had this one set to "notify" and am glad I did, good job Jordtron. Best Tau I have seen for awhile and really like those bases, sets them off well.

Jordtron, are you using the Citadel Basing Kit?

Yes, for the large rocks I am. For the main body of the base material I am using a mixture of fine sand/small rocks, and then I affix the large rocks on in some blank areas on the base.

Posting shots of the Fire Warrior Squad and a Hammerhead update tomorrow...


-Jord

Here's the first Fire Warrior Squad finished and based! They look purdy when they're next to my Commander and Piranha...



And here's the first engine completed for my Hammerhead. I'm going to go back later and add in the metallic chippings and white vehicle markings all at once so it doesn't look too wonky.




-Jord

Hey there JordT!

Still great work! I have been following this since the start and wondered if you could give a full run down of the pallet that you are using? (I imagine scab red, redgore, brown ink?+ deneb and white?)

Anyway, as per usual, I have had my head turned and just when I thought I had my cadre's colours worked out!! (damn your eyes;-)

This has coincided with the wonderful colour spread in the BRB and now I am seriously considering this scheme with the Bor'kan touch.

I cant think of a negative for such a unique, stand out start to what I hope will be a huge force!!
(mine is 3000 pts and is a week away from the "airgun tanning booth" )

cheers

Warhound

Thanks warhound!

Here is the rundown of the palette I am using:

• Basecoat of Mechrite Red
• Black Ink wash over recesses
• Highlights with Blood Red
• Extreme highlights with 50/50 Blood Red + Blazing Orange
• Chaos Black + Black Ink for weathering
• Boltgun Metal for chipping effect
• Codex Grey for cloth armor, highlight with Fortress Grey
• Extreme cloth armor highlight of 50/50 Fortress Grey + Skull White
• Skull White for all sept/squad markings
• Goblin Green with Scorpion Green highlight for lenses

Some of the 50/50 mixtures can even be substituted out, they aren't entirely necessary. The nature of Blood Red is very strange - it is either really orange or really subdued. The Green on the lenses takes a while to get them looking neon. I usually slip in some Skull White to make it pop on the edge. Hope that helps some?


-Jord

I wish I could weather as good as you can. I never know where to start. Any chance we could get a visual step by step on your weathering process? For those of us that can only read picture books with any success ;-)

Good stuff as usual JT! I have a question to ask, mind... Will we be seeing a Farsight model from you any time soon, or at all?

Keep up the good work

Thank to those who keep responding! I know I do not update as frequently as some users, but the feedback definitely helps keep me motivated.

• Hindsight: Sure, the next time I am starting fresh with a model I will go through the weathering process for you. It is pretty straightforward.
  
• Fraggle: You will be seeing a Commander Farsight model from me, yes - but that's a way's away. In due time! After the Hammerhead I have another squad of FW's to paint, some more Crisis Suits, a Stealth team, then probably Farsight. I have to set aside some time to do some converting on him, as well.

Thanks for the comments guys, back to basecoating the rest of "ye olde & war-torne" Hammerhead.


-Jord

Hey guys,

Bit of a minor update, the second Hammerhead engine is done (minus the metallics, like its brother) and the Hammerhead chassy is almost completely base-coated.






-Jord

Now THAT is some serious mechrite red action going down in the hood!

Really nice to see this coming together. Could I ask on our collective behalf that the hull be painted in a stage by stage with photos?

This is a fantastic example to all, on not only how to base coat, wash, highlight, weather- but also, it is a vehicle! Not many tutorials out there that will cover those basics for newbies to the hobby!

Keep it up!

Warhound
EDIT: OH, and it helps that your photography is high quality to show the best examples of posting too!

Sure, I think that a photo-process would be do-able! This thing is rather large and requires a lot of paint (burned through so much Mechrite Red already!), so updates might be slow, but I can definitely do it. Thanks for the compliments, about my models and my photography, I spend a good deal of time preparing both.


-Jord

This is an excellent thread, which is holding our attention superbly!

E.

First step:



Before I make things dirty, I make sure they're clean...so, after the basecoat of Mechrite Red I start cleaning up the overpainted areas with Chaos Black. Areas like lenses, vents, exhaust ports, things that I know I want to be black need to be cleaned up so there's no red on them. Afterwords, I begin establishing the armor panel lines and do some basic shading. For this I use mostly Black Ink, because it goes right in the nooks and crannies and provides a much more time efficient method than lining everything with watered-down Chaos Black (which, subsequently I do use for touch-up areas and areas that need dark shadows). I also make sure to water it down because I don't want it really pronounced, or else I would use straight Chaos Black.

I try to do my best to only get the recesses, and not to do any flat areas yet, because that is part of the next step. As you can see in the picture above, I got a little ahead of myself and began to add in some grease and weathering marks near the drone recesses. If you get a little messy with the inks and there is some excess bleeding from the grooves, I usually let it slide because we're going to be making it appear worn and weathered soon.

Here are some detail shots:






To summarize, all I have done so far is:

• Basecoat of Mechrite Red
• Clean up overpainted areas with Chaos Black
• Begin shading and lining with Black Ink

Looking at it now, I will probably dull down the grease effect near the drone recesses...it looks a little strong. Until next time,

-Jord

Stop!!!!

don't go near the drone recesses! WHat you have achieved so far is a very realistic effect and most people would love to achieve that through 'accident';-)

Speaking of which, am I right that your definition of shading is to use thinned down black ink to 'retro' shade towards edges, muchin the same way as most people highlight towards the edges. The difference being that you leave a little 'meniscus' at the edge to create a natural highlight?

(I only ask as it appears that way to me, but to many others it would seem 'magical' that you achieved this)

Otherwise a very interesting and insightful start to this WIP!

Cheers

Warhound

Alright! I won't touch the recesses. It just seemed a little too much, I was going to tone it down in a few areas.

You are very much right in how I go about shading with the ink, it takes time and many thinned down coats. It was in fact an accident. However, instead of shading towards the edge I go away from it. I start with the thickest part, and slowly water it down and drag it away from the edge. This way I have better control over the "meniscus" area (as you have dubbed it) to in effect create a natural highlight, but I'm just going to put Blood red there anyhow. I have also gone over it with thinned Chaos Black to get rid of the "ink shine" that occurs when you pile inks on top of one another, sort of a way to put a semi-matte coat on top of the ink to control it.

Hope that helps...

-Jord

Second step:



I began by highlighting the armor plates with Blood Red. In some cases I want a gradual highlight so I start with a thick, watered-down lining of Blood Red then a thick final edge highlight with Blood Red. You can see I did this along some of the long & straight armor panel edges to give it a smoother effect. I have also gotten ahead of myself in that I started adding weathering around the intake/exhaust ports on the top side of the hull, and that was accomplished by laying down several base coats of the new Badab Ink, and building up an exhaust "area" to work with then simply drybrushing Chaos Black over it, being careful not to drag it too far backwards on the hull.

In retrospective, it does appear to be a little "brighter" than my Piranha, and the rest of my forces...this is probably the amount of Blood Red that I used for the highlights. So I probably will be making it a tad bit darker. I also forgot to highlight the front optics piece on the nose of the ship. Gotta go back and do that before I begin weathering, too. I will also be cleaning up the shading aroudn the recesses. It needs to be cut back a smidgen. Now that we have a (semi-)clean model, we can start weathering it...

Detail shot:




Summary:

• Highlight along armor panels with Blood Red
• Clean up areas with watered-down Mechrite Red
• Begin preliminary weathering using watered-down Black/Badab Ink

Until next time,

-Jord

Third step:



I begin by going over the front areas near the nose with Black/Badab Ink. This lays down the preliminary area of where I want to lay down the black "chipping" areas. I try to be a little generous with the inking as I want it to show through. I do this all over the model, thinking of where I want wear & tear to go on the flat areas keeping in mind which direction I want the "swishes" to go. Admittedly, I do go overboard on the black swishes and chippings, and I often times have to go back and delete them using Mechrite Red. I will probably end up doing this on the two engines to match the overall weathering of the entire vehicle.

I also took the liberty to do the white markings by hand, just like my other vehicles. If you aren't privy to the idea of hand-painting sept/vehicle markings then I would just use the decals and paint over them to blend them in to the weathering. Regardless of which path you choose you still have to dirty up the white so it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb. To do this, I just got my brush almost dry and literally poked around with the tips of my bristles to create a stippling effect over the white to make it look chipped. I also added in some watered down Black/Badab Ink so it's not pure white next to pure black near the front stripes. It doesn't matter that much, though - because the final step is simply adding in Boltgun Metal chipping over some of the black swishes, which will draw your attention away from the white a little bit.


Here's some detail shots:






Just when I thought I was making some headway, I realized that I still have the Railgun and SMS Drones to paint up. Oh well. The next update should be the final or at least close to the final step of weathering, after that I have some lenses and the black areas to paint.


-Jord

Jordtron - very nice work, and the WIP shots are appreciated.

I have to say that I am currently trying to figure out my Tau colour scheme before I start hitting models with paint and your thread is seriously leading me towards the path of redness...

The other ideas I have are bone with lightish (faded) blue but red is certainly strong on my mind every time I look at this thread, you are purely evil! lol

I really look forward to seeing more of this cadre painted up, could you take a full army shot at some point? Do you (will you) have a themed board as well?

Thanks for the feedback!

I feel the pain of your color scheme predicament. I was in a similar position not too long ago. The good news about this scheme is that the Mechrite Red foundation paint color does a lot of the work for you, it's great. It is very easy to highlight, shade, and otherwise control/tweak to your liking.

I can do a group shot if you would like, but I only have my Commander, a Firewarrior squad, a Piranha, and my Hammerhead currently painted. My stuff isn't really that impressive compared to the size of some other armies on here. The next thing on the to-do list is the second squad of Firewarriors, and after those are done I think that it will start to look like an actual army...not just a combat patrol.

Next update should be within the next day or so! So stick around.


-Jord