News travels fast... plagues even faster...

It was time for another model and the choice was easy: The Tau Piranha, fast skimmer. Funny enough this particular Tau model was the one where it all started with. I had the idea of making this entire Nurgle Tau army and the piranha was the first to pop up in my mind...

 

Like I wrote before in one of the earlier posts in this blog; I pick the models on what they look like first and then see how I can use them in a semi-competive list. At the time of starting this project the Piranha was not very popular and even now with the new Tau Codex, it is still not the most used unit choice out there. For me....that is even more reason to use it! ;) I like to play with the underdog's in every game and Warhammer 40k is no different for me.

 

Of course the Tau Codex is one of the strongest Codexes out there today now, so including units like the Hammerhead tank and this Piranha are even more important to me...they tend to make the list more friendly and less overpowered. And yes, I do care about that because I like to have a nice friendly game which is fun...blowing the other player from the table in turn one is not my style, I also like to have friends ;) hahaha

But back to the Piranha: as you can see it is full of Nurglings...which is cooooool ! You can never have enough of them and I can really see those little fellows having the time of their demon-life zooming across the battlefield and causing serious mischief ;) And another funny fact is: they DO that! I have had it a couple of times that they were completely ignored by my opponent because they were the least of his problems... the rest of army was a way bigger danger to him. And so it actually survived the entire game, even being able to score an objective here and there and shoot of the last hull point of a wave serpent :)

 

The kits that I used for this conversion are:

• Tau Piranha.
• Nurglings.
• Chaos space Marines vehicle bits.
• Chaos warriors, Chaos Demons and Tyranid bits.
• For the base I used the Cities of Death terrain kits.
• I also found a nice looking funky smelling moss at a Christmas fair which looked awesome on my bases so the Piranha was actually the first to receive that red/yellow looking stuff.

The plans are to give this little flying Nurgling circus at least 1 more brother to join him on the battlefield. The Piranha is just to cool to build, convert and use in a game to not have more then one ;) Stay tuned as it will probably pop up somewhere during the upcoming weeks....now that I think of it....maybe I will even do more then 2 ...hehehehe...

Coming up next.... Sniper Drone team.....  
 
 

Long Strike...with a twist .....

In my opinion one of the most classic iconic models of the Tau army is the Hammerhead Tank. The recognizable organic shape marks it as a true Tau design vehicle ...and it turned out that it was an awesome kit to work with to achieve my goal as well ! :) It also makes for a great centre piece for my army and was loads of fun to work on!

 

The organic shapes allowed for a lot of space to convert and put damage, corruption and mutations on the hammerhead itself. Its also gave me opportunity to put a lot of chaos symbols and spikes etc on the structure of the tank itself. The option to have the smart missile system was a no-brainer for me....not only because I like to use them during a game but mostly because I LOVE to paint the missile heads a sickly yellow. Imagine that they are a weird kind of jelly orbs that you know you should NOT touch, but it is so tempting to reach out and squeeze or poke them ;)...

 

Of course this model would not be the same if there were no nurglings to be found somewhere ;) There are several to be seen on the tank itself and also one on the base, sitting on the root that sticks out a little bit. And of course I cannot blame them, if you were a happy, bouncing around Nurgling ...would you not hitch a ride on an awesome tank like this??? Of course you would! :)

But, there are also two very special Nurglings, I like to call them "NurgleStrike" . I use the 2 nurglings sitting on top of each other in the cockpit as a proxy for the "Longstrike" upgrade. It is very easy to imagine those 2 pushing buttons and randomly shooting and blasting all in sight, and using the upgrade rules they actually prove to be very good at it too ;)

 

As I also used on my Riptide there is a big length of chain worked into this model, in the case of this hammerhead it can be seen along the length of the main gun. Since both the hammerhead and the riptide are big machines with the potential to house a demonic entity, I like to think that the chains are used to secure them while not deployed on the battlefield....just to be sure they do not randomly start to rampage among their own ranks, they chain them up inside a transport vessel for example....

The kits that I used on this hammerhead were:

• Tau Hammerhead.
• Nurglings.
• Chaos space marine tank bits
• Tyranid tentacles.
• Chaos Spawn bits.
• Piece of chain from a hardware store.

Stay tuned....next up: Tau Piranha....aka : "Nurgling Festival "

Playing with the big boys now....

Of course I had to add a riptide as well. As a matter of fact, I started this project just a few months before the current Codex; Tau came out a time ago. And when I first saw the Riptide model I was completely in love. It makes such a good centrepiece for an army and especially with my Nurgle Tau it gave me the chance to go all crazy with converting. To be honest: I bought 3 of them at once ;)

I tried to make good use of the size of the model in a couple of ways. First of all, because everything is HUGE on this model I was able to actually cut, saw and damage the model for real... which made the outcome of battle/corruption damage much more realistic.

 

It also gave me the chance to experiment with GW texture paint and how I could use that to create rust, filth and corruption effects on the Riptide. Because I had so much room to work with on the parts of the model I was able to do a lot...but still preserve the look that makes the Riptide model recognizable and so cool.

Last but not least it allowed me to add lots of bony spikes, mutations and of course: Nurglins!!!!

 

The big oval base was also a favourite part of doing this model. I wanted to give it special care and I hope I have created a little scene that gives you a little more to look at. A place to add more Nurglings, some nastiness dripping out of a barrel (whats in there???) and just a nice piece of Imperial architecture being corrupted and turned into a beautiful garden ;).

Being able to use a lot of the "tile plates" also gave me the opportunity to unify the Riptide with the rest of the army easily.

 

In the end it came down to one last task: naming the Riptide. I think a model deserves this if the end result is what you wanted it to be ;) I played a couple of games with him and the outcome was very one sided...whoever was inside this Riptide suit is no longer who he was and really lost it....hahahha... Every time I played this guy he managed to fail his nova checks and also his dangerous terrain checks when jumping in and out of cover...and wound himself ! So That earned him the name: "The Lost One".

 

Models and sets that I used for this model were:

• Chaos Spawn set.
• Tau Riptide.
• Tyranids claws and tentacles.
• Nurglings.
• City of death scenery boxes.
• Battlefield scenery bag (GW)
• Chaos Space marine, Chaos Demon and Chaos Warrior bits and pieces.

 

At the moment of writing this blog I am almost ready to start on the second Riptide. I will use that opportunity to create a little painting guide and basing tutorial which I will also put on here in a blog as soon as it is all finished.

Thanks for all the feedback so far people! It really motivates me to continue with this blog and build and paint more models for Grandfather N.....uhhhhh.....I mean: The Greater Good ;)

Stay tuned....more to follow soon.....

How it continued...

Of course the commander and his 2 suit strong bodyguard team was only the beginning. An army needs troops and I decided not to go for the "farsight enclave-supplement" just yet... I do not want to create another Farsight spin off, but a unique heavily converted army with cool fluff to back it up.

And therefore I decided to go for another approach and decided not to build a good list but just take the models that I really liked and wanted to convert. Of course I kept track of their type and made sure they fit into an organisation chart.

Anyways, I decided to go for 2 squads of fire warriors and I wanted to continue the trend that I started with the "Arachnid" commander; heavily converted using only GW product and bits. And of course the end result needed to look like I wanted, heavily corrupted and muted, but still recognizable as Tau models.

By adding the nurglings throughout the army I wanted to add another nice set of details, and hint further at the fact just how corrupted the army is. Nurglings like to play and I like to see it as a blessing from Grandfather Nurgle that there are so many of the little playful demons among the army of the "Arachnid". A silent fact that he is starting to "care" about his new playthings ;)

I really like the end result, and yes....I have some favourite models in there already! I like the guy with the one eye and the snout, the "leader" with the 3 horns and dubious symbol he is making with his middle finger and the guy who has a tentacle instead of a leg. I know that one of my gaming buddies also likes this guy and finds him a bit sad, but hey; in every story there must be at least one person who gets the bad outcome of the deal and I guess this guy finds it all a lousy deal in the end ;)

The squads are named: "The Decayed Ones" and "The Blight Bringers".

Because I was asked by some of you already how the army was build, converted and painted I will also try to add lists of bits, models and materials used to create the end result. I will try my utmost best to make sure that I do not forget anything! But as you might have already seen: I tend to go crazy with bits and conversions so if you see something that you do not recognize , just drop a reply and ask me if you want to know ! ;)

Bits and sets that I used for this:

• Fire Warriors boxed set 
• Plague bearers boxed
• Nurglings.
• Chaos Spawn boxed set
• Multiple other bits taken from Chaos Warriors, Chaos Demons and Chaos Space Marines and Tyranids sets and models.

The basing is done using multiple parts of GW Cities of Death terrain sets, which are awesome in the diversity that you can use them...and I just love the way you can also use them for basing your models. I also like the fact that they come with the option to either use the metal like plates or the "tile floor" plates that I decided to use.

By using the tiles I hoped to create some "ease and order" in otherwise very chaotic models with lots of colours and contrast already. The black/white tile theme is something that you will see throughout the entire army and I hope it will help to unify all the models into a cool army :)

I also got some questions from interested readers about what I used to create the bases and a few requests to put up a painting guide for the bases and the models. And you know what? I will try to make that happen the next few weeks... I have another riptide almost ready for painting and I will do my best to create a step by step guide (with pictures) to show the steps and techniques used. Of course I will do the same for the base .

 

 

Next up:....my first riptide.... stay tuned........

Where it all started....

 

 

..the basic idea behind it was a Tau recon force that was all but killed by a force of Death Guard....

They made the surviving Tau commander "named the Arachnid" (for his spider like tactics) a deal...join the side of father Nurgle and get your army "back" ....and maintain your "life" ...or join them in mindless servitude...

Well he had no real choice and agreed... and the result is a mutated Tau force led by "The Arachnid" who is still Tau...sort of... ;)  ...

I know they are hard for chaos to influence with no psykers and such but Free will....yeah....we all know what happened to the Primarchs  ;) ...

 

The pictures below are the first models that I converted and painted, it shows the Commander and his 2 comrades. Who could function as bodyguards...there is a 3rd one standing ready to be painted....also can be seen: his loyal shield drone ...

 

 

 

 

.