Howdy all.

Time for yet another Crazy Kroot conversion from the Workshop of Turbo_MMX

Recently i came up with a list to run my Kroot Mercenaries army using the Tau empire list. This was mainly so i could still use the army should the Kroot Merc list end up being no longer legal in tournament play.

So with the Tau empire needing a Battle suit commander i set about making up a Kroot "counts as" battle knarloc

The base is from the Urban war Range. Known as a saurian Rider. I added a Kroot hound head in order to give it the Kroot look.





Then i needed to mount my Master shaper on it

Here is the Master shaper as he is for the Merc army.




So using that same model as a base i cut n chopped and green stuffed and came up with this.





It will be a Counts as Tau "Shas'o" with a Fusion blaster (melta gun), air bursting Fragmentation launcher (the tau looking mortar on the back of the mount) and vectored retro thrusters (so he can hit and run in battle).

I may add drones in the form of Kroot body guards or even just actual drones with some Kroot bling but im not sure as yet.

There is still allot of work to go. I need to add the other arm and some reigns so he can be controlling the Knarloc. I need to fill in the legs so they connect to his body. Add some more Kroot equipment and add some more straps and a saddle.

But all in all i think its working quite well.

Comments please

LOVE the conversion! I thnk you should put some kroot houlder pads on the neck or something to try get a better join between the head and neck where the greenstuff is, or just add a throat pouch or something, but otherwise I wish I did this when I had the saurus riders

Nice work there!

The Kroot walking with the flamer - where did his sword come from?

it looks great, i am going tp have to get some of those saurian riders to use as sentinels.

Marco

Thanks for the Replys guys

damianlz, Yeah the join in the neck is a bit of a pain. It will be fixed before its finished



Its funny how many people ask that question! Its from the old white scar commander from the squad box set (dunno if its still about) Got it a while back and it just seemed to fit with the model Im going to add a Khorn space marine sword scabbard (they are the same shape) to the model as well to show he still has the sword but its sheathed at the moment

Great stuff as usual - love the mortar... It's a pity you can't get hold of two Kroot birds - they'd make fun shield drones! lol!yt

Well with the XV8 comming out better than i expected i figured id try my hand at a XV88 Broadside Counts as. Or as it is now called. The "IRON OX"

*Edit* removed the pics to save space on my server

The Rain gun is based on Shas'el Tael's Stealth Rail gun design from the Eastern Empire and Advanced tau Tactica sites.

At the moment im using it as a twin linked rail gun. If i can get the bits however what im going to do is sit the missile pod (smart missile system) in the middle and mount another rail gun to the other side, This way it better shows the Twin linked.

Im also going to try and track down some Marine Terminator shoulder pads for the Kroot ox and add some more Kroot armour to better show the 2+ save.

The idea behind this guy is that he is a "freak" Kroot ox. Thicker and slightly more robust than a normal ox. However nowhere near as good in close quarters.

The ox was going to be a shaper for the Kroot Merc force as seen here.



However I doubt ill ever use ox squads in my normal mercs as they are just too expensive, Also I think this is a better roll for him.

Thoughts?

Time for another update.

Have done some filling work. Added some extra detail. Trimmed the neck join in order to smooth it out. I added some Reigns to the mount and did the "Control arm" for the Shaper too.





Not sure what else i can do at the moment. Its basically ready for paint imo. What do yall think?

Comments? Thoughts?

Friggin sweet Turbo! Loving the reigns

I think the head/neck join may need work, hard to see from the pic though, it might just be the contrast of the green and metal.

Dent.

I only just found this update - I like the shaper on the beast... the Broadside not so much - I think it's the pin headthat I have issues with... sorry!

Mind you if you could get some old plastic bats and put kroot heads on them they would be great shield drones!

i love the conversions and paint style

cant wait to see a small squad painted up in 1 photo =D

You should check out the whole Kroot army Showcase post. i it put up ages ago

http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?...c=40005&hl=

Unfortunatly the lighting for the pics is REALLY over exposed n makes alot of the models look worse than what they are. Once ive done up the current additions for the Tau version of the list im going to redo the shots with better light.

yeah it hard to make a photo do justice to a paint job sometimes =/

have u read the articles on the kroot in the xenology book? love it how they slowly become what they eat haha

Well time for and update

Here is the current WIP for the Iron ox.









I think this version is a vast improvement on the first one. The double gun and missile pods give it a far more Dangerous look. The armour plates are the tire shield from one of the new Ork warbikes. I still need to glue it all in place as all the non back bits are just blu taced into place to get the look right.

I still need to add another flame thrower tank to finish off the weapons mount (need to get one from a friend). Im going to add power cables from the power cells that run up to guns, and for the Riders missing hand im going to do up a hand holding a replacement power cell (since i imagine it would use allot of power

The fluff ive come up with for the Gun is that its a failed experimental Rail gun designed to be fitted to XV8 suits. However the new design of the rail gun light enough to be mounted on the suit, it had to loose many of the safety features. The removal of these devices caused the weapon to constantly feedback into the suits power systems when fired and often killing the pilot or seriously incapacitates the suit thus making it useless in battle. However setting it up with a manual targeting and firing system along with a replaceable power source removes this issue, and the Ox is a perfect mobile expendable platform to mount it on

Likeing the newer XV88 turbo!
cant wait to see them on the table!

Time for yet another update for the Auxiliary Corps. Not a very big one however.

Have finished all the conversion work for the "Iron Ox" so tis ready for final undercoat and paint. The gun is still not glued so it will be easier to paint the whole thing.









Am really happy with the way the hand holding the extra power cell turned out. Gives it a more "Juri Rigged" (spelling?) style to the whole thing

Here is a scale comparison to a standard broadside too.



Feedback please

Alrighty, Just a quick update for now. The painting of the Commander is coming along slowly (maily because ive lacking motivation )

So for now here is a prototype "Fire Kroot"




For the moment its fairly well done however im still debating if im going to GS some Leg Armour onto him, also im thinking i may add some NVG equipment onto him as well just to really sell that he is not a normal Kroot. Something similar to my Sniper shaper.

Hopefully ill have the painted commander done very soon! Stay Tuned

Great work mate! I love the Iron Ox (what's with the small heads! lol!)

The Fire Kroot seems a little short in the body - did you think of perhaps a type of 'communion helm' for the fire kroot to explain their more Tau configuration... some wires in the brain is always good!!

The Kroot sniper? Did you do a tau sniper drone team as Kroot?

Thanks Uber. The smaller head for the Iron ox came about because i somehow ended up with an Ox body without the head in a trade. So i did the head mod in order to have the extra one. It worked out kinda well since ill have actual kroot ox in the army and having the smaller head shows it will have different stats to a standard ox.

As for the height of the fire Kroot it is actualy the same size as a standard Kroot, i think the way i took the photo makes it look shorter.

N as for the Sniper shaper i was refering to the one that i did for the Kroot Mercs and is now my avatar <-------- look over there.

But as for Sniper Drone Kroot......

ya never know

It's Jury-rigged or "jerry-rigged". Also "Jerry-built".

I used to wonder about the "jerry-built" one as I heard my grandad use it a lot, and he usually referred to Germans as "jerrys". I'd gathered it meant shoddily or hastily built, but all of the German WW2 stuff I'd seen didn't match the "mental pictures" of it.

Nice work on the Iron Ape.

Any thoughts of using AT-43 Karmans? (Just checking). I know a few guys who saw them and said "cool, new Tau allied race).

Seems people either like the chicken men or don't. I quite like them, but I'm used to seeing races fal by the wayside in retcons.

Yet another update! Now with some painting done

Ive almost finished the Master shaper but its almost 3am n im tired But I wanted to show him off .

So here he is!

*Edit* removed the pics to save space on my server, see below for the finished product

I still need to do the hair (and replicate the same bead colours from the foot based original Master Shaper!!) Go over the mount's skin with a watered down Dark angel green in order to get the skin tone the way i want and of course do the base Oh and i need to give it an Ink wash also

But he is around 85% done me thinks

Stay tuned for the finished product. Also ive finished up the conversions for the armys fire warrior squad. I was scratching my head as to how i was going to do them, Since it is a "Auxiliary" themed army the sky was the limit for the conversion . My Options were Fire Kroot, Human Auxiliary, Drones, actual Tau or some other alien species. So rather than go with one single idea for the Fire warriors i did them all



So we have an Eldar, a Veteran fire warrior (the head is a modified Catachan Jungle fighter ) a Fire kroot, a upgraded drone and 2 human Auxiliaries representing a fire warrior squad for the army. Or as i like to call them "Auxiliary Grenadiers

Enjoy

Ok well its 2am and ive just put the finishing Touches on the master Shaper.

BEHOLD!





Im still not 100% happy with the colour of the Mount, im thinking i may need to grey it up a little, the Green is a little too bright, but thats just depending on how I feel later Next.... the Iron Ox

I really like him mate, the Shaper on the back really does look nice. I do have to agree with the mount thing too, looks a bit "neon" at the moment to me. If you washed it with a brown/grey/black to add a darker recess colour it could turn out a treat.

Cheers

Chad

Ok Gents im in need of some Opinions here.

Im currently converting up a Squad to the the counts as Sniper Drone team for the force. Ive already done a Rail Rifle Kroot for the prototype Drone however now its time for the spotter.

Tonight i came up with this bad boy!





Ive used one of the Round edge slotter bases with the middle cut out, a 40 mm base, some green stuff, a Kroot Ox gunner and that little extra bit you get from the Stealth suit squad.

The over all design im happy with im just not sure if i should add some bushes around it in order to make it more hidden eg

*Edit* removed the pics to save space on my server

Or shall i just keep the pit open and say that the Steath generator in the Pit gives all the extra hidden aspects to the spotter?

Also should i model the rest of the squad in the same way as this guy or have the snipers standing with some stealth suit armour plates on them with the excuse again being that the generator is shrouding the whole squad?

Would love some feed back on this one. Thanks in advance

I'd do away with the shrubbery, Turbo. Unless you can get a split level effect.

Seriously, the bushes don't do it any favours IMHO, maybe some camo netting instead?

Master Shaper looks sweet, by the way

Dent.

Alrighty all. Just put the finishing touches on the last of the Sniper Drone squad conversions


Here is the whole squad. They each have a different style of rail rifle because i couldn’t work out a way of getting them uniform and also look good. But i think as a whole the squad looks great anyway




This was the last one i did. Ive had the binocular and kroot hand converted up since before i started making this army but could never find the right model to use it on....until now The reason his rifle is in a somewhat odd position is because it has a scanner on the far side. The idea is that he is checking out what his sensor has spotted with the binoculars (least that’s the idea anyway ).




As always the kneeling sniper, It was a real pain to get the kneeling leg in the right spot so in the end i just built up the base with some green stuff so it was on the ground. Ill probably do some vegetation on the base to cover this up



This is just a re-shoot of the first sniper drone Kroot i did a while back, however ive changed his shoulder pad to be one from the stealth suits so as to bring the stealth tech into the squad.

The only conversion left to do now is the 2nd Broadside and then its off to finish painting. Should be all done by the middle of next month if all goes well

(PS if a Mod sees this post could the please move it to the Modelling Diaries section please?)

Looking good mate. Can't wait to see those ones done!

Turbo_mmx any chance of you doing a tutorial on how to convert a kneeling kroot?

Thanks

They are really great - I love the bino carrier. Then again, it's hard for me to decide what I like best out of this squad! Look forward to seeing them painted.

I don't think the lack of uniformity in a Kroot army is a problem really!

BTW great paintjob on the Shaper.

Thanks Uber, I tend to agree about the uniformity thing now. But before i was trying to lean more towards them being more Tau Trained than Kroot trianed, so they wouldent be moding their weapons and such. But now im just chucking that out the window and going with what feels right

As for doing a Tutorial Hobdoglin. Ill see what i can do. Tis just a matter of remembering the process now!

They're looking sweet, Turbo!
Will you be wanting a re-match this weekend?

Dent.

Love you nice conversion work!

Cannot wait to see more!

Happy Painting!

Allan

Thanks for the feedback all Dent im always up for a rematch!!!!

Im currently stuck for bits to finish the last Broadside and to fix up my Vespid.
Please check out my trade post n see if you can help

http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=57025

Am also waiting for the house to warm up so i can paint

Well the most of the conversions done and me waiting for bits to finish off the few ive started, I got side tracked from my painting last night and tried my hand at finishing off my first Kroot Knarloc Rider

Here is what ive come up with.








I'm going to make 13 of these (12 normal and one shaper version) so I can run the Knarloc Raiders Apoc Formation However they most likely wont be used for the main Army.

The base will be fairly converted too when its done.

Whats ya think?

You Rock!

Great idea & well executed!

Having a flashback to Cartoons where you see a parot with out feathers

It just needs little chicken wings

I cannot wait to see paint on these models.

Nicely done, Turbo! How long'd it take to "shave" the mount? Doing 13 may take some dedication...


Dent.

Well im happy to say that apart from maybe a few green stuff fixes here and there ive finished ALL the conversions for the 1500 point list (WOOOT)

after getting fed up with trying to find the last tau Fish antenna to finish off to last rail gun for the 2nd iron ox, i just traced one i had onto a bit of plasti-card, made 4 copies of that. Then Stuck em together, shaved them down and stuck them onto the other one and then onto the mount! Once painted you shouldn’t even be able to tell

Anyway without further ado here is the final "Iron Ox" with the first one i built for the re-shoot:D

Front and rear shots!




Close up on the armour and rider of the new one.




Close up of the first one's armour.


The armour plates for the new one are also from the Ork biker box set, however ive also used the ends of the old terrain barrels that i had laying around. i have to Say after looking at these pics im tempted to remove the plates from the first one and do the same for him. The Barrels REALLY bulk up the model n make it look like it deserves the 2+ saves

*edit* the temption to add barrels to the first has gone but i modded him slightly by adding some extra armour to the front plates.



As for Dents question about for the Knarloc rider. It took about 20 mins all up the first time, mainly because i didn’t know what i was doing. But what ive worked out for the 2nd is to remove most of the scales with a knife first and then shave down the rest of the body with my "Jewellers Tool" after that’s done. Should speed it up quite a bit


Ill probably do a whole army shot later on tonight (though knowing me i wont hehe) to show what it will look like when its done.

Stay Tuned

20 mins aint bad, actually. I thought it would've taken longer. I spend 20 mins removing mold lines!

I love the idea behind this list, even if I never remember what everything is

Can't wait to see it all painted, Turbo.

Dent.

Alrighty. Just a quick update.

Ive been trying to paint the Iron Ox's this past week and....... ITS KILLING ME!

here is what ive come up with



I quite like the Grey colour ive managed to get for the ox however i dont think it contrasts well with the rest of the Army or the Rider.

I wanted to give it a somewhat different colour in order to show it wasent a standard ox, and it does look different. But i think maybe too different?

I know if i did it brown like i did with the Knarlocs in the full merc list and the other Kroot ox's it would look fine, but i just dunno. On and up side the grey colour i think would look sweet on the 20 vespid I have yet to paint, so if i dont use it for the ox at least i know what im doing for them.

Any help at all would be great.

Yeah, I'd go back to a browny colour for the ox, it looks a little dull. Although you could try something a little more exotic, like maybe a blueygrey? I dunno, but it looks fairly average atm. Loving the conversions with the sniper drones though, but why does the spotter have such a big gun? He's only armed with a pistol and marker IIRC?

Yeah I'd go with the brown for the Ox as well, but perhaps with black/grey/white tiger stripes for some jungle camo coolness?

Thanks for the comments guys. I should have em done up soon. Just had my first victory with this list in 5th ed! Againts Daemons non the less!!
Its quite a tricky list to master, but its really confusing me because this list can do what a Standard Kroot Merc list can do but without the power weapons or evicerators. However it replaces the lack of them with More powerfull shooting weapons. Either way im enjoying the stress of it all



The big gun is his marker light. Tis why its got the 2 small indents in the end It will look move obvious when its painted up.

Ahhh, makes sense now, I thought that migh be the case after i/ posted, but still wasn't sure. Nice job

Just another quick update.

Ive finalised the new vespid paint scheme. You can see a comparison to the old style from my old vespid Stinger council in the Kroot Mercs list.



I used the same pattern that i first used on the Iron ox for the new Vespid. I think it works a HELL of allot better on the bugs than the Ox. So now ill be doing the Ox in a possibly lighter brown colour to the standard Ox and Kroot, and the rest of the Vespid in the new scheme.

To be continued......!

Just another quick painting update!

Have finished the first 9 of my 20 Vespid for this army. The paint scheem came from the failed Iron ox Skin type. But ive now come up with an even better idea for them Stay Tuned

Looking good

Dent.

tim those vespid look awesome man, might be able to drop in next friday for a look as im back in the rat for a few days

Once more a quick update. Just have almost finished the first iron Ox painting. Just need to touch it up a little, find, paint and re-attach the hand with the spare power cell n then base it.

The missile pods are painted the same way as my Broadsides (see earlier in the post) so they tie in with the rest of my Tau army









More to come!

Sweet job, Turbo. I reckon they could use a nice scenic base now


Dent.

and maybe a wash of devlin mud? hangon... what happened to the gunner's right hand???