++ Like Gue'la to the Slaughter ++ A 3rd Inspired T'au Plog

[TheTrans]

 

Quote

"The only way they will drive us from here, our home, is to drown us in their myriad dead..."

-Atrrib Shas'el T’au Kir'Qath N'Lan, Knight Darkguard of Thoros Colony. 

 

Imagine back, 22 odd years ago, the drop of the initial Tau Codex back in the rose-tinted glory days of 3rd edition Warhammer 40k, there wasn't heinous rules bloat, there was expectations that you could convert models and XV8 crisis suits were the pinnacle of Tau technology.

Jump forward to 2023, we've got Warhammer 40,000: Age of Sigmar edition, Tau have a bazillion different battlesuits and Kroot may as well not exist, hard pass.

 

I give you a foray into 3rd edition as both myself and my local group go trudging through PDFs and old, dog-eared codexs. 

 

So I'm going to start quickly by apologising for rocking a Tau PLOG on B&C, upon a bit of research it seems there are a few within these hallowed halls and given, to me at least, B&C is the only true 40k forum that has survived, and even thrived, the huge paradigm shift that Facebook, Reddit and Discord brought to the hobby online world. But I digress, Mods if this thread isn't allowed, go take it out the back and put a pulse round through its head. 

 

Any way, 3rd edition, not that I played much of it back in the day, was my entry point into 40k and I fondly remember the release of the Tau codex! Not only that, my local gang have been gagging for some non-30k sci-fi warhams lately and 40k is not in a state that we think we'll have fun in. So much like our foray into WHFB 6th edition, we've picked a similar epoch for 40k, 3rd which had a wealth of extra army lists, fun stuff like the vehicle design rules as well as a coxed for every major race released in that edition. 

 

I opted to jump on into tau as I wanted something that, after years of being into 30k, wasn't human/imperial based! I always wanted to try out some Tau but never got around to it.

This project is essentially going to try and be a modernisation of the 'classic' tau that we saw released in 3rd (and to a lesser extent 4th/Taros Campaign) before they jumped the sharks with the mecha-bent. This means I'll be limiting myself to essentially only XV8(8) and XV15 based battlesuits. Outside of this, I'll be putting my own, detailed, militarised nitty-gritty bent as a filter over the 3rd ed tau. 

 

Anyway, I'll touch on the first battlesuit I completed, this will be one of Shas'el Kir'Quath N'Lan's bodyguards, which I based heavily off the old Crisis Suit box art from 3rd. 

 

 

Here is a side by side. I'll be basing all of my XV8s and XV88s off off the fantastic new Tau Commander model, I think it 100% nails what the original XV8s looked like in the art, with another 15 years of minature development added to them! A truly fanastic kit (Except what monster puts a join point up all of the vents on the backpack)

Here is a shot from the front, showing off a bracket of conversion work, while not major, I think nicely 'realises' the kit a bit. As you can see I've added lift points for all the major parts of the armour, as well as protective bar around the sensor pods 'eyes'. You'd also notice some hexagonal plates trapped around the front, I've chucked on some ERA just around the pilot area. There is more expanded fluff coming (as always) but in the very short, think of a small, backwater garrison force of Tau left to look after a fledgling colony, a small imperial force attacks, these guys are left doing whatever they can to hold back the tide. They find the myriad Krak Missiles the Imperium is throwing at them is taking a huge toll on their crisis suit teams, ergo a bit of locally produced and hastily applied ERA to at the very least lower pilot casualties.  

 

 

Finally a bit of extra detail on the back, again I really wanted to add a bit more of a 'lived it' vibe to this tau force, so its essentially a 'bug out' pack for if the Battlesuit is made combat inoperable, at least the pilot can bail out and try and fight his way back to his lines. 

 

Anyway, currently have a second bodyguard (and the Shas 'el himself) in the works as well as an XV88.

As always please lay the boot with thoughs and ideas that can improve these guys and any cool, tidbits about the tau you can think of!

Thanks in advance,

Nick!

Edited November 26, 2023 by TheTrans

[ZeroWolf]

Nice work! I too fondly remember the Tau codex from 3rd, they were my 2nd army after the nids.

 

Looking forward to seeing more!

[YannTheMad]

God I miss 3rd's aesthetics...

I always been fond of the Tau. I may, one day, make a small force one day if I ever escape the clutches of the dark gods XD

Anyway, your conversion is on spot. I love the added details, bring a lot of realism.

I'm looking forward to this thread ^^

[Guest Triszin]

Gritty Tau is best tau

[Mithrilforge]

This will be watched closely 

I remember getting 3rd Ed T'au , Life was a lot simpler then ... and i look forward to your army !!  Consider me subscribed! 

 

Cheers, M 

[Pearson73]

You've nailed the pose from the art! Loving all the more realistic details that you've added to the battlesuit. What colours are you thinking?

[Wormwoods]

3rd Ed Tau are how I first got into the game, after initially being a Warhammer fantasy kid. The codex came out at just the right time for me to use it as an on-ramp for the setting. It's something I plan to go back to at some point, see if I can, as an adult, do something more interesting than 'the default Tau scheme but painted poorly'. 

 

Looking forward to seeing more! Love all the hand-holds and hooks, that's a great touch. Reminds me of some of the art out of the LANCER RPG, with infantry holding on to mechs between engagements, ready to jump off and skirmish around the walking tank. 

[MoriyaSchism]

The use of the XV88 commander suit for regular Crisis suits is a fantastic idea. I like the extra details like the lift points on the suit, makes it seem really rugged and reminds me of Armoured Troopers.

[Terminatorinhell]

I like the style so far. I have like 700ish points of tau I think. I got them around 2009ish. It's mind boggling what they have now, I might eventually revisit them but I'm gonna make a small Sororitas force first. 

[TheTrans]

Heya gang, just got a little bit of fluff I whipped up yesterday, as well as the second crisis suit! 

 

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Chandrit Tertius or Ch’a’nd

Chandrit Tertius, now Ch’a’nd was once a Imperial world , forcibly settled by the T’au during the early part of the Second Sphere Expansion. Given the world's relatively ‘safe’ location in regards to both T’au home space and more heavily fortified Imperial systems, it was set as a low priority for full Sept status. It eventually was all but forgotten about as the 2nd phase expansion swung into full force and stretched farther and faster than ever could have been foreseen. It was not until the closing years of the Second Sphere Expansion and the advent of what the Imperium called the Damocles Gulf Crusade that it became, at the very least, a non-trivial battlefield in that savage Imperial counter attack.

 

The rulership of Ch’a’nd was bestowed upon a  Shas'O T'au Ukos N'Lan, and with it the Title of Knight Darkguard upon the world's official annexation. It has been ruled as a semi-feudalist society ever since, as the title of Knight Darkguard was bestowed upon the eldest of every new generation of the N’Lan line, they then becoming the undisputed liege of Ch’a’nd and its surrounding system. Given its backwater location, none of the Ethereal caste was ever thought to be seconded to the planet. 

The populace,Gue’la, Kroot and T’au alike exist in general harmony, with members of all three races holding all variety of positions within the colony at large. The colony has many of the ‘standardised’ drop-deployable manufactories, and fabricators seen across the breadth of the T’au empire, allowing them to readily equip Fire Warriors Cadres with their usual armament and their Devilfish APCs, while lacking the more specialised factories and personnel to create the advanced technologies seen in the T’au’s full panoply of war. 

 

During the late 730s.M41 Ch’a’nd became increasingly more troubled by local orkoid incursions, not only from errant, passing fleets of the green-skins, but a concerningly resilient strain that could not quite be lanced from the planets surface. While generally of no existential crisis, these frequent spot-fire attacks kept Ch’a’nd’s local garrison forces well practiced and versed in actual combat. Given it’s low-level status within the rapidly expanding T’au empire, it was not particularly well supplied in armaments and equipment, generally relying on older, or even completely out moded equipment outside of the most basic of weaponry and armour. It also relied upon sizeable Gue’ve’sa and Kroot forces to assist in defensive operations. These measures were deemed quite viable and suitable given the mild situation the burgeoning colony found itself in.

It was at the end of 741.M41 when Imperial scouting fleets were deployed in preparation for the Damocles Gulf Crusade that Ch’a’nd was thrust into a life and death struggle. During the closing weeks of 741.M41 an Imperial scout-flotilla fell from the warp attempting to contact any imperial forces on  Chandrit Tertius, but instead of finding lost-cousins, it was instead greeted by the standard T’au empire greetings of ‘join the greater good’, with no more than a second thought, the scouting Flotilla’s commander ordered an immediate invasion of Chandrit Tertius, to act as a staging point for more thorough attacks into the Damocles Gulf region. While only a tiny detachment to the Imperium, this was seen as something akin to a small planetary invasion force to the T’au commanders of Ch’a’nd and a significant threat to this small colony. 

Early forays into Imperial landing zones to attempt to repel the invaders were quite successful, with most of the Ch’a’nd’s limited XV8s deployed from low level passes of one of only two local Manta’s, in as much as they successfully repelled the first attempted planetfall on Ch’a’nd, successfully killing or capturing over 50% of the Shenlavian Light Dragoons 23rd Regiment.  

 

Upon the Imperium’s second, more careful landing operation it was not to be as before. 
Learning quickly what they were against, the initial troops for the second landing operation were the 45th Gerian ‘Heavies’ Drop Troop, a formidably trained and equipped heavy infantry battalion, well furnished with Heavy Weapons Platoons and Drop-Sentinels. The T’au attempted another lighting assault with their XV8s against the suspected positions of the 45th Gerians and were met with a veritable fusilade of heavy weapons fire, while the XV8’s armour could generally turn most heavy fire power, it was found that the Krak Missiles of the Imperium took a staggering toll. Within the first 4 hours, the Ch’a’nd Crisis teams had taken over 50% loses, even worse, most of these were SDPK, or Suit-Destroyed-Pilot-Killed. 

 

While suits could be repaired or recovered and used as spares, even with their already minimal supplies of XV8s on Ch’a’nd, it was the pilots that were deemed almost irreplaceable. With this second harrying attack all but blunted and the landing point being too far from Ch’a’nd Capital City to mount a sustained attack, the T’au were forced to withdraw and rethink their plan of attack.
 

 

So there is a little preamble about where the battle will be taking place, and obviously a lot of pre-loading about equipment scarcity and possibly a weird, not seen centerpiece vehicle rearing its ugly head later on in the project. 

 

Anyway I give you the second crisis bodguard for the Shas'el Kir'Quath N'Lan

 

Again I've tried to replicate some existing art, I've opted to use a drone's top in place of a shield generator to attempt to get a bit more size to it akin to the reference picture. 

 

 

Again we see here the lift points, and ERA that will be 'standard' across any XV8(8) and Vehicle Chassis. Again I just need to say how much I love the commander kit, I find its proportions just 'work'.

 

A shot of the back (those lines down the vents... grrr... But again another bug out kit/baggage for the suit pilot. I imagine, much like tankers during world war 2, that while their equipment is strapped to the outside, the pilots are more than aware it may just be shot off, but its worth the risk. 

 

Any way, that is guy number 1 nominally done. I'm currently working on Shas'el Kir'Quath N'Lan as we speak, he will be based off a few pieces of art, as opposed to the almost direct copies of his bodyguards.

 

 

 

 

On 11/27/2023 at 10:39 AM, ZeroWolf said:

Nice work! I too fondly remember the Tau codex from 3rd, they were my 2nd army after the nids.

 

Looking forward to seeing more!

Yeah Nids and Tau in 3rd are major memory points for me mate! 

 

23 hours ago, YannTheMad said:

God I miss 3rd's aesthetics...

I always been fond of the Tau. I may, one day, make a small force one day if I ever escape the clutches of the dark gods XD

Anyway, your conversion is on spot. I love the added details, bring a lot of realism.

I'm looking forward to this thread ^^

Thanks a heap mate! Come on man, come join the greater good ;). 

 

21 hours ago, Triszin said:

Gritty Tau is best tau

Thats certainly what I'm going for, I did a fair bit of inspiration googling and there is a heinous lack of gritty tau, 99% of what I see on the net is factory perfect guys with edge highlights haha.

 

20 hours ago, Mumeishi said:

This will be watched closely 

I remember getting 3rd Ed T'au , Life was a lot simpler then ... and i look forward to your army !!  Consider me subscribed! 

 

Cheers, M 

Thanks mate! Yeah there is definitely an element of 'back in my day' looking into 3rd..and like most units did a job.. as opposed to 5 units doing the same job and people just pick the best one at it.

 

18 hours ago, Pearson73 said:

You've nailed the pose from the art! Loving all the more realistic details that you've added to the battlesuit. What colours are you thinking?

Thanks mate! Yeah I love trying to add a level of believability to the craziness that is 40k! I'm thinking I'll do the 'standard' tau colour scheme, but instead of the matt black for all the weapons parts, it will instead be a dark gunmental to sort of add a bit of realism. Here is a drone I've started doing a bit of playing around on.

 

 

17 hours ago, Wormwoods said:

3rd Ed Tau are how I first got into the game, after initially being a Warhammer fantasy kid. The codex came out at just the right time for me to use it as an on-ramp for the setting. It's something I plan to go back to at some point, see if I can, as an adult, do something more interesting than 'the default Tau scheme but painted poorly'. 

 

Looking forward to seeing more! Love all the hand-holds and hooks, that's a great touch. Reminds me of some of the art out of the LANCER RPG, with infantry holding on to mechs between engagements, ready to jump off and skirmish around the walking tank. 

 

Yeah there was a charm to 3rd ed tau that I can't quite put my finger on mate! Oooh I really like that idea of handholds to get sort of carried along, thats a really interesting premise!!

 

10 hours ago, MoriyaSchism said:

The use of the XV88 commander suit for regular Crisis suits is a fantastic idea. I like the extra details like the lift points on the suit, makes it seem really rugged and reminds me of Armoured Troopers.

Thanks mate, the kit is fantastic and I feel kind of what they wanted Crisis suits to be from day dot! I may need to look into armoured troopers! 

 

9 hours ago, Terminatorinhell said:

I like the style so far. I have like 700ish points of tau I think. I got them around 2009ish. It's mind boggling what they have now, I might eventually revisit them but I'm gonna make a small Sororitas force first. 

I do love sisters! Thinking like Codex Witchhunters flavoured sisters? That new Inquisitorial Agents kill team is begging to be used as a henchmen mob in 3rd! 

 

 

Edited November 28, 2023 by TheTrans

[Wormwoods]

Good call on the drone 'head' as a shield, it's nice and chunky. 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Nice work.  

 

I remember when the Tau were introduced, so it brings back some memories!

 

One minor niggle - on the first battle suit, the pulse rifle is getting rather close to the (presumably hot) exhausts - I don't know if it's possible to re-pose it slightly?

[ZeroWolf]

Always loved that pose, was always meant to have a go myself!

 

Like the test scheme, I think the dark gunmetal works better than the GW standard black.

 

Good fluff as well.

[MoriyaSchism]

15 hours ago, TheTrans said:

Thanks mate, the kit is fantastic and I feel kind of what they wanted Crisis suits to be from day dot! I may need to look into armoured troopers!

Fantastic work again. Really like the extra details on the suits. As for Armoured Trooper VOTOMS, it's an older sci-fi anime series. The mechs in that had a bunch of attachment points for gear and lift hooks.

[TheTrans]

Heya gang, cranking stuff out at the moment and just catching up with pictures. Currently working on the first batch of 10 firewarriors that have recently went for a swim in some simple green, rejigging these bad boys I reckon is harder than converting the bloody suits! 

 

Anyway, still working on the Commander, who will have some elements of the XV8 and XV88, will probably need some input on how to tart him up a little, while still keeping it within the fluff. Anyway, I've got the first XV88 up and done, would love your thoughts! 

 

(Don't mind his sensor pod, I need to attach the 'standard' aerials). So we have a front shot first up, I think in hindsight I'll just put his arms in a relaxed position. As you can see he has a heap more ERA on him compared to the XV8s, I figure the ERA is quite heavy, so as the Broadsides don't need to fly or anything, they'll be all good! The commander will have the same chest set up as the Broadside, to make him stand out compared to his XV8 bodyguard.

 

Side shot, yes those are original, 20 odd year old railguns! I was concerned they would look to small on the larger commander chassis, but I think they came up ok! I've 3d printed the cooling vanes (found a great file on cults, that needed a little bit of editing) which sit relatively nicely on the backback and hopefully give those old school broadside vibes.

 

This does a better job of showing off the little supports and feet. The feet  are, I'm going to say castellax feet, that I think suited perfectly for the broadside feet, the little support pistons are from a 3d file of the Storm Surge that I edited a little bit to better fit the the XV8 legs.

 

Finally the back, not a lot to see here, except maybe the wiring of the railguns. I king of like to imagine that septs/colonies are legit shipped out XV8 battlesuits, and are then shipped field modification kits to upgrade them into XV88s as needed, thusly the wiring and stuff from the railguns are just booping into already prepared ports sort of thing. This, especially given fluff now that the XV88 is a completly different chassis, but back with our 3rd hat on I think that makes sense. Also missing is his bug-out pack, which will have a pulse rifle, instead of carbine attached.

 

As always lay the boot if you see something that needs fixing or would look better! 

 

 

15 hours ago, Wormwoods said:

Good call on the drone 'head' as a shield, it's nice and chunky. 

Thanks mate, thought it gave more of a shieldy vibe to it!

 

8 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

Nice work.  

 

I remember when the Tau were introduced, so it brings back some memories!

 

One minor niggle - on the first battle suit, the pulse rifle is getting rather close to the (presumably hot) exhausts - I don't know if it's possible to re-pose it slightly?

Was such a big suprise release! Fair cop mate, I'll see if I can jiggle it across! Thanks for the feedback! 

 

 

8 hours ago, ZeroWolf said:

Always loved that pose, was always meant to have a go myself!

 

Like the test scheme, I think the dark gunmetal works better than the GW standard black.

 

Good fluff as well.

 

Thanks mate, yeah I find posing the battlesuits there is a very, very fine line between looking good and connected to reality and just floating doing nothing and sitting sort of weirdly! 

Yeah hopefully the gunmental will err more toward the realistic side!

Cheers! 

 

6 hours ago, MoriyaSchism said:

Fantastic work again. Really like the extra details on the suits. As for Armoured Trooper VOTOMS, it's an older sci-fi anime series. The mechs in that had a bunch of attachment points for gear and lift hooks.

 

Oh a mate legit sent me a video of like a big battle scene of these guys when I first started working on the tau, so there is no doubt some of that stuff rattling around in the old melon! 

[Wormwoods]

It's funny how making what was, at the time, a reasonably common conversion - putting the railgun in the suit's hands - into the default option kind of diminished the appeal of it, it's really nice seeing them shoulder mounted again. It makes the battlesuit read more as a big weapons platform, rather than just an upsized soldier. I feel like Crisis Suits don't have that problem, none of them are holding their guns like a soldier would, they're just mounted to the arms like a Battlemech. 

 

Quick question, though: how's the balance? Any trouble with mounting the metal components so high up on the otherwise plastic model? The supports look great, and I'm sure they help keep the model from breaking at the ankles, but I would be worried about the whole thing tipping over during play. I take it you're adding weight to the base?

[ZeroWolf]

I've always preferred shoulder mounted railguns (I blame armoured core for that) I do think the current model is a downgrade so it pleases me to see your conversion.

[tinpact]

Seconding the comment about the little utility greebles - the cabling and handholds and whatnot really sell that yes, these battlesuits have operators and spend time in a mechanic's bay in between battles.

[TheTrans]

Heya gang,

Nothing overly exciting to report at the moment sorry, just been whacking away at a devilfish and some Fire Warriors, so nothing overly awe inspiring yet.

Trawling the interwebs though and looking at some old XV15 stealthsuits (which were always gonna be a part of the army) I spotted some of this really cool art:

 

Which got me thinking, like it looks, in that picture at the very least, that they are using the XV15 as frontline combat armour, as opposed to flittering around the edges, which got the fluff writing juices going. 

So once I've got a model sorted and printed I'll give you the big lot of fluff, but in short, I'm gonna run 2 XV15 on a single 40mm base as an  'Ersatz Crisis' suit, so 6 all up for a single unit of 3 crisis suits. They'll all just be running twin-linked burst cannons and a drone controller, except for the Shas'vre who will have a missle launcher/plasma gun with a multi tracker and target lock. Fluff wise, broadly speaking, it will be due to being a backwater colony, they hadn't yet been equipped with XV25s, but had instead been sent a metric flip-tonne of the semi-decomissioned XV15s, and given that with the ERA armour on the crisis suits, the pilots weren't dying at the same rate of the suits being destroyed, they had a posse of highly trained, battle hardened  XV8 pilots with no armour.. so why not strip out the stealth sub-systems of the xv15 suits, allow them to carry a bit more weight/power a larger single weapon and have them pair off into teams to act as ersatz crisis teams? 

Now obviously the old XV15s are hard to come by, but also I found they where quite smalll, and I realise that the tau power armour is meant to be almost suit like, I wanted them a little beefier. Anyway, cue a week of tinkering with some files I found on cults 3d (Shout out to Possi), the files Possi made are fantastic renditions of the original models, but weren't quite thicc enough for me (and factoring the 'upscaling' that has occured using XV85 suits as basic XV8 suits. So after much cutting and changing bits out I didn't like, I give you the XV15 builder. I've added some battlesuit weapons in a similar configuration as the XV15's burst cannon, as well as the option to place a battlesuit hard wired subsystem on the backpack.

 

 

Which has then allowed me to create a variety of poses:

Basic shoot and scooter

 

More steadied firing

 

Dude one of the 'Shas'vre Base' he will have a bare head (helmet on belt) as well as a multi-tracker on his backpack, the other fella on his base will have the XV15 missile launcher.

Anyway, these bad boys are, as we speak, sitting in the 3d printer awaiting my return home for a clean, prime and then a 'detail pass', I'll try and get some pics up next week! 

 

On 11/29/2023 at 5:56 PM, Wormwoods said:

It's funny how making what was, at the time, a reasonably common conversion - putting the railgun in the suit's hands - into the default option kind of diminished the appeal of it, it's really nice seeing them shoulder mounted again. It makes the battlesuit read more as a big weapons platform, rather than just an upsized soldier. I feel like Crisis Suits don't have that problem, none of them are holding their guns like a soldier would, they're just mounted to the arms like a Battlemech. 

 

Quick question, though: how's the balance? Any trouble with mounting the metal components so high up on the otherwise plastic model? The supports look great, and I'm sure they help keep the model from breaking at the ankles, but I would be worried about the whole thing tipping over during play. I take it you're adding weight to the base?

 

I think you're spot on mate, its weird how that sort of changes isn't and you've nailed the issue quite succinctly, all the battlesuits, even the riptides etc have weapons polted onto arms, as you said, mech like, but the holding the railgun like a rifle, doesn't make as much sense, or at the very least takes away that a broadside is nominally a static weapon emplacement that can...wander around a little bit if it has too, it has no strategic maneuverability. Where as old mate rifle-chest guy, gives more of a titanfall vibe, which is fine if thats what you're looking for, but isn't, to me at least, in line with that original tau vibes. (Incentally, just after the above ranting and raving about the XV15s I feel the gun-arm infantry man suits fine for power armour as they are just that, power armoured infantry as opposed to mech suits.)

Balance on it isn't too bad, as there is a rock and a hucking fuge bit of GS/Milliput on the bottom, centres a lot of weight down there. I'd say the normal suits are more liable to fall over!

 

On 11/30/2023 at 2:11 AM, ZeroWolf said:

I've always preferred shoulder mounted railguns (I blame armoured core for that) I do think the current model is a downgrade so it pleases me to see your conversion.

 

Glad to hear it mate, yeah something about the shoulder guns just works! 

 

On 12/3/2023 at 9:13 AM, tinpact said:

Seconding the comment about the little utility greebles - the cabling and handholds and whatnot really sell that yes, these battlesuits have operators and spend time in a mechanic's bay in between battles.

 

Thanks mate, yeah I want that real battletech vibe of these things get damaged and part swap outs are quite common. I like to imagine in this earlier epoch that the suits are more like a tank to the pilot than I don't know, a beloved pet? Like, when you actually listen to memoirs of tank crews from WW2, like yes they would name their tanks and :cuss:, but like if one got knocked out, or destroyed or something (outside of friends and other crew dying) they'd just await another one to appear from the requisition pool and jump in it. I like to think these early crisis pilots are just like that. Oh my suit got nuked, but we have a spare, well inload my specific mind-map to its ai and plug me in! 

[Trokair]

That artwork in the original Codex was one of the reasons why XV15 are my favourite amongst all the Tau, and the seed of the desire to run a Stealthsuit themed cadre with them as the core. I have 2 full squads of them from back in the day, and if I play tau they always make the list. I dreamed for years that they would make it to plastic, but alas the XV25 got in the way of that.

 

 

So looking forward to your implementation of frontline XV15s.

[Hfran Morkai]

Wow!

 

I'm so glad I came across this thread. T'au were the first 40K models I played with and army I collected towards the end of 4th.

 

I love the old artwork, the XV15s (I don't mind the XV25 but I think the 15 is cooler) etc. I think the old Broadsides were cooler (I did love the FW ones, shame I never got any)

 

Personally I'm not a massive fan of the ERA but I do like the other small details and they're your models, I do like the reasoning behind it though.

 

I'll be following this with a lot of interest and it may well give me some inspiration if I ever get my T'au army off the ground.

[Pearson73]

I also agree that the shoulder mounted railguns look so much better than the current carried design, so glad to see you taking that route!

 

Loving the idea of a beefed up frontline XV15 unit too, great that you've got the opportunity to print stuff and match it to your vision.

[TheTrans]

 

  

Quote

XV15 Ersatz Crisis Team
While the applique Explosive Reactive Plates did significantly improve the chance of a battlesuit pilot surviving a direct hit, they did not lower the rate of XV8 losses during the months of hard fighting over Ch’a’nd. This left a sizable force of well trained, battle hardened and highly motivated Shasúi and Shas’vre without an XV8 suit to pilot, but where still considered too valuable a resource to be sent out as part of a Firewarrior or Pathfinder section. 

 

As Ch’a’nd was nominally a backwater colony, it was generally not given any cutting edge equipment, armour and weapons, so for instance it’s garrison had missed out entirely on receiving any of the new XV25 stealth armour, but had instead been shipped a significant amount of decommissioned XV15 Stealth Suits, which outside of a handful brought online for a small Stealth Cadre, were mothballed for future use. As the need for mobile weapons platforms became dire, the limited XV8 teams already thinly spread, a stop-gap solution had to be found. It wasn’t long before one of the suitless XV8 pilots suggested looking into possibility of recommissioning the XV15s. 

 

Upon inspection it was found that without regular maintenance, the stealth layering and subsystems of the XV15 readily fell into an unusable state. Not to be dissuaded the Earth Caste engineers sent to bring the suits back online found that without the added weight and power drain of the adaptive camouflage, sensor bafflers and heat shrouding, that the XV15s with some slight modifications could generally mount a single XV8 based weapon and a hard-wired subsystem. This allowed them to not only keep up with XV8 equipped crisis teams, but in bonded units of 6 shas’ui and shas’vre they could lend an almost equivalent amount of fire power as well. While most of the XV15 equipped Criss teams kept the standard burst cannons, some were equipped with assorted other weaponry as required. 

 

When not fighting alongside their XV8 equipped comrades, the XV15 Crisis teams acted as a Heavy Infantry fighting element, supporting and shoring up firewarrior squads on the ground as a rapid-response reserve unit as needed.  
 

 

Ok, so I printed some of the XV15s out over the weekend, had a few little failures here and there (stemming form the drill holes I 'pre cut' into the 3d files feet, but we got enough to have a play!) So this is just a quick show of what I envision them to look like, I've added a small 'half cape' or something, not only does this hide the, serviceable, yet NQR butts, but gives them an air of being slightly higher up than the normal Fire Warrios (as these are the elites, just not in XV8s) as well as an excellent place to place their gear (as I imagine these guys operate more like how a space marine does in regards to the armour being a second skin, as opposed to a 'pilotable battlesuit) and would need stuff while fighting in the field, easily accessible. Also allows one to add some 'direction' to the model. I'm not sure if these will be camo coloured, or just standard 'material' colour.

 

 

Just a shot showing them from a different angle, I've attached a few lift points on these guys as well, on the heavier pieces that I imagine would need to be lowered into place as they are getting into their armour. 

 

A shot from the back, not showing off a whole heap, except gear location, as said above I imagine they'd need access to stuff while fighting.

 

Cheeky scale line up, I'm glad I've enlarged them over the older sculpts as the XV85 based XV8 is huuuge (much like the original art)!

 

 

While significantly larger than a fire warrior, I feel I've nailed the helmet size well as I think that is like the 'core' of making these look like a large power armoured suit, I imagine the left hand is just an armature and the FW's hand is within the wrist controlling it remotely sort of vibes, probably similar with the foot also. 

Hope you guys like them, as always, lay it on me if you have any thoughts or ideas that would make these guys look better! 

 

 

On 12/8/2023 at 11:15 AM, Trokair said:

That artwork in the original Codex was one of the reasons why XV15 are my favourite amongst all the Tau, and the seed of the desire to run a Stealthsuit themed cadre with them as the core. I have 2 full squads of them from back in the day, and if I play tau they always make the list. I dreamed for years that they would make it to plastic, but alas the XV25 got in the way of that.

 

 

So looking forward to your implementation of frontline XV15s.

The 3rd ed book, just has some absolutely stellar bits of art mate, and I find back in the 3rd ed days, the black and white art somehow added more like 'breadth' to the universe which sounds odd haha. Oh man a full Stealthsuit Cadre would be amazing! 

 

 

On 12/8/2023 at 2:40 PM, Hfran Morkai said:

Wow!

 

I'm so glad I came across this thread. T'au were the first 40K models I played with and army I collected towards the end of 4th.

 

I love the old artwork, the XV15s (I don't mind the XV25 but I think the 15 is cooler) etc. I think the old Broadsides were cooler (I did love the FW ones, shame I never got any)

 

Personally I'm not a massive fan of the ERA but I do like the other small details and they're your models, I do like the reasoning behind it though.

 

I'll be following this with a lot of interest and it may well give me some inspiration if I ever get my T'au army off the ground.

 

I don't mind the XV25 also mate, but too me its sort of leaning more toward a small battlesuit, as opposed to essentially power armour. Fair cop on the ERA mate, it certainly detraccts from a lot of tau tau clean lines etc, but I'm a sucker for military clutter haha. 

Do it mate, get some sweet T'au action going! 

 

On 12/9/2023 at 7:46 PM, Pearson73 said:

I also agree that the shoulder mounted railguns look so much better than the current carried design, so glad to see you taking that route!

 

Loving the idea of a beefed up frontline XV15 unit too, great that you've got the opportunity to print stuff and match it to your vision.

 

Cheers mate, yeah gives the turret vibes as I really don't think the Broadsides are particularly agile or limber or can move with any alacrity. 

 

Yeah having a 3d printer and some rudiementy 3d hacking skills certainly helps with some parts of projects, espcially for 'mechanical' or square stuff, that I need to repeat a few of! 

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Nice work

Definitely going to be a very unique army

[Mr. Oddity]

I think I saw those Ersatz units on Reddit yesterday, didn't expect to find the source here! Really love the fusion of modern models and classic art you've gone with, and the lived-in details definitely make your suits feel grounded. As someone who was also introduced to the T'au in 3rd, it's always awesome seeing folks pay homage to the designs of the time. Keep up the great work!