Monday, November 23, 2009

Work In Progress: Shas'El Sidestriker






The wind swept across the airfield and wisped through stands of Fire Warriors, their single braids and locks flowed in the wind. Rows upon rows of the Cadre's warriors stood at attention, one hand at the side and one held behind the back. Beyond the airfield, the mountains of the great world Thoth loomed, witness to the arrival of the sleak Tau Manta.

Old Shatter Hands, still clad in his pilotsuit of an XV8, stood with his back to the great phalanx facing the sleak form of the Manta. He eyes studied the bay doors as they slowly opened. From within, a trio of Tau warriors walked forward. As they came into the light, the grey haired Shas'ui, Rymo, called out, "We, the warriors of the Tau'va, salute you!" with the command came a great boom, like thunder, as the entire phalanx of Shas'la gave the tau salute at once.
Old Shatter now approached the three, "Welcome to Thoth, my cousins."
He turned to the warrior on the left. The sun glinted off the warriors face. His entire right side was riddled with scarred flesh. Old Shatter Hands reached and grabbed the Warrior by the side of neck and inspected his brother's face. The warrior resisted slightly then yielded. Old Shatter suddenly embraced the warrior. "Welcome, brother! I see the campaign on Taros was a harsh one. Here on Thoth, under my command, the Cadre will keep you under a more watchful eye."
"Aye, my brother, thank you, what of cousin Centurion?"
Old Shatter Hands looked to the ground and then into his brother's eyes, "He fell. We’ll not speak of it any longer."

"Sidestriker!” Old Shatter then moved to address the next Shas'vre in line, "The Aun speak highly of you. Even the Shas'la tell tall tales of your successes. If they are even half-truths, the Fio'la will begin wallowing out settlement domes in less than six kai'rotaa. Ha!”
"Surely, the Aun have guided me well my lord, but it is only for the Tau’Va, not glory that I fight.”
"The Cadre is honored by your presence.”
Old Shatter then turned his gaze to the last of the three, a stockier, shorter tau, decorated with the symbols of a broadside pilot. "Fio." Old Shatter Hands said quickly inspecting the short warrior.
"Aye, Commander"
"I hear your piloting skills are to be envied among the Shas'la. You'll have to prove yourself in battle to gain the respect of my XV88 team. A Fio leading them will come under suspicion. You may have impressed the Aun with your skill, but I am yet unconvinced."
"If the Tau'va wills it, my lord, I will not disappoint you."
"Don't fear my disappointment, but your Cadre's."
Just a work in progress update here as I prepare for the Inner Circle Tournament on Dec 12th. This is my new Shas'El Sidestriker. He's much younger than Old Shatter Hands but still a member of his extended family. He's armed with a Fusion Blaster and Missile Pod, Targeting Array and Tracker. The idea being that he'll be able to pop transports that are close to my lines with enough punch to explode them for my Fire Knives (lead by Old Shatter) and Deathrains to finish off the troops that pile out.
There are some basic conversions, a Shas' El Tael pattern helmet, single jet pack but some extras that make him unique. The weapons have armored plates covering them, taken from some space marine bits (not sure where), The best thing I think is the pose. It conveys energy and enthusiasm, which is suited to Sidestriker's fluff.

Enjoy!

15 comments:

CJ said...

Very interesting conversion and nice back story aswell. Curious how the painted model will turn out. Should be stunning as always :D

The armour plates look nice and beefy also giving him a nice and strong and maybe young feel. A warrior in his prime!

Cheers CJ

Simon said...

The weapon mountings are a subtle little conversion that looks great.

Pearlygates said...

OSH,

I love your conversions but I would love it if you tell how to make them, along with where you get the components from. though most of it is recognisable, there are some part to your conversions that I don't know where you get them.

I like your background stories btw. My only critism is that you have them talk very similar to Astartes.

I'm reading the Horus Heresy books at the moment and all I can picture is Captain Garro and Iacton Qruze, especially with the 'Aye!'

However, I would love to read one of your own Tau stories based on Old Shatter Hands giving the 'Emporer's Mongrels' a good kicking on the battlefield.

Do you think you could bless us with a small novel based on everyones favorite Shas' El?

Tim said...

Pearly,

I can definitely do a run through of all the bits I used. I'll work on that tonight and it'll be posted sometimes this week. I think I might make a post encompassing all the conversions I've done on my Tau models. Kind of a catalog of conversions for you guys...

As for a novel, wow! that is a mammoth task. I love writing little fiction pieces on this blog but a whole books is a little overwhelming. I do like how the story of Ol' Shatter is developing though...however "Old Shatterhands" is a stolen name from Karl May books. I just liked it so much...(losing points for originality as we speak)

Pearlygates said...

well, if a 2000 page, 10 book series is too much for you, I'll let you off! lol.

Maybe you could do short stories based on each game you do; kinda like wot Pete wrote when you two had your game?

I love Tau, and there just aren't enough book on them! only the Taros Campaign, which is a great book.

Pete W said...

I'd be happy to chip in with some 40k writing. I've moved on from it for a bit but I was very into it for a while on the Black Library forums. I even came close to winning one of their short story contests. Alas victory was just out of my grasp. Top 20 out of 950, shame there were only 4 winners :-(

Pete W said...

Of course, that would be with OSH's blessing as I wouldn't want to mess up his characters.

Mike said...

Very nice work on this conversion! I like the subtle differences between your version and Tael's, plus I like that someone other than me actually likes the Fireforge pattern.

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing this one painted.

Pearlygates said...

Pete do you have a blog?

When are you buying your Tau army?

With two jobs under your belt, surely you must have some tau by now? If it's the missus, get a divorce! The Greater Good doesn't compramize!! lol

Did you and OSH have another game on thursday btw?

Pete W said...

I don't have a blog yet. I'm thinking of starting one up to talk about 40k and my fiction writing but haven't got started yet. Also, OSH and Sholto have got two really good Tau blogs so I'd have to come up with a different angle for it all.

I've got the start of a tau army (2 Crisis, 3 stealth, 12 Fire warriors, 12 Kroot, 2 Piranhas, Skyray, Hammerhead and a few drones) but it's not all painted yet. I've still got the piranhas and 6 gun drones left.

Also it's a little unbalanced in composition so I want to bulk out a little more (another battleforce and hammerhead should do it). It's not so much money that I am lacking but time to order, assemble and paint it. I've also got a stack of models from another company called Ramshackle Games (www.ramshacklegames.co.uk) still to paint.

Since one of them is a huge (baneblade size) spider tank I've got lots to do on that front. There is a forum link with some pictures to put it into perspective next to my Tau (http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=13496.0)

Also, we were meant to have another game on Thu but that had to be cancelled, as did our small game on Sunday. Fortunately it turns out that we live about 3 miles from each other and OSH is building a new gaming table so you can expect some more batreps soon all being well.

Pearlygates said...

Pete, about creating your own blog:

Yeah I know the same feeling, when OSH asked if I had one going, it's like there are a few that I follow and they've covered pretty much everything you can think of. anything I write will be repetition to wot they've already said!

Having said that, one thing I have learned from these blogs (mainly about other people's comments) is that we all love and loath certain units:
-Adam loves his Skyray
-OSH loves his Piranhas.
-Sholto will happily throw his. Pathfinders to the wolves as long as they inflict some damage turn 1.
-PearlyGates (that's me!!) loves his SniperDrones and Vespid.

If I ever get round to creating a blog, I will prob go over how I personally employ my units and why I value these, where others overlook them.
Then write up the varying ways other people use them; so we can all try to find the best/suitable tactics to use in our games.



And if I keep writing anymore OSH is going to start charging me for using his blog as my own!!!!

Pearlygates said...

OSH, looking at the photo of your conversion in the 2nd photo from bottom, I feel the it looks a little weak around the shoulders compared to everywhere else. It could do with some shoulder pads to beef him out a bit.

Anyway, I'm definately making my own XV9 Hazard suits when I get enough time and money. I will be using various peoples conversions, including yours, to build them.

'Path of the Outcast' has made some broadsides with really good LEG conversions I'll be using.

I'll prob use Adam's and your conversion for head and upper body.
I love the look of your Tael pattern model where you have the stealthsuit body parts as a collar. and your jump-pack looks great (but look tricky too!)

Pete W said...

Ah, what the heck, I'm going to start a blog. My only problem now is trying to find a good name for it.

The Tau of Pete?
For the Greater Good of Blogging?
Illuminus (my first BL forum story)?

Suggestions are welcome.

Pearlygates said...

The Greater Good og Blogging sounds excellent!!! even gave me the giggles as I read it!

Or for a more serious name you could call it "Trial-By-Fire". that's wot I had in mind for mine, though I doubt I'm gonna set one up anywhere in the near future.

Pete W said...

Well, not to be too hasty but I just set up my blog.

I wanted to call it Ghost Stars (the intended title of one of my novel ideas) but that one was taken so it became Ghost Nebula because I love nebulae.

Unfortunately that name was taken on Blogspot so I pluralised it and the address now is http://ghostnebulae.blogspot.com

I am still in the process of putting up my first few posts but they will be split between warhammer things and my writing experiences and ideas.