Cheers, I hope to have the tau sept markings sorted soon, and I think that once the aerials have been painted properly it will help with the overall look too.


Sure, that could be as soon as a few weeks, though my gaming group have seen pictures so might not be as much of a reaction.


I am glad you noticed the sensor arrays, that was what I was going for


As you can see from my chopping up of Remoras I am not shy of converting Forgeworld, though Tetras will be tricky and could even need 1 Remora and 1 Tetra to make a single Tetra which is looking very expensive

Though the same could be said for converting the Piranha in the same way, unless someone can point me towards a cheaper alternative to using Remoras for bigger Drone disks?

I love this idea and might have to co-opt it for my army

As for another disc source......how does the doors on a devilfish kit size up?

Also...check out this topic I found just before yours,

viewtopic.php?f=35&t=16974

This is a very cool idea, and well executed to boot! I can't wait to see how it shapes up.

Maybe you need a Shas'O suit with them as a controller? What would be your HQ choice?

I have been so preoccupied by the release of 6th edition that I have managed to completely miss these comments, apologies for the delayed responses.


The Devilfish door would be a good size and actually has some good detailing for it too, thanks for the idea, I have thought that maybe using half of a Hammerhead turret could work too as the hatch cover is the exact size of a normal drone disk and having one on the top will work for the purposes of making the vehicle remain 'open-topped'.

Thanks for the link, it has some funky ideas for 'drone-esque' conversions



Thanks, I will try to post new images a regularly as possible.



I know what you mean, I would like to keep the Drones throughout the whole army to keep the look pure. The centre of the Crisis drone surface is magnetized for wargear/antennae etc. and for the Shas'el/'O I am thinking that an elaborate antennae with sept colouring could distinguish the Commander drone well.

Thanks again for all the kind words and feedback guys.

Been a little quiet on here recently due to moving house, but the Drone army development always grinds on...

I have developed some Stealth suit Drones that I am yet to photograph, I will see if I can get those up soon. I also have the parts to build my Fire Drones up to a full 2 squads of 12

I jumped on the new resin Broadside upgrade pack for my Drone conversions and it arrived this morning at work I have been playing with how to model them and have come up with the following configurations for the Broadside Drones:



OR



I am a little stuck on which I prefer on the aesthetic side, and I could do with some votes from you guys on which you prefer? I am almost leaning towards the second as that was my original concept and the slick look appeals to me (it will also take the magnetised Plasma Rifles from my normal Crisis Drones which the first will not).

Let me know what you think.

Personally, I think the second version (with the horizontal railguns) looks much better. It just looks sleeker and overall more balanced.

I dunno, I kinda prefer the top one. Vertical railguns just seem more threatening to me.

I really love the idea behind this army. I prefer the second design with the horizontal rail guns.

Vertical rails looks like they are mounted under those 'wing' targeting systems and seem to make more sense. However both effects work well.

Just my two cents but since Railguns would be a much heavier weapon than the smart missile system it would make more sense from a design perspective to keep them horizontal and in the drone's body since it would center the weight and give it a sturdier appearance.

Thanks for the replies guys, the tally is now 1 for the side mounted and 3 for the through mounted design. It's about time for bed over here so I will leave it until morning so the US can get their votes in

Really like the side slung RG. It gives it the "Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick" Feeling in my opinion. Had to throw in my 2 Cents from the US.

I vote for the second one, with the railguns mounted under the drone. First off, it looks more precise and clean, and something like the Tau would actually build, while the first one looks, for lack of better term, "tacky" or unrefined. As a second point, from a physics point of view, the first one would be reaaaaaaally awkward and weird, but the second one has a more centered load out, with the heaviest armament toward its center of gravity and propulsion, and therefore would be much more stable when firing and quicker on the dodge.

I have added my local gaming group tally to the one from here and the marginal winner is the 'through drone' design (the second one) so I have started to model it based on that, hope to have some pictures of it when the basic paint is on. Thanks to everyone who voted, and those who left justification, they helped to make the choice more obvious.

To be honest I could indeed use both designs, I will afterall need roughly 6-10 of them modelled eventually

I seem to spend more time making custom flying bases for the drone army than anything else (hobby-wise) these days.

Good call on the second of the two versions--the inset guns look much slicker on the drone. though, as you say, probably both for variation.

My only concern with an army like this is the uniformity of models--having the same exact pose and model over and over gets old I think. Thus, I think some of the best drones you've displayed are ones where there are slight modifications and differences... just as a unit of firewarriors posed would have slight variances due to which guns, the way the grips are held, and other differences.

Best.

I know what you mean, and here is a picture of the whole drone army as both an update and to give you guys an idea of how it is likely to look when finished.



The picture contains:

- 1 x Hammerhead
- 1 x Devilfish
- 4 x Shield Drones
- 4 x Gun Drones
- 4 x Heavy Gun Drones
- 3 x Stealth Drones (Stealth Suits)
- 5 x Crisis Drones (Crisis Suits and Commanders) one is unfinished
- 24 x Fire Drones (Firewarriors)
- 2 x Utility Drones (possible Sniper spotters or pathfinder Drones)
- 1 x Broadside Drone (Broadside Battlesuit)

All in all I have around 1,200points now, almost as much as my normal Tau army.

Nice looking army, and I can tell what each model represents with out any problem. Question did you remove the cockpit on the Devilfish and Hammer head or just not paint them?

If not you could paint them to look like the Eye on a Cylon to fit the drone theme.

Keep up the good work, can't weight to see more.

I think the lack of variation is part of the "Drone Army" theme. I mean, they're drones. Machines. Of course the same types of drone looks identical to the one beside it. In my opinion, thats one of the awesome things about this kind of army. There is repitition on the way they look, but it works so well.



I'll be creating my own drone army soon, probably heavily based on this now. I have always wanted to in the past, and I might have already made a thread about it. I just couldn't find a way to create the Crisis suit drones. I already have a project in progress to create a few turrets, and I have already made a couple simple Sensor Towers.

One thing I have always thought would be cool is a Drone Rapid Insertion army, or something like that. Basically, the army will be made to assault at night, being mostly silent (I have always thought of their hover devices as having a super quiet hum.), swooping down all at once from a small transport, such as an Orca. I imagine the drop ship itself actually being a bit smaller than an Orca, and very quite, specifically made for this type of insertion. It is smaller, and can fit more units on to it because they are all stored in a very small space, on racks stacked just above each other, or something like that. One pass-over and the entire army is silently and quickly zooming into the city from above (or forest, etc...).

I also picture a drone army being used as a defense system on planets with tons of resources (the kind of planets the Imperium would use as a Forge World). Just endless swarms of drones and the like pushing the attackers back. Only for the remains to be collected after the battle is over and be reforged into new drones.

I am glad to hear that the models are fairly self-explanatory, that gives me hope for my opponents , though I will still be making a sheet with labels, the cockpits are yet to be painted, though I had been tempted to green stuff it away to make more of an emphasis on the sensor array being the ‘eyes and ears’ of the vehicles.


The endless repetition is kind of what appeals to me also I think, it looks mindless and menacing


Good to hear I would love to see some inventive use of Tau parts, my next few projects will be in converting Tetras or Piranhas into drones though I seem to be facing a bits shortage of a few things I want to use such as the Devilfish doors that have been mentioned in this thread.

Now I need to concentrate my hobby time on painting the models as not a single one in that picture is actually painted anywhere near to table top standard.