Tau allies conversion ideas

I'm a little unfocused when it comes to projects, I have too many, lol. I had always thought that my Dark Eldar army would have a Daemon theme, been thinking of ideas around that. The Daemon theme seemed to fit, and give some decent opportunities for conversions. I'm a fan of conversions. But now with 6th edition and allies, I've been thinking about the Tau.

My favorite story from the codex is the one where Urien Rakarth decieved the Tau; helping save them from the Tyranids, only to demand payment in bodies to experiment on. It's pretty much the only story I remember reading from the whole codex, lol. So with my Dark Eldar project on hold, I've been thinking about changing the theme to include Tau allies.

Speaking of changing my mind, I was going to use Rat Ogres with Talos bits for Grotesques, and lately my thoughts have been drifting to the the new Crypt Ghouls for that. So what to do with the rat bodies? Here's the Idea... Tau Allies, in the hands of a Haemonculous.

Grotesque Broadsides/Crisis suits: use the Rat Ogre bodies, Crisis legs (think the new Darth Maul), some other Tau bits and weapons, some Talos bits (could stick with the Talos mask or a Crisis Suit helm for the head). For a Broadside, strap the rail guns to the arms and make it look like it's holding on to a handle on the gun. or even replace the forarm with the rail gun.Can even jimmy up the disk thing in the Talos kit as a Dark Eldar Shield Drone, mix match, you get the idea.

Do you guys have any ideas or thoughts? It's one of those things where it might be hard to visualize without a picture. I can try to do a mock-up. Just need to pick up a crisis suit to muck with. And it might end up being one of those things that are better as an idea, and not so hot in practice.

Tau...they are terrible allies, believe me, but sing parts for conversion...maybe. Im not that big a fan of conversions, but i do have seen some awesome ones on this forum.
Hmm...grotesques with twin railgunz...mmm, tempting

lol, read a rumor that grotesques are getting more options via white dwarf, you never know! I hear you on the Tau allies, most allies really, sucks only having eldar as battle brothers. mr fancy pants eldar, humph.

mukslinger wrote:

I was going to use Rat Ogres with Talos bits for Grotesques, and lately my thoughts have been drifting to the the new Crypt Ghouls for that.

I take it you mean the Crypt Horrors? (The dual kit that also makes Vargheists.) The Ghouls are man-sized - though you could use Ghouls for Wracks and Crypt Horrors for Grots, which would give them more unity.

mukslinger wrote:

So what to do with the rat bodies? Here's the Idea... Tau Allies, in the hands of a Haemonculous.

Grotesque Broadsides/Crisis suits: use the Rat Ogre bodies, Crisis legs (think the new Darth Maul), some other Tau bits and weapons, some Talos bits (could stick with the Talos mask or a Crisis Suit helm for the head). For a Broadside, strap the rail guns to the arms and make it look like it's holding on to a handle on the gun. or even replace the forarm with the rail gun.Can even jimmy up the disk thing in the Talos kit as a Dark Eldar Shield Drone, mix match, you get the idea.

So I take it these would count as Tau for rules purposes, but just be DE-ified to fit in with your army and fluff, so you could say they're really some sort of super-Grot counts-as crisis suit. Right? Could work, but like you say I'd probably need to see a mock up to be sure.

Also if the models were really DE Coven creations, the allies of convenience rules would be slightly odd - but best you can do given the rules I guess.

Just a thought I had from reading the post -

What if the Haemonculi mutated the pilots while they were still inside the suits. Perhaps pumped them with some sort of growth excellerating steroid or something. Imagine the Tau inside buldging through his armor using the Crisis Suit model as a base. Hating the Eldar for what they had become yet unable to rejoin their own Empire due to their new appearance. Figures it would fit with their place on the allies rule chart / make for interesting conversions. That way you'd be able to use the Tau suits as the base of the conversion and make them Dark Eldarish (is that a word?) all at the same time.

Just a brainstorm I had when reading this post