Hello everybody!
I'm currently building a Tau army for 'the tale of 40 gamers' at my local gaming shop and I'm going to put pics of the progress of my army on this thread. At the end of February, I should have glued and painted 500pts.
I would say 'enjoy' . C&C are always appreciated

Tau Fire Warrior Squad 1:




some close-ups:








The first of my second Tau FW Squad:




Stealth Suit Team:

Very nicely done! I like the stealth team members with the stealth field shimmer. I thought about doing something similar with my stealth guys but I didn't think I had the skill to execute it well.

I also like the sept markings on the helmet and rifle. Well done all around.

the sept markings are rather big, but the stealth suits and every other aspect is amazing
I actually did my daemonhunters for the tale of 40 gamers, since my modified sa'cea army was already painted.

This is a really great looking army. I would have to say that I'm not too crazy about the size of the Sept markings, but since my Cadre is from Sa'Cea as well, I'll let it slide . How did you get the markings to look so straight? Just a steady hand?

I like the size of the sept markings. They look like tiger stripes! They're Grrrrrrrrrrrrrreat!

First of all thanks for all the comments so far



The markings are so straight because they are (apparently) rather big, so it's easy to work with and because I use a very fine brush to paint over any excessive paint so I've got nice straight lines (if you understand what I mean )

Hey everybody!
(Sorry for the 'threadomancy', but I kinda forgot I had a thread on this forum )
Anyway, back on topic. At the end of February, I had to present my army to the judges and I got all my points. HOERAY!
Here are some pics:






I also started painting for the deadline at the end of this month. I need to increase my army with 250 pts, so I decided to paint up a Devilfish and a Hammerhead. The Devilfish is painted, but I still need to start with the HH. Here are some pics:









C&C are always appreciated

oh! so great! I love this scheme.

Hello Shadowblade!

I really like you're colour scheme dude! Actually doing a Sa'Cea sept of my own (only difference is that I'm using white instead of orange).
I also think the worn look on the devilfish looks cool, really stands out in a good way.

If I must point out something It must be the moldlines on the fusinon gun (talking about the stealthsuits), but that's an easy fix.

Awesome army and good luck with future competitions!

-Puretide-

thanks for the comments uptill now!
It really motivates me to keep on going!

Looks really great and I really like the stealth suits stealth field shimmer effect. Cool idea.

But there is one thing I'd like to see a small change on. Your devilfish.
I think you've over done the wear and tear effect on it. It looks like it hasn't had any maintance since it first came in service.
I think it would look really good if you'd just tone down the effect just a little bit. After all, they are tau and I'm pretty sure they have strict maintanance schedules.

But in general, looking really good.
Hope to see more soon.

This is probably the best painted Tau army I've seen on ATT.

It looks really nice! I especially like the eyepieces (i always fail at those) and the helmet marks on the first squad. My only thumbs down is hoe dirty the devilfish is. I mean, some of the other stuff in your army is dirty, but not THAT dirty.

So, what is going on exactly with the judging and stuff? Are you going to like, build up your forces, have a battle at the end of every month with what you've painted, finishing it off with an apoc battle? Or something? Help me, I'm confused.

Looking really good. I have to agree about the weathering on the 'Fish though. Probably a little OTT. It's also nice to see someone else who realises the value of a GD squadron.

Your Tau look very good. The size of the sept makrings is very unusual, but it actually looks good. It makes the helmet a little more colorful.
The case with your weathering effect on the D-Fish, I second Iceplague. Maybe you should tone it a little bit down. Right now it looks like after a reentry into the atmosphere

Oh ... and it is no threadomancy, if you post with substance, especially when it is you own thread where you want to show us your progress of your army . It is always better to carry on an existing thread than open a new one

So long!
-Shavaun

Thanks for the comments and advices everybody! As I already said, they are very much appreciated!
And now for the replies

@ Iceplague:
Thank you for appreciating my Stealth Suits! I had a lot of work on them, so it's nice to hear people like them
But then about the Devilfish: you say that it looks like it hasn't had any maintenance since it first came in service.
This is in fact true.
I'm currently trying to think of some fluff (see the bottom if this post to see it) .

@royalpain88:
You're giving me too much credit There are lots of better painters on this board than me...

@Militant.Jester:
About the judging and stuff: so we (the participants of the tale of 40 gamers) started in January to glue and paint an army of 500 pts together. At the end of February, our armies had to been shown to a judge in person or put online on the shop's website (so the shop where we play). If your army is completely painted and based (except for flying stands) at the deadline and 1 of the judges has seen it by then, then you get 5 points. If you are late or some units aren't finished you get 3 or 1 points. During the months you need to play a few games. This will also earn you points: win=3pts, draw=2pts, loss=1pt.
Now, I have 6 points: 5 for completing my 500pts-army and 1 for losing a battle (pesky orks ).
During the following months we need to keep on painting and playing, while increasing our forces. Each month we need to paint an additional 250pts, for which we can receive again 5 points for painting and basing. This will continue till everybody has got a 1500pts-army. Then we'll get another month to bring our force up to Apocalypse size and then of course we'll fight an Apocalypse battle.
At the end off all this, the earned points (so the points you gathered for fighting battles and painting) will show us the winner of this event.
I hope I explained it good enough?

@Hereticus:
GD are indeed very useful. You can use them to contest objectives, give other untis cover saves and sometimes even pin enemy units

@Shas'vre Shavaun:
Thanks for the comment about my Sept Markings. I try to paint them as small as possible, but I also want them to stand out and break up the blue-greyish tones of my FW.
About my Devilfish: Haha, you hit the nail straight-on my friend! I was in fact going for a re-entry weathered look, so I kind of succeeded

CONCLUSION:
As many of you said, I went a bit over the top with my weathering. I'll try to tone it down a bit and post up some new pics ASAP.

FLUFF:
During an exploration, the 352nd Sa'cea Exploration Fleet found a world, using very long-range sensors, with strange energy readings. They sent out Exploration Drones, but none returned, so they decided to travel to the planet with a part of the fleet and take a look for themselves.
However, when jumping out of the Warp, they jumped right into a space battle consisting of numerous enemy ships shooting each other. Some of the spotted ships belonged to Orks, Eldar, Imperial Guard and even Space Marines. Surprised as they were, they rapidely concluded that the strange energy must have tampered with their equipement, so they couldn't have known that there was a large-scale battle right there. Commander Shadowblade ordered immediately to retreat, but it was to late. Over half of the fleet that had escorted him to the planet was either destroyed or damaged and they couldn't jump back to the rest of the fleet or use long-range communications either.
In the meantime, only 7 of the 22 ships remained operational as the other races hit them from all directions. Commander Shadowblade ordered to leave the area of the battle ASAP. Four of the ships were able to break loose of the chaos. Unfortunately, they were being hunted by several Imperial Cruisers. Unable to lose them and desperate to bring the findings to the rest of the Exploration Fleet, the commander ordered 1 ship to get as fast as possible to the main fleet to warn them, while the other ships would stall the Imperial ships. 7 minutes of engaging the enemy fleet had passed, when they lost communications with the one ship. Believing that the ship was on its way back to the main fleet, Commander Shadowblade ordered his own and the only remaining ship to break through the enemies and make planetfall. Coordinates for rendez-vous point were transmitted and the 2 ships went full speed to the planet.
The other ship wasn't lucky. A Black Templars Battle Barge had appeared alongside their route and it gave the Tau ship a heavy broadside. The ship was immediately destroyed.
Other Imperial ships were closing in on the Tau command ship and were giving it one broadside after the other. Commander Shadowblade knew the ship wouldn't last long, so he ordered to abandon ship. Unfortunately, many decks with escape pods were destroyed because of the enemy fire. That's why he ordered Crisis Battlesuits, Stealth Suits, Devilfishes filled with Fire Warriors and Hammerheads to commence planetfall on their own. He also ordered to engage the failsafe detonator for the ship.
The explosion of the ship provided enough cover for the seperate units to make planetfall, but each unit dropped on a seperate place and now each of those units is trying to find their kin and is trying to make it to the rendez-vous point.

Link to tale of 40 gamers: I have currently a small force under my command that was able to make planetfall on almost the same coordinates. As the 'campaign' progresses, my army will find other survivors and thus increase in strength. At the moment of the Apocalypse battle, the 352nd Sa'cea Exploration Fleet will have joined the battle and will have sent reinforcements to commander Shadowblade on the planet...

P.S. If my fluff ain't that good, I'm sorry about that. I'm not really a writer. especially not in other languages as English

So today I had some time and I redid the weathering of my DF.
There isn't that much weathering anymore. There is just some on the nose, exhausts and a bit on the door at the back.
To be honest, I was more satisfied with the previous result.
Let me know what you think about it now...

I don't get it man, why did you change it if you were satisfied with it? After all it's you're modell!

You don't have to do everything people suggest here.

Anyway I like the new one as much as the other one.

-Puretide-

ARRRGHH ... If I had known that your D-Fish really reentered into the atmosphere, I would have said nothing, because you really hit the look of it. Nevertheless, I really like your weathering and maybe you can also add the effect to your suit.

Keep going!
So long!
-Shavaun

*Edit: I only said, that your sept-markings are unusually and that I like them

So I finished my Hammerhead today. To be honest, I'm not that happy with it, because I had to rush my painting for the deadline.
I'll probably change a few things when the 'tale' is over...
Anyway, here he is:










C&C are appreciated