Road to Adepticon 2013 - Hobby Work on Tau Terrain

I finished up work on my Tau terrain project for my Adepticon display board.   I scratch built an Aegis Defense line and "counts-as" Quad gun.   I also painted my Tau Air Caste ground crew and Plasma Drone Sentry turret.   I plan on using them in my list this weekend in the Big Game III Apocalypse battle at Gamer's Sanctuary.   For the upcoming Adepticon tournament, I originally thought I would use the fortification slot on the team, but opted for two heavy support instead.   I will get a chance to test out my list one more time for the team tournament primer coming up in early April.    

The Aegis Defense line and AA-gun has become a necessary evil for my Blood Angels army with  Stormravens being my only other Skyfire option.    I generally prefer the Icarus Lascannon over the Quad gun, but both are viable options.

My Blood Angels Aegis Line

I wanted to make a version for my Tau army.   I did a lot of searching around but really didn't see anything online that I was happy with.   So I just scratch built a segmented wall section from some balsa wood strips I purchased from a local hobby store.   It was fairly cheap, about $10 total for the three pieces I needed.

I sized the pieces to match closely to the actual Aegis line I have.   I cut four long pieces and four shorter ones.    One of the pieces I found had a nice grating pattern that worked as a floor piece.   I cut those lengths shorter so the wall pieces could be flush even if I turn a corner with the wall.

The results turned out pretty good.   I used two coats of Krylon grey primer as untreated wood absorbs a lot of paint.    Then I used my airbrush to get the base and wash coats.   Then just added a few Tau transfers with Microset solution.   Everything was painted to match my Vior'la Sept world colors.

Forge World sells an Air Caste ground crew that I had purchased awhile back.   I get tired of correcting people on the internet about the fact that Tau are NOT fish people.   Their fluff describes four sub-races that are all mammals.    Their feet are hoofed, so a proper insult would be goat people, not fish people...

Anyway... So the Air Caste members are taller and thinner than the Fire Caste as demonstrated by the models.

For the counts-as Quad gun, I used a Dixie cup glued to a left over skimmer base and a pair of Ion cannons.   I magnetized the gun and base for ease of travel.

So it came out pretty good.  The Aegis line will work great for protecting my gun line of Firewarriors and the Quad gun will give me a chance against fliers until Tau get a new codex.   For Adepticon the terrain will nicely complement my army on the display board.    Thanks for viewing!