Tau: Working with Skyrays - Part 3 (Quick Tip)

Here is the last part (aside from actually getting some paint down!) on my series about making the fullest possible use of GWs Tau Skyray and Hammerhead kits.

• In the first part I covered the options that were available in the kit.
• In the second part I covered rebuilding the front underslung turret.

This is the final part and covers modelling the main weapons to make them interchangeable so you can field your Skyray as a Skyray, Hammerhead (with your choice of weapons) or Devilfish.

I'm not the greatest modeller in the world so feel free to improve on anything I'm suggesting here if (and when!) you see a better way of doing it.

First - the easy bit: The Skyray

I only magnetised this so that the missiles can be removed as fired in-game. I think they're designed to push-fit but I found they weren't a good fit and wouldn't stay in place. 

I glued some pieces of paper-clip into the slots

Added some magnets to the missiles. I'm undecided about these particular magnets and may replace them with smaller, inset ones.

And it fits together like this (the engine pod at the back is just to balance the turret)

The second part - the Hammerhead turret. 

I shaved down some of the details on the "block" so that the weapons could fit totally over it and added a magnet at the back...

And another at the front

In order to mount the railgun I fabricated these small bits of, er, things. For scale they're small - the hole is just beg enough for a small magnet and the entire piece fits inside the hole at the bottom of the railgun, nearer the front than the back

You can just see the, er, "thing" in place complete with magnet on the right-hand edge of the hole.

When dropped in place over the block on the turret the magnet holds the railgun in place and stops it tilting forwards

The Ion Cannon is a little more tricky - there's nothing inside it's hole to glue a similar "thing" to so I had to glue a boatload of bits of sprue into it, front and back, in order to be able to mount magnets. It's a looser fit and so needed magnets both front and back.

Not a great photo but you can just make out the bits of sprue and the magnet inside the hole. It's a similar view if you look into the hole from the back of the gun. Two magnets are required to secure this weapon

And here it is in place

Painting of the tanks is going to need to wait until early 2015 as the Christmas Holiday season is a busy time for me and also there's a short "sabbatical" project I want to do too.

More Tau-related stuff:

The Tau Family Album: