Cushak's Tau Cadre Blog

Hey there, I decided I would keep track of my progress in preparing my army, and figured that doing so in a Blog format will force me to keep it organized. (As well as help motivate me to keep at it.)

So to start off with, here's a picture of what's assembled so far:

From left to right:
6 Crysis suits (weapons are magnetized for adaptability)
- 4 of the missile pods are scratch built... because I like missile pods
4 Shield drones
3 Vehicle chassis (can be Devilfish transports or Hammerhead tanks)
1 Tau Ethereal with Honour Blade
9 Gun Drones
8 Kroot Hounds
14 Fire-warriors
1 Krootox
16 Kroot Carnivores
1 Kroot Shaper

And models I still need to assemble are:
12 Fire-warriors
12 Kroot Carnivores
3 Stealth Suits
1 More vehicle Chassis (yet to arrive)
Convert 6 fire warriors into Pathfinders

And a close-up of the paint jobs I've done so far:


The next item on my "to-do" list is to finish of magnetizing the crysis weapons (about 5 more to go) and magnetize the last set of turret weapons for one of the hammerheads, after that, it's finalizing the paint job on the first twelve fire-warriors (4 guys need highlights, lenses, two need white shoulder pads and 7 need the boots painted). After painting, I'll transfer them over to the completed bases I've got ready and waiting, than seal them in something, though I'm not sure what yet (recommendations?).

I also need to get a better case.

Looking good, i have always liked the looks of tau but never got around to playing it.

Hunters of the warp on the computer YA!

they look really nice keep up the good work

Got some more done today, I finished off the firewarriors that I had going (13 done so far) and got them mounted on the bases I had made up (used greenstuff to try and give them a bit more definition.)


And I did the first basecoat on a XV-8, this being the first painting on a model with white prime (using the auto primer suggested to me by Jhare) He'll need at least another coat of the basecoat before the next step. This guy is more of a proof of concept for the paint-scheme on the XV-8's; hopefully it will look as good as I'm imagining it will.

Ohh That battlesuit looks goood.lol. Keep up the good work.

Almost finished that crysis suit. I just need to do the highlights on the grey areas, but I just couldn't do anymore tonight. Applied a transfer onto the back, unsure if I like how it looks, I couldn't get it to apply as smoothly as I would have liked on a curved surface. I tried adding a little bit of paint onto the decal (black on black, white on white, tan on clear) to help it blend a little bit. Thanks to my shaky hands it lost a little bit of sharpness but you can't tell very much from a table-top view. Maybe once I get a coat of dull-coat on there it'll "blend" better.




In the end I think this guy's serving his purpose. While not complete (needs grey highlights and dry-brushed black around the jetpack ports, as well as some minor chipping.) He does confirm for me the colour scheme. There is a noticeable difference however when comparing the white-primed crisis suit to the black primed firewarriors, the black primer makes the colours seem more toned down and natural IMO, which does look a bit better as a camoflauging colour, although I don't think the colours on the crisis suit are too bright to warrant a change of primer. With some chipping and weathering though, it may tone down the overall vibrancy of the tan, we'll have to see.

Next up: Finish the 4 shield drones I've got started. I'm also considering magnetizing the crysis shoulder mounts so I can swap out multitrackers, shield generators and target locks to make the models more WYSIWYG while keeping the adaptability.

That battlesuit looks good. I want to see the finished product but it looks good right now. If that makes sense

nice stuff keep doing what your doing.

Just experimenting with some weathering and terrain techniques, and I have a before and after photo for you:

(This was an old model I had painted when trying out different pain schemes, so he's missing some things like lensing)



I'm trying out some woodland scenics "field grass" I picked up from hobby world. Once the glue holding it down is dry I'll have to pick over it with a needle and tweezers, and remove the sideways ones to make it look a little more natural.

The dust was done with an oil pastel that was crushed up into a powder. I dipped a soft, fluffy brush (like a make-up brush) in this powder, and tapped it to sprinkle the powder on the model. I shook the excess off, and than used the brush to wipe the little clumps around and smear them. I applied more to the boots and knee pads, as they would get dirter in real life as well.

I'm going to have to reconsider some of the ways the bases were done, as ATM it looks not totally natural to me. Maybe I'll try dusting some of the powder on there in the same way, and blend in some different coloured pastels.

Anyways, what do you guys think?

I think the grass takes away from the paint and the look of the model. Shorter grass like the one on the base would look good in my opinion.

imo the second one dosen't look all that great. I think you should keep that style of basing and use shorter grass like the first pic, but if you like the long grass then go for it.

Ya, on the second base I wanted to test how it looked with "thick" grass, although you're right it looks weird with a single tall clump. (It may also be how thick the grass is, I'll have to check out some reference pictures) On another firewarrior I just did up I wend back to the smaller clumps (still about the same height, but much smaller in size.

Originally I was thinking of doing a grasslands basing, with all the bases being covered in waist high grass. Think of just wild, rolling grasslands. Once I did the sand bases up, I liked them, and I can still add contours and some foliage. (Adding one or two small clumps of grass is much less time and money consuming as well)

Aaaand last update for awhile, have a midterm next week and the next item on the "to do" list is a tank.

The crysis suit fully chipped, dirtied, and based.(Note: the white at the base of the grass clumps will go away once the glue dries, as well than I can pluck the couple pieces of grass that are sticking sideways)




I'm actually really happy with how the effect the pastel-powder has on the model. It really blended my highlighting a lot (before the difference was quite stark), and the jet-pack residue on the back looks much better than just dry-brushing black paint.

that grass looks better on the battlesuit:)

Very slick. I quite like the look.

Been a while since I've done an update, so I've got done.


Having liked using Pathfinders the last couple games, I took some firewarriors and converted them. All that was needed was shaving off the leg amour, rounding off where the backpack normally goes, and removing the right shoulderpad. Than it needed some greenstuff to fill it out and hide the knife marks. I went ahead and made up some "rail rifle" counts-as, by extending the barrel on a pulse rifle and adding a "scope" to the top. Also, I figured it would look good if some of them had radio backpacks for when they were on their long range reconnaissance missions.


I've also been painting my vehicle chassis. I've got one completely base-coated (still needs highlighting, weathering, lensing etc) but I wasn't sure about the colour scheme, so I've started base-coating another to compare. I can't decide!


On the one that's still being base-coated the scheme is that all the leftover white areas (except the cockpit lense) will be OD.

the veichles look pretty good. i need to see the pathfinders painted because i can't see much detail on them when there bare

This is an extremely good-looking Tau army.

The only complaint I would have is that the weathering on the battlesuit is too "waxy" - it looks more like model damage than actual weathering. However, this may only be at close range - at tabletop view the model may just look a lot better.

HolyCause wrote:This is an extremely good-looking Tau army.

The only complaint I would have is that the weathering on the battlesuit is too "waxy" - it looks more like model damage than actual weathering. However, this may only be at close range - at tabletop view the model may just look a lot better.

I think this may be because I used a matte gray for the metal scratches, rather than a metallic. I used the latter on the battle tank I'm about to post; does this remove that "model damage" look you were seeing?


Inspired by all the project updates, I decided to get on it and finish off a tank, weathering and all. Again, used pastels for smoke and dirt, I'm still liking how that's working out. And here's the tank




Turn signals on a Hammerhead!

For reference this is what it looked like before pastels were applied:

that looks really good, is your whol e army painted?

sewerstalker wrote:that looks really good, is your whol e army painted?

No I got much, much further to go. I'm just posting up to get comments and criticisms so I can make it better as I go.

You should put the weathering on the back. You know, because the Tau are always running away!

But seriously, they look really great. I always like well-done vehicles, especially since I hate painting vehicles so much.

Weathering is looking good sir. Are you sealing it with anything particular?

Testors gloss cote followed by dull cote, I've heard that just using dull cote isn't as strong a protection as the glossy lacquer, and using the two was the best idea.