Hit the Ground Running [Picture Heavy]

Greetings! I'm a food science major at Oregon State University and have a fluctuating list of hobbies. I may burn out and disappear for long periods of time, only to show up again as if nothing happened. I'll probably make some Halo gear eventually but I'm more a fan of other content on this site. From what I've seen this is a wonderful community and I look forward to getting to know it better.

I noticed a lack of Warhammer 40k content, particularly for dirty xenos like the Tau. With this in mind, I've begun work on making the templates for a stealth suit. So far I have the right shoulder pad done and can already tell this thing will be interesting to try and wear since you'd be up on your toes and hunched over. Suggestions, pointers, criticisms, and comments in general are welcome and appreciated. I promise that I'll post my .blend files if I ditch this so that someone can pick this up if they deem it worthy.

ANYHOO! Pictures.

Off to a good start man! Keep it up.

Nice to see another Tau armorer

I working on the weapons.

That's great! I've seen a couple of your Tau posts but haven't quite got the hang of navigating here. Has anyone built any of your designs or are any of them ready to go? I'd love to get my hands on a pulse rifle.

EDIT:
I grabbed a human model to put the armor on to check fitting. On top of that, I have the left shoulder pad done. I think I'll do the gauntlets next.



DOUBLE EDIT:
Worked out a helmet, I think it could use a lot of improvement but it'll serve as practice and a placeholder.


Here's how it looks now


TRIPLE EDIT:
Scratch the helmet, I realized that the wearer is upright and looking at a screen hooked up to cameras in the 'head' at the front. I think the solution might be vacuforming clear plastic and painting it like the homemade reflective masks (sans gloss) if possible. Also, clipping needs to be addressed. This still needs the huge head piece and backpack before it starts to be really recognizable.

Good work there man, keep going on it'll only get better.

I'm gonna strat on the eapons again, starting with revamped models.

I'm going to finish the design project this month but I've realized that its actual creation for wearing would be very challenging and potentially expensive compared to other builds. The helmet that I have on the model in my previous post would actually be held about two feet in front of the chest. I had thought the wearer was hunched over but looking more carefully the 'head' is a camera system and there are probably some sort of screens inside the suit in-world. This leaves two options: Rig optics so that the wearer can see like the fictional character can, which is expensive and would require some form of puppetry OR create the helmet out of transparent material (I'm thinking cast it clear and use the reflective mask technique) which would be challenging and probably also expensive. Either way, there is no way in the near future that I, at least, will be able to make this suit in its full physical glory.