Tutorial: Building Your Own Shield Drones

Hey everyone,

So my new Tau Battleforce came in yesterday, and I’ve already jumped in with both feet. Everything but the Kroot and some Gun Drones are assembled already, and I’ve started painting the Stealth Suits, which I’ll have pictures up later.

Anyways, I wanted to share with you all my newly discovered technique for building Shield Drones; I had said I had a stroke of genius before I figured it out, so I’m pretty happy. When I first saw the cost for the Shield Drones through GW’s site, I was pretty shocked. You have to buy the Gun Drone set ($10), THEN pick up the metal Shield Drone Upgrade ($10). For rather unsubstantial models, I couldn’t justify the $20 tag for 4 models.

Parts Needed:

These are all parts out of the standard battleforce. The XV25 Suit antennae isn’t required, but I like the look of two antennae rather than one.

1) Take your XV8 Shield Generator bit and file off the nub on the back. This nub would hold it in place on a Crisis Suit, so off it goes!

2) Glue the Shield Generator bit to the bottom of the Gun Drone Body as shown.

3) Take the Gun Drone Bottom, and clip off the gun mounts and the top nub. Glue this piece onto the Shield Generator bit. Try to get this lined up straight as best as possible. Allow to dry.

4) Glue the Gun Drone and the XV25 Antennae onto the top of the Gun Drone.

5) Prime and Paint! You now have a cheap, plastic, easy-to-use Shield Drone!

As you can see, it looks perfect next to another drone, isn’t too big, and should be a fairly easy and subtle conversion. And when I mean subtle, I mean that you subtly add some Pathfinders to your army with the money you saved!

I’ll get mine primed and painted pretty soon, I have a feeling my Priming weather is about to go out the window. I’ve gotten lucky it hasn’t snowed yet, but its getting cold, and we’ve got some more dark, nasty clouds moving in, so I’ll have to figure something out.

Pictures of the New Tau coming soon!

Granesh