WaR'hounds XV Re-Imagining: Up-scaled armour

[warhound]

Basically, I have been revisiting the whole XV suit issue of "there is NO way a tau could squeeze in there"! debate! For those who visit ATT, these shots are a bit out of date now, but I will bring you up to speed as soon as- or just head over there to see the latest...

I have wanted for many years to get back into the gaming aspect and after having 3 games of Apoc in the last 6 months realised that If I was to have an army, I wanted it to look as good as possible. The current suits dont really do it for me and so after months of work I am now ready to present my vision of the suits that I have made and then will be casting up for my own force (9 Broadsides and 6 XV8's)

There is nothing that I would call ground breaking, but I think that the general aesthetic and new profile are better than the FW suits
Apologies for the shots!
Firstly, the inspiration shot:



Then the work as is:








What you see above is the bulk of the work (the upsizing of torso and the kit bash/ sculpt of the modular back packs) and then the 'batches' as they will be cast! One for the crisis and one for the Broadside. You will notice little extra details that can be bolted on like sensors, ammo packs and the like. In addition are some drones that I have created to fill the slots of decoy launchers and disruption pods. All the work is (in reflection of the shots) about 1 week from completion, so you will notice certain things that need to be done such as:
Adding the balls to the XV8 ankles
Elbow joints need to be figured out how they will connect and be poseable
Extra detail / armor on the side of the missile podsFilling of gaps.

All detail, armour plates need one more refinement/ sharpening, but otherwise I am happy with the effect. Please, however do feel free to 'rip them apart'. I am at that point of snow blindeness and so am more than likely missing stuff that is glaringly obvious%-P

Anyway, I hope that you like and look forward to your C+C!

Cheers
WaR'hound

[synapse]

i like that!

a lot!

im surprised the FW legs look good considering the you made the torso so much bigger. perhaps a full on frotnal shot would show it better?

[alphachicken]

I love it, the plasticard looks very well cut, the joints look perfect. I think it'll help us more if you can post some pictures with normal battlesuits + a marine.

Fantastic job so far, keep it up

[warhound]

Just to jump 4 weeks into the progress, here are some more up to date shots after various c&c...













I am near to completion of all parts (torso and jump pack to complete) and then I will be onto the casting!!

SO what are your thoughts?

cheers

WaR'hound

[synapse]

hadnt realised the legs were extended too - great job on those.

and i love the vents in the back

[Bleys]

Very cool. I've always thought that battle suits been a bit wierd, scale-vice (as are sooo much in 40k:cries. Yours are on the next level! They actually look heavy, something a gigantic mecha should. Cool! And the missile pods are badass ^^.
+ for the two heads on the right too. The standard ones are a bit bland.

Good luck on the casting. Wouldn't mind some pics of the process

[warhound]

Will try and remember to post casting- no problem;-)

The XV8 heads were meant to be more minimal as I dont want to re-design the suits- just refine them to be a clearer reflection of the great artwork that GW has put out:-)

Is there anything that people dont like/ want to see?

cheers

W

[Dictator]

Wow, great redesign and size change of the xv design. Do you have any idea how these scale in comparison to say the FW suits? I think they are a bit larger than the GW ones.

[warhound]

If you look at the 5th pic down- the scale is clear between the GW and my XV88's. The FW ones are only slightly taller (5mm) than the GW standard suits.

cheers

W

[Steel_Legion]

these look excelent, really nice GS work you got going there

[v_ol_tron]

WOW!

the 2nd pic down on post 4 is pure badass! I love where this is going. keep it up man.

[Bleys]

Is there anything that people dont like?

cheers

W

Straight answer: No. No theres not .

It would be interesting to see a little detail on the backpack of the suit in the last pick (since it seems to be a bit different from the broadside?). In the same pick is the only thing I'm a bit unsure of; the greystuff binding across the chest. It doesn't seem to be as razor-sharp as the rest of the sculpts. Now, I presume that the GS were added to fix up some minor defects with the plasticard, and as a result it would'nt need to be as perfect. Oh god I'm nagging on something less than half a mm big ... Just ignore me...

[Darkane]

Wow, I am very impressed. You've managed to make those great looking forgeworld models look even better. These are how the battlesuits should look like! Will be interesting to see them painted up.

[tcraigen]

They look amazing, they no longer look stumpy and pudgy. I love the wirlwind missile pods. The re-orientation of the rail guns to a horizontal position makes a world of difference. Beautiful work good luck on your casting.

[Dreachon]

Looks good, I like what you have done.

[woody]

OOOH!!! pretty shiny things, seriously considering that you should sell some of these, i would definently buy some as they are so much cooler than the gw ones that i am just speechless.
Are you going to be selling? or will you be selfish and deprive us of these?
Cheers
Woody

[sheep]

These look fantastic mate, i'd be doing tau if they looked like this!

Cheers

Sheep

[warhound]

Good day world!

DISASTRO! My computer is shafted after some dodgy spyware came to see my progress and so I am without photo facility at the moment:-(
I may have it fixed in the next couple of days- I just need to get the right repair-ware for it.

Anyway, thats doesn't mean that I have been idle- far from it in fact. I have taken photos of various points of progress, which I will story tell when the above issue is resolved, but in the mean time, here are the achievements:

Jump pack nacelles (sp?) built, puttied and finished
Back pack: Resolved issues with modular mount to allow for both XV8 and xV88 to attach to torso. I left them both as flat planes that would just glue straight onto the torso. Simple.
Torso: I took everyones advise and peeled this back/ softened it. I actually ended up sanding almost all the putty off that I had assumed would have to stay to hide the imperfections, but it turned out that the imperfections were quite minimal!:-) Fluke Also re-sculpted backl in the main trapezium shape plate panel in the centre of the chest- simply the best panel lining I have ever seen done by hand!
Extended the lower legs by 5mm for the XV8 version.

NOW the big news. I am also 30% done on mounting everything onto spruidge. In the next 24 hours I hope to have everything mounted and then the big moment- pouring the first load of silicone! I am so excited at this point I could keel over!

Also bit of good news yesterday- I had a railgun from the HH that was mismoulded- went into the local GW- store monkey kindly 'known losses' a whole skyray back to me!

Sweeet!

Anyway- I will try and sort these pics out as soon as! I also now only have 12 days to get them cast and assembled for my next Apoc game in 2 weekends time!(plus a whole regiment box!)

oh, and in terms of selling, now thats a whole different ball game!

cheers

Warhound

_________________
XV88 ltd, Shas'O T'ait spking, how may I railgun you?

[woody]

In terms of selling, you could make a whole bunch of money from these as i bet any tau player, and many who arnt (e.g. ME), would love to get thier hands on one - 100 of these beautiful things.
Cheers
Woody

[mr gelmir]

that's tau as it should be!
reminds me a bit of gundam...