40k Hobby - Tau Riptide Finished

As a long time 40k Tau player, I have been enjoying the new 6th edition Codex.   More importantly the new codex has kicked me into hobby mode as I look to update the army that got me into Warhammer 40k.   Adepticon was a bitter sweet goodbye to the 4th edition Codex for me.   But getting to work on NEW Tau stuff that isn't from Forge World has been a lot of fun.   I have a few of the new kits and plan on converting some of my older stuff to expand my collection.   I just finished up my first XV104 Riptide for the "Masters of the Hobby" league at Gamer's Sanctuary where my Tau also helped me win the top Strategic and Hobby awards.

This was a very fun model to assemble.   Much like the Forge World battle suits, the limbs allowed for a wide variety of posing options.   I wanted a pose that looked like he just landed and got a quick shot off with the TL Fusion guns before getting the main weapon Ion Accelerator on target.

I orderd some cool bits from Paulson Games Mecha line and used one of their head models in place of the smaller GW head.   It looks very "Tau-like" and in is more in proportion with the body.

I was able to paint the model in assemblies.   GW no longer makes the paint that I used for my Vior'la Sept World paint scheme, but I was able to find a 99% replacement thanks to Army Painter.   I picked up a can of spray paint  as well as some of their dropper bottle with the same color.

I have actually only played one game using this model so far and he performed very well.   Even without the Nova charge, the Ion Accelerator gun is fantastic with just the Ion Charge option.   Thanks to the Monstrous Creature rules, high toughness, jump jet move, and 2+/5++ saves he is quite tricky for opponents to deal with.

The Riptide also comes with a unique option to take Shielded Missile Drones.   I am not sure how often I will use them, but extra wounds with an Invuln save are a pretty cool option to have.

I am already looking forward to getting another one.   I have a new Broadside kit that I am working on as well as getting a Hammerhead with commander Longstrike piloting it.   I also want to model up one of the new commander kits as the "Enforcer" armor is something I always plan on taking for my Battle suit HQ.

I'll have some more thoughts on the new codex after some more games.   Most of the club has started Infinity and 40k is being played a bit less lately.    But with GW updating Codex's more frequently, I expect the gaming cycle will come back to Warhammer 40k soon.  Thanks for reading!