This is my new Project Log for my Cadre which is reaching its third iteration. I'm going to keep it up to date as various parts of the project progress. The project is on temporary hold while my girlfriend and I go through the process of selling her old home and buying a new one together. My army unfortunately had to be one of the first things packed away to make the house presentable for sale.


Project Index


Battlesuits

XV8's: Inspiration art - WIP concept <Current as at 6^th August 2009>

XV15's and XV25's: WIP - Converions - Painting <Current as at 6^th August 2009>

XV22: Inspiration art <Current as at 6^th August 2009>

XV88's: Inspiration art - WIP concept - WIP Weapon conversion - WIP Suit conversion <Current as at 28^th August 2009>


Vehicles & Drones

Devilfish Chassis: WIP - Painting <Current as at 6^th August 2009>

Piranhas: WIP - Painting <Current as at 6^th August 2009>

Drones: Under Development - currently empty <Current as at 6^th August 2009>


Infantry

Firewarriors, Pathfinders & SDT's: Pathfinders WIP <Current as at 7^th October 2009>

Kroot & Vespid: WIP - Conversions - Painting <Current as at 12^th September 2009>

Non-codex Firewarriors & Pathfinders: WIP - Concepts - Conversions - Painting <Current as at 7^th October 2009>

Non-Codex Kroot & Vespid: Inspiration art - WIP concepts <Current as at 6^th August 2009>


Objective Markers

Objective Markers: WIP - Conversions <Current as at 6^th August 2009>


Terrain

Tau Terrain: Under Development - currently empty <Current as at 6^th August 2009>


Cadre Fiction

Cadre Roster Under Development <Current as at 6^th August 2009>

Cadre Founding Under Development - currently empty <Current as at 6^th August 2009>

The Story of Dal'yth Mont'sha Under Development - currently empty <Current as at 6^th August 2009>


Battle Fleet Gothic

BFG <Updating...>

XV8 Battlesuits

Inspiration and Concepts

XV8's are a powerful asset on the battlefield of the 40K universe. In all honesty they are probably the single unit most responsible for the Tau catching my attention in the first place, but it had nothing to do with their tabletop power. The Tau used mecha! A fan of Battletech and Robotech alike it seemed a match made in heaven. Unfortunately, this is also proving to be one of the more difficult portions of my army to complete. My head is filled with many a cool idea when it comes to my XV8's. How much will come to fruition, and how much will stay but a pipe dream is yet to be seen. Mainly there is a desire to see my suits truly represent their fluff and in part my own desires to push my own boundaries to put something onto the tabletop I can both be excited to see and proud to claim as my own handiwork.

Here are some of the main inspiration images I'll be drawing on when as I fine tune my concepts and try to turn them into something real.



Images are the result of a google image search that were promptly dumped into my inspiration folder. I take no credit for any of the work in those images, but each is likely to have its place in the development of my XV8's.

The main modeling concepts I have at present are:
1) More agile, streamlined look. I want my suits to look more agile and maneuverable as befits their ability to JSJ. Part of that look will be a new helm design based off of a conversion by Jutami
2) Rotating waist. While the suits will be posed statically, I want the suits to look like they actually turn at the waist.
3) Hand held weapon systems. Most weapons will be hand held rather than hard point mounted.
4) New feet. It's a small thing but I don't like the fact that there is no heel on the XV8 feet. I'll either add a heel or attempt a larger, XV25 style foot.

In addition I also want:
1) Magnetised support systems. Shoulder mountings for support systems and missile pods will be magnetised.
2) Changeable weapons load outs. Despite steering clear of hard point mounting most weapons, if my converting skills are sufficient I'd still like a system to change weapon load outs easily.

With the rapidly approaching Orktoberfest tournament I have to prioritise these guys much higher on my list as I will likely be fielding around five or six suits. Thankfully I already have a RIF in the cupboard, I just need to figure out how to build them

You know, I never even figured out how to apply my old paint scheme to my XV8's, I could never figure out a camouflage pattern that worked properly to my liking. Going back through some old pictures and then old threads here on ATT I re-found this old thread (again by Jutami). I'm sure that I can adapt that pattern with my colour scheme to finally get some XV8's painted.

XV15 & XV25 Stealth Suits

I collected about a squad's worth of the old XV15 suits back when they were the only stealth suit. I also have about the same number of XV25's now as well. Forced to choose between the two I probably like the XV25's best based purely on the fact they are plastic, I am not a fan of metal miniatures when a plastic alternative is available and far easier to work with. Regardless, I still plan on painting up all my stealth suits as I do enjoy fielding them. A couple of XV25's will also be converted, primarily just non-standard poses, it makes good practice for my more involved conversions elsewhere in the army.

As my cadre will be painted in a camouflage scheme I am starting to lean towards a relatively plain scheme on my stealths but with a 'fancy,' activating stealth field type paint job to set them apart from the rest of the cadre, this is inspired by a number of well executed example by members of the ATT community. The only catch is that I do not trust my painting skills with the task just yet. I'll probably start experimenting with XV15's soon, poor sods

XV25 Conversions:



A relatively simple pose conversion. A bit of cutting, gluing and greenstuffing involved. Some of the cutting ended up unwarranted but I wasn't sure what angle the hoof was going to be compared to the lower leg once everything was setup on the rock.

XV22 Battlesuit

Right towards the bottom of the list of things I'd really like to do for my army is to obtain, or convert a Shadowsun XV22 battlesuit. It isn't a particularly high priority and by the time I get to it we'll probably be looking at a new codex anyway, the result of which is bound to be either no Shadowsun or maybe a new XV22 model anyway.

For now however, I have the chance to show off my photoshop-fu. I'm sure everyone is well aware of the existence of the infamous picture of Shadowsun in about half of her armor. It even inspired a very well executed conversion by Gareth. Using my trusty mouse and photoshop 4.0 (no fancy drawing tablets or recent product releases here) I mucked around for with the image for a little bit... well ok, it was a long while but a mouse really isn't made for this...



Even without the right tools it was still a bit of fun and I take some pride in the results as my photoshop-fu is actually rather lacking

Full credit goes to the original artist, not that I am sure anyone knows who they are any more. I don't really have any intention of replicating this the same way Gareth did but I am sure, deep down, that picture has had some influence on me wanting the Tau to be real

XV88 Battlesuits

Inspiration & Concepts

Following on from the concepts for my XV8 suits some my XV88's are destined to obtain some similar conversions, as well as some unique 88 only ones. I have two main inspirations for my 88's, one is the now quite commonplace Sniper'88 theme, the second is the ubiquitous battlemech, the Madcat. Both projects are on hold though for a few reasons. One, all the 88's I currently own have been sacrificed to the Madcat Pattern XV88's. Two, the sniper'88 design will be heavily influenced by what I decide to do with my XV8's, as they will have to have some similar design features to suggest a design progression but also so the XV88's look like they deserve their 2+ saves when standing beside a unit of my XV8's. The Madcats have currently been shelved but I do intend to finish them off when I turn my attention to my Gue'la apocalypse allies.

Sniper XV88's

The main concepts I have at present are:
1) Armored! By comparison my XV88's are going to deserve their 2+ save when standing beside my XV8's. How this is executed will depend on the final look of my XV8's.
2) Hand held Rail Gun. The only catch is that I haven't seen or thought up a twin barrel option I like so may have to put the twin linking down to a fancy looking targeting system.
3) Interchangeable secondary weapon. I'm a little stuck with this concept. I'll want my SMS shoulder mounted when used, which is simple enough, but plasma rifles are a different story. First, I don't really want to hard point mount them. Second, when fielding as plasmasides the support system is likely to be a multi-tracker so they need to appear comfortably capable of firing the rail gun and plasmas simultaneously.

Weapon Concept

With thanks to General for his great work on the Visual Tau Armory I knocked up this reference picture for the conversion I am considering for the hand held Rail Guns. It uses many of my spare Fusion Blasters and is inspired by the Pathfinder Rail Rifle. I need to add a rather impressive looking optics/targeting system to account for the twin linking as it won't be duel barreled after all.



Next comes knocking one up and seeing what work is required on the suit so it can be held naturally.

WIP Rail Gun

I have a WIP together now. While I really liked the idea of using the fusion blaster for nearly all the parts involved I found I did not have the tools required to accurately produce the central void so it would actually look like a rail gun. This is the alternative option I have now come up with at least for now. The overall length is virtually identical to what I had wanted the problem is that it adds a whole new level of challenge to adding the optics/targeting system as the main body is significantly thinner than I originally intended.



Sniper'88 WIP

I am drawing heavily from the XV22 conversion guide for a lot of the conversion work. The guide takes a lot of guess work out of things as I have a fairly good idea of how things will come out looking prior to putting blade to plastic.

Torso




I went with greenstuffing the the sides of the torso which worked out fairly well. Will have to wait a day to see how it will clean up with sanding and filing. Oh yeah BIG lesson learned: GREENSTUFF IN STAGES ON BIG JOBS! The number of times I had to redo various parts of the greenstuff because I kept sticking my fingers/thumbs into it when working on a different section was ridiculous and extremely frustrating, much swearing was done last night. Currently the waist is drilled so it can be pinned and I can experiment with poses before everything gets glued together. Next I will be working on the legs, feet and head. From there I will know how tall the suit is and therefore to what extent I can push the arm length to keep the model in proportion.

Legs

For the first of the suits I have decided to copy a classic Fire Warrior pose.



Posing



Couple more shots as I work on the pose and comparison to the Fire Warrior.

2010 Update
Although I do plan on completing this model eventually it has been put on indefinite hold for now. The new plan involves utilising the two new XV9's I recently received from Forge World.

New pictures will be arriving soon.

Madcat XV88's
BASS Squad

Current conversion WIP.



I am going to change two things at least from the current WIP. First is the arms, I am not happy with them as I can not get the proportions right without there being no clearance between the arms and hip. Second is that I will probably alter the landspeeder missile pods so they are arrayed three wide by two tall rather than two wide by three tall. The model is horribly tall in its current configuration.

Devilfish Chassis Tanks

I have a few 'fish chassis tanks built in fixed configurations already (3 Devilfish, 1 Railhead, 1 Hammerhead which could be either Ion or Rail. These are all at least partially painted in my old paint scheme.



Once stripped they will be converted to have magnetised hard points added for various upgrades and then repainted in my new scheme, which will be based heavily off of Jutami's work. I'm going to add a couple of Skyrays in future and those will be constructed to be fully interchangeable into any tank variant which uses the 'fish chassis.

Piranhas

This is the most completely painted Piranha I have. As with many other parts of my army, it now needs to be stripped and repainted to be bought into line with the new paint scheme. I never got around to going back and tidying the highlights. My new scheme will not include highlighting in this style.



This is is also the first example of my attempts at painting weapon glow. This is something which will be carried over into the new paint scheme although the colours may change.

As with my larger tanks Jutami can probably claim most of the credit for how I hope my Piranhas will look in the end

Firewarriors

Pathfinders

Started some work on my Pathfinders over the last weekend. Because I don't like working with metal miniatures all that much I am instead going down the path of using FW parts plus other pieces to make them distinctive. I am also greenstuffing over all the armor plates so they will be smooth. Here is how the first three look so far. Still need a Shas'ui and the rest of their compatriots.





Stealth Drone Spotter

Kroot

Care of the experiences gained with my tyranid I have had some inspiration for my kroot.



Now he'll just need some friends!

Vespid

My Vespid Strainleader is a source of some pride for the conversion. It is the first time I have worked on converting a metal miniature and it worked out rather well. A bit of cutting, some bending to reposition the leg and then green stuffing the claws and bottom of the feet around the CSM helemt, which was the hardest bit and voila a markedly more characterful mini than the standard sculpt.



I am in the process of starting a test colour scheme but am yet to take any pictures. I also haven't made it any further than adding a base coat of Tau Ocher over black primer so it is not like a current WIP would be remotely interesting.

Colour Test

Colour testing progresses... I am really unsure about the color scheme but it is starting to grow on me. Still have to figure out how I want to wash and highlight these guys.

Tau-Demiurg Wardroids - Firewarriors counts as

Working closely together with their space faring allies Demiurg, the Tau co-developed these wardroids for high-risk deployments.

These models were made by combining components from a Tau Firewarriors box and a Necron warriors box. The design was heavily influenced and inspired by speedfreak's Trade Federation Droid army.



Assembly itself was very basic: Heads were made by removing the 'legs' of the scarabs which came in the Necron Warriors box and adding a FW aerial. The necks are simply the scarab swarm stands snipped off and stuck in a hole drilled into the neck area of a Tau FW torso. The torso was also 'counter-sunk' to allow the ball joints of the necron shoulders to attach firmly and also for the top of the spine of the necron lower body to attach firmly as well. The top of the spine section was also shortened and rounded off to assist fitting and to keep the miniature from becoming excessively tall. The weapon involved carefully cutting away the front of the gauss weapon and adding the FW rifle barrel and optics and a FW carbine grenade launcher.

Painting has been a slow process but one test model is all but finished, and I am quite happy with the results thus far.



The mini was first undercoated black then painted with Orkhide Shade and Gunmetal Metal (Vallejo Game Color). The base was painted in Dheneb Stone. Everything was then given two washes with Devlan Mud, paying particular attention to the metallic joints. Then the sept colour, Hormagaunt Purple, was painted and lenses/lights were painted in Mechrite Red or Necron Abyss (but no lens effects yet, still working on my technique for those). The weapon's power core was painted in Dheneb Stone and then Scaly Green. This was then washed with Thraka Green. Highlighting was then done with the base colours, this has turned out very subtle and although I like it now I may still do another slightly brighter highlight once I see how the squad looks.

Squad

The squad is slowly being built up to minimum size.


(Yes I am aware one is missing from the shot )

Minimum size squad completed to table-top standard.



The more I look at these guys in the display case though the less impressed I am with the current results. Luckily I still have half a squad I can experiment with a little at a later date.

Gue'la Recon Unit - Pathfinders count as

This unit is only in the concept stage. This image will be my primary inspiration when it comes time to model this unit.



Unfortunately I do not recall where these images came from to properly acknowledge their creator, they were just two more pictures among many stashed away in my inspiration folder.

Count-as Kroot

I have a couple of Counts-as Kroot ideas in my head. One is based off of some Bloodletter conversions that can be seen here. The other is using WHFB Lizardmen Saurus and Skinks as Kroot and Hounds.


Count as Vespid

This is a unit I never had plans to do. Now, care of Paulson Games and his awesome looking Tau jump packs I find myself inspired to make some after all. I only intend on copying the jump pack design, and possibly the pose to a degree, but have not even begun to consider the actual race of auxiliary it will be strapped to.

Captured Shas'ui Firewarrior

Originally entered in the ATT Objective marker contest this is my (still WIP) Captured Shas'ui objective marker.



The Shas'ui will be painted in my cadre's scheme. His captor will be painted as a Brimlock Dragoon. Brimlock Dragoon regiments are quite commonplace on the Eastern Fringe and participated extensively during the Damocles Crusade.


Cadre Banner

Started at the same time as my captured Shas'ui this marker is still very early in the WIP stage.




Electronic Warfare Drones

This was an alternate entry I also started along with the Captured Shas'ui for the objective competition. Still very WIP, and requires hand priming because of the clear flying stands. Hadn't thought that through terribly well when I glued the drones on...

Cadre Roster

As my army comes together and as it performs on the tabletop I am going to develop the story of my cadre and its prominent members. The goal will be to have all team leaders, all Shas'vre ranks and up named for the purposes of narrative style battle reports in the future. Entire squad's worth of Shas'la which prove their worth in combat numerous times may even be named. I guess I have lots of notes to take when I get some regular gaming happening.

With only two 5th edition games under my belt, and excessive numbers of substitute models being used at present (I was using SDT spotters as XV8's last weekend) I haven't really begun the great recording process that will help determine what my characters will actually be like. So far I only have one name...

Cadre Second in Command ~ Shas'el Dal'yth Mont'sha, "Death Wind"

Cadre Founding

When it is ready, I will post my story of the founding of my Cadre here.

The story of Dal'yth Mont'sha

When it is ready, I will post the story of my namesake and his story leading up to his assignment as second in command of my cadre.

I have recently purchased a BFG Fleet from Forgeworld. Typically I expect to play using the original Tau BFG rules though. Currently all ships are on the assembly line. I am yet to determine a colour scheme although the process and techniques will be borrowed directly from eiglepulper and his impressive looking Aeronautica Imperialis fleet.

Capital Ships

Custodian/Explorer

x2

Cruisers

Protector/Hero

x6

Emissary/Merchant

x6

Escorts & Support

Castellan/Defender/Messenger

x12

Warden/Orca

x8

OK, maybe this will just be reclaimed as a space holder for a future expansion of my project log if necessary...

This post no longer applies. Now reserved for a possible expansion to this log.