Topic: TAU Specific modeling tips

[She-and-Ski]

Converting a Hammerhead into a Devilfish (and back again)
Part 1 of 4

Overview

The GW boxed sets for the Hammerhead Gunship and Devilfish Transport are nearly identical.  The only difference is that GW includes the TAU Hammerhead gun sprue in the Hammerhead boxed set. Because of this it is easy to convert your Hammerhead into a Devilfish.... and back again.  Just follow these few simple pointers.

1) Don't glue on the Smart Missile System weapon pods.  These can be swapped out with normal Gun Drones used on Devilfish.

2) Don't glue on the main gun turret, and don't glue on the vehicle top hatch assembly.  This allows you to remove the gun turret and set the vehicle top hatch assembly onto the model like a Devilfish.

3) Don't glue the Burst Cannon or Smart Missiles on the two weapons pods.  With care, the weapons can be installed or removed without breaking the holding clips. Reuse one of your Burst Cannons as the main weapon on the Devilfish.

4) Don't glue the Targeting Array onto the front weapons turret.  Instead attach these using small "rare earth" magnets.  Alternatively use a pin inserted through the turret and into the targeting array.  This can allow you to remove the Targeting Array and install a Burst Cannon in its place.  If this sounds like too much work, then simply stick on your Burst Cannon to the side of the vehicle using "Blu tac" when you want to be a Devilfish. Edit: More information on this can be found in Part 4.

[She-and-Ski]

Converting a Hammerhead into a Devilfish (and back again)
Part 2 of 4

Hammerhead and Devilfish Building Tips

Here are a few tips to consider when building your Hammerhead or Devilfish models.

1) There is no need to glue on the main engines.  The plastic mount on the chassis will hold the engines nicely.  As an added benefit you can pivot the engines as you like and even remove them during transport.

2) There is no real need to glue on the back hatch.  With care this can be inserted after the chassis is assembled and will open and shut.  Don't forget to show off your model building skills by painting the inside cabin.

3) If you are going to paint the inside cabin, do this before you start assembling the model.  Note that you only have to paint the rear cabin.  The front cabin will not be visible when the model is completed.  After painting remember to scrape away some of the paint where ever you need to put glue when assembling the model.  Plastic glue is strongest when joining plastic to plastic. 

4) If you paint the inside cabin, consider putting masking tape on the inside, over the top hatch opening and rear hatch opening before assembling the model.  This will help keep paint out of the inside when you are painting the outside of the model.  It is a lot easier to position this tape exactly where needed before you assemble the model.  Remove the masking tape after painting.

5) It is easier to paint the front weapons turret when it is NOT mounted on the model.  Paint this separately and attach it after the turret and vehicle are painted.

6) Consider some of the tips already mentioned about converting between a Hammerhead and Devilfish.

7) The main body of the Hammerhead/Devilfish has three fixed hatches, designed by GW to be glued in place.  However there is enough plastic on the model to implement a hinge.  With care, the hatches can be pinned instead of glued.  Doing this will enable the hatches to open and close!  Note that the top hatch is easier to pin than the two side hatches.  Although this is not a necessary modification, it sure can differentiate your models from the rest of the pack.  Here is a picture of a vehicle top hatch assembly with a pinned hatch that can open and shut.

[She-and-Ski]

Converting a Hammerhead into a Devilfish (and back again)
Part 3 of 4

A Hammerhead with Swappable Main Guns

The choice of the main Hammerhead gun weapon is a TAU topic that comes up time and again.  Should you go with the Rail Gun or the Ion Cannon?  Well, GW thoughtfully provided parts for both weapons in the Hammerhead box set.  So why not use them both?  All you have to do is to NOT GLUE them onto your Hammerhead! Then you have to figure out a way to effectively swap the guns when needed. Well, not gluing them is easy.  But how do you switch back and forth?

Well GW would have made our life a lot easier by just including TWO of the tiny plastic turret-mounting bits in the boxed set.  No you don't need a duplicate turret.  Just two of that tiny, sort of square plastic piece, that fits into the turret making a place for the gun to sit onto.  But GW only provided one.  How to deal with this?

One method, since you did not glue the main gun, is to do nothing else. Wow, that was easy.  When you prepare for battle just place the gun of choice onto the turret-mounting point and start the game.  One downside of this approach is that your gun, especially the Rail Gun, will pitch down due to its weight.  The result looks rather sloppy.  A fix for this is to pack some "Blu tac" into the gun's mounting cavity.  This might provide enough stickiness to keep your guns firing at the enemy.

Another method is to use a pin or tiny metal screw to attach the guns.  Have the pin or screw pass through the base of the gun and into the short turret-mounting piece. In the following picture I used a tiny metal screw to hold a Rail Gun onto the turret.  A good source for very small screws is a model train shop.

Yet another method is to use green stuff or polymer modeling clay, such as Sculpy, to make a duplicate turret-mounting piece.  It really does not have to look all that good since the gun will cover nearly all of the hand made part. First jam a glob of green stuff/clay onto the turret to get an impression of the mounting slot.  Then gently pull it off.  Finally cut away enough material to allow either gun to be inserted.

I took the extra step to cast a duplicate piece for use on my Hammerhead.  Here is a picture of two freshly made mounting bits. Note that the part on the top left is the original GW bits.  You really don't need to go this far unless you are a fanatic like me and want the finished model to look, well perfect.

If you ever wanted to build custom parts but never have done so, this is probably as good a project to start out with as any.  The physical characteristics of the turret-mounting piece simplify this project. Here is a picture of Ion Cannon mounted on the duplicate part.  It is OK to glue the mounting pieces into the Ion Cannon and Rail Gun.  Then press fit the desired gun onto the turret as needed.  The pressure fit is more than enough to hold the gun on. 

As a final thought, if you have the money to spare, you can always buy an extra Tau Hammerhead Gun sprue from GW for each and every Hammerhead you buy.  This will give you enough parts to assemble two complete main gun turrets as well as two secondary weapon systems.  GW will love you for it!

[She-and-Ski]

On a similar topic, what order is best when construction a broadside?

All of my crisis suits have been on flight stands, so connecting the feet/legs/hips/base hasn't been an issue.

Is it best to glue to feet to the base first? Or the legs to the torso ... or some other order still?

Zustiur.

Crisis suits are fun to build because of the flexibility provided by those "ball joint" connections for arms/legs/feet/head.  For regular crisis suits I usually get an idea in my head about how I want them to pose.  Then I snap on the feet, glue the legs to body and feet to base.  Once that is done you have until the glue sets to twist and turn the model to pose the way you want it, even get it on tippy-toes.... before the glue starts to set.  Finally, add some glue at the point where the leg attaches to the feet.

Broadsides are similar except for those darn metal feet!   Check out my suggestions for dealing with this problem elsewhere in this thread.  Also the metal arms, Rails and other bits add a lot of extra weight to the model.  Metal means that you can't use plastic glue on the feet like you can with regular suits.  This also means that the pose of your model must be balanced enough to keep the finished model from tipping over!

Keep you Broadside's feet squarely planted on the ground.  This will help keep the finished model from tipping over. It is more fluffy that way since the XV-88 is supposed to be a heavy suit.  Glue your feet using Superglue to the base.  Space them as far apart as possible.  If you sand down the leg ball joints a bit they should easily fit into the feet and can twist and bend right and left, and lean a bit forward and back.
 
Insert the legs in to the feet and glue legs to the body.  Like with the Crisis, once this is done you have until the glue sets  to twist and turn the model to pose the way you want it.  Then add some Superglue to the joint where the leg attaches to the feet.

[She-and-Ski]

Converting a Hammerhead into a Devilfish (and back again)
Part 4 of 4

Swappable Hammerhead/Devilfish Front Weapons Turret

A realistic Hammerhead<->Devilfish conversion will include a mechanism to effectively handle swapping equipment options on the front weapons turret.  A Hammerhead comes equipped with a Targeting Array mounted in the front weapons turret.  The points cost of this upgrade is included in the base cost of the Hammerhead.  A Devilfish on the other hand, has a Burst Cannon mounted in the front weapons turret.  This presents an assembly problem if you want to build a model that can be converted from a Hammerhead to a Devilfish and back again.

Previously I recommended not gluing the Targeting Array onto the front weapons turret.  Instead attaching these using small "rare earth" magnets.  This note provides detailed advice on how to go about making this conversion.

NOTE: This conversion is a tad involved and not recommended if you are uncomfortable with the thought of cutting and drilling into your model.  Read on and judge for yourself.  If your think it sounds like too much work, then go ahead and glue on your Targeting Array. When you convert to a Devilfish, simply stick on your Burst Cannon to the side of the vehicle using "Blu Tac".  However if you feel that someone might point at your model and whine about your Burst Cannon placement, or make you pay points for the Targeting Array (that you don't really need) then your might want to consider this conversion.

To do this conversion you will need, a tiny "rare earth" magnet, some "green stuff", a 16D nail, a hacksaw to cut the nail and your modeling knife.  Also, this conversion must be done BEFORE the front weapons turret has been attached to your Hammerhead.

Step 1:
The front weapons turret has been designed by GW to mount the Burst Cannon and not allow its removal.  Modifications must be made so allow the Burst Cannon to be easily inserted and removed from the turret.  The first modification is to cut
off the plastic ammo feed sticking out of the Burst Cannon.  The figure shows a before and after view of two Burst Cannon.  The one on the bottom has been modified.

Step 2:
The Burst Cannon will not slide all the way into the turret because it has two mounting tabs sticking out from each side.  You will need these if you want your Burst Cannon to be able to attach to the Hammerhead Secondary Weapon system pods.  So it is very important that you do not cut these off!  Instead, you need to use your modeling knife to cut two slots on either side of the the turret big enough to accommodate the mounting tabs.  The figure shows a close-up of these slots.

Yes it looks a bit ugly because I made this change to an existing model after I already glued on the Targeting Array.  These slots are completely covered by the Targeting Array when it is installed.  And somehow when the Burst Cannon is installed you don't really notice the slots.  (Note the magnet mounted in the back of the turret.  I discuss this more in just a bit.)

Step 3:
Take your 16D iron nail and with a hacksaw cut out a 2mm slice.  Drill a hole for this in the back end of the Burst Cannon.  Glue this into the Burst Cannon.  Next cut off a longer length of the nail for use with the Targeting Array.  In my case this was about 16mm in length. The important part of this step is to make sure that the finished length of the nail on the Targeting Array is the same length as the Burst Cannon when mounted in the turret. I drilled a shallow hole into the Targeting Array to allow length adjustment, checked the fit, and then glued the nail in place. The figure shows a close-up of both modified parts.  Yes this sounds confusing but it will all come together in the next step.

These nail bits allow the plastic parts to "stick" to the magnet holding them tightly in place, yet allowing easy parts replacement. 

Step 4:
Mix up a small blob of "green stuff", place it into the back of the front weapons turret.  Sink the magnet into the green stuff to hold it in place. 

Before the green stuff hardens, check that it is positioned correctly, allowing it to contact the nail pieces you added in step 3.  Here is the Burst Cannon mounted in the turret.

And here is the Targeting Array mounted in the turret.

Step 5:
Once the above steps have been done, proceed to install the front weapons turret onto your Hammerhead. 

If you followed all the other suggestions in this thread, you should have a Hammerhead that can easily switched between Hammerhead and Devilfish mode.  To be a Hammerhead, install the main turret, top hatch, main gun choice, secondary weapons system, and the targeting array.  Nothing beats the satisfaction of hearing that magnetic "click" when the array is installed in the front turret.  Here is the finished model.

Converting to a Devilfish, remove the main turret, take the top hatch out of the main turret, install the hatch onto the Devilfish body and swap the secondary weapon system with standard Gun Drones.  Finally, remove the Targeting Array and install the Burst Cannon.  Hear that "click" again .  Here is the finished model.

(Yes those are Genestealers sneaking up, hoping to score a "6" roll with their rending claws......but that is a different story 

Happy Modeling!

Rare Earth Magnets
This conversion uses a small magnet I called "rare earth" magnets. These are tiny  magnets suitable for modeling.  Don't be fooled by the size of these small magnets. Rare earth magnets are recognized for their superior magnetic force and these magnets are true to their name.  They are also sometimes called Super neodymium magnets.  For this project I used 6mm by 3mm magnets that I purchased from www.woodcraft.com

Another source for magnets is http://www.themagnetsource.com

Also read the short thread in the Konversions area on the topic of tiny magnets:
http://www.40k.ca/community/index.php?topic=54744/msg639190;topicseen#msg639190

[Zustiur]

Converting a Hammerhead into a Devilfish (and back again)
Part 4 of 4

Swappable Hammerhead/Devilfish Front Weapons Turret

Method 2:

Don't alter the burst cannon at all.

Step 1: Drill 1 hole in the chasis of the tank about half a milimetre behind the round hole.
Step 2: Drill 1 hole into the the 't' shaped holder near the back end (to match up with the hole you drilled in the chasis).
Step 3: Put rare earth magnets in both holes.



Step 4: Glue some spare sprue onto the back of the sensor array - a 'T' shape is best. The 'height' of the T only needs to get past the the burst cannon swivelling mounts. The cross bar needs to be wide enough to hold the sensor in place.

Unfortunately I haven't done step 4 yet, so can't show a photo. If I remember, I'll update this post when I've done it.

Zustiur.

[Wiggus]

Hey i Mod this forum and there isnt room for two of us even if you have pinched my pic. While i dont mind the occasional add on to this post i want to see them being well thought out with pictures not just two lines if necessary ill lock it and people can im me when they want to add something.

[She-and-Ski]

XV88 Broadside Battlesuit Construction Advice

There is a saying that you can't fit a "square peg" into a "round hole".  The presumption being that "round" pegs are better fits for round holes.  That may be true, unless your are talking about the GW Tau XV88 Broadside Battlesuit.  This rather expensive metal and plastic boxed comes complete with several examples where the GW model designers just didn't get it right.  That's right, GW provides round pegs that just don't fit into their round holes.  Here is some advice on how to correct this situation.

Problem Area #1
One example of round peg/hole mismatch is with where the plastic XV8 leg connects to the metal XV88 foot.  Many posters have reported breakage at this joint during assembly. 

There can be breakage of the plastic leg ball joint since the metal socket is smaller than the plastic ball at the end of the leg.  If you force the plastic leg into the metal foot it will eventually fit in.  However it will not easily move once installed.  The XV88 metal foot grabs on tight like glue.  So if you are trying to pose your model you will have a good chance of breaking the joint. A very simple modification can be made to avoid breakage and post trauma application of globs of glue.

Use a file, knife and/or sandpaper to make sure that the leg joint fits easily into the feet.  I use fine sand paper (150 or 220 grit), wrap it around the leg ball joint and twist the leg a bit.  It dosen't take much to adjust the leg joint size to snugly fit into the foot. You may also need to file any rough metal casting bits inside the foot socket if any are there.  It just depends on how well GW manufactured the parts.  This is the most important step!

The picture on the left shows how far an unmodified leg will go into the metal foot at the point where you would have to force it in.  The picture on the right shows the modified leg that simply slides into the metal foot.  No forcing necessary.

Before:    After:

Now that your leg joint has been modified, it can twist and bend right and left, and lean a bit forward and back.  There is wiggle room now and no risk of breakage.
 

Slip the legs into the feet and glue legs to the body.  Once this is done you have until the glue sets to twist and turn the model to pose the way you want it.  Then add some Superglue to the joint where the leg attaches to the feet.

Problem Area #2
Another very obvious model design flaw is with the XV88 metal arms.  This is easily seen in the figure below.

Oops, here we go again!  The size mismatch between the metal arm and plastic shoulder is worse than the problem with the leg joints.  I have found that the shoulder socket in the XV88 right arm is generally smaller than the left arm.  However both are to small for a clean fit onto the plastic body.

Certainly it is possible to simply sand down the plastic shoulder ball joints until they fit into the metal arm sockets.  This works well if you plan to glue on the metal arms permanently.  Your XV88 will then be packing the smart missile system (SMS).  Note that the normal XV8 plastic arms will not fit snugly after the shoulders are sanded down. If you think in the future you might want to try out the twin linked Plasma Rifle option for you XV88 then stop now!  Don't glue those metal arms on and don't sand down the plastic shoulder ball joints.

Instead modify the metal arms to have a larger hole.  The metal arms need to have the same hole size as the plastic arms.  I found that a 13/64 inch drill bit is about the right diameter.  No power tools are necessary.  Hold the drill bit in one hand and the metal arm in your other hand. Slowly twist and turn the bit into the metal arm socket.  Stop to check for fit often. Don't take to much off!  The idea is to get the metal arms to fit as snug as the plastic arms.

There we are!  Much better.  Even though the both arm types fit snugly to the XV88 body it helps to put a small bit of "Blu Tac" into the arm sockets.  This will prevent the arms from falling off and still allow you to pose the arms as you like.  Since the arms are not glued on you can switch between the SMS or TL-Plasma Rifle any time you like.

[Maugan22]

Lots of great Ideas here I must say i'vve used some of these ideas myself so I thought it might eb appropriate to put up some of my own thouhgts on the subject. I've recently put up a webpage with a ton of this stuff on it, My own take on modular tanks, modular crisis suits, and a few fun conversions like gun drones on a hammerhead, two VDR vehicles and Character conversions, like renegade Earth Caste workers and custom built HQ units. Anywho Enjoy:

http://www.geocities.com/Maugan22/

[Iceplague]

Will soon post my "How to build a Crisis/Broadside Mech'", if u have seen my photos of my army at http://www.foreningenylva.org/bildserier/gothcon2004/painting/3.htm
Still have some pictures to be taken and so on. But there will eventually be a manual ready.

[cuttlefish]

Broadsides are similar except for those darn metal feet!   Check out my suggestions for dealing with this problem elsewhere in this thread.  Also the metal arms, Rails and other bits add a lot of extra weight to the model.  Metal means that you can't use plastic glue on the feet like you can with regular suits.  This also means that the pose of your model must be balanced enough to keep the finished model from tipping over!


[/left]

Now this, I can healp with.
Simply glue some heavy weights ( allot of poeple use iron washers) to the underside of your model's base ( you could also add some to the top of the base, and then cover it with "grass" or something).

[Siege_TF]

Sandstone rocks with a brown ink wash also make for good scenic bases. I had to use washers, pellets and rocks for my Ravner who has Old one Eye pincers with the 'thumbs' cut off for big scything talons and the bastard still tips over once in a while. It's quite comical when it tips over and looks like he's really going to crush some poor Cadian, at least to me.

[Karadram]

Another good guide would be "How to convert Stealth suits out of Fire Warriors" 

[Ares]

Thats great, but I think that someone already posted something like this already.

[Catsy]

I'd like to share some of the things I learned while following this guide. Hopefully they'll be of use to someone, since I ran into a few challenges and did a few things differently.

First of all, I didn't have any nails thin enough for me to clip or saw through. It would've been easy to go get one, but I thought, why not work with what I have? And what I have is a surplus of sprue and rare earth magnets.

I carefully drilled a 1/8" hole in the back of the Burst Cannon, and pushed one of my 1/8" RE magnets (#48 on wondermagnets.com) into the back. It fit so snugly that no glue was necessary; I tapped it deeper in and tested it against my strongest magnets to make sure the fit was secure.



I then started cutting into the turret and BC. Right away I saw that just cutting the ammo feed off the top of the BC was not going to be sufficient--the feed projects out horizontally as wide as the BC's "axle" tabs, which meant it was in the way. I ended up having to file it down before it would clear the sides of the turret.



Once I had that taken care of, I carefully whittled out the notches for the BC's axle tabs, using a combination of a hobby knife and needle files.



For the magnet in the back of the turret, I used a 1/4" RE magnet. I didn't want to just jam it in a big wad of green stuff, though, I wanted to try something different. I cut out a piece of plasticard and fitted it in the back, keeping the BC in place with the 1/4" magnet stuck to it so that I had a visual guide to how big the bulkhead needed to be.



Once I'd cut and filed it to the proper size, I glued the magnet to it, and glued it in place. The plasticard by itself wasn't strong enough to resist the pull of the magnet, though, so I ended up using some green stuff after all--just not nearly as much. I used it to fill out the space behind the bulkhead and caulk up the cracks a little, and all was well.



Now that the magnet was in place, it was time to work on the targeting array. I didn't have any nails, though, so I was a bit at a loss for what to do. The solution: sprue!

I cut off a length of sprue and measured the length it would need to be (about 9/16"), then filed the ends flat. I very carefully drilled a 1/16" hole in one end (you don't have much room for error on most GW sprues, so make sure it's centered), and glued one of my 1/16" RE magnets in the recess. Upon dry-fitting the sprue to the TA, I found that the wide end was a little too wide, so I carefully scraped them down a few hairs with the edge of my knife. I then snapped the magnetized sprue to the turret magnet, and centered it so that it was sticking out. Once the sprue was in the place it would have to be to attach to the magnet, I put a drop of glue on the other end of the sprue, and attached the TA to it.



Here's how they look, completed and attached:



I haven't tackled the HH's main weapons yet. I don't feel comfortable enough with GS to sculpt a replacement for the attachment piece, and weapon droop is unacceptable, so I will probably be working out an alternative.

[.mace]

First of all, I'd like to say a biiig thanks to She-and-Ski for this guide, I've followed it fairly closely even though I'm lacking magnets.

[From my post on TO]

I got around to working on the front turret, with the 'no magnets' method for having the targeting array and burst cannon swappable.

I did this by adding a 'T' piece of sprue, that has a small lip cut into it so that it can glue cleanly with the targeting array. When finished, it more or less allows it to be held in place easily between the turret and the 'C' piece, whilst being easily removable (my prev. tests ended up putting a lot of strain on the sprue and making it unfeasable as an option). Its approx 3mm between the piece and the cross part of the sprue, and the top of the 'T' is around 9mm long.



Basically, when its mounted it can't move up or down, due to the chasis of the tank and the piece that holds the front turret in place. The only thing is stopping it from falling out of the front turret. So I cut a piece of sprue, glued it on, so that the sprue can fit within the mounting pieces of the front turret, as seen in the second pic above, whilst leaving room for the turret to be able to turn.

This approach takes the least effort and the least modification of parts, whilst keeping the burst cannon moveable when mounted in the front turret and not using expensive magnets and greenstuff (I'm cheap Don't have any of either)

Up to now, i've been using blu-tac, and still am in the case of the main turret. I might consider a way to not use magnets for that either

[DammageInc]

Been doing some basic mods on some crisis suits and broadsides and have found a lot of the tips (mainly in some other threads) very handy, especially in regard to leg/arm disjunction.

Got a few more suits laying around, will try and get a camera to show how i have been doing them (especially the shoulder mounted smart missile pods, they look great).

One thing i found by accident that makes a good way (apart from color) to distinguish leaders, cut off the ariel from a drone controler piece and use that in combination with the big ariel and a cut down piece of the small one.

Also, in regard to Iceplagues crisis suits, why have you got the jetpack exhausts pointing up and not down/behind? Broadsides look sweet though.

One last question, has anyone used the vehical modification rules to make the railgun on a hammerhead gattleing? If so any suggestions? was thinking of useing broadside guns (2 broadsides is cheaper than importing 3 spare turret sprues from UK to AUS) or maybe even continueing the "more railguns for everyone" theme GW seem to have (crazy pathfinders) and setup the 2 front turrets with a seperate twinlinked railgun rig, of course then the 'head would count as haveing 2 sets of main guns (bleh to moveing fast with that much shooty range stuff).

[Pvt. Dancer]

How do people come up with the converting a hammerhead into a devilfish and back again thing, its just great

[petor]

Another good guide would be "How to convert Stealth suits out of Fire Warriors" 

I agree completely ;

[Elessar Telemnar (gone)]

this thread hasn't been active for around a month and a half
digging up threads like this is bad
and so are one line posts that don't really add anything (you don't want to turn into xiou  )

Please don't do it again,
Elessar Telemnar