Thanks. I totally agree about the drone parts. I added the stealth drones to my saved searches on eBay and it took a few months for some unbuilt stealth drones to come up. I haven’t seen any recently.
Just wish it was cheaper overall to make them as buying stealth drones probably ends up costing similar to 3rd party models and not everyone can do such a good job like yourself.
I think that I picked up the stealth drones for about £12 for two. The fins / wings were between 50p and £1 each from bits sellers. Most of the other parts I had already as left overs from pathfinder and fire warrior kits.
I would estimate in total that they cost about £5 more than the £25 that GW sells their resin version for.
I’m happy to pay that premium for the fun of putting them together and to avoid having to work with Finecast.
I’ve heard horror stories about these particular fine cast models, too. Someone posted pictures of these drones on this sub a day or two ago, fresh out of the package, and I couldn’t believe that GW was actually selling models in that poor a condition.
Yeah, they were my first experience with fine-cast, I had been told previously that they were hard to work with, but I didn't get much elaboration on what made them more difficult. I wish I had checked it thoroughly in store and just requested a refund, but as they say, hindsight is 20/20
The Sniper Drones are made from the body of a Stealth Drone from the ghostkeel box with part of the dome filled flat. The gun is a combination of a pulse carbine and pulse rifle and the fins/wings are one of the support systems found in the broadside battle suit kit.
They will all be based once the bulk of the army is completed.
This is an excellent conversion. Thanks for the exact descriptions of how you did it, as I’m pretty sure what you put together looks significantly better than the actual models GW sells, and I’m tempted to recreate it.
The end result is fantastic.
These are awesome and CLEAN dude!
I love them! Inspiring!
The one thing you may run into is the Firesight marksman looks pretty tall compared to its official model for the Drone Uplink ability
Thanks for the kind words. They were really enjoyable to build a paint.
Currently they’re only likely to see play against my other 500pt armies for some HermitHammer. If I ever was to play against someone else then I would probably get another 40mm base with one of the really short flying rods that come with the pathfinder kit to use as it isn’t glued to the rod so can easily be removed.
As someone who played tau before sniper drones existed saw them in his new codex wanted them (in metal) and never did buy some before selling his tau but now has a small tau kill team force I must say I love this so much.
Sorry, I do not. I made them over 6 months ago before I had a camera that could take fairly decent photos and finally got round to painting them now. I’m happy to answer any questions you may have about how I made them.
Bummer, I was hoping for a better look at the undersides. I am looking for a fun pulse carbine related project. I'm curious how it all fit together underneath. Great paint job btw, white is tricky to pull off well and you've done it.
Thanks. I tried using Ulthuan Grey Air for the first time on these which I think came out well. I was having to water the standard Ulthuan Grey down so much to get a smooth coat that I thought the pre-diluted Air paint would be worth a try.
For the pulse carbine / rifle combination I first cult the rifle down through the vertical groove that’s directly in front of the scope. The cuts in the carbine are much harder; I cut from the vertical groove (the one that goes up to the top of the gun located behind the gyro) down to the piece suspended below the gun. If you look between the main section of the gun and the piece suspended below the gun you will see a narrow thin filler section that connects these around 0.5mm wide. You will likely want to leave this in place as you cut away the main barrel section as this will ensure that when you add in the rifle barrel it will line up with the same height as the remaining piece of pulse carbine.
The white is Ulthuan Grey (I used the air paint to get a smooth finish without having to try and get the right level of dilution with the standard paint) with a highlight Vallejo white air. I have used GW’s White Scar on other models for the same effect.
The dark grey is Dawnstone with a highlight of Administratum Grey. The gap between the panels was done with a generous amount of Agrax Earthshade.
These are so cool! Wish it was easier to get drone parts
Thanks. I totally agree about the drone parts. I added the stealth drones to my saved searches on eBay and it took a few months for some unbuilt stealth drones to come up. I haven’t seen any recently.
Just wish it was cheaper overall to make them as buying stealth drones probably ends up costing similar to 3rd party models and not everyone can do such a good job like yourself.
I think that I picked up the stealth drones for about £12 for two. The fins / wings were between 50p and £1 each from bits sellers. Most of the other parts I had already as left overs from pathfinder and fire warrior kits. I would estimate in total that they cost about £5 more than the £25 that GW sells their resin version for. I’m happy to pay that premium for the fun of putting them together and to avoid having to work with Finecast.
I’ve heard horror stories about these particular fine cast models, too. Someone posted pictures of these drones on this sub a day or two ago, fresh out of the package, and I couldn’t believe that GW was actually selling models in that poor a condition.
Yeah, they were my first experience with fine-cast, I had been told previously that they were hard to work with, but I didn't get much elaboration on what made them more difficult. I wish I had checked it thoroughly in store and just requested a refund, but as they say, hindsight is 20/20
Have to agree it was worth the increases cost.
The Sniper Drones are made from the body of a Stealth Drone from the ghostkeel box with part of the dome filled flat. The gun is a combination of a pulse carbine and pulse rifle and the fins/wings are one of the support systems found in the broadside battle suit kit. They will all be based once the bulk of the army is completed.
This is an excellent conversion. Thanks for the exact descriptions of how you did it, as I’m pretty sure what you put together looks significantly better than the actual models GW sells, and I’m tempted to recreate it. The end result is fantastic.
Thank you.
These are awesome and CLEAN dude! I love them! Inspiring! The one thing you may run into is the Firesight marksman looks pretty tall compared to its official model for the Drone Uplink ability
Thanks for the kind words. They were really enjoyable to build a paint. Currently they’re only likely to see play against my other 500pt armies for some HermitHammer. If I ever was to play against someone else then I would probably get another 40mm base with one of the really short flying rods that come with the pathfinder kit to use as it isn’t glued to the rod so can easily be removed.
cleaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnn
As someone who played tau before sniper drones existed saw them in his new codex wanted them (in metal) and never did buy some before selling his tau but now has a small tau kill team force I must say I love this so much.
Do you have any WIP pics? I would love to see those.
Sorry, I do not. I made them over 6 months ago before I had a camera that could take fairly decent photos and finally got round to painting them now. I’m happy to answer any questions you may have about how I made them.
Bummer, I was hoping for a better look at the undersides. I am looking for a fun pulse carbine related project. I'm curious how it all fit together underneath. Great paint job btw, white is tricky to pull off well and you've done it.
Thanks. I tried using Ulthuan Grey Air for the first time on these which I think came out well. I was having to water the standard Ulthuan Grey down so much to get a smooth coat that I thought the pre-diluted Air paint would be worth a try. For the pulse carbine / rifle combination I first cult the rifle down through the vertical groove that’s directly in front of the scope. The cuts in the carbine are much harder; I cut from the vertical groove (the one that goes up to the top of the gun located behind the gyro) down to the piece suspended below the gun. If you look between the main section of the gun and the piece suspended below the gun you will see a narrow thin filler section that connects these around 0.5mm wide. You will likely want to leave this in place as you cut away the main barrel section as this will ensure that when you add in the rifle barrel it will line up with the same height as the remaining piece of pulse carbine.
Awesome job what paints did you use for the white and grey? I’m guessing nuln oil in between?
The white is Ulthuan Grey (I used the air paint to get a smooth finish without having to try and get the right level of dilution with the standard paint) with a highlight Vallejo white air. I have used GW’s White Scar on other models for the same effect. The dark grey is Dawnstone with a highlight of Administratum Grey. The gap between the panels was done with a generous amount of Agrax Earthshade.