+ inload: Shas'la Pro'sta +
The Shas'ui frowns. The Shas'la are too long in taking their positions: the gue'la are already redeploying their support weapon, their barking orders reverberating around the draughty reinforced rockcrete. She speaks over the voicebind, her voice impatient, gruff.
~Delays, delays, Shas'la. Positional relay request. Kor'Ves?
+Pattern sequence unbound: mustering.
+Shas'la; attest position.
~Seru'men accedes.
~Pro'sta accedes.
~Ratification for Har'us.
+Confirm, Har'us
~Har'us accedes: position assumed.
+Pattern sequence mustering.
~Len'ra... accedes... [heavy breathing]
+Mon'wern'a pattern minimal muster, Shas'ui. Pattern bound.
~Sufficiency achieved: Seru'men, Pro'sta – deploy the Watchdog.
The Shas'ui rolls her tongue over her hard palette thoughtfully, as though tasting the gue'la word.
+Shas'ui? Unfamiliar.
She shakes his head at the drone's querulous tone. Sloppy, she thinks to herself. She hears Har'us chuckle softly over the voicebind as he starts to unbind the detonator from the Kles'tak.
~Disregard, Kor'Ves: Seru'men, Pro'sta – deploy the ingress ui't. I think this building needs a new entrance!
+ Building the Shas'la: Practical +
+ This is a fairly simple (WIP) model that uses bits from various kits – proving the benefits of a good bits box – and some minor conversion work to the helmet to give him a bit of personality.
+ I thought it'd be fun to have an uncased aerial on his helmet, so this bit is from a Forge World servo skull. The other modifications are plastic bits trimmed from various lenses. I think this specific bit is from the Space Marine Scout biker kit. +
+ Painting the Shas'la: Practical +
+ The paint scheme is intended to be desaturated and high-contrast – I really loved the moonlight palette theme used by the ever-inspirational Migsula [+noospheric inloadlink embedded+] on his excellent Alpha Legion force, and thought a night-themed force would be fun. For that reason, everything except the light source on his helmet is very desaturated, but I've deliberately steered clear of pure white or black; instead substituting GW Rotting Flesh and Charadon Granite. +
+++
+ Female Fire Warrior Conversion: Theoretical +
+ Tangentially related, here's a conversion of a female tau Fire Warrior that I made. The intention was to create a model that was clearly differentiated from the regular models while preserving the militaristic look. I wanted to balance the idea of femininity with the idea that she is in all ways equal with the male teammates. Sexism and racism don't have much place in the grim darkness of the far future – the different species have quite enough to worry about staying alive! +
+ As an alien species, a Tau female might have little to no physical differentiation from a male (besides, there might be multiple genders), but for the sake of the challenge, I wanted her to look sufficiently different to her colleagues to stand out a little as female, using visual cues like a slighter, more gracile form. +
+ Female Fire Warrior Conversion: Practical +
+ This was achieved by combining a plastic daemonette head (with the nose trimmed down) with a Tau fire warrior head to ensure that the head would join with the torso correctly. The limbs are made by combining Fire Warrior forearms and lower legs with parts from Forge World's Elysian Drop Troops range. I had some left over from the Lamb's World project, and thought they'd be ideal to give a slighter figure to the miniature. I cut the legs under the straps and turned them slightly, then used modelling putty to bulk out the hips and thighs a little to alter the human form a little. +
+ I'm pretty pleased with how she's come out, and – assuming the viewer is familiar with a male Fire Warrior, I think she's come out as distinctly female, but importantly not 'fragile–looking', as this is the domain of the Water and Air castes. She's from the Fire Caste, and needs to be tough and resourceful. +
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