# Tau Ghillie Suit Conversion Project



## Pronoun

After thinking long and hard (hehe) about my Tau's color scheme, I decided to try something different than the usual tan guy, and give my Fire Warriors ghillie suits. For those of you that don't know, a ghillie suit is a camouflage suit usually used by snipers to hide in tall grass.










Having ghillie suits fits them pretty well fluff wise too, since my Tau are from N'dras, a colony that was abandoned. There are few surviving Tau from there. They are essentially mobile snipers, as I'm going to get the most ranged and mobile units, IE all my Fire Warriors will have Devilfish, and I'll have lots of Crisis battlesuits and Hammerheads. Since they are sniper-like, ghillie suits make sense.

How I am going to go about doing this, I haven't figured out yet. My first idea was to just take dark green and brown flock and glue it onto them, but that wouldn't give the draped look that real ghillie suits have since each piece of flock isn't very long.

My other idea was to get some kind of thin, fake grass, like turf or that stuff they have at mini putting places and drape that over them. If that doesn't look wild enough to look real, I could glue bits of flock or static grass here and there.

Once I have that done, there's the matter of painting it. I would paint the parts of the Tau itself that would be visible before gluing the suit onto him, but unless the stuff I'm gluing on is the color I need already, I don't know how I would paint that. I could always spray paint it dark green and then re paint the parts of the miniature that are going to be visible by hand. That would probably work, except for the fact that one solid color like that wouldn't look very good, and I don't know how well you can paint grass by hand.

So, I come to you guys for solutions. What materials could I use for this and how would I go about painting them if need be?


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## lordmat0

I recently got hold of some storm troopers with static grass attached to it, looks pretty decent. If you want I could take a few pictures


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## Pronoun

That'd be great if you could.


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## loyalist42

Something like this? 





















NOTE: THESE ARE NOT MY OWN WORK!!!!

This was the winning entry in a special forces painting/modeling competition on another forum. I dunno exactly how the guy acheived the effect; he was going to do a tutorial but never got around to it. Perhaps small pieces of paper soaked in PVA glue? 

Anyway, hope that helps somewhat!


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## Pronoun

Wow, that's amazing. Paper soaked in PVA might just do the trick, I'll have to test it on some Imperial Guardsmen.

Do you know exactly who did that, or how I could contact him?


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## The Son of Horus

It's bits of gauze soaked in pva, most likely. Paper doesn't have that texture.


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## loyalist42

Pronoun said:


> Wow, that's amazing. Paper soaked in PVA might just do the trick, I'll have to test it on some Imperial Guardsmen.
> 
> Do you know exactly who did that, or how I could contact him?


 
Yuh; username's Dave38x over on The Ammobunker ...I guess maybe the best thing to do would be register and shoot him a pm?


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## Morgal

Grass bases...there there you just can't see them.
j/k
strips of cloth may work, once you flock the cloth...


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## Pronoun

loyalist42 said:


> Yuh; username's Dave38x over on The Ammobunker ...I guess maybe the best thing to do would be register and shoot him a pm?


All right, thanks. I sent him a PM, now it's just a matter of time...
*Jeopardy Music*


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## lordmat0

Wow the model I have is nothing like that! puts my camouflage unit to shame!


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## WoRLoKKeD

Hmm, just an idea, and it'd be fiddly as all hell, but as for making grass for the bases, would PVA soaked, dried then paint-covered bristles from a cheap as all hell brush work well? Could be expensive and tedious to do in the long run, though.


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## Rhamag

A good source of the gauze necessary is the humble bandage. Most people have a first box at home somewhere, go have a nosy in it.

I'm halfway through building a battlwagon covered entirely in camo nets. The raw material was fly screen mesh, available from most hardware places I reckon. I'll spray it dark green then just dry-brush a little. Get some flock/shrubbery/laser-leaves on it. 

Looks spot on when painted, and also doubles as steel mesh for urban terrain or battlewagon interiors...


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## Master Kashnizel

I can see that being possible by using some of the woodland scenics leaves.


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## MegaPanda

I think the material used in the sniper conversion is called calico which is cheap at fabrics stores ($3 by the metre squared)

Ghillie suits use lots of strips of fabric tied to a net which distorts your silhouette which I think can be done by spray painting jute then gluing it onto a cloak though I haven't gotten around to trying it yet


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## Anphicar

http://www.made-in-china.com/image/2f0j00fIRETCQPjaKMM/Conforming-Elastic-Bandage-Gauze-.jpg 

Perhaps Gauze like that?


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## Pronoun

Anphicar said:


> http://www.made-in-china.com/image/2f0j00fIRETCQPjaKMM/Conforming-Elastic-Bandage-Gauze-.jpg
> 
> Perhaps Gauze like that?


Yup, that's the kind I have. I haven't tried it out yet though. The guy that made the really good model hasn't replied to my PM yet, so I'm just gonna wing it tomorrow.


He replied today, he said it was actually paper towel glued on, then soaked in glue afterwards. I'll try both and see which looks better. I think paper towel might actually look better since its thicker than gauze and looks more natural. Gauze, on the other hand, is probably more durable.


After experimenting a bit, I find paper towel works the best. Gauze doesn't tear like paper towel does, and when cut into small squares separates into a bunch of little strings. However, those little strings look great glued on top of the paper towel.


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## Engelus

personally I think any low thread count fabric or coarse paper would work.


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## da big boss

Rhamag said:


> I'm halfway through building a battlwagon covered entirely in camo nets


orks with camo?:crazy:


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## Rhamag

da big boss said:


> orks with camo?:crazy:


Blood Axe assault wagon! Plus, it means that 1) it doesn't need a million plates and rivets to make it look good and 2) I can make it out of cardboard and blister pack plastic. Cheap!


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## Pronoun

I've gotten pretty good at making them, when I get my camera working I might put up a tutorial. Thanks for your help everyone


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## loyalist42

Hell yeah; piccies please! :biggrin:


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## Pronoun

All right, I'll take some pics tomorrow and I'll hopefully have a tut up in a couple days.


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## Pronoun

Here's a couple pictures of em, I'll have the tutorial up in about an hour.


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## Snorri O'dubhda

Thants really good, never would of thought of that but they look great good work


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## Pronoun

All right, got the tutorial finished, the mods are looking it over so it should up pretty soon.


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## loyalist42

Well done; looks quite nice. Now let's see some paint on 'em! :victory:


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## Bodyguard666

ooh, nice. i may do that to my Eldar Pathfinders. good job!


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## jakkie

OMG, Ewoks with guns. (about the same hight too!)
btw, what colour scheme have you done then in. i cant see enough of it through the camo.


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## Pronoun

The camo is paper towel glued on then soaked with PVA glue. It was painted with a heavily watered down mix of Goblin Green, Codex Gray, and Scorched Brown. The armor was painted with the same, and the cloth was painted Bleached Bone.


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## krilix1

sweet! I have to try that some time


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## jams

good effort, but if i'm completely honest, i don't think ghillie suits fit with the whole tau asthetic. 

surely they'd just give their snipers stealth field generators or some such.

having said that though, i do think your technique would work extremely well on guard snipers


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## Ultra111

I'm definatly going to have a go of this with some Space Marine Scout Sniper squad. Would look amazing if I can get it right 

Nice job man


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## Entarion

I found this one and its pretty amazing

http://fischers-design-shop.blogspot.com/2010/07/sniper-and-ghillie-suit.html

http://fischers-design-shop.blogspot.com/2010/07/tiger-team-3.html

There are more models but you certainly find the right one sniper scout


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