Baby's First Conversion

I like the Tau, for all they've not had a new Codex since forever, and their kit line needs a revamp, and from reading around the web, they're a bit of a forgotten army at the moment all around. I played them a lot in Dawn of War, which is what got me back into 40k a few years back, and whilst I've not painted much Tau since getting the painting bug I've done some Fire Warriors and a solitary XV8 in a nice electric-blue-and-white scheme. I especially like the XV8 family, but my big frustration with them is that the figure itself look stocky and a bit gormless, compared to how dynamic the battlesuits are supposed to be in comparison to their Imperial counterparts.

Now, the other thing I've not done yet is any sort of conversion work, so my desires all sort of rolled together. After hacksawing part of a finger, and getting blood all over the kitchen, I have a reposed XV8 ready to go. I'm quite pleased with him, even I've not actually changed that much.

And here he is! 

Left Arm, with a bit of filler to correct the, um,
battle damage i caused. 

Right arm. This is nearly totally straightened out
and I've added some plastic card into the joint
to replicate the gearing you see the rear arc

And of course the base with a squished marine. the Green Filler is used just
to raise the base a little to make it look squashed into the mud. 

Painting Updates over the next couple of weeks!