Hey there ATT,

I have been a bit quiet on the forum as of late, having played many, many games of Infinity as opposed to making much progress in 40K, and having to deal with miscast XV9 and Broadside parts from Forgeworld. My Tau army is now (finally) transitioning out of the buy phase and into the build and paint arena, with a lot of work on my hands thanks to exams etcetera I have not really had a chance to do anything more than sticking things together for games that they are needed in. As this log continues, the battle reports are going to be linked in, with graphics and photographs to (hopefully) document the many games that I play.

Later on in the year (sept onwards) I will be updating this much more frequently, with what is being posted now as a little taster of future work.

I have to paint a large amount of Tau and I still have to build and organise a large amount of models before I will be happy. I have in the region of 6K of tau to paint, with only a shield drone and a commander battlesuit painted, with a long way to go on my Fire Warriors and Kroot. Everything is sprayed black, it is just a matter of doing the white armour and all of the detail. To begin, I will attempt to have a 1500 point painted list, that given my luck recently should improve the game results I have obtained (another reason for the lack of reports....)

I use a mix of Citadel Paints as well as Vallejo game colour pigments to give me the finish that I want over a black undercoat, but this process is incredibly time consuming and in order to speed it all up, I am experimenting using the foundation paints from the Citadel range, with one of the greys being investigated as a potential candidate to make it easier to paint the nice white colour on the black.

Well, onto the actual content of this post:

I have recently purchased a total of 7 XV9 Battlesuits, 3 with Fusion Cascades, 3 with Phased Ion Guns and Shas'O R'alai as well as a very large number of Forgeworld Broadside battlesuits. This significant financial investment took a lot of saving I can assure you... Pictures of WIP XV9 Battlesuits are below. (I apologise for the poor photography - I am much better at taking photos of flowers and stuff than grey resin!)

Here you go:

The XV9-01s WIP



I am very happy with the posing of these two, and they look particularly dramatic when attached to their bases (The feet of the battlesuits are still loose to make it easier for me to paint them...)



An honourable mention goes to this XV9 who in his field test managed to destroy quite a large amount of Necron Warriors before being eaten alive by a large number of wraiths.

The XV9-04s WIP

The weapons on these guys are responsible for the long wait as I had to call Forgeworld as almost all of them had a large air bubble or two in the weapon housing rendering them unusable...





However, a lot of my time and effort has recently been poured into preparing my fledgling Eldar army. I actually have more painted Eldar than Tau as in my opinion, the Falcon was crying out for attention...

Well, let us know what you think about the work I have done on these guys....:





And a Vyper WIP:



The yellow chevrons on the vehicles were painted entirely by freehand, with no masking tape or spray gunning of any kind being involved. I am quite proud of how this tank is turning out, being a joy to paint with all of the smooth lines and using the blacklining techniques found on the internet, I think that the tank looks lovely.

Feedback is appreciated, I should have a battlereport coming at some point in the upcoming month, I just have to organise band practice around 40K.

Thanks for reading,

Xanadu

These look fantastic! The poses for the XV9's came out well and I can't wait to see paint on them! (I just ordered 3 more myself, so you have only upped my anticipation for receiving them!) In regards to your paint scheme, it looks like it is similar to white_charisma's Tau here. Ask him for tips on the scheme; I'm sure he could help you to make it easier. Personally, I have found that priming my models in Grey works the best. It is dark enough to allow the dark colors to show nicely, but it is also light enough to make bright colors pop. Astronomican Grey is a great grey foundation paint that makes it super easy to paint white. Give it a shot!

As for your Eldar, they look great! That color scheme is really nice and I like the yellow stripe a lot.

Thanks for the reply. My Tau's colour scheme is a mix between Sirath's scheme (which I believe was inspired by Shadowsun's scheme) but featuring a hawk turquoise trim instead of Tausept ochre. The XV9 in the image was the first one that arrived and I started to paint it, but he is far from finished. When I say far I have spent about 45 minutes on him whereas the falcon in the first post took jut over two days solid work (I am an incredibly slow painter!). Again thanks for the heads up on priming models grey, I hadn't thought of that - I might invest in some grey spray to make the task of 8 Grav-tank chassis more easy on the mind.

As for my Eldar, I'm doing my falcons with yellow chevrons, Wave serpents with bone coloured chevrons and my Fire Prisms with a bone colour with purple stripes. All are going to be unique and converted using FW bits. (The first one seen in the image is a MKII/ MKI fusion using half of a conversion kit, the MKII turret is going to be on the squadron command falcon.

The statement about painted stuff rolling better is true, this falcon in one game managed to totally shred a Death company unit.

I will be uploading photos of my commander at some point in the not to distant future, but I have to do a lot of organising before I head away on a field course for my degree so no promises.

(I.E check back in September lol... It took me ages to take this from drafts to actually publish it about 3 months.)

Also, as people give me feedback I'll have more impetus for continuing painting rather than giving up halfway through, so keep it coming...

Wow, that is a lot of tau suits! I can't wait to see them all painted!

Having used the foundation paints extensively on my Tau I thoroughly recommend them. Adeptus Battlegrey will serve you well, but if you're painting white over black it might be worth considering Dheneb Stone (a light sand-like colour).

Hello again,

After a rather long leave of absence due to a marine biology field course up in north scotland for my final year (Whale watching for the win!) I haven't really made much progress on my Tau. Before I left however, my Eldar however had a few nudges further forwards, with the painting coming on well and a few more purchases being made after reading stuff on YTTH guiding my rather inexperienced mind... The Tau haven't been played with for a while as my housemates have gone home leaving me on my lonesome, but letting me get some painting done. (Always good...)

If anyone was interested, the purple on the Falcon was achieved thus:
Black undercoat, hormagaunt purple, liche purple, warlord purple wash, leviathan purple wash, Badab black, liche purple/bleached bone mix, leviathan purple and another warlord purple wash. It takes its time, but I think it looks great.

For your viewing pleasure I have included photographs of: my Gue'vesa, a Broadside that I have posed and glued nicely, with a picture of my Shas'O and his trusty Shield Drone (painted). Also featured are a few Eldar shots, (More on my photobucket if people want to see more....)



Gue'vesa'ui with a glimpse of his companions....



Shas'O Unnamed and one of his two shield drones....



Mr Broadside

And Eldar:

Wave Serpent, Vyper, freehand work... etc.









(Am v. pleased with this btw)

Autarch



Well, C&C please!

(Dolphin)



Lol.

Thanks for reading,

X.

The dolphin diorama is awesome, so realistic!

Your Eldar stuff looks pretty nice and your free handing is quite neat and tidy. Kudos.

I look forward to seeing some more paint on the Tau stuff. The weathering looks really nice on the CiB barrels.

Hey Xanadu,

REALLY like the Gue'Vesa! Now, I'm a stickler for anything Gue, but they're really good! Can't wait to see them painted!

Also, forgive me for being perceptive, but in the Gue'Vesa pic, the trooper on the left is wearing a really cool helmet. Is that a FW Elysian Drop Troop helmet, or something else? Possibly even a scratchbuild/sculpt?

The Eldar look really good, colourful as Eldar should be and the stripes are very well done, especially for freehand work. I'm very jealous of your painting skills! I like the scheme you've chosen for the Eldar, as I have never seen them done in purple before. You've also paid attention to colour co-ordination by adding the contrasting yellow, for which I give you extra kudos.

Great work, well done!

Cheers

@Cagna'cci The heads and a few of the backpacks come from a company called Pig Iron Productions, and are made of pewter. They required a little kneadatite to fit into the head slot on the cadians. All of my Gue'vesa have these heads and they look pretty sweet and have performed admirably, killing a good many terminators... Check this site: http://www.pig-iron-productions.com/ The stuff is quite cheap but I am not sure how much shipping would be to your part of the world. I have a few remaining, DM me for more info. Also, thanks for the compliment on the painting, I am really not that great, I just rely on washes etc to do most of my highlighting. (I hate painting infantry but tanks are allright.... Practice for the Revenant winging its way towards me... )

@Dal'yth Mont'sha Cheers, the dolphins were pretty awesome (have many more photos!), but the best bit was going really near a massive seal colony where we saw loads of pups! (I am such a softy....) Thanks for the compliments.
The CiB weathering was a messy job involving:
Red ink, Flesh wash, Badab black, Boltgun metal and some ultramarines blue as a basecoat.

For the record, I don't blackline using a paintbrush, I use a finetipped pen.

Can't wait to see those XV9s painted, I need to order some of those alternative weapons models. They look awesome. Those fusion cascades are a lot bigger then I thought though. Nothing more appropriate then a Tau with a big gun though

Just a small update, but no photos this time. (:()

I have just worked out what I need to paint for my usual 1500 list to be fully painted, and so I have sprayed everything black to begin as well as undercoated the larger areas on the tanks with Astronomican grey.

18 Fire Warriors,
5 Crisis Suits,
7 Pathfinders,
1 XV9 with Fusion Cascades/ with
Hammerhead (Railgun is painted)
2 x Warfish
2 Broadsides

In total this list is 1499, and should be a pretty beastly contender at the University gaming society. I also want to paint my other broadsides and XV9s along with Shas'O R'alai who after their last few outings against Necrons have proven that they need a paintjob!

With regards to my Eldar, I am putting in a large Forgeworld order with many different tanky things as well as an order to GW for some shiny things. For my 1500 Eldar list I need to paint:

Jetbikes,
Fire Dragons
Howling Banshees
2 Falcons
2 More Wave Serpents
Plenty of Dire Avengers
and an Autarch on Foot

As my Eldar list is likely to change as I play with them this is pretty fluid, and my to Paint box keeps getting changed around quite frequently, sometimes my shining Spears are put in, sometimes taken out, the Autarchs on Jetbikes are moving in and out too. However, this Eldar army is designed for Apocalypse like my Tau, and soon enough I'll just paint what I feel like rather than a strict regimen.

I hate painting Infantry, they are so small!

I hope to have everything painted by December, and I'll keep you folks updated as I go on.

See you round.

X.

Verry good work on the eldar and tau.
keep it up

Hey Guys and Gals,

Just to let you know, I have just put the finishing touches to a quite BASIC Excel based army calculator for Tau (Version 0.75 I call it my external beta ). It includes all units and Apocalyptic formations too. (in .xlsx format). Its not very complicated, just a basic calculator but huge. People who can use Excel (I use Numbers) can certainly do a better job than me using Macros etc, but I haven't got the capability to do it on my MacBook. I have used this calculator for a while now, but some bugs or mistakes are inevitable. (PM me if you find anything wrong)

If anyone wants a copy, just PM me with your email address and I'll send you a copy when I get around to it (give me ~24 hours).

This has taken a while to do and I hope you appreciate the effort

X.

I have created a temporary online location for this calculator if anyone wants a copy found at:

Edit: See next post.

Please give feedback in this thread or by PM. I KNOW that there are kinks to work out.

X.

Hi guys,

Great thanks go to Yami Kero and Kyre who gave some feedback, resulting in this incarnation that I dub v0.8. It features some easier navigation, better formatting and some other things that I felt like adding in. The other version is no longer downloadable, as this is vastly superior....

Linky:

http://www.mediafire.com/?j00ih43h2177kkd

Feedback by PM or in this thread please!

Cheers guys and gals,

X.

Edit: Realised I made a fail. Correct file is uploaded.

Well, I haven't really done much 40K stuff, what with it being in Leicester and me being at home in Suffolk. I have planned a large amount of painting and I have a schedule drawn up for when I return (September!).

I will be occupied with work from tomorrow, having snagged myself a lucrative placement at a local Biosciences lab where I'll be working on Sugar Beet. The ill gotten gains from this is going on a big Eldar FW order the composition of which I am still a bit fuzzy on. (For certain 2 Wave serpents, 1 falcon, 2 turrets, 1 vehicle upgrade kit, a Nightspinner and something really big and beautiful (perhaps two of them, it is a matter of financing a holiday to Barcelona ).

There has been a good deal of interest in the Calculator, but no-one besides Yami has given me any real feedback on it, as I am working, sorting out the problems in it has taken a bit of a back burner what with having to look after the dog whilst the families away. Please do send me PMs with issues and suggestions etc. I'll take a look and see what I can implement. I am thinking of putting it onto Second Sphere as well, after I put in the FOC feature I am working on (the formulae are hurting my little biologist's brain!).

As for my batreps, I have a couple left that I'm working on before unleashing them on you chaps and chapesses. One is anti-mech Eldar, where I was the Eldar player against my housemate 'trying out' Tau and the other is anti-necrons, which was not a fun game (Tau don't like Wraiths). Both of these should have Vassal diagrams to help visualise the battlefields and stuff, but like all of these things, it takes time. (You should have the Eldar game by next weekend, I hope!)

I have recently been reading Fritz' blog RE Necron 'fixing' and I made a comment that only one person appears to have noted and responded to. Take a look yourself.

Finally, I am awaiting with baited breath replies and progress on two of Paulson Game's threads, that involving the AT43 weapons on crisis suits and the enclosed railguns - I may have a Tau modelling project up and coming from these. Watch this space.

Sorry that this hasn't been a very fulfilling update.

Peace,

X.

Hey,

I have just finished putting in the new formulae for the Army Calculator V0.81, adding in the FOC feature and changing a few mistakes that Yami Kero and my friends here at home spotted in the vehicle upgrades section (the price for Multi-trackers was all over the shop!) and helping me to sort some formulae that were running in circles. I am slowly learning how do to things on Mac Excel, and I am in the process of working on the altogether different v0.9a which will include drop-down menus like in the Eal'ta and the Alice 40k army calculators, replacing the awkward quantity adding which is currently in place.

I cannot stress enough how important feedback is to me, please send me a PM or post in this thread. I am going to post this up on Second Sphere at some point, and before I leave the 'in house testing' I want it to be pretty much perfect.

I will also be making an Army Calculator for the TOdex, as noted in the Army Calculator.

So,

Army Calculator v0.81 Download link

Yes I know you want to see more painting - I don't go back to Leicester and my stuff until late September... I do promise to keep you entertained with two more batreps and some nifty excel magic.

X.

Xanadu :
Just quickly put the file through the paces of my standard army list, and it works great! I just noticed two small errors:

• Hammerhead Target Lock costs 26 points, which is a far cry from the actual cost, and;
• Stealth Teams are missing a Bonding Knife entry

I of course didn't focus on every single unit entry, since I'm doing this quickly, but I just noticed those two things.

Great work so far! The army breakdown on the first sheet is really spiffy, and definitely a good at-a-glance comparison tool.

Well, well, well,

It has been a good while since I posted anything up here, due to lack of time on my part as work is a really hard at the moment, I have had to learn to perform several completely new techniques such as electroporation etc. This has been accompanied by battling with Excel for Mac to try and get the army builder to work (so far a complete failure... (Anyone with good Excel knowledge please PM me with regards to my problems which I will supply if you provide ). Otherwise I have added the missing XV15/25 bonding knives and target lock on the Hammerhead (Thanks SpartanTau!)

I am in the process of writing a short story in my free time at work, but the constant getting up to go add reactants to extract DNA etc is slowing the whole thing up a great deal, I at the moment have a few ideas kicking around. I also have to write an essay on Seabirds before I go to Barcelona with my girlfriend and that is still in the 'concept' stages which kind of should take precedence over writing a silly short story.

In the few hours I had in Leicester this weekend before I went off traveling to Birmingham I managed to do a few more highlights on my Jetbike Autarch (see photobucket) as well as undercoating the wave serpent turret. (In late sept, I will have to make a stupid number of these guys to bring the Eldar up to Apocalypse size...

Finally, unfortunately I accidentally deleted the two other battle reports I was writing up when I got rid of a lot of army lists I didn't need anymore (2000 point vs Marine games before I grew some and used the same list each time....) so they won't be seeing the light of day until I find motivation to type them up again...

Thanks for reading and again, if anyone has serious excel-fu then can you PM me to help with my problems!

love and kisses,

X

Hello!

Whilst my family have kicked me off the Xbox [I was playing way too much] (Bioshock 2 is awesome by the way..), between watching endless films on my laptop from my DVD collection, I have gotten around to sorting out some needed updating on the Army builder, bringing it to V0.85.

It features: Better hyperlinking to the Apocalypse formations (even though no-one has commented on them ), improved formatting on the summary page, added target locks and bonding knives where they were missing (Cheers SpartanTau!)

Well, here's the link:

Linky

Enjoy,

Please give feedback!

X.