Ok so now we get into the thick of it: Tau Vehicle Conversions
Ok so now we get into the thick of it: Tau Vehicle Conversions
Modular tanks are one of the most imminent aspirations for any would be Tau general with a desire to have some fun with the old modeling knife without exercising the pocketbook to much.
In pursuing a modular tank for the Tau there are two areas to strive for, A) Devilfish/hammerhead interchangeability and B) weapon mount modularization for the hammerhead. Both of these issues can be addressed with:
The sprue required, the hammerhead weapons sprue, is strangely absent from many catalogues and the online store. My theory is that these omissions have been a stopgap measure to hide an absurd error in the price tag for this sprue. While a similar portion of the devilfish (sprue C for instance) cost some $15 Canadian, the Hammerhead weapon sprue (AKA devilfish sprue D) costs a mere $5 Canadian, (this very sprue costs some �6.00 in the UK) In any event talk to your local mail order trolls, they'll know what you're on about.
Interchangeable Hammerhead Weapons
Interchangeable Secondary Hammerhead Weapons
Using the spare bits garnered from the second weapon sprue assemble two burst cannons on the secondary weapon mounts and the two smart missile system pieces on the second two mounts. (Please note that these two pod assemblies are collectively a single smart missile system)
Interchangeable Main Hammerhead Weapon
You already have both Ion Cannon and Rail Gun on your basic hammerhead sprue and in order to interchange them it is imperative that the weapons not be glued to the main turret ring in one of two ways:
I've tried a number of things to correct drooping gun syndrome.
Counter Weight:
My first rail gun was outfitted with a number of pieces of lead at the back of the gun. I found if somewhat difficult to pad the plastic container with enough weight to counter balance the long barrel. Any more than this amount and the gun begins to look really awkward, the only other solution I could think of would be to place weight inside the plastic rear of the gun, perhaps by drilling but I never really explored this option.
Another Tau player at my local GW has cut the front barrel of his Railguns to about half their length allowing them to balance much better without lead weights. I find this to be aesthetically abysmal but it is a viable option if you are not too finicky.
Blue tac:
Blue tac is a sticky poster mounting material very useful for holding together models while they are being assembled or painted. I find it is too malleable to stay where you put it for larger projects and after a few swaps it needs to be pried out and reshaped to continue to be effective. You may find it helpful to secure your gun for a game, but it will not last for a tournament without regular attention.
Screws:
See She and Ski’s diatribe about screws, I have never tried to use screws and do not trust them at all, but you may find them the solution to your ills. I worry very much about the plastic wearing away after a few uses, there is also an externally visible screw and I would imagine swapping the weapon would be tedious. One potential benefit of this method would be that you could change the pitch of the gun with a little twist off the screw.
Magnets and Putty:
This is possibly the most involved solution using both rare earth magnets and green stuff putty is designed to keep the guns upright with no fuss no muss and instant interchangeability, It's the method by which I mounted my tanks and I've been quite pleased with it. Probably because in my humble opinion working with conversions is the reason to be in the hobby. It is better than the aforementioned modes of mounting in so far as there are no externally visible signs of modification. Both the mounting point and each weapon to be mounted need to be fitted with a level surface to stabilize the gun and a magnet to hold it upright. I tried using these methods independently but neither was sufficient to keep the gun from drooping.
We will handle the mounting point first:
First the mounting point is drilled in the center and a small rare earth magnet (I used a 1/8" by 1/8" diameter magnet) inserted and glued with epoxy within. Then the top of the mounting point is made level will some careful application of "green stuff" putty.
Next both the ion canon and rail gun must have a level surface and magnet. For the rail gun this is as simple as cutting a small piece of cardboard of polystyrene. Glue this down on the inside of the lower gun piece over the hole and then stick a magnet overtop, I used two magnets sized 1/10" by 1/4" diameter stacked atop each other. Be careful that your magnets are properly oriented to attract your mounting point and not repel it.
The ion cannon is slightly more difficult than the rail gun but the premise remains the same, glue a magnet of a piece of card and then mount the card horizontally within the ion cannon. To this end I used a piece of green stuff to hold it in place.
Pole Mounting
A very kind visitor to my site recently sent me an e-mail suggesting another method of mounting the main weapon, which frankly I need to agree puts the prior ones, (including my own magnet and putty solution) to shame. I haven't seen it done but may venture to implement it on some spare parts to get pictures of it for you folks at some point. Basically it involves pinning a pole upwards from the mounting point and putting green stuff or a similar filler material in the main gun body with hole for the pole. Just like the magnets and putty solution it's instantly interchangeable with no externally visible flaws. and with his one you do not need to worry about purchasing and aligning magnets. Anyhow if anyone gets pictures of this done properly I would love to have them for my site. (Thanks to Matt for the suggestion)
Swapping a hammerhead for a devilfish is not only an interesting modeling project but also a huge money saver. Rather than buying one of each kit for your small force you can just a get a single kit and deploy it as either tank as need requires, in a larger force you can use multiple interchangeable tanks to vastly increase your flexibility. I currently use three of these "Multitanks" which lets me do either 3 hammerheads (a scary prospect for any opponent) or I can deploy nearly all my fire warriors in Devilfishes for a hard hitting force resembling a Tau version of armored company.
For an interchangeable Tau tank you are going to need to be selective in your choice of things to glue in place:
Do Not Glue:
Those last two are a bad idea even if you are not doing an interchangeable tank as they limit the range of motion on your guns, but gluing any one off these pieces will almost certainly spell doom for your multitank dreams. I managed to pry two glued nose turret clips off with minimal trouble but if you can avoid doing this I would highly recommend it.
Most of the above pieces will be held to the tank using either magnets or good old-fashioned gravity.
The upper turret ring and crew cupola will be held in using force of gravity and a bit of friction just from the inherent tightness present between those parts of the model. Place the cupola in the turret ring when you want a hammerhead and remove the turret ring, dropping the cupola into the main chassis of the tank when you want a devilfish.
Likewise the forward mounting points can be swapped between drones and secondary weapons without any fancy hardware.
The nose turret is the crux of this conversion. The hammerhead mounts a targeting array in this space and the devilfish mounts a burst cannon.
There are three workable ways that I have seen this accomplished, two of them are presented on the 40K.ca message board by She and Ski and Zustiur.
I've included a brief review of their methods here.My own approach differs slightly from both of the above each. I have opted for a magnetic solution which keeps the nose cone in separate pieces yet is accessible with slightly larger magnets than those employed by Zustiur. I have placed my magnetic mounting directly inside the nose cone on a pillar of spare sprue which dangles down into the interior of the nose turret. This is met with a magnet mounted in the place where the gun swivels on the nosepiece..
In order to do this, take a modeling knife and carefully remove the small circular bit from the inside of the nose bracket piece. With the north pole facing away from the plastic Then epoxy a small 1/8" by 1/8" diameter Rare earth magnet where the bit once was. Putting it in the exact same place here is critical, though it will be slightly more raised than the tab was, this is not an issue. Wait for the glue to harden fully.
While the glue is setting take another magnet (I used a 1/10" by 1/4" diameter magnet) and glue it to the end of a long piece of straight sprue, about 2 inches long to be safe. This will be cut down to the proper length as we go along. The magnet should be oriented so the south pole facing directly away from the plastic sprue bit. (see pictures)
After these have set fully, bring these two pieces together. You should find that the magnets will snap together (directly magnet to magnet with no plastic in between) causing the long sprue piece to stick up from the inside of the nose clip. If you oriented one of the magnets incorrectly then your long sprue piece will not want to connect this way but will rather have an insatiable urge to connect to the outside of the nosepiece. If this is the case cut your magnet away from the sprue piece reverse it and re-glue.
If the sprue piece is oriented correctly you can then begin to cut it to length. The aim here is to trim the sprue piece down to such a length and shape that when joined to the nose clip piece, positioned in the nose of the tank the sprue should rest flush with the inside of the model above. To this end it is necessary to cut the end of the sprue piece oposite the magnet on a bit of an angle and trim it down to the right length to adapt to the coutour inside the tank. It will take a bit of care but in the end you will end up with something like this:
For some reason I used a discarded flamer for the sprue bit on this tank, to this day I do not quite know why but it works just fine.
Once you have the piece cut to length glue it to the inside of the model while maintaining contact with the magnet on the nose clip. Once this has hardened you should have a very stable pillar poking out from the inner ring of the nose clip.
For my models I used both plastic glue and then a large blob of "green stuff" epoxy putty to secure the piece in there and keep it from wiggling.
While you are waiting for that whole kit and caboodle to set and harden, you can begin working on the optional pieces, the burst cannon and the targeting array. The burst cannon is too large to fit inside the nose cone now due to the intrusion of the magnet pillar this it needs to be trimmed. I removed the entirety of the rear of the gun cutting right infront of the ammo clip. Modifying the burst cannon in this way rather precules it’s use outside of the nose turret but being that there is an extra burst cannon on the second mail hammerhead weapons sprue this is not a big issue.
The remaining front section of the burst cannon is placed as normal within the nose turret, and all four pieces can be held in without glue thanks to the pair of magnets. I have personally set another small magnet in the rear of the burst canon, I found this does a bit to balance the gun and keep it from drooping. This magnet’s north face is oriented towards the front of the gun. Described another way when the burst cannon is assembled the rear end where the magnet sticks out should push away from the bottom of the nose assemblage and pull towards the top.
The targeting array is surprisingly simple, simply epoxy a 1/10" by 1/4" diameter magnet the center of the interior of the piece. The magnet should be oriented so the south-pole faces inwards, the north pole against glued the plastic. At this point the exposed surface of the magnet should repel the bottom of the magnets in the nose cone. Conversely they are attracted top the top of the nose cone assembly, this is the force which is going to hold it in place. In fact even without thee dome off the nose turret just the pillar and the targeting array will hold together in roughly the right position merely from the magnetic force.
Just to review the following shows the four magnets used in this conversion and their orientations:
Once the magnets are glued to the add-ons and everything has been given a chance to set the nose turret should be ready to go. The main nose turret dome and the inner nose turret ring do not need to be changed at all. Assemble the turret like you would for the hammerhead kit and watch the targeting array snap right into place with a satisfying click, mounting the burst cannon requires the turret to be pried apart a little bit but the same principal applies.
The Kraken
My first conversion was actually somewhat accidental. I had initially designed single burst cannon for use in a hammerhead�s turret ring in place of a main weapon, the intention was to use it as a poor man�s modular tank. Basically the premise was that by means of placing a specially fitted burst cannon on the turret ring of a hammerhead the tank could be treated as a devilfish which just happened to have a targeting array down in the nose turret. While an ok idea, I quickly realized that placing the burst cannon so far back on the tank reduced it�s effective range by more than 2". Besides there was no means by which the cannon could be attached without some form of adhesive. I abandoned the idea and left the modified burst cannon to rot in the recesses of my bit�s box for a year or so.
When building the Leviathan I found myself with a couple of spare turret rings, and then realized that a main turret mounted burst cannon carried with it a possibility of a fully modular conversion to my devilfish. I decided to commit one of the spare turret rings to the conversion. Thus in the course of a delightful afternoon I came away from my painting table with a new Tau monstrosity.
I felt that the four burst cannon mountings gave it a very squid-like appearance. Thus in keeping with the Tau predication for aquatically inspired craft I christened it the "Kraken" after the legendary sea monster.
Gun Drones on a Hammerhead
Well Codex Tau makes it pretty clear that you can place gun drones on a hammerhead, but the logistics of such a mounting are baffling for most. I used to idly think about how to accomplish the feat. For a good long time the best solution I could devise involved mounting two more of those circular drone brackets on the sides of the engines. This was not a very usefull idea given the prohibitive cost of 30$ CDN for spare engines and spare chassis. Additionally the engines are designed to tilt and thus the gun drones would fall out in the course of normal operation of the VTOL craft.
After the success with the Kraken I got to thinking and after a while it dawned on me that the nose turret, when turned upside down fits perfectly into the hole intended for the cupola. I still had a couple of spare turret rings lying around and so decided to pursue the issue. I mail ordered a Devilfish Sprue C to get a spare nose cupola. I needed the infantry spotter for some unrelated conversion work anyway and you can never have enough of those little antenna deals and seeker missiles
I built a basic plastic frame behind the cupola hole using sprue bits to properly locate the upper turret clip and then built a shroud up with green stuff. I found that the turret clip needed to have its right hand side trimmed down so as not to stretch beyond the base provided by the turret ring. I also mounted a Targeting array upside down on the very front of the turret. Using this, a burst canon can be mounted in both the nose turret and an upper inverted nose turret, the requisite targeting array is relegated to the front the turret ring. This leaves the two regular mounting points free to house gun drones.
Note that the entirety of the conversion took place on this turret ring. It can be popped onto any basic devilfish chassis and used as a hammerhead with gun drones.
By far the largest vehicle in my collection, and paradoxically the least expensive dollar-wise is this monstrosity. It is modeled from the chassis of a AMT/ERTL Star Wars Federation Droid Tank model. I found it on sale for $15 at a local hobby shop and realized that it bore a striking resemblance to Tau Vehicles.
I bought the kit happy as a clam thinking it to be roughly the size of a Tau Tank, I figured I could do a silly VDR project with it. Then I cracked open the box and realized that the model was about twice as large as a landraider in every dimension. Put another way this model is of comparable size to a forgeworld baneblade.
Once I recovered from my shock I set about ordering a few spare hammerhead weapon sprues to outfit the monstrosity.
After a bit of work I realized that a standard rail gun fit perfectly under the muzzle of the main turret, a single piece of plasticard and a little cut was all that was required. The two flared portions of the basic kit wrap around the top of the rail gun like it was meant to be. I figure the extra shrouding is sufficient to call the thing a mega-railgun making it Str 7 AP 3 using an ordnance blast template I used hammerhead mounting points to attach ion cannons to the side. With this armament it aught to be able to chew through a tactical squad or two per turn. I have not yet got up the nerve to paint the tank, perhaps I�ll learn to use an airbrush first. I�ve tallied it up a few times using the Vehicle Design Rules and it is in the vicinity of 700 points on it�s own.
Well that is about it for my vehicle conversions. I've got some plans in the future to do an indirect fire tank similar to the SM whirlwind once again based off the hammerhead chassis. Until that time I'll just need to finish painting my Leviathan, Barracuda, and a full complement of Hammerhead weaponry which I need to fully expand the weapon options of my last Tau multi-tank.