New Life for some Old Tau

Gonna try 2x Railhead 1x Skyray for a bit and see how it runs. I had one before so just needed the two. =)

So I finally have one Skyray put together and have all 6 Seeker Missiles magnatized for easy tracking during gameplay.



Now I have to finish putting magnets in the all the Hammerhead weapons and the other will be done (in case I ever want to switch between a Railgun or Ion-Cannon, since there have been a number of people who have pointed out the benefit of Longstrike in an Ion-head).

So the work gods were kind and I actually haven't had to do any work this weekend. Amazing! Therefore I managed to get both Hammerhead hulls and the mostly assembled Riptide primed yesterday using the Airbrush. I must say using one for base coats is amazing. Its like using spray primer only so much easier to control. I can see learning a lot of valuable tricks to painting with one in the future. Also I shamelessly using Ben's (Spamus Eatus) guide for painting DW and modifying it slightly. I started by priming everything white. For my first Hammerhead I then inked the whole thing using Nuln Oil. I decided to use that since one of my other colors is black and thought it would tie the models together better (My three primary colours are white, black, and a deep green - currently caliban). The color I have decided to use on the viewport and engines along with any weapons is blue.







Now the only thing I am really considering is what to paint all the raised "bubbles" and "bumps". I know I want the little sectioned area around it white, but should I paint them green? black? blue? some other random color?

You were using blue for the little lenses and baubles for the rest of your army, yes? I think it would probably make sense to do the same here.

So I am trying to finish the assembly of everything for my Astronomicon list and the finish priming it. The downside to this tactic is my Riptides will become incredibly fidly to paint later when I do detail work. So I was sitting there starting at them on Sunday and went "I wonder...." 







I magnetized the elbow joints and that shoulder joints for both arms. Along with the standard two points on the shield hand for fusion/plasm/smartmissiles, the two shoulder mounts for support systems, and the primary weapon & side bar. Was fairly pleased with it. Was going to try and magnetize the waist, but didn't have any nearly strong enough and cannot afford to wait till I can get some. Just have to do the same for the second and I will have everything built. Then I have to finish priming and painting. Will have to stop playing torchlight 2 for a couple of days (damn you steam summer sale!).

So I finished 95% of the first black coat on everything last night. I say 95% because as I go through stuff I am sure there will be things that I missed (I just noticed I forgot the top half of one of the pathfinders >.>). Today I am going to do some basing, just for a break. Then it will be on today the green paneling. I am hoping to get all of that done today as well. Once all of that is done I have to go back and properly do white on everything, leaving that nice wash I did where I want shading and indented lines. What do you guys think?














Like I said I am not expecting great scores from appearance. Maybe 15-20/40.

Whilst making and unauthorized deep strike from the table to the floor my Commander mishaped and suffered a gruesome injury. I swear GW whomever is responsible for all Tau battlesuits have the most fragile ankles imaginable needs a good thumpin'.



Debating how I am going to fix him. Would like to pin the ankles back together. However I don't really have anything on hand to pin it with. That and with how small the area I can drill into is.... I am unsure if I will be able to do it. If I just use glue/epoxy on the surface though the next time he tips over he is going to snap in the exact same spot.

So here are some quick snapshots of what I am taking to Astronomi-con.