wow!

Couple of days away and a sheer deluge of work has been done!

There are things that I like and things that I don't, but if this is all aimed in the direction of the 2 sketches that you produced, then all for the greater good!

Pro's:
Single shoulder pad- what is the original part from? Awrsome!
Ion weapon
Feet (much improved now!)

Con's:
XV88 missile pods- not your fault- they are just plain fugly
Neck collar- even the famous Matt Hutson with his 'test' sculpt pathfinders has done this and it just don't look right- it actually looks like he has been in a 'no win no fee' advert?

If this goes more in the direction of the sketches, then I think you are onto a winner! I think Like me, you find so many darn good inspirations, that you find yourself being taken in too many directions?

Loving the process and work though!

Cheers
W

EDIT: Not sure about the side mounted jet packs, but the silhouette is much better!

That's the shot! The square collar looks much better and the bigger jetpack is just what was needed.

My only concern about the jetpack design is that whilst it looks good from the front, I think it's going to look a bit thin and weedy from the side...

.

An alternate head design for the FW suits. Needs a bit more work to clean up the lines and adjust the angle of the head but I think it fits in ok with the more rounded FW body design. Could probably use some sort of detail bit along side the sensor set.

Cleaned up the chin line and outer contours of the head, also reduced the overall height slightly.




Here's the head on the armored up suit

Ok getting close to the finish point, I need to do is finish up the rear details and vents, greenstuff and this bad boy will be ready to cast.

So that poses a few questions on the final design, without bulked up leg pads or with the bulk?



Side:

I gotta say that I like the armored leg pads better. It just makes the Broadside look big, slow and durable. Not sure about the antenna "ears" though. They look a little silly poking out like that. Maybe you can just keep the bigger one. Not sure where you'd put it though...

As for the head, it looks a little large, kinnda like a helmet. I wish I could give more constructive criticism.

While I was building I did experiment with hang one centered in the middle of the head, looks ok but I'd need to add in some extra detail on the side of the head.

Do you prefer the previous square head that's from the stock version?

This is a very inspiring project. Great ideas and converting.
The bigger rounded lines of the Stealthhead look much better on the suit than even a modified standard head.
Wonderful shoulder & thigh pads, they carry on the lok of Tau Firewarrior picture from the previous 40K rule and evoke an Samurai armour style.

Those missile pods seem too bland compared to the rest of the figure. I wish GW would rework them in a more Tauish way (maybe a cannister style).

Using the FW shoulder pad on the central toe really helps balance out the feet.
IMO the horizontal bit of the knee cap looks a little odd perhaps a some 45-degree chock to cutdown on the abrupt 90-degree angle.

Keep up the fantastic work.

I actually really liked your concept art of the recessed head. Sorta the DOW Commander's look.

Paulson, might I suggest that you recess the large antennae into the side of thehead and mount the small one on top?
To balance it off you could mount an additional sensor suite on the opposite side of the head.

I'm not sure how I like the collar, but making the centre of the collar lower than the sides would give a recessed look without limiting movement of the head.
(It would be locked in a forward, recessed position while firing the railguns, to stabilize the sensors while targetting)

If it is of interest I could GIMP together a few examples of what I mean and be a preview before you cut up the suit even further.
That said, while I was a bit sceptical at first about a lot of the lines, you have managed to put them together into a greater whole.
I am consistently surprised by the craftyness of the ATT members. The day is close when members of ATT inspires GW modellers and not the other way around, keep it up

-Miond

PG,

When I get some free time back from the work monster, I will definitely be stealing ideas.

The only thing I would mention is that the chest vent on the right looks like its venting upwards, not downwards like the one on the left.

From a fluff pov I feel this would interfere with any infra-red based sensors in the targeting cluster (head).

I'll chip in just to say that I actually really like the head. The curvature of the piece as it tapers to a point at the back recalls Tau infantry helmets, which I love. Even the way that the optics cluster is mounted evokes the optics of the broadside's smaller footslogging brethren.

Ah the vent got placed on upside down, under the light I use when photgraphing the stick-tac gets really weak fast and pieces start falling off. I must have put it facing the wrong way when I stuck it back on. I'll have to make sure everything is lined up correctly before I glue everything down permanantly. Nice catch though

I changed the knee pad, took off the suit shoulder pad and replaced it with a firewarrior pad it's roughly the same size from the front view but changes the side profile of the knee so it looks a bit less blocky. Wanted to post a pic but by camera battery is in need of recharging, so I'll try and get a pic up soon.

The head I was originally going to use a sniper drone controller for but couldn't find it and the stealth suits have roughly the same basic shape so I grabbed one of the ones that had been horribly mis-primed and is all gritty. Sanded the grit off the head and put it to the chop.

Thanks for the comments guys, my construction process is kinda random and I have a lot of differant ideas bouncing around in my head and I'm constantly revising and changing things so the feed back does help me refine stuff and sometimes helps generate new ideas I hadn't considered.

You're welcome to borrow/take whatever ideas you want from this design.

I have some more thought to do on the antennae options and little details but i think I have the bulk of the body design in finalized form the rest is mearly the trim details for flashy show. The missle launchers and other weapons will all be getting an overhaul, the X-88 arms are mearly a placeholder until I can get the FW ones finished up.

I'm thinking that this suit design will form my basic chasis for my T'goshai sept X-8, possibly work up house rules for an experimental runb of suits with 5 toughness to represent the increased armor and differant weapon systems than the standard x-8. Even if my opponents don't want to use any house rules the conversions are worth it because I want my stuff to really stand out from a normal Tau army when it's on the table. I think these suits can be connected to the Tau at a glance but it's also immediately apparent that they are quite differant at the same time.

I'm thinking of designating the design as Mikado

Paulson you are the devil!!!

my fingers are itching because I feel the strong urge to build an Iridium (or was it Unobtanium/Whishalloy) Armored suit.

It is a lot of fun to watch your work!

And I still think you should build an 'Shogun-Style' XV22

- che

Now THAT's a lot better!


LMAO!

Great use of parts, the head now meets the legs and shoulder armour plate for design, and all is more in scale- I think the back pack still needs some work, although it does have a certain 'dress' feel to it, like it is another layer of heavy plate, not sure that this was intended?

Have you tried the arms, legs and head with the more rounded torso?- This may look even better?

cheers
W

LoL!

I'm going to have to file those names away for future hilarity. Last time I was at the Dr he said my blood levels of dementanium were 3 times higher than what's considered safe

Haven't had a chance to test them on the FW torso yet beyond the original pics in the thread as the parts are curing in silicon at the moment. They should be done tomorrow afternoon and hopefully I can get some extra pieces to experiment with by early evening.

I think I'll probably keep the FW torsos for the HQ as I want to have a distinct visual differance between normal squads and HQ.

Isn't that a japanese chocolate stick snack?

cheers
W

Mikdao gets used for a lot of names, from food to resturaunts it means "emperor"

Camera is rechared so here's a shot of the knee modification.

That knee reconstruction look much better both visually and structurally.

Its great watching this suit is evolving. It is going to be some kind of wonderful when finished.
I really like the way you've infused the anima style into it yet retained the Tau-ness.