Warhammer 40k Tau: Broadside Battledrones Finished

Hey Folks,

Unfortunately real life and work ate all my time last week so I had to pull out of Conquest :(

I found I was rushing the army and I decided that given how much time, effort and money I had spent on it it's not worth doing a half assed job. 

Today I've had a nice relaxing day with the house to myself so I've gone back and finished the Broadside Battledrones.

I'm quite happy with them. They are actually yellow instead of Tau Sept Ochre but dullcoat and my phone washes this out. 

Basing is inspired by this amazing short sci film, Ruin: 

Cheers

Jason 

Warhammer 40k Tau: Broadside Battledrone Done!

Hey Folks, 

Quick update as I have plenty to do as conquest is next weekend! 

I recently bought and Airbrush and have been busy spraying Yellow...

It's quick and dirty but I'm pretty happy with the results! The airbrush makes the yellow actually achievable in a decent timeframe. Then it's a quick block in for the the dark and light grey and red. Watered black wash with a touch of soap and then highlight up, add the Emeral green. Base and done. 

One down 14 suits, 11 Drones, 2 Riptides and 4 Vehicles to go. 

Crap

Cheers

Jason

Warhammer 40k Tau: Battledrone "Prime" Commander

Hey Folks,

Finished building my Battledrone Prime Commander.

 As this "counts as" the renegade Commander Farsight he is equipped with a Shield Generator and a "Plasma Blade" which is not only choppy choppy but also shoots bolts of plasma at people (counts as a Plasma Rifle and the Dawn Blade). 

He's also very heavily armoured as he will get up close and personal...

9 Days to conquest...rapidly running out if time :(

Cheers

Jason 

Warhammer 40k Tau: Heavy Battlerdrone

Hey Folks,

My Riptides arrived finally so in a fit of excitement I quickly built one AND only converted it in a minor fashion to fit the rest of the army. Which I thought was quite restrained for me...but it's an awesome kit. 

And it's HUGE

XV-104E Heavy Battledrone armed with an Ion Accelerator (the huge energy gun) and a twin linked Fusion blaster (above the head) 

Riptides come with a shield generator 

I repositioned the jet pack nacelles and added the much larger air intake off the Pirahna kit as the stock intakes are tiny

Size comparison...it's not small! My Battledrons are much bigger then a normal crisis suit and they only just come up to its waist...

Next up a "Prime" commander Battledrone 

Cheers

Jason 

Warhammer 40k Tau: Drone Gunship

Hey Folks, 

Inspired by the "Hover-Killers" from Terminator and the Dropship from Aliens...

Drone EX-22 Support Gunship 

Armed with: Two twin Ion Rifle Turrets, two Seeker missiles, two Missile Pods (top of wings) and 4 Termobaric tactical guided munitions (large missiles under the wings - these count as a Pulse Bomb generator (which I thought looked stupid)) and a Networked Markerlight

Engine assembly and tail ECM/ Chaff dispenser 

Loaded for Bear!

Counts as a Sunshark bomber, it should be a world of hurt on hordes as the Pulse Bomb is the large 5" blast and ignores cover...

18 days to Conquest and only one unit painted...good news is that the Heavy Battledrones requested have finally made it in country and are soon to arrive at the forward depot for calibration and pre deployment checks. :)

Cheers

Jason

Warhammer 40k Tau: Drone Version 3(!)

Hey Folks,

Decided to make (another) version of the drones - this time more in line with an actual hover type akin to the "proper" drones. 

These May or may not have been inspired by a game of X-wing vs TIE fighter. 

Right to left: Missile Drone, Gun Drone and a Marker (laser designator) Drone. 

Side/Rear shot. 

I'm going to repurpose the "Geth" Infantry drones as Fire Warriors. 

Cheers

Jason 

Warhammer 40k Tau: Broadside Battledrones and Missile Drone

Hey Folks,

Some good work done today with the final two Broadside Battledrones built, this time with twin Heavy Rail Rifles;

These are built along the same lines as the previous High Yeild Missile Pack armed broadside with tripod legs, XV-9 torsos and Shas O Rali's head. I've also used the Pulse Submunition Rifles from Shas O Rali with the heat sinks slightly repositioned. I think these make mean Railguns! 

This is my final Geth inspired Drone, this time armed with a Missile Pod. It's quite different from the previous Sniper Drone as it used a Firewarrior torso, a necron head for the pelvis(!)and a new, improved jet pack which used plastic tube, a Firewarrior shoulder pad, necron backplate and parts of a drone. It's a bit rough as it suffered a superglue malfunction but I will tidy it up. I have five more under construction. 

Group shot so far. It's about 500pts worth so the army is a quarter built. 

23 Days to Conquest!

Cheers

Jason 

Warhammer 40k Tau: AI Sniper Drone

Hey Folks,

A bit more converting done and now I have finalised how I will make my "drones"

Rough storyline I am working on is that my army will represent a test Cadre where Fio cast from the Farsight Enclaves (far away from the restraints of the Etheral caste) are building advanced AI Drones to bolster the Enclaves forces. 

I've gone with a very much Geth inspired anthropomorphic drone, which *may* have been influenced by Necron technology...

Ves'ron'ui Sniper armed with a Longshot Pulse Rifle - in game terms this is a Sniper Drone (and has a stealth field!)

Busines end of the sniper rifle and showing the single large photo receptor which will be the signature design feature of the drones

Sniper Drones are "Jet Pack Infantry" so the tau Fire Warrior shoulder pad makes a good jet pack cowl, under which is a Fire Warrior grenade pack which looks like small vents

And a nice big antennae as it's a drone after all so is a networked AI

Overall now I know how to build them they won't take too long. Just need;

17 more Sniper Drones

6 marker or missile drones

2 shielded missile drones 

2 shield drones 

So a wee bit of work to do!

Cheers

Jason 

Warhammer 40k Tau: WIP Concept Engram AI Battle Suit and Fire Warrior

Hi Folks,

The SciFi Bug has bit again and amongst the other stuff I have been doing I have taken the plunge and am starting my first 40k army for many years: Tau

I had played 40k since 2nd edition and it was my game of choice for about 10-12 years until I became a bit "over" it with 5th edition and moved to more Historical Games

I have always loved the freedom to convert models however and while Historical games do allow this the scope is limited, whereas with 40k the only lit is my imagination (and time and money!)

There is a tournament coming up at the end of October: Conquest hosted by Comics Compulsion and I figured I would enter. Sadly I don't have an army so I need something I will like and can build and paint in about 5 weeks! Enter: Tau Farsight Enclave

The Farsight Enclave is a supplemental list to the Tau Empire army and crucially allows Crisis Battlesuit Teams as Troops Choices. I am a massive Armoured Core/ Mecha fan so this is right up my alley...I have also just finished Mass Effect 3 on Xbox and have always been a fan of the Geth. 

So: Drone/ AI/ Memory Engram piloted battle suits (think Ghost in the Machine) will be the theme for my Hunter Cadre

Here is the first models;

AI battlesuit - less weapons (these will be magnetised and are on their way) but it is heavily converted using Crisis and Stealth parts. Not sure if I want to add shoulder pads?

AI Fire Warrior: converted out of Necron and Tau bits

Size comparison 

Still thinking on a colour scheme but it will be battle damaged is my thoughts so far. 

Cheers

Jason