I've been doing a bit of work on my Tau warband recently. Up until now it has just had one member, the 'Splinter Cell'-style Fire Caste operative but I've finally gotten around to assembling my Water Caste model and have started sculpting an Air Caste pilot.
At the moment I have one drone in the warband, a small spy drone, but I'm thinking of adding more. I quite like the Forgeworld ones - both the technical drones and the heavy gun drones. Which brings me to the point of this ramble - does anyone know how big they are? I couldn't see a size listed on the FW site (but maybe I'm just not looking properly)...
Thanks,
Dave
They look to be on stanard flying bases and to be the same size as the base bottom
They are not as big as these beauties
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Tau/TAU-BATTLESUITS-AND-DRONES/TAU-REMORA-DRONE-STEALTH-FIGHTERS.html (http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Tau/TAU-BATTLESUITS-AND-DRONES/TAU-REMORA-DRONE-STEALTH-FIGHTERS.html)
but are bigger than the normal drones
That's what I figured - in that case they should work very well at 54mm and will round out my warband nicely...
(http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e58/RobSkib/Inquisitor/JD500228.jpg)
Not sure which ones you were talking about, but these are the Technical drones that FW sell. The antennae snapped off both my drones (drat, drat and double drat!) but you get a good idea of how big they're supposed to be. Hope this helps!
Okay, that one's smaller than I'd hoped (given the price!) but nice nonetheless. I didn't get the drone with my Water Caste (and didn't much like it anyway, so am not too disappointed), so need to look at alternatives. I might have a spare plastic one I could convert, but I'm feeling lazy!
considering they're on the small flying base and the comparative size of the burst cannons, I'd estimate the heavy drones to be about 35mm in diameter?
yeah, the technical drones are basically just gun drones with gubbinz stuck underneath.
Quote from: Kaled on December 13, 2010, 11:15:00 AM
my Water Caste model and have started sculpting an Air Caste pilot.
caaaast theeeeem! ;D
The Water Caste is a standard GW model, and the Air Caste, while mostly sculpted, uses a few GW parts - most notably his head. So casting them is not really an option.
Evening all,
I've decided to recycle this thread and use it to track my progress building the rest of my Tau warband. So, today you get to see a work-in-progress shot of my Air Caste pilot. Obviously there's quite a bit of work still to go - most notably his arms, which I have started but aren't worth showing yet. There's also some detail to tidy up or add such as a pilot's kneeboard to his left leg and a holster on his right hip.
(http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t286/kaled100/Works%20in%20Progress/wip_air_caste_01.jpg)
Hopefully he'll have arms when you see him next.
- Dave
How "big" do we want our drones to be? I have some tau 40k terrain pieces that were made as "observation posts" but the dome covers on them are almost 70mm across.
I don't have the 28mm version in front of me, but I'd say that a standard gun drone (as seen in 40k) should be about 45mm in diameter). But I'm happy for drones to come in all sizes, so a heavy gun drone or construction drone (for instance) could easily be 70mm.
Time for a quick update...
(http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t286/kaled100/Works%20in%20Progress/wip_air_caste_02.jpg)
As you can see, he now has arms, however I'm thinking he's now a touch too broad across the shoulders (which is made to look far worse due to the contrast between the grey and brown). It's not very clear in the photos, but he also has a holster and knee board. Also, the detail on his stomach is pretty indistinct in the photo but is a bit better in real life so I think will be fine when painted.
In fact, it's generally not a great photo as his arms look really weird - it's not obvious in the picture, but his right arm is bent at almost 90 degrees at the elbow...
Ah, the vagaries of photography . . .
All the things you mentioned put to one side, he looks pretty good. Looking forward to seeig work on this continue ;D
That's a great mostly scratch built tau. What are the two heads from, I only remember seeing one official GW head but I could totally be wrong. What did you use as the base for its legs?
Either way, it's shaping up to be a great Tau warband (with a fantastic variety of actual Tau).
The water caste model came with three heads - I managed to end up with two the same, which I used on the fire and water caste, and the other has gone on the air caste. The third head, the one I don't have, was wearing a hood.
I sculpted the model over one of the armatures I usually use. I printed out a picture of an air caste at the correct size and used it as reference. The armature needed a bit of work to rid it of it's human proportions, but overall it worked well and saved me quite a bit of time and effort.
Great looking Air Caste - really looks the business next to the Water Caste. Neat sculpting and good pose (I think the arms look fine!).
What's next to add? Do you have the 54mm custom Fire Warrior that was being sold recently?
Thanks.
Nope, no Fire Warrior. The band is going to represent a Tau special ops team, so a standard battlefield-type Fire Warrior wouldn't really be in keeping for this warband.
The idea is that my fire caste operative (http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t286/kaled100/silent_hunter.jpg) will be the main 'action' character, then the rest are his support cadre. There's the air caste pilot who flies the insertion missions and his water caste controller - plus there'll be a few drones to support the team. One day I would quite like to build an earth caste technical expert for the team, but I have no immediate plans to do so...
I like the Fire Caste Operative - Callidus assassin as the base model? Good looking team all together :)
Eversor assassin as base model.
R.
Quote from: precinctomega on January 05, 2011, 12:37:03 PM
Eversor assassin as base model.
R.
Ack! Getting my assassin classes mixed up. I meant Eversor of course ;)
Can we get a group shot? ;D
I too would LOVE an earth caste model! Do they even make one for 25mm 40k?
What do Earth caste even look like? I'm not sure I've ever seen a picture of them..
Great work on the Air Caste Dave, but you should know that by now :) Birds fly, dogs poop and Kaled makes incredible INQ models. I was a little surprised at how short he was though, I was always under the impression that Air Caste were much taller than their other caste brothers?
Love these guys. Fire caste looks as scary as Tau get, and the rest of the band have great variety. Wouldn't extra height be a disadvantage in a pilot caste? Ah well.
I'll do a group shot as soon as they're painted (which could take a while).
I think he's about the right height - at least, his height/proportions are about right compared to the 28mm version. Looking at the artwork however suggests he could have been a touch taller. There's a picture that includes members of all castes in the old Tau codex - earth caste are a touch shorter than the fire caste but broader. I've seen the pic on the 'net somewhere - if I find it again I'll post a link.
Don't forget to include your Kroot!
And the maybe the Demiurg too...
Quote from: Kaled on January 06, 2011, 03:49:23 PM
There's a picture that includes members of all castes in the old Tau codex - earth caste are a touch shorter than the fire caste but broader. I've seen the pic on the 'net somewhere - if I find it again I'll post a link.
Found it...
(http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f105/hephesto555666/t.jpg)
The good thing with the Earth Caste is that they cover everything from the lowest factory labourer to the best weapons inventor of the empire - so an Earth Caste could, if anything, be the character with the most interesting equipment and motivations.
Yesterday I finally got around to painting my Air Caste and his drone. It's not the best picture I'm afraid, but I'll take a few more once I finish the warband... Now to get on with painting the Water Caste and his two drones.
(http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t286/kaled100/air_caste.jpg)
Also, I keep thinking a pilot needs something to fly - I wonder if I could find some kit or toy that would pass for a Tau shuttle...
Check out the Federation Droid toys for Star Wars - I've seen attempts to turn them into Tau Superheavies, so they might be a good start for a shuttle.
Wow, very nice work as always Kaled, really impressive. Personally, I think the drones being the smaller size works pretty well, at leas for the technical and little spy drone the operative has. As for your aforementioned something for the Air Caste to fly, an =][= scale Orca dropship (maybe like a stealth orca! in the colours of an orca whale! :P) would be pretty awesome.
Very cool.
I'll keep an eye out for possible Tau vehicles.
I love this guy. You've nailed the thin and weedy look excellently, while still maintaining the air of a pilot :).
Excellent job! I'm really looking forward to see what kind of ship you end up getting for him :) The decals on the base are a nice touch.
I'm on my way out so I'll have to keep this short - I finished the Water Caste the other day;
(http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t286/kaled100/water_caste.jpg)
And I updated the base on the Fire Caste so he matches;
(http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t286/kaled100/silent_hunter.jpg)
Plus here's a shot of the entire warband;
(http://i163.photobucket.com/albums/t286/kaled100/Miscellaneous%20Inquisitor%20Photos/tau_warband.jpg)
- Dave
Im really not a tau fan, but these are just stunning. Enough said
great stuff Dave, it's good to see the FW heavy drones really are an absolutely perfect scale for INQ gundrones.
As Shannow said, stunning. I hope that you do find a suitable vehicle, then this little group would be perfect.
Looks good dave, I hope you do find a good craft for them.
I'd also love to see you do an earth Caste Technician.
For some reason I had a vision of you playing these guys and giving each one a different accent. Bizzare.
Beautiful work, as usual. The firewar... er, Alien Commander model would look great with these. I would love to see you do a rendition of an Earth Caste technician as well.
Stunning, with a great group feel. Although, it does seem the water caste is practising the 'threaten to blow everything up' form of diplomacy.
I just saw this model and thought it may be turned in a tau vehicle with some Details like weapons and turbine engines .
then I remembered this tread. hope you'll forgive the treadomancy (hope I spelled it right ;D)
http://www.plastichobbymodel.com/star-wars/amt-ertl-star-wars-trade-federation-tank-scale-model-kits/ (http://www.plastichobbymodel.com/star-wars/amt-ertl-star-wars-trade-federation-tank-scale-model-kits/)
It has the tau look, with some work it could become a very nice tau vehicle.
It does have a Tau feel to it, but I wasn't sure if it'd be too recogisable. Imperial things are easier to convert as they're very blocky, but it'd be harder to change the silhouette of this thing. Maybe if I removed the turret and replaced it with a Tau one...
Still got to decide what to do with the spare resin Water & Air Caste bodies/heads. I'm thinking one of the Air Caste might get a set of mechanical wings like a Yeld spyrer but not yet sure about the rest...
Have them as Tank Commander on whatever vehicle you've got, to make it clearly tau.
What about this one, a little expensive maybe but totally Tau looking. You could call it the "Limulus Light transport "
http://migproductionswebshop.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_89&products_id=477 (http://migproductionswebshop.com/product_info.php?cPath=26_89&products_id=477)