Command Squad: Support Suit

Preface:

The third Model in my Tau Farsight Bomb Command Squad, this support suit can either be a commander or a bodyguard. Either way he has, at minimum: A MSSS, C&CN, PEC, XV8-02 Armour, DC, CDS and VRT. He costs about 139 points although this still varies while I look to find my final (favourite) way to build my farsight bomb. Representing the various systems on the model proved a challenge, as he has 5 systems that need to be represented WYSIWYG. The model started out a little iffy, but by the time I was finished, I loved the look of the support suit. He's laiden with ridiculously complex-looking equipment, just right for the ridiculous tool that is the support suit. 

The Support Suit:

The first thing that should be imediately obvious is the weird pose of this suit. Since he has no guns, his arms are left kinda hanging around his chest. It's also notable that I reposed his leg in the air, simply because I hated the senic bit on the bottom.Unfortunately, this act left the model -very - unbalanced, so much so that I've put small pieces of brass in its base as well as gap filler.

I had to rummage through my bits to find suitable pieces. The most simple were the Drone Controller and CDS, on his jetpack stacks. One's a riptide bit and the other's a commander kit piece. More subtley beneath the jetpac stacks, I've added two pieces from the Riptide SMS bits - these are my "Vectored Retro Thrusters" I imagined being 'retro' thrusters, they have to face the opposite way to actual thrusters, making placement a non-issue. 

Representing the MSSS came easily in the form of the Hammer Head Sensor Spines (above, on the suit's arm) - It seemed an obvious idea that a tool designed to plot courses to traverse terrain would be able to identify threats. Also Noticeable on this suit is the inclusion of the Smart Missile System's frame on the hands - simply used to represent the enhanced protection of XV8-02 armour. I figured that the Enforcer Armour was already indicative of XV8-02 enhancements - my story for it is that the frames provide a kind of latent shielding that's weaker than a shield generator, but enough to greatly enhance the suit's protective capabilities, while also rendering the user more resilient to damage.

Finally, the NSJ, PEC and C&CN are represented by one nifty and understated gadget on the suit's helm. This piece is from the Pathfinder's kit, and is meant to go on as a backpack for the tau Pathfinder Shas'ui, shown left. 

The Final Part of this series is scheduled  to be posted soon, which will feature my GOI/NZ Librarian. After this is complete I will do a sort of "Armies on Parade" post. Until then!