Big Tau Ghostkeel Robot Thing!

 Perhaps predictably, here's something completely different to the last post. I get a lot of ideas for conversions and small projects, and often this involves buying parts gradually and stashing them away until I get around to making them. I do usually get around to finishing these projects, eventually, but the projects build up quicker than I can get them done. It's almost as if I'm doing something wrong.

Anyhow, a while ago I found the legs and body of a big Tau robot called a Ghostkeel on ebay. The arms and weapons were missing. I bought the bits for quite a low price, and decided to make a big clunky space robot to fit my 1950s style Tau army.

I also found a wrecked WW2 jeep on ebay, which would make a good basing element for the battlesuit. It was resin, made by some random chap in his garden shed, from the sounds of it, and it looks just right to be squashed by the ghostkeel's foot.

All was going well, but then I sat on the model and broke it at its spindly ankles. This was not good. I ended up using an old terrain piece to strengthen the thing. As well as having weird feet, Tau have ankles that break if you stare at them.

The arms came from a cheap gundam kit. The pincers are actually the legs of two Gates of Antares Ghar models, which I brought in a sprue sale. The gun mounted on the robot's shoulder is a piece from a long-gone steampunk game called Wolsung, which I've been hoading for about a decade.

I added a little chap from a Bolt Action US airborne sprue. His head looks as if he's shouting, usually, but if lifted up gives him a gormless, astonished look. I doubt his unform is entirely accurate, but he looks right. In the fluff, the ghostkeel can somehow turn undetectable - which, given its size and jet rocket, is pretty absurd - and I like the idea of it materialising as it squashes this squaddie's jeep. "How will I explain this to the Sarge?"

There's not to say about the painting, except that I enhoyed it, and it fits in with the rest of the army. It's probably the biggest thing that I'll build for this army (the bigger battlesuits don't appeal all that much), and it makes a cool centrepiece. 

Join us or die, puny humans!