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.....