New Life for some Old Tau

I thought I would throw up a blog detailing my Tau army. Perhaps I will be more apt to actually finish them this way since painting has always been one of my problems. Have always been more than willing to assemble and play but never paint. With that in mind, first we have a couple of fire warrior pics of one of my models being mostly done with the white and black portions.





I also have to include some photos of A Sensor Tower and a Tau Tetra, from our recent Forge World order.

What's with you guys and breaking stuff, are you using Internet Explorer or something?
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I also have to include some photos of A Sensor Tower and a Tau Tetra, from our recent Forge World order.

Looking good so far Tom.

Thin your paints. The GW whites are *very* clumpy and you should have 2-parts water, 1-part paint when using it, and do a couple of thinned coats, that'll give it a much smoother look.

(I know because I'm clumping up like mad on Thiessen's dudes O_O, learn from my fail)

I am kind of curious as to what you're going to use as your tertiary colour for these guys. I also found that thinned down dollar store acrylic somewhere around 1:1 or 2:3 works really nice. I don't like thinning Citadel paints for some reason, probably because of how little they give you to work with in that $5 bottle.

hrm, i posted the pictures with google chrome using photobucket. first time posting images like that so might have put the wrong link in? It shows up fine both on my home and work computer (using firefox at work).

I've noticed that the whites from gw "clump" or at the very least are not very smooth when applying them. this is compounded by the fact that the pictures are taken with my wonderful camera phone lol. I havent decided how i am going to handle it on my next back of fire warriors (my first ten I am going to paint similarly just to have a similar look). I am toying with the idea of priming white on the next bunch and going over with the black on the crevices and pants/whatnot. My tertiary color for them is going to be a deep green ( the only one i have now is caliban green). This will tie them in with my kroot (i am doing the base part of their skin with the same caliban green). I am also going to be picking some very small things out in bronze/gold.

Well.. I would never reccomend using craft acrylc paints for minis. For the odd colour you can get away with it but for painting a whole mini you have to put so many layers on as the paint is so low pigmented. Terrain and stuff where your drybrushing mainly you can get away with it.. But even then you have to do more layers.

This comimg from someone whos first minis were painted with testors paints with no priming... I was using primarily craft paints for years and years as well but switched over to the proper paints fully about ten years ago. Youll save more paint buying a gw small pot and doing one layer then a craft pot and doing 4.. And the time !

Tom (agewymourn) - what gw paint are yiu using.. It is going on really think. Are you using the base or layer white? Ive used the base alot and it can definitly be thinned down easily. If its the layer then maybe start witha darker base colour.. Even adding a bit of colour into the ceramite white base for the first layer.. Then work up to a white highlight. Having a flat white block is tough not only paint but to make look smooth.

I am currently using the base white (ceramite white from GW). i think i will finish this group(since the first 2 coats of white are done on 7 of them and the other 3 have their first coat of white on) and then try the next group by priming white instead of black . then with the third batch ill prime black and try the watered down white. worst come to worst ill just have to strip them and start over

Yeah.. Even though the ceramite white is an awesome product.. It still needs an extra layer on black.

One thing id never do myself though is paint the pure white on black and just building up. You'll need multiple layers and unless you thin it a bit.. Adding even more layers.. Itll get clumpy like how its showing.. And wjite it the worst colour for seeing lumps and clumps because the light catches it all

I would either start with a slightly darker foundation and then do the white after or just mix in some beige/flesh/bone colour into your white to give a bit darker foundation.

Im doing white right now on some terminators using the methos i mentioned above if you want to see a result picture.

You should also know that painting an army white is probably the toughest colour to choose. Like you said thouhj.. Priming white then giving it a couple washes then hitting the top areas with ceramite white is a way way easier route to go.

Thanks for the tips. I think ill try out two other squads with the alternate methods and see which I prefer the most. I have a feeling that priming white and painting/washing black is going to be my best bet though. If I have time I will try and finish off that first squad most of the way to completion and see what you all think. Then again, borderlands 2 just came out and my copy should be getting here today/tomorrow.... so maybe not!

i find my ceramite white gets clumpy too. if you want a very opaque white that goes on smoothly, army painter warpaints white does a nice job. if i do an all white model again, i'll be using that white instead.

Managed to get the first two layers of white on. redid some of the black lines (cheated with a 1mm pen hee hee). and got the first coat of grey for their bases.

Managed to get the first coat/coat and a half of green on the shoulder pad portion for the first squad. also decided to do the opposite kneepad to help move some color over to that side of the model as well.

I think the tertiary colour really brings a lot to the table there. Now we just need to see how well they hold up on Saturday!

Edit: have you considered doing a 4th color at all? Not to push or anything, but I'm seeing some segments where an analogous colour could really shine. I'll scrible something up in SAI in a moment to show what I mean.

I know a lot of Tau follow black and white with a single color for detailing, but using another color in the analogous color spectrum to your current green could help your dudes stand out from other Tau while maintaining the clean style provided by the models. Both examples in my example doodle are actually using the same color, just at different values. The brown variant gives kind of a camo vibe.

Hey Tom. Those are some awesome sketches. I might end up going with something like that. I have yet to totally decide how the finished model will look because there are a couple of things I still have yet to decide colors for. I think im going to go with a bone kind of color for the hooves. However I have to decide if i want to paint the gloves a different color. Then I have to do all the lenses on the models (i think im going to go with a light blue which will be the same for the nubs on the ends of the barrels). And finally I have to decide what I am going to do with their backpacks. It is probably my least favorite part of the model. I like all of the other design work on them I just dont understand the aesthetic value to having a sleek model with a big boxy backpack. Especially since its not like they are power armored or anything. You can have a closer look at what i am talking about on saturday. plus the models look rather different in person, dont have the greatest cell camera.

Was going to try and get a whole bunch of painting done today since the wife and I had holidays today. Instead I managed to get 6 crisis done with 3 magnets each. Also managed to get all my fusion/plasma/missile/multi-trackers magnetized as well. Ends up working out pretty well. Originally used 1/16th magnets but they were nowhere near powerful enough. Using the 1/8th magnets and they fit almost as well and work much better.

Managed to get a bit more work done the last two days. I am now 10/12ths done with my first squad of Fire Warriors. They still have quite a bit of detail work to finish but I think for gaming purposes (and attempting to get everything painted before the tournament) I can safely move on. Was really happy with how the bareheaded one turned out. Normally my attempts at flesh leave both me and anyone viewing it horrified. Would have liked to do more for the bases, but since I don't have much in the way of bits, doing sand and painting over worked well enough.

Managed to get 4 drones based today (they had been previously painted. Also decided to try and minorly convert them closer to the shield drones they are supposed to be.

Skin kinda reminds me of the aliens from "Enemy Mine"

After a quick google search I would be inclined to agree.

DISK! DISK GOES IN CASE! NEW GAME DISK GOES IN CASE!!!!

Enemy mine.. Yowza.. I havent even thought about that movie for years. Danny glover as a hermaohrodite alien right? Hehe.. Oh man.. I only saw that movie once..

Planes wrote:DISK! DISK GOES IN CASE! NEW GAME DISK GOES IN CASE!!!!

normally i would agree with you but since the game has to be registered and played through steam, it might as well be a coaster =p

Reinforcements have arrived! Managed to convince Cheryl to let me buy more barbies in exchange for house/yardwork. I'm sure she'll make me think I got the wrong end of the stick later but right now I don't care



Now I simply have to assemble and paint. Two things I tend to procrastinate on

Lou gossett Jr, Robyn. Danny Glover was too old for that shit.

Tom, coming together nicely. Dual hammers eh?