round shields would look better tho. Maybe by some clear plastic (from you local hobby store) then heat it it hot water and using a mould (A sphere of appropriate size shape the plastic. Not sur eif it will affect the clearness of the plastic tho.

Anyway good luck I like what I see.