Conversion Corner: Tau Battlesuit

Some of you Tau players might have seen a conversion done by Tael (from Eastern Empire and Advanced Tau Tactica). It's a stealth Crisis Battlesuit and decided to basically copy the suit. Here's basically a step by step guide to creating a model like this for yourself.

Components:
Stealth suit (new)(only a single model)
Crisis Suit
Landraider Sponson 'cover'
Lascannon Tips
Spacemarine Jump pack
Greenstuff
A few blocks of regular, good, old, scrap plastic


OK, putting the knife to a brand new suit takes a bit of nerve, but remember even a green stuff noob (like me) can fix small problems. I'm going to use one of my first crisis suits as a little display model (don't mind the sloppy paint job).

One of the easiest pieces to convert is the Jet Pack. To do so cut the middle torso piece (the piece between the thrusters and chest plate) and cut it as shown in the picture.



After that, you'll need to combine the two Jet areas into a single pack so it resembles a Stealth Suit jet pack.


This shouldn't be tough and can be done with only a minimal amount of confidence. Glue everything up and you have the Jet pack, that looks a bit like this. (Please note this isn't done yet. It looks pretty sloppy in the picture...)


Unless you're a master cutter, some greenstuff work must be done on the vents.

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OK, the fun part is the chest piece. It takes some subtle knife work but in general it's not too hard. I'm also gonna say right now, please be very careful when cutting. My fingers look like they got in a fight with the knife section in your local kitchen appliance store.



If you cut like I did it should look like this:

Pretty messy, it looks like a daemon prince had his way with it. Don't worry, to patch it up here are the pieces needed.



Just cut the items so they look like they are in the picture. If you cut like I did, you'll need to do some excessive greenstuff work.To prevent this specifically only cut out the center and the protruding upper breast plate. Filling gaps is one thing, but plugging holes is a pain.



For the connection between the Jetpack you made above and the newly greenstuffed Torso:









With the full Torso and Jetpack done connect them and then mount the shoulder pieces. Here's how my dude looked afterwards:





That was the hardest part. On to the legs! Start with good old standard Crisis legs (and pin them!). Grab that Land Raider sponson cover and two extra Crisis big toes.



Time to Build a head. The pieces are listed in the picture. Just shave or cut them down to fit and throw them on a regular crisis head.



Here's what you should have when all the previously built pieces are combined!


The arms are created as shown below. A burst cannon drum, a piece of a Space Marine jump pack, and a Crisis Suit arm are needed.






Finally when everything is combined you'll have this:



Congratulations! You should now be a paint job away from a great Tael style Tau Stealth Crisis Battlesuit!