Hey Jester, enjoying the log so far I am. (Sorry realised I said that like Yoda, then decided not to change it ). I am sure I have said this before but I like the squid pattern tank, it's a nice neat conversion. Overall I think you are doing some great jobs with card, Nice Neat and small touches that are really bringing out a neatly converted model without be overly ostentatious in the conversion. If you understand my thinking. I agree with Wolfs16 the formatting of your pictures is nice, clear and concise. I also like the wee bits of fluff explaining why there has been a conversion and why the Darksplinters have adopted it. Indeed you have got me thinking about using some card to edit up some units in my own army. Great inspiration, thanks.

@Wolfs16:
Thanks for the link, those are some sweet looking snipers. Although I will be converting my own rail rifles, I don't like the open-air lok the current ones have..
I don't know about the gun, probably being to harsh... I don't see any way to change it regardless, so it's staying this way! I will check out the koto bits.

@Majonga:
Lol at the yoda. Thanks for the compliments. The cards are actually entirely made in photobucket. So.. pretty easy to do, on top of looking cool.

For the railgun (and yes, it's definitely bent), I'd suggest fixing it on the barrel. Line that part up properly, even if it doesn't fit smoothly against the turret, then use green stuff to fill in the gaps. This should be a lot easier than trying to get a perfect fit on a curved surface.

Wow, I really love the improvement you've done with the HH and the kroot sniper!
But the most impressive is the armor plates on the devilfish. It gives an aggresive curve that I'm really fond of.

It's incredible all the things that are possible to do with some plastic cards and a lot of imagination.

I can't wait to see at least one of those models painted!

Keep up the good work!!

@Peregrine:
It was pretty difficult to get it even this straight. I'll probably fix it - but first I'll procrastinate and work on other parts of it.

@Martial:
Thank you! The hammerhead is going to get the same modifications as the devilfish.
I'll try and get some painted before too long.

Update:
Well... kinda. I was planning on entering the ATT competition, but my Crisis Suit took forever to arrive. So I won't have time. So I'm gonna go ahead and post the fluff I wrote up all the way back when it started - maybe I can inspire a few people who are sruggling with this aspect.

Commander Suddenstrike

Born as a Sa’cean, Suddenstrike was destined to be a leader from an early age. When a Kraskin strike team attacked the nursery she was being raised in, Suddenstrike - just [4 YEARS] old at the time, not even a ‘La - rallied the ‘Saals and, amazingly, held off the Imperials until a battlesuit team arrived and killed them. The attack was meant to strike at the heart of the Empire - instead, it gave them a hero. But Suddenstrike did not walk away unscathed…

A lesser Tau might have become conceited and arrogant under such praise, but Suddenstrike suffered a different curse. She was - and still is - an extremely empathetic person, and witnessing the slaughter of the Imperials at such a young age deeply scared her. Only the intervention and guidance of Aun’el Tracius prevented her from going mad from guilt and regret. To this day, she trusts Tracius utterly, burying her sorrow over all the deaths that she has caused under the promise of the Greater Good. If he were to betray that trust, it could be disastrous…

Suddenstrike headed a Sa’cean [Contingent/Battle] that assisted in the annexation of the Ksi’m’yen Sept. Following its capture, she announced that she would take on the new Sept’s name, and all the responsibilities that came with it - the first of the Sa’ceans to do so. Technically, she is responsible for the entire border defense of Ksi’m’yen, but most often she can be found in the field, leading the APT Cadre on extremely dangerous missions - both in Tau space, and elsewhere.

Suddenstrike is an extremely charismatic leader, easily gaining the trust and confidence of most people. Any troops under her command give her undying loyalty, knowing that she is concerned not only with the ultimate goal of the Greater Good, but also how it is achieved. She has proven this time and time again, both in combat and outside of it. During battle, she favors neither the Mont’ka nor the Kauyon, instead combining disciplines of each method to form devastating hit-and-run ambushes. Unlike some other commanders, she shies away from intricately detailed battle plans, trusting her subordinates to correctly judge the situation and use their initiative. Rather than spending weeks training for a specific battle plan, her Cadre hones their skills in a wide array of simulations conceived by Suddenstrike and her sub-commander, Darksplinter. Most of the time, this method is effective, as the cadre’s assorted elements are able to predict their comrades actions very accurately from such extended training. Because of this, her forces are able to quickly react to unusual situations, and have become greatly respected in the Empire - and highly feared beyond.

As long as she can keep her guilt from destroying her, Suddenstrike may one day be one of the most proficient leaders the Empire has ever seen…

475 words. Writing advise would be welcome.
PS. Yes, her sub-commander is named Darksplinter. Why is the cadre called the Darksplinter cadre? Change of plans, is all. Now I just have to come up with a new nickname.

EDIT: Almost forgot to mention - what do you guys think about names? In the codex it says that extremely proficient Tau can gain dozens of sub-names over their lives, but then it lists Farsight himself as having only three. What's the deal? I ask because I have a Tau name for Suddenstrike, but it has about half a dozen sub-names... should I simplify?

Mega-awesome announcement: I just received my brand-new Wacom pen tablet! And yes, it is mega-awesome! I really don't have words to describe it... it's just much, much easier than using paper and scanning it.
Anyways here my first sketch, quick - about fifteen minutes:



Really weird proportions, I know...

But hopefully... I'll be able to make some sweet Tau pics!

Indeed, they ARE amazing.

I have the small one, but I never really seem to get a chance to use it. I think I may start a thread to showcase some of my own art sometime here soon.

Hey guys, I have a small but, IMHO, rather exciting update for you! It features some modifications to my Hammerhead turret, as well as never-before-seen, heavily converted Crisis Suit!

The Hammerhead
TX-78-2 "Squid" Pattern Variant Hammerhead



As you can see, I have added a detailed vent, made entirely out of plasticard, to the side of the turret.
The pattern matches that of the vents on the underside of the standard Tau vehicle chassis.
I also assembled a sensors/comm package out of a target lock and a vehicle antenna (not shown).
Finally, I added a small bit to the main cannon, as well as re-centering it ... I am now happy with it's position.

The Crisis Suit
XV-81 "Nemesis" Pattern Variant Battlesuit



My secret project a variant battlesuit designed for Shas'el Is'ka (Commander Suddenstrike), to maximize command ability without sacrificing firepower. Still a lot to do with this one - extending the central thruster pack, adding steering- and retro-thrusters, and widening the shoulders (too small right now). Any advice with this is much appreciated!

---

OK, so, it's been forever since I updated... familiar story, sadly. I seem to have recovered some of my zeal right as school started, and Halo: Reach was released - perfect timing. I want to know if you guys would prefer smaller, more frequent updates from me as opposed to larger chunk ones. For reference, I would consider this a small update, while August 15's update would be a very large one. Although both lack fluff... regardless. I'm personally leaning towards somewhere in the middle or on the small side - it would be more interesting, and I would probably get more feedback... which is good motivation! Tell me what you think!

Very nice! The turret is perfect and the added details really make it look like it belongs in that configuration.

As for the suit, I need to see bigger pictures to really tell what's going on. But I like what I see so far! The only issues of concern would be the hips and the part where the backpack connects to the torso.

The hips seem off center. Is that on purpose?

The backpack join seems rather large. Did you add something in between?

Oh and when it comes to updates, regular, medium sized updates are better than large ones (as people ave trouble taking it all in) or small updates (I'm talking about stuff like, just saying you painted stuff and that's it.) There's gotta be substance!

Wow, real nice Militant.Jester!

The suit looks good, but I do second Wolfs16's suggestion for bigger pic's of the suit. From here it looks killer though !

- null

@Wolfs16:
hanks for the feedback, sorry if I was annoying in the PMs I just wasn't sure you received the message

Glad you like the turret, I've still got some GSing to do but I like how it's going!

As for the Crisis Suit - yes, the hip is off center. I took some inspiration from Warhound's suits - if you look at them closely you'll see the standard hip joint was filled in, the body extended, and a new socket created. Here (center suit):




Makes sense, right? Anyways, the backpack joint is not extended - it just looks that way because of the altered placement of the jet pack. I hope to fix this though enlarging various sections. Hopefully it won't end up grossly huge! I'll take some more pictures tomorrow (actually I already added onto what you see here, so I can't just enlarge them).

So about the updates, would you consider the most recent one to be a reasonable size? I'm thinking that size, or a little larger, will be good.

@Null:
Thanks man, like I said, I'll get better pictures soon!

There is some insane modelling going on about ATT, and this is quite clearly an example of it. Very interesting reading through your work and seeing these great results! As for larger photos? I feel the latest size is good, possibly 50px larger even?

- Tael.

Wow, I don't think anyone has ever called my modeling 'insane' before! Thank you very much, Tael! I'm glad you enjoyed reading through it, too.

I'll definitely resize the pictures better next time.. the problem was, I uploaded them to Photobucket then cropped, so they become waaay to small. I'll use photoshop tomorrow. Speaking of which... I actually just went through and completely re-did the shoulder area, so there will be more than just bigger pictures tomorrow!

Hey guys, the promised pictures are here.







I wonder if you guys can figure out the parts I have used so far (besides a crisis suit, obviously )-


The big change from yesterday was to replace the standard shoulder area with the aforementioned bits. I am super-happy with this decision, as I think it makes the profile (when viewed from the front) more feminine, which is a good thing as my commander is a female!

Anyways, I wanted to give you guys a tiny tidbit of background on the suit and it's pilot, Shas'el Is'ka - Commander Suddenstrike.

The suit was developed on the planet of Tanis, which is one the more advanced planets of the Ksi'm'yen Sept. The Tanis R&D Labs serve to build hardware to counteract new tactics and equipment enemies of the Ksi'm'yen Sept, or the Empire as a whole, may scheme up. For the most part, they construct limited production runs - sometimes as few as one unit - to fulfill a specific role, although certain variants are being considered for mass production (for instance: the Squid pattern Hammerhead MBT or the Sawtooth RAV). Because of the limited resources of the Ksi'm'yen Sept, most variants are able to easily swap loadouts (a feature not common in 'single-shot' variants), as tying down an expensive variant suit to one specific role would be cost prohibitive.

The suit in question was developed to enhance Commander Suddenstrike's C&C abilities, without significant loss of firepower. It's increased size houses various enhancements to all components related to communication and battlefield awareness, while advanced materials used in the armor, servo-motor, and jump-pack construction keep the weight down while attaining maneuverability beyond that of a standard XV-8 Crisis Suit. The drawbacks of this design are not insignificant; first (and most obviously) the cost is extreme compared to a standard Crisis Suit, although a large part of this is due to the work put into creating it. It also suffers in a few other areas: The thrust produced by the jump-pack is less able to move the increased weight, even with the advanced materials, and the increased size of the suit makes it unsuitable for many battlesuit restraint harnesses and a larger target on the battlefield. However, Commander Suddenstrike views these disabilities as insignificant.

Very nice Jester! The parts just need a little smoothing and you should be good. (Do you use any sand paper? I didn't at first, but man is it a help once you start!)

Now let me guess at those parts:

XV8 Torso and one jetpack section. Target Lock, XV25 Shoulder Pad, Firewarrior Shoulder Pads, weird Stealth thingy, Plasma rifle knobby things on the sides near the Stealth shoulder pads. In addition to some plasticard and green stuff, I think I got it all!
(Checks spoiler: Yes! I got it right!)

I definitely agree that the more female shape looks great and really will add to the suit once the rest is done. What are you doing for arms and legs?

Fluff is also good; I love me some experimental suits. You mentioned close combat, is this gonna be a Farsight count-as?

@Wolfs16:
Thanks! I occasionally use sandpaper, but I think it would be difficult to get it to a lot of the parts on this model... any advice about that? Also, even the finest grit of sandpaper I have leaves marks; what grit do you use?

I guess I will have to make the next parts I use more obscure..
Glad you like the new shape. Arms and legs... well I would say to take a look at Warhound's work probably. The former arm balls, that the sockets in the shoulder armor went over (that must be confusing, I'll nab some pics later) will go into the holes on the Fire Warrior shoulder pads (that came from cutting out the Tau symbol).

Close Combat... no, sorry, C&C = Command and Control. I was actually thinking when I wrote that section that it might be a little confusing, sorry! Next time I'll define it somewhere.

Looking really good. I really like the conversion on the Railhead and I might adapt that for my Cadre.

As for the suit; I had been toying with a similar concept for my Crisis Commander and have since shelved that project. I'm very interested to see how this turns out. Keep us posted!

The Invoker

Thanks Invoker, I'm glad I could inspire you! Let me see if you come up with anything
So, I'm still working on the suit and stuff, but no pictures yet. I still can't decide on where to put the additional thrusters though; any advice on that would be appreciated. I've also taken on a 1:1 scale modeling project that may interest people once I'm finished... then again, maybe not, as it isn't Tau-related.