Now THAT is a good idea, Wolfie!

Alright, I'm back in action now that I have some concepts I am happy with. For starters, Lord Dirk gave me some excellent suggestions for improving my thumbnailing for sketches and I tried it out on some XV9 head variants, which turned out nicely. I'm thinking the one with the two antennae like the XV8 on the sides of the head is my favorite, I may have to try that one myself. THe one with the XV25 target lock is not bad either. At the moment, I'm thinking that the two bottom-right weapons are my most likely. Both could be made from XV9 burst cannons, which is a primary reason that I like them. One would have to be carved and the other would be made from a Burst Cannon and a Plasma Rifle. Anyway, here is my continued sketch idea;

On the road to completion again!

-AA-
(also, I have fixed my XV9's pose and base, just trying to find a digicam to take photos with, he is looking MUCH better)

I thought I subscribed to this thread...sorry about ignoring it!

Anyways, I really like the design on the bottom left. It looks very similar to the Fusion Blaster, but the cyclic nature of how the end..um..blaster parts(?) looks really cool! Actually, I really, really like it!

I swear I had replied to this. Sorry about that AA, any more progress?

That's really not bad drawing skills you've got there. I think all of the designs are pretty cool but you need to take them one more step of further refinement.

Well, these are all quick ideas. I was thinking about moving on with the bottom right design (the plasma rifle ish one) and I slapped some greenstuff onto the end of a covered burst cannon, but it looks a lot more like... something else...
So I think I will buy some thick styrene rod when I am able to and work on the bottom left design. Real life jst seems to get in the way all the time.

I would have posted this in mess hall, but it seems to be locked due to cleanup at the moment. Basically, real life between robotics and school have taken all of my time up and will continue to do so until late April. For this reason, my updates will have to stop until then when I can actually touch my 40K stuff again. However, I am very proud of where we've gotten this year in the FRC competition, granted that we're not very far in, but yesterday our robot (along with our partners) set the national high score and a buzz has certainly gone around on how to defeat us.

Here is a YouTube video I found of us scoring the high score of 26, as opposed to the former high score that morning of 15. Sorry for the low quality, but it's all I could find.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJh_tb9Ox6A

Our robot is #469, the one starting in the middle with the red bumpers, parking under the tower, and dominating the competition.
we got some nice gold medals and a big trophy for the victory. This match was the semifinals yesterday, after this we took on the competition in the finals and eventually won the competition. Now it's time to begin preparation for the next one...

Sigh... I seem to have lost my prototype weapons and run out of bits to make new ones. In addition to that, Forge World released their new XV9s as well in the time since my last visit. Now the question arises, do I try to find new bits and start over, or do I move my blog along to something I would actually have more interest in accomplishing? My pathfinders are getting revamped, so perhaps I would enjoy posting my work on them. I have my entry from the Shas'La painting contest a few months back, and I was thinking about re-painting him in my scheme to make a new rail rifle style pathfinder. Which would please my faithful readers more? See my delayed project revived, or see something new born?

Well AA,

we can't decide it for you, but I can give you some advice.

If you lost your prototypes, the bits for new ones and propably even the interest in that, it might be good to do something else and put that project on hold to get back later to it with fresh ideas.

It won't be usefull if you concentrate on a project you do not have fun in.

I personaly had a lot of ideas while I did something completely different from Tau.

This time I have it!
which probably has many of you thinking like this ->
However, I have found that two large projects at once is optimal for me because if one gets stale, I work on the other.
So here it goes, I have finally settled on two large projects (and a small side project that I picked up today) and revamped my thread a bit.


I picked up work on Lord Dirk's Sawfish prototype


and work began on my own project of it!



obviously, the tail and such still need to be built, as does the troop bay, but so far the conversion is coming along nicely.
(I did take some artistic license and deviated from the original, but I liked the longer devilfish chassis, which the original did not permit.)

Also, here is a very Tael inspired drone!



I also started work on an XV27 (yes, XV27, basically a heavier duty stealth suit), who I was saving for something else, but he will not work out like I had planned, so he will simply join my display tau models.

say hi!

Okay, now it's time for the comments and such. I won't get upset about criticisms like I used to, I worked on that. So leave your honest opinions and suggestions, and this blog can be back up and running like it used to.

Nice to see some updates! I like the work you've done on the sawfish, although I like the more rounded front that the original art has. Although, I really like way you've done with yours. It looks so cool! Can we get a better look at that double engine you have going on there?

As for the Drone, I'm having trouble really getting all the details with the angle of the shot.

The painting seems to be going well abd I know it'll look great when finished.

Keep up the good work?

Here you go Wolfs, better pictures of everything with better lighting and a better camera.


These are some engine shots of the sawfish. I'll have to change it a bit by either using plasticard to make new intakes, or else place a bar down the center to hide the fact that they do not perfectly align





and here is the little sensor drone, inspired by this picture:

I'll probably end up using it as a marker drone if I ever actually use it. But the little guy is so cute, I may just keep him on my desk.






I also did a little highlighting work on the XV27, but I will have to clean him up a bit before actually moving on, because the highlights are a bit messy.

Agentarrow :
Nice work on all three projects! The Tael-pattern Marker Drone is really cool and stays relatively true to the original, both good things. Good use of parts to replace the Imperial binoculars with some Tau equivalents, too.

The sawfish is turning out well for what you've done so far. Hiding that join is going to be really tricky; I know for smearing small lines that it can be tough, and you're working with an entire engine! The plasticard looks good where it is, but I don't think running a tube down the middle will look good... Maybe sawing off the promontory and putting some more plasticard there, since that seems to be the only part on the back that's giving you trouble.

I am Loving the sawfish design so far, and I can't wait to see it finished! Keep up the great work man

I guess I should let you just know that I'm out of town for a few days, which is why there hasn't been an update. I'll be back in on Sunday so I will have some work to show by Monday.

Woah, AgentArrow, how have I missed this thread?! Nice work you have going on here.. I think I'm gonna be spending some time catching up on this! ATT, Why must you always suck up my free time!

Unfortunately there won't be many updates. I no longer have any time to even look at the codex, let alone actually work on my projects.

...figures. Oh well, I can still look at what you've done. Can I ask why? (assuming you didn't already post it)

Between taking 7 IB classes and being on one of the world's most dedicated FRC teams, I have no free time in my schedule. I'll dig up the topic in may when I can actually breathe.