So I've gone an unearthed a very old army of mine from the very back of the cupboard, I don't rate the paint jobs on these figures anymore but I think there is some interesting conversions in this army which i'd like to share.
The inspiration for this was a warmer, tropical theme. There is a lot of Grim Dark in the 40k universe and I looked for something a little lighter to paint. The tank camo pattern has come from a real world urban camouflage, although the colours were more muted.
I also grabbed at the chance to include as many different races in the force, always helps keeping the enthusiasm going when painting a whole army if they're not all the same figure. Now I'm not sure if it's still a thing but when the army was completed you could take allies, for the Tau I included an allied detachment of Eldar.
Fire Warriors
I converted the usual human auxiliary but also converted some Tony the Tiger guys, using parts from the plastic Beastman Gor set. I also have some female Tau parts, although I cannot remember who made these and where I got them from.
Ethereal Guard
These guys are still Fire Warriors but I sculpted a set of heads for them, well sculpted one and cast the rest in resin.
Ethereals
One is obviously Eldar, effectively so the allied detachment has a HQ choice.
Pathfinders and Stealth Suits
At the time pathfinders were all metal models and there wasn't a lot of room for conversion, taking a leaf out of the Catachan Jungle fighters I converted some plastic fire warriors.
Battlesuits
Fairly standard models here. The bases are cast in clear resin so that the watery parts are clear, just a case of painting the underside of the base for the water effect. There might be a better clear resin for this type of technique if I did this again, I've found that the resin i did use shrinks slightly over the years and these bases are easily shattered.
Aliens, well to the tau
I'm no fan of the Kroot Carnivore models, sorry but it's just how I feel. However they are a useful unit for the Tau, that expendable throw away squad which are better in close combat than Fire Warriors.
I decided to convert up a race of Lizard people, Argonians for those Elder Scolls fans. They are mostly Saurus warrior parts with pieces from the Kroot and Beastman gor sets. The bodies are rogue trader era Space Marine torsos, how did I get some many? 9 out of 10 are resin ;)
I like the Vespid models from Games Workshop, however the limited posses they come in and the fact their wings fall off if you so much as look at them is a downside. I ended up converting some Mantic Games Locust City Chiefs with some Tau/Tyranid parts and clear green crystals. The wings are much more insect like which I personally think are better than the Vespid bat wings.
Eldar Detachment
I think there would be some Eldar out there looking at the Tau and signing up, or at the very least influencing their decisions in some greater plan. At any rate the guys below have embraced that Greater Good life.
Vehicles
TX4 Piranhas
Devilfish
Hammerhead
The bases for these vehicles are, as mentioned above made from clear resin. The sand has been painted as if it was a normal base, however the water was painted on the underside of the base so that the top remains clear.
Skyray
The Skyray is a missile tank, the Tau artillery really. I didn't want an artillery tank on the same chassis as the battle tanks above. I used a Star Wars droid tank, I think made by Revel as the base and converted it with Skyray parts. The missiles are all attached via magnets as each of them can only be fired once. A good way of keeping track how many shots you have left.
There are some more pictures of this tank on Cool-mini-or-not here!
Some other figures
When I was building this army I was heavily into my tropical battlefield, I made some Tau buildings which parts can be seen in the photos above. The largest was the Tau war factory complete with an under construction Devilfish.
Again i'm not particularly proud of the army anymore, the paint job really lets them down and the conversions are not a clean as my newer stuff, but thought they're worth a share in case they give anyone else ideas and inspiration.