**Edit** have changed the title to better represent the goings on in the post

Howdy all.

Time for yet another Crazy Kroot conversion from the Workshop of Turbo_MMX

With stillfrosty making his Kroot Renegades army i figured i should step up with the flip side of the Coin and introduce my spin on the renegade theme.

Or as i like to call it, the Kroot Auxiliary Corps, Basically a Kroot Merc army but using the Tau Empire rules.

So one Battle suit commander, One fire warrior squad (maybe Kroot with armour or Human Auxiliary counts as) and the rest of the army Kroot Mercs, Vespid (vultures), sniper drones teams (hunters) and maybe a broadside conversion (Great Knarloc gun platform) for good measure

So with the Tau empire needing a Battle suit commander i set about making up a Kroot "counts as" battle knarloc

The base is from the Urban war Range. Known as a Saurian Rider. I added a Kroot hound head in order to give it the Kroot look.





Then i needed to mount my Master shaper on it

Here is the Master shaper as he is for the Merc army.




So using that same model as a base i cut n chopped and green stuffed and came up with this.





It will be a Counts as Tau "Shas'o" with a Fusion blaster, air bursting Fragmentation launcher (mortar thing on the back of the mount) and vectored retro thrusters (since I figure something this agile should be able to run out of combat when it needs to).

I may add drones in the form of Kroot body guards or even just actual drones with some Kroot bling but I’m not sure as yet.

There is still allot of work to go. I need to add the other arm and some reigns so he can be controlling the Knarloc. I need to fill in the legs so they connect to his body. Add some more Kroot equipment and add some more straps and Kroot up the saddle.

But all in all I think its working quite well.

Comments please

Very interesting idea here and with a nice sourcing of bits to portray your theme!

Got to say I do love the Airburst cannon- a very simple but effective idea, that I think should be added to the Weapons thread?

Critique: At the moment, I think that the green stuff spacer on the neck of the mount should be removed. The head is very small in comparison to the rest of the model, and by having a giraffe neck, it exaserbates this. Cut the neck down and I think it will work better.

In ref to the drones, I would use normal tau disks, but 'blinged up' as you suggest. This will help balance the tech vs feral feel to the piece. However, I have a funny feeling that as an IC with VRT, you can not take drones- someone clarify please?

Good work all in all though!

cheers

Wa'Rhound

Very good and inspiring! Go paint it up because it will be a beauty! Amazing work!

very nice, but its time to start painting, they are going to look sweeeet if your shaper is anything to go by.

i'd say for your commanders drones make the drones with kroot bling, maybe looking rather damaged, tied together with bits of stings (and bubblegum).

Well you pulled it off an its nice to see another kroot merc player raiding a tau army for some equipment!

Do you have a list that you are trying to aim for?

Also, would you care to link where I could buy some of these mounts, as I just had a crazy idea!

hey frosty.

The list im going to build is this one.

HQ
Shas'o w/ Fusion blaster - Airbursting Frag Launcher - Vectored Retro-Thrusters - Hard Wired Multi Tracker {as above}

Ankhor Prock Master shaper - Special character

Troops
6 Fire warriors w/ 4 Pulse Carbines, 2 Pulse Rifles, EMP / Photon Grenades {either Kroot with armour and Rifles or Human Auxiliaries}

Carnivore Kindred 15 Kroot + 3 Ox w/ Shaper with Pulse Rifle

Carnivore Kindred 15 Kroot + 3 Ox w/ Shaper with Pulse Rifle

Carnivore Kindred 10 Kroot w/ Shaper with Kroot Rifle + 10 Hounds

Fast Attack
8 Vespid + Strain Leader

8 Vespid + Strain Leader
{either proper vespid or Kroot vulture conversion}

Heavy Support
1 Broadside w/ Smart missile system + ASS {Knarloc Conversion}

2 x Sniper Drone teams {Kroot Sniper Conversion's (see bellow)}

(i removed this from your post n stuck it in here )

It may chance slightly but this is the core 1500point list im aiming for.

If your interested here is first of the Kroot "sniper Drones" ive done (did him before the Shaper.







As for the Mounts. They are from the game "Urban War" done by Urban Mammoth. I got mine from a local guy who sells stuff at our club. However you should be able to get em from here. http://urbanmammoth.co.uk/um/html/uw_fa ... an_min.htm

What is this crazy idea!?

Honestly as weird as it sounds (though this idea may be better suited for you) I was thinking of a possible phirana conversion because I can really use the current ones for the army because they are too small. It is crazy, it probably won't work, but it would be funny at any rate ;p

*Ninja Edit* What do you think of the stealths and FW I did? Thinking about stealing the idea? For the stealthsuits, my first trial run was slicing off the jump pack from the model and placing it on a kroot. It fits perfectly to the curvature of the kroot back so model some straps and it looks awesome. Might be worth a thought. And it will add a little more anti-infantry firepower to your list.

Sounds like an interesting idea. I had thought about a Piranha, but was going to do a Land speeder/ork buggy idea for it instead, But i don’t think ill worry about it.

As for your suits and fire warriors. I do quite like em. I may do a single stealth conversion at some point as a stand in for the above knarloc conversion. Just in case the "must be Citadel miniatures" rule comes into effect

Anyway i just left a more detailed post about ur stealth’s and fire warriors in you post

Thanks for the reply!

So what is the next unit you are thinking about tackling?

Ok. Well you wanted to know what was next. So i figured id try my hand at the Broadside Counts as. Or as it is now called. The "IRON OX"

[b]*Edit* Pics removed for server space

The Rain gun is based on Tael's Stealth Rail gun in the Tau X weapons thread.

At the moment im using it as a twin linked rail gun. If i can get the bits however what im going to do is sit the missile pod (smart missile system) in the middle and mount another rail gun to the other side, This way it better shows the Twin linked better.

Im also going to try and track down some Marine Terminator shoulder pads for the Kroot ox and add some more Kroot armour to better show the 2+ save.

The idea behind this guy is that he is a "freak" Kroot ox. Thicker and slightly more robust than a normal ox. However nowhere near as good in close quarters.

The ox was going to be a shaper for the Kroot Merc force as seen here.



However I doubt ill ever use ox squads in my normal mercs as they are just too expensive, Also I think this is a better roll for him.

Thoughts?

Time for another update.

Have done some filling work. Added some extra detail. Trimmed the neck join in order to smooth it out. I added some Reigns to the mount and did the "Control arm" for the Shaper too.





Not sure what else i can do at the moment. Its basically ready for paint imo. What do yall think?

Comments? Thoughts?

The Iron Ox looks more like a sniper drone then a broadside to be honest, maybe you could work something out with that?

I would use your knarlocs for broadsides since you know they work and look pretty amazing too.

As far as your shas'o I think he needs some hounds... I mean drones or a retinue!

yay. ATT is back and so im back with yet another update (however not a very big one)

here is the current WIP for the Iron ox.









I think this version is a vast improvement on the first one. The double gun and missile pods give it a far more Dangerous look. The armour plates are the tire shield from one of the new Ork warbikes. I still need to glue it all in place as all the non back bits are just blu taced into place to get the look right.

I still need to add another flame thrower tank to finish off the weapons mount (need to get one from a friend). Im going to add power cables from the power cells that run up to guns, and for the Riders missing hand im going to do up a hand holding a replacement power cell (since i imagine it would use allot of power

The fluff ive come up with for the Gun is that its a failed experimental Rail gun designed to be fitted to XV8 suits. However the new design of the rail gun light enough to be mounted on the suit, it had to loose many of the safety features. The removal of these devices caused the weapon to constantly feedback into the suits power systems when fired and often killing the pilot or seriously incapacitates the suit thus making it useless in battle. However setting it up with a manual targeting and firing system along with a replaceable power source removes this issue, and the Ox is a perfect mobile expendable platform to mount it on

All very cool, but I have to say the shoulder armor plating is the clincher, that REALLY finishes off the model nicely. It would be cool to see that added to a standard Kroot Ox in a usual Kroot force.

Not a fan of the missile launchers, I feel the rifles just on their own are cool, personaly preference of course.

Where did you source the shoulder plating from? thanks

~ Tael.

The armour plates look like wheel guards from the new ork bikerz.

Prophanti has it right. Its the tire guard from the new warbike (i think i mentioned it up above).

Since i don't like them on the bikes it worked out quite well
Im thinking when i paint this up of doing the Ox Green n have him be an ork Hybrid. Just to once more set him apart from the Other ox in the army.

oh man, first sentence too.. my bad.. I see you did mention it. My scan-paragraph-fu is weak. thanks for the info though!

~ Tael.

I am totally going to yank the armor plates idea on you krootox, never thought of that one!

Looks good my friend!

Time for yet another update for the Auxiliary Corps. Not a very big one however.

Have finished all the conversion work for the "Iron Ox" so tis ready for final undercoat and paint. The gun is still not glued so it will be easier to paint the whole thing.









Am really happy with the way the hand holding the extra power cell turned out. Gives it a more "Juri Rigged" (spelling?) style to the whole thing

Here is a scale comparison to a standard broadside too.





Next up are the Kroot Squad Shapers







As you can see ive had one undercoated already. Been waiting to paint him for a while but haven’t started since i wanted to do the conversion work on the others first

Here are some closer shots of the shapers
Pulse Rifle "sniper"




Pulse Carbine (Kroot hound Pack leader)




Pulse Rifle "bionic eye" Shaper (kinda hard to make out details sorry)




Well that’s it for now. I still have to do up the Rail Rifle "Sniper Drone" Kroot and do some changes to the Strain leaders of the vespid when i get them and scratch up some shield drones. But so far im really happy with the way its all looking

Feedback please

Very nice, especially the broadside counts-as. I have a feeling this army will be a Favored Enemy of all "unsupervised store children" everywhere.