Tau Renegade Warband

[Lucidum]

Hey all, another WIP i'm starting, this time I'll post the warband's stats too, probably tomorrow since its late. Anywho, this is the beginning of a renegade Tau warband. First up is the de facto leader, a young, disillusioned, idealistic fire warrior who's gone rogue, enamored with the ideals and idolization of O'Shova or Commander Farsight and determined to make his own way (with the help of some friends, of course) in the galaxy.

I used the Papah minis Tau Shas'ui (or Alien Commander to avoid certain IP issues). I altered it so that he's in a classic "samurai" pose, in the process of drawing his bonding knife. I need to sculpt his hands with green stuff.



I also need to resculpt part of his shoulder/upper back, in order to fill the gap here


What do you guys think? I tried to file his torso a little where I reposed the right arm, to make it look more natural as he reaches across his body to draw his sword.

[MarcoSkoll]

...in the process of drawing his bonding knife.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the bonding knife purely symbolic, and not intended as a weapon?
It's all about that knife having symbolically drawn the blood of all the Tau bonded to it (sort of a "blood bond"), so using it to draw the blood of another outside that bond sounds rather unthinkable. I imagine a true bonding knife is only ever rarely unsheathed, and almost exclusively for ceremonial or "honour" purposes.

I prefer the idea that it's another blade entirely. And given he's idealising Farsight, a big proponent of hand to hand combat (well, bigger than most of the Tau race), it wouldn't be that unsurprising he might carry a dedicated close combat weapon.

[Ynek]

The model's looking pretty excellent so far. Good job!

Although purely because I've studied asian sword martial arts, I could pick the pose apart, but all my nitpicking could easily be explained away as being part of an alien sword martial art, or simply the Tau not being very good at it.

But if you're really wanting a samurai pose, his right hand should be closer to the finger-guard (tsuba). Additionally, in the majority of cases, (with only a couple of leg-slashing draws being the exception) the tip of the blade (kisaki) should never be lower than the pommel (kashiri) until the blade is drawn. And don't even get me started on his footwork. It's a common misconception that you sword-fight with your arms. The truth is that all of the skill and expertise is in the footwork.

Anyway, like I said, that's just if I'm being really picky, and there's a million and one excuses that could be used to dismiss such arguments.

So, what sept are you planning on painting him as? Farsight enclave? (To be in line with the close combat theme?)

[Lucidum]

That is a good point, Marco. I usually see the bonding knife as smaller than a sword as well, perhaps it is just an awesome tau-katana, and I'll hang a plastic fire warrior bonding knife on his belt below it, in a position how a samurai usually carries a katana and a shoto together.

And yeah, I know the pose isn't perfect but I couldn't find a great reference pic, and besides he's a tau and it's not precisely bushido he'd practice

As for the enclave, he's not a part of farsight's sect, he's younger than that, grew up hearing about farsight's great deeds, only to join the ranks of the tau military and find that Farsight's long gone and broken away from the greater good. He's inspired by farsight, but holds his own ideals. I plan on having his sept symbol look like it's been chipped or scraped off.

[Papah]

Really the most brave conversion I can remember of this model, and looking cool so far.

About the pose, I think you'll need to work in the right arm rather than on the torso: you can try to remove material from the fabric over the armpitt area and even a bit of the right soulder pad edges. It will be non-solid parts that will fold and adapt to the solid parts. Don't be afraid to use green stuff to sculpt a few folds at the end.

Here there is a model in a similar pose that came to my mind when just saw your conversion, I hope it helps with arms and hands http://www.pegasomodels.com/productdetails_en.asp?id=553

Regards

[Kaled]

I would be tempted to cut off the shoulder pad and vambrace and sculpt a new right arm - at the minute there's far too big a gap between the torso and shoulder.  A good way of getting the pose right is to stand in front of a mirror with a stick and see how your arm moves and how your sleeve folds.

It's a nice pose you're going for - should look good once it's done.

[Lucidum]

I would be tempted to cut off the shoulder pad and vambrace and sculpt a new right arm - at the minute there's far too big a gap between the torso and shoulder.  A good way of getting the pose right is to stand in front of a mirror with a stick and see how your arm moves and how your sleeve folds.

It's a nice pose you're going for - should look good once it's done.

Yeah, I was worried about the arm too, and I'm not nearly good enough at sculpting green stuff to sculpt a new arm...not sure what to do

[Kaled]

Just give it a try and you might be surprised what you can too - sculpting a new arm is not too difficult.  I suggest you make an armature of wire to get the size and position, the cover it in greenstuff to get the basic shape right, then sculpt on a top layer with the detail of the cloth.  And if you use the original shoulder pad and vambrace it should look pretty good.

[kierkegaard]

I think that the real problem is that to achieve the pose you are after, to body rotates all along the spine from the waist up to the shoulders, and the mini clearly isn't doing that. Re-sculpting the shoulder isn't going to be enough.

[Lucidum]

I think that the real problem is that to achieve the pose you are after, to body rotates all along the spine from the waist up to the shoulders, and the mini clearly isn't doing that. Re-sculpting the shoulder isn't going to be enough.

Yeah, I know that all too well  >.< I'm simply not good enough as a sculptor to do all of that.

[Kaled]

No one is until they practice - just resculpt the arm for now, the pose won't be perfect but it'll probably be close enough to give the impression you're after. And don't worry if it goes wrong the first time (which it probably will), or even if it goes wrong the second or third time - as long as you learn something each time then you'll get it right eventually. We've all had to go through the stage where we're not good enough to achieve the look we're after but it does get easier...

[greenstuff_gav]

is This any use?

like Kaled says, it's not till you try that you find out what you can do
luckily greenstuff, once dry, can be peeled off and you can try again if you aren't happy with the results

EDIT: fixed.. cheers

[Inquisitor Octavian Lars]

Gav, the link does not work.

[Hadriel Caine]

http://buildyourimagination.co.uk/minis/guide_repose.php

[MarcoSkoll]

luckily greenstuff, once dry, can be peeled off and you can try again if you aren't happy with the results

Or, if you need a less drastic result, it can be reworked with a modelling knife.

I probably shouldn't admit just how much of my sculpting is about going back and adjusting with a knife - but then, it'd be stupid to not go back and fix things I'm not happy with.