They Liked You Better When You Were Dead
Hey guys, I found this old post in my notepad archive and thought it needed reinstating. Also, this model has suffered an unfortunate end at the hands of faulty spray paint (GW, I may add), removal of which also cost me the greenstuff holding it together, i.e. it's completely knackered. This will never be finished.

Introduction

This project aims to produce a rather meaty looking suit that looks capable of wielding the awesome power of a broadside, yet appears manoeuvrable enough to move freely about a theatre of war. I feel the Citadel broadsides look a bit pants and the chassis don't seem to handle their weaponry very well.

The design draws on crisis battlesuit variations and modifcation deisgns others have done, specifically the head, calves and thrusters, along with my own thoughts on how I want it to look and how the pieces fit together.

Requirements


Kits
1 Complete Broadside
1 Complete Crisis
1 Stealth Suit

Parts from sprues
Broadside/ Crisis Suit Parts
2 flamers
2 burst cannons
4 missile pods
1 fusion blaster
2 railguns
2 target locks
1 complete torso (- thrusters)
2 sets of thrusters
2 arms
4 legs
4 feet
4 pulse rifles

Stealth Suit Parts
1 head/torso
1 shoulder guard (the one with the sept symbol)

Other Parts
the essentials; modelling putty, glue, glass paper etc.



Legs
Here's one of the pilfered conversions (apologies as I can't find the source for this, if anyone does tell me and I can credit them), adapted with heavy duty feet. The standard feet look insubstantial sporting those calves so I did the first thing I thought of, I stuck two together.









Components; (each) 2 burst cannon barrels (still connected), 1 flamer barrel (bare barrel, nozzle intact), 1 crisis suit thigh, 2 crisis suit feet (opposite feet)

I originally felt the legs to look too exposed and created some simple armour plating for the front (as shown) but I'm debating as to whether I should keep them in the design as they cover a lot of the leg detail beneath (see pictures of the dry fit later on), advice and opinions would be greatly appreciated.



Thrusters
The second of the 'adapted' conversions (again I can't find the source, again anyone who knows please say). Keeping in theme with the spec., a heavy suit needs heavy thrusters to accomodate the larger weaponry and extra armour. Again, this is quite simply 4 thrusters shunted together to produce 1 mega thruster. I realise this is still very messy in the pictures but it's looking much better of late.





Components; 2 sets of thrusters, 1 fusion blaster (see vent detail on upper face), 2 burst cannon ammo exit holes (see sides of thrusters)



Head/ Torso
The third and final of someone else's ideas I've plagiarised (TristanHoag of ATT; http://www.advancedtautactica.com/viewt ... 21&t=15104) is of using a stealth suit head in place of the naff standard head. I love the idea and end result of the original conversion but not the way it was originally implemented, it looked too bulky and blocky. So I decided to more heavily alter the suit torso by more extensively intergrating the two pieces.




Components; 1 stealth suit head (cut as appropriate), 1 crisis suit torso (thrusters removed for the thruster conversion and cut to accomodate the rather sizable stealth head)



Arm-mounted Railguns
The arms. I rather like these little beasts, I think they look more suitably sized for the scale of this model but are still sufficient enough to pack a good punch, and they look awesome. They're basically broadside railguns, cut down by about 12mm, mounted on the side of crisis thighs (which are now meaty arms) stuck on crisis arm shoulders with venting detail on the inner side.





Components; (each) 1 broadside railgun, 1 crisis suit thigh, 1 crisis suit shoulder, 1/4 flamer fuel tank

As much as I like the arms, I'm at a loss as to what to do for hands. The crisis knee joint could realistically pass, at a push, but I'd rather have something that looks more like hands.



SMS
Being a broadside it's gotta have SMS, and having taken up both arm hardpoints with railguns and the original back-mounted hard-points with venting, I resolved to mount them on the sides of the backpack system. Simple constructs even you dog/ cat/ proverbial donkey could make.




Components (each) 2 missile pods, 1 cylinder from and sprue, 1 detail from side of crisis suit thruster



The Dry Fit
Finally, here is the Coup De Grace of this update, the (almost complete) dry fit. This should give a very good idea of how it's gonna look when it's finished. I couldn't get the arms to fit on with blu-tac or a bit of super glue, and I'm not about to jump ahead of myself by green stuffing them on, so apologies as the suit is currently armless









Components added; 2 target locks (cut in half to produce sensors), 1 flamer canister (halved to produce venting), stealth suit shoulder pad (armour between the legs)


That's all for this update guys. There should be another one ready in 2-3 days on the progress of cleaning up the individual sections.

I hope you enjoyed reading; comments, criticisms and opinions are welcome.


UPDATE 2, xx/x/10

Apologies for the late update (to those of you who care ); I've made some rather effortious changes to the suit which have taken a mountain of time, and I've not had access to a digicam as ours has broken :/ Technology is against this project. Anyway, let's get to it.

Legs
I started with these bad boys last time and they've come a way since then. I scrapped the plasticard armour idea, I just didn't like it in the end, and have replaced it with heavier looking plating mimicking the style of the upper leg. The venting detail and 'hinges' on the sides of the plating are actually from cut down pulse rifles that I used as part of the skeleton for the lower legs. I also added 2 small piston-like bits to the rear. The finished articles! This is a test paint scheme, I'm not convinced of it but it's fun and easy to paint. It'd be appreciated if anyone could link a tutorial or guide on how to paint battle damage as all I can seem to find are vague instructions involving a sponge?.
[leg2-1, leg2-2, leg2-3]


Thrusters
Again, onto the thrusters. I dropped the venting on top, it was crap, and I've reshaped the overall design (partly a suggestion from Viktor of Flame On) so it actually looks like it belongs on the suit. This took hours of cutting and reshaping until I found a shape that I liked. This part of the project took a good few extra days more than expected, mostly due to the fact that I just couldn't be bothered (and I finally finished Wizardry 8, 10 years later...) :/ The changes may seem rather superficial and minor but they actually took some doing, considering I wasn't sure what I was trying to achieve.
[thruster2-1, thruster2-2]


Head/ Torso
It took quite a while to get from the dryfit images to what you see here. I must have modelled the chest area about 3 times until I stuck with a design because I felt it didn't look right. I've bulked out the torso and added on mounts for the arms, apart from green stuff work, no changes here.
[torso2-1, torso2-2]

Arm-mounted Railguns
Very little has been done to these. I altered the positioning of the right arm so the railgun is pointing forward and attempted to make the transition from forearm to railgun more fluid.
[arm2-1, arm2-2]


SMS
Another 'adopted' idea, this one from Tael of ATT (viewtopic.php?f=21&t=3808). I dropped the rather naff looking cylinders holding the SMS on and replaced them with modified burst cannon barrels, simple but effective.
[sms2-1. sms2-2]


(Nearly) Finished Model
So this is it, pretty much what can be considered the finished article. Any further ideas/ changed would be appreciated as I've done all I planned, but a project is never truly finished.
[suit2-1, suit2-2, suit2-3]

p.s. I think the xv-9 suit looks crap.

Are you buying the bits or all three complete models?

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Is that a FFXIII quote? It sure sounds like one.

Anyway, I'm VERY interested in this, particularly because I'm not a huge fan of the current broadsides. Plus, I'm a stickler for any conversion that includes stealth suit and/or its components. Please post pics soon!

Cheers

That definitely is an FFXIII quote, I remember it pretty clearly... still need to finish that game... anyway.

I think I have some idea how the components will go together, some of them anyway, but I'm stumped on how others will be employed. From the parts list I'm imagining a Tau-ified mech from Chromehounds, but we'll have to wait and see.

.

That is one mighty looking beastie.
For the armour on the legs, try modelling some panel lines to imitate the thighs. It'd help it fit in with the general tau aesthetic. Just use card cut out for this.

For the hands, try using Eldar Wraithlord hands. They might be too small, but it's worth a shot.

Wow that looks cool, can I nick the idea? As for the hands, try the space marine power fist hands.

oooOOooo, looking good. reminds me a lot of Zentradi fighters (Macross stuff) Loving the design, might consider borrowing afew ideas :3

Wow, this looks fantastic. You definitely get my seal of approval. I can't wait to see the finished product.

-T'Owel

Hey man, that's looking pretty awesome! I don't know how interested you are in getting additional parts for completing it, but you may want to consider looking into Kotobukiya - they have a lot of various bits for using in Mecha-like models, and they specifically produce hands in a variety of poses - you'd have to customize them slightly as they all have 4 fingers instead of three like Tau, but I think they still look suitable appropriate - and at least cutting a finger off a hand is a lot easier than sculpting one from scratch, right?

Here's one of my favorite Kotobukiya hands as an example. Other than having 4 fingers, I think it looks fantastically Tau:
_{(Image is itself a link to the store selling these hands)}

Looking good mate.
I like the use of parts. It does remind me of a small warlord titan. In a good way though

When mounting Rail guns underneath plastic arms, I have found drilling two pairs of holes into the arm and the gun, and then pinning them with paper-clips and super-glue to turn a hopeful sticking job into a reliable one.

I say this because I couldn't see you mentioning that. I hate re-sticking and painting components!

A stitch in time saves nine, as they say

They Liked You Better When You Were Dead
Apologies, there was a catastrophic error in one of the workshops and the prototype details and spec were destroyed in a tragic explosion.

Hey guys, I found this old post in my notepad archive and thought it needed reinstating. Also, this model has suffered an unfortunate end at the hands of faulty spray paint (GW, I may add), removal of which also cost me the greenstuff holding it together, i.e. it's completely knackered. I didn't get any photos of it before I sprayed it (at least one lesson to learn here...). This will never be finished.

No, you will finish this model!

Can wait to see it finished, while I prefer the railguns on the shoulders, I LOVE the way you used the Stealth suit.