Hello all! It's Resv again, the guy who keeps posting pictures of his crazy Crisis Suit conversions in this thread: http://www.advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=18243&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

Example of what we are making:


I have been asked by many people to share just how the hell I went about making these things. I have been told that I am managing to bring a bit of new life to the old and rather odd Crisis Suit design. I want other people take and run with my concepts to see what the community at large comes up with. I am splitting my tutorial into three parts: 1) Pelvis 2)Torso 3)Posing. This is going to be a long process so stick with me!

Part 1: Pelvis Design

Step:1


I know it isn't really a Step 1 but I just wanted to show the tools I use. I picked up the GW flash tool kit and I can't stress how awesome the kit is. The brush is wonderful and the flash tool is brilliant for taking off mold lines or smoothing out burs. You are still going to need a file though. Also, remember that nothing beats a fresh blade on your knife. I use a new blade for each model I convert, it may not seem necessary but I think it helps.

Step:2


You want to cut off the Pelvis Section off of the front torso bit. Make sure to leave that front plate intact, it will serve as a nice visual tie between the torso and the pelvis when we start posing the model. The secret to every good conversion is to make sure that it doesn't look like it has been converted. Having parts that overhang and overlap will smooth out the gaps between parts that were never intended to be glued together.

Step:3


Take the rear torso portion and remove all of the Jet Pack facade bits. Make sure to keep both the vents and the lower armored bits. The lower portion of the jet pack will become our shin guards to glue over the goofy little legs. I keep a plastic bits box on my desk so I have a place to toss all of my clippings. I try to never thrown anything away until I have finished my project, that way I am never hurting for pieces if I need them.

Step:4



Now we get to cut the pelvis portion from the rear torso. Again, we want to make sure that we keep the overhang portion of where the jet pact back plate will match up with.

Step:5


Take the two pelvis portions and glue them together. You will notice that the two pieces will not be flush, you have to choose if you want the center plate to be flush or the inner leg sockets. I chose to have the leg sockets be flush, that way it will provide the most un-interupted surface area for glue between the leg and the pelvis. This picture shows how the pelvis is going to be aligned with the torso. What was once the front of the pelvis is now the bottom, facing downwards, with the flatter and wider part facing upwards to be joined with the torso.

Step:6


Now we have to flesh out the back part of our new pelvis. This is where our extra bits come in handy. We can glue on one of the vents from the Jet Pack facade and line it up and center it on the rear of the pelvis. The vent is a nice piece to use because it has a fair bit of detail to it, so when we put all of the model together there will be small bits of detail hidden away.

Step:7



The final step is to glue on a cover piece to both the bottom of the vent and the bottom of the pelvis. The piece I am using is Dreadnought shoulder armor, these are awesome because the are not only just the right size but you can get them in sets of three from your favorite bits provider.

That's it! Part one is done and soon part two will be underway, we will go over converting the torso.

For now I am calling this thing the Helldiver MkIII, I think it is rather fitting for the concept behind the design. I will go into all the fluff I have come up with later, maybe after the final portion of the tutorial.

ALRIGHT! Part 2 (only a year later). I guess it is kind of an excuse but quite a bit of crappy stuff happend in the last year and then I left my job at EA and started with a new game company but I had to move to Helsinki, Finland for 6 months. Now I am back in the Bay Area opening up a new office for my company and I was able to start building and painting again. That and the excitement about the new Tau Codex has got be converting double time. With the Crisis Suit model not changing I thought it would be a good idea to finish this tutorial before April rolls around. So here we go!

Part 2: Torso

Step:1


First thing first, remove the jetpack sections from the rear part of the torso, hold on to these as we will need them when we put together the modified jetpack. After they sections are removed glue all of the sections of the torso together.

Step:2


Now comes a bit of a tricky section. You want to shave off and flatten all the top of the torso. Then you need to shave down the angle on the face so that it is angled a bit deeper and as well as a larger surface. See the next image for a bit more detail.

Step:2 Continued


Here is a better view of the new angle.

Step:3


Grab your Typhoon Sprue (we will be using the rest of it for the converted jetpack) and remove these two pieces and set the rest aside.

Step:3 Continued


Now carefully cut off the top of the nacelle bits. Sadly we only need the top part of the nacelle, so you can do what ever you want with the rest of the bits. I use part of the structure to fill out the shoulders of my regular suits.

Step:4


Now we just glue on the the pieces we just cut. We want the armor pad to overlap over the top.

Thats it! Just glue both sides. The trouble is that this is the most subjective part of my conversion. I have gotten it down but that is because I have practiced over and over again but the first few suits I put together I did mess but this step and the chest sections look a little off. Best of luck on this part! I already have pictures for Part 3, I am going to reuse the jetpack tutorial from my other thread. I am working on Parts 4 and 5 ( I wasn't really expecting a Part 4 or 5) which will be the head and then posing and putting the model together which will be the shortest section. Please feel free to ask any questions you might have and I will do my best to answer as quickly as I can. I will have part 3 asap!

Lets keep this ball rolling with Part 3! Many people have probably already seen this bit of my tutorial process as I originally posted it with a very brief how to description in my first thread about the Helldiver. I will try to be a little more detailed this time around.

Part 3: Jetpack

Step:0


Step zero is easy, we just need to grab the Jetpack sections we removed from the torso in Part 2.

Step:1


You want to go back to your Typhoon sprue and grab the following pieces. Go ahead and glue the vents to the frames now. Keep in mind though that the little vent bits tend to have lots of burs on them so you might need to take a file or a knife to them to make sure they sit flush into the frames.

Step:2


The next step is to cut away the excess material from the main part of the nacelles. This stuff again falls into the "sadly discarded" pile along with a lot of the bits purchased for this convers. This cut can be kind of tricky as the actual detail on the bit can screw up how you cut it, i.e. lots of different thicknesses of material. It doesn't have to be perfect but you want to try to get it as straight as possible.

Step:3


Now we prepare to joint the front and the back of the jetpack together. You want to cut away any extra material on the front part with the vent making sure that you have a nice flat surface to join to the rear part of the jet pack. This is another good time to pull out your file and give it a few quick swipes before the next steps.

Step:4


Gluing them together! The trick here is how do you want them to line up. These pictures are from one of my early conversions and show a slightly different set up to how I arrange them now. Currently I line up the surface of the top most pannel of the vented front half to the bottom of the notch that runs along the top of the rear half. This gives both halves a nice feel I find, and also will cover up any unwanted gaps. The other thing to do is make sure that both parts are flush on the outer facing part. I didn't really start doing this until I was well underway with my conversions so I have a number of jetpacks with an unsightly lip or pannel gap on one or two.

Step:4 Continued


Here they are all glued together. I always take a moment to make sure that they look as identical as I can get them before I attach them to the torso.

Step:5


Here they are attached to the torso. I usually like to do this step before I pose the model so that the suit doesn't feel off balance, a few of my first conversions feel like they just about to pitch onto their backs! You will notice that use the very back of the torso to help me get an angled look. This is great because it will flare out the back part of the jetpack giving it a neat dynamic look. I will go into more detail on how exactly I line up the jetpack sections in the final tutorial.

Okay, I know it is a bit of a rehash but I want to put all of the different parts of the tutorial into one thread so that it is easy to find. The Key thing to remember is that you should arrange the jetpack however you think it looks best. For instance, a personality of some fame in the 40k world recently gave my conversion a try and I really think he did a nice job with his jetpack placement seen here: http://www.3plusplus.net/2013/03/tau-crisis-suit-conversion-wip/. I really think the higher up placement is great, as well as the additional thrusters he added under the nacelles. Let me know if you have any questions or issues with this part of the tutorial and I will be happy to answer what I can.

Saved for background info and answers to any questions.

This is an awesome build, I will definitely try it when I buy more tau

Very helpful! I will absolutely being trying this out when I get the chance!

Hobby articles indeed, very interesting to see your techniques.

Hey Resv any chance of part 2 =D. Part 1 is looking good.

~j

Just doing a little cleaning. I moved the material from your part 2 post up beneath part 1 so the tutorial is continuous. Carry on. You have us all intrigued.
>>--AA-->

Edit: I've moved part 3 up there as well. Good work so far.

Arrow was nice enough to clean up this thread again but I just wanted to give a heads up to everyone that I included part 3. I will be working on part 4 and 5 this weekend to wrap this whole thing up. If anyone has any questions please don't hesitate to ask.

As we continue on this tutorial it is time to talk about the head. I thought this one was going to be super simple but it looks like it might be very picture heavy. The head I buit for the Helldiver is probably my favorite part of the model, not to mention one of the most important parts of any miniature. I find that most models don't properly make use of the head as a "call to action" (marketing term for the win). The head on your model serves a larger purpose than just being a head, it directs the action of the model and can take a good pose and make it a great pose. A good thing to think about where the angle at which the head is pointed becomes for all intensive purposes the "front" of your model. If I have any advice for anyone it is to NEVER GLUE YOU HEAD ON FIRST, use a little sticky-tac to hold the head in place while you are posing the model. That way you can angle it to get the most drama out of your pose, then glue it LAST.

I can go more into this if people want but seriously everyone, consider truly how important the head is when building your models! ESPECIALLY CRISIS SUITS!

Part 4: The Head

Step:1


First thing to do is grab one of the two Gun Drone sprues that come standard with your Crisis Suit and cut out the "barrel" section of both pulse carbines as shown above. Make sure you have a sharp knife for this part as it will make cutting theses out easier.

Step:2


The next thing to do is shave off the rounded portion (I totally forgot what this is called so if anyone out there knows please tell me so I can put it's proper name in) on one side. Make sure to shave of ALTERNAT sides on both of the Pulse Carbine bits so that after they are attached to the Target Lock they both have the same top and same bottom.

Step:3


Now we glue on the Pulse Carbines onto the Target Lock that came with the Crisis Suit. Line up the bottom edge of the target lock (not the very bottom tab that is normally inserted into a slot on a regular Crisis Suit) and I like to line up the edge of the rounded section on the Pulse Carbine with the front edge of the Target Lock.

Step:3 Continued


Here is another view of how I line up the cheek pieces for reference. Repeat with the other cheek and then set it aside while we prepare the Visor.

Step:4


The next step is to grab a shoulder bad from the plastic Stealth Suit kit and cut off the angled end. This is made extra easy as all you have to do is cut along the grove marks for the perfect measurement. I keep the rest of the shoulder pad to use as Gorgot armor for my suit (always try to get the most out of your bits!).

Step:5


Take the angled end of the shoulder pad that you just cut and either use a knife for a file and hollow out the shoulder pad. A simple guide is that you want to remove all of the white parts that we exposed from cutting the piece in the first part. Also make sure you go all the way to the back of the bit so you keep a unified thickness across the entire bit.

Step:5 Continued


Here is a shot of the bit after it has been hollowed out. Again, note how I filed all the way back and got a nice even thickness across the entire bit. The trick is to keep placing it on your Target Lock to see if you need to file or cut more away until you get a perfect fit.

Step:6


Once you have the visor piece shaped the way you want it you can now go ahead and glue it onto the top of the Target Lock with the cut edge facing forward. I tried and tried to angle the piece with the shaped end facing forward but it never quite looked right. When placing the visor I just line up the corners with the edge of the Target Lock. I also like to cut away the excess portion of the Pulse Carbine at this stage too as I don't want the extra material getting in the way when I get ready to pose the head.

Step:6 Finished


There you have it! I like to run a file over the hard edges to smooth everything out at this stage but for the most part the head is finished. You can now go ahead and add antenni (as I like to do) from the Normal Head bits or other little touches to style the head.

Yes this head is slightly smaller than the standard Crisis Suit head but I sits lower on the collar of the torso and I think it works a little better with the scale of the body. If anyone has any questions about this step don't hesitate to either PM me or leave a post on this thread. The last part of the Tutorial will go over some tips on posing your models as well as how I put all of these parts together.