PAINTING TAU ARMIES

Hi there, Reader

This is my very first article here on ATT, and I hope you'll find it helpful, or at the very least – a good read. It's long though, so you might want to fire up that coffee machine and kick off your socks. I'd like to take the opportunity to issue my personal disclaimer at this point:

This article is written according to my own opinions and experiences. It is by no means the law and I will not consider people with opposing arguments simpletons. I merely wish to shine some light onto an area which I personally believe is obscured in too much shadow right now.

Background
In this hobby one can find everything between horrendous paint jobs all the way up to the really astounding ones. One thing is certain, though. There are painters out there who are true masters when it comes to applying paint on their models. This doesn't necessarily mean that their entire army will look godlike, however.

As with all tasks and projects one takes on in this world (and I mean ALL of them), the most important question one needs to ask in the beginning is: ”What is it that I want to achieve with this?”

When asking this question specifically about model painting there are two major answers. (1.) ”I want to become an expert painter – it is the paint job itself that intrigues me”, or (2.) ”I want to field an army that looks just awesome”.

If your answer to this question is (1.), I suggest you go to Games-Workshop's website, buy yourself Typhus – Herald of Nurgle, read all their painting masterclasses and get to it. If your answer is (2.) I suggest you read on .

Although my theories work on pretty much any army GW has to offer (40K and Fantasy Battles alike) it is of course with the Tau Empire in mind that I write this article – this is Advanced Tau Tactica after all.

Tau painters are blessed when it comes to painting, because the army itself has so many perks and advantages over many others. First and foremost, the Tau have great diversity, which erase the risk of the painting being tedious or repetitive. Kroot, Crisis Suits, Steath Suits, etc all have distinct styles and suitable colours, and its easy to mix it up in order to prevent things becoming boring.
Second, Tau models are easy to paint, with many natural crevices and separations on the model surface, which speeds things up and look truly amazing in the end. This however is not a solution all on its own.

When painting an army – more specifically a bunch of models that supposedly belongs with each other – there are two major attributes that one should have in mind. These two aspects are fundamental when creating a ”neat looking army”. They are COHERENCY and CONTRAST.


COHERENCY

Coherency is the ”which colours” of painting, and deals with what that the army must have in order to look”unified”. Coherency in a paint job is made up of two separate parts, namely colours and quality. 'Which' colours are applied and 'how' they are applied is what creates coherency. A sloppy, half-assed Fire Warrior squad led by a Golden Demon-winner Shas'ui will not look coherent, even if the colour scheme is basically the same. And it's safe to say that a green/white Fire Warrior will not look coherent with a yellow/red Fire Warrior, even though the paint job has the very same quality. Mastering both colour scheme and quality is key to mastering coherency. I will quickly break down both colours scheme and quality now.

Quality.
This topic is easily broken down as follows: Quality is a sub-topic of coherency, hence it follows the rules and guidelines of general coherency. Or more to the point – Keep the quality of all your models basically the same, i.e. coherent and consistent.

Colour Scheme.
Choosing the colour scheme is probably one of the toughest choices a painter have to make. One could of course pick one of the existing ones; T'au, Sa'cea, the Farsight Enclaves, etc all look great, but in my opinion, by choosing an already existing Sept colour scheme you blow your chance to create something truly unique and personal. Seeing how Games-Workshop has gone to great lengths in order to create an universe where everything goes, wouldn't it be a shame if that route was left unexplored?

My theoretical approach to choosing a colour scheme is as follows:

Armour.
For armoured parts, there should be two colours: one dominant and one kept dormant, or as a ”back-up”. Having two adds to both variety and contrast, which will be discussed in greater detail further down. Seeing that many units in the Tau army are entirely armoured, it's nice to have a second colour to use here and there, otherwise both the colours and the act of painting may become tedious and monotone.

Metal/Cloth.
With "metal" I refer to areas of unarmoured metal (such as lower legs and arm joints for Crisis Suits), and with "cloth" I mean the undersuit of Fire Warriors, Pathfinders and such. These colours don't necessarily have to be the same, but it's nice if there's a slight resemblence at the very least. I paint my cloth in Dark Flesh with highlights in Vermin Brown, and my metal in Tin Bitz highlighted with Dwarf Bronze. These combinations are close enough for my taste.

Markings.
Sept markings and decorations should have a specific colour – one that really stands out from all the other colours of the model (this will be discussed in the Contrast section further down). Bear in mind though that the general opinion is that white signifies leadership or higher office to the Tau. It could be wise therefore to have a colour other than white as the Sept colour in order to ”make it clear” who's in charge.

This approach will leave you with approximately 4-5 different colours to use on any model in the army. More than that and our little neat colour scheme army starts to look like a jolly, extravagant carnival of vivid hues.

That concludes the COHERENCY section of this article.


CONTRAST.

Contrast is a completely vital aspect of army painting. If coherency is the ”which colours to use”, then contrast is the ”where to apply them”. Although contrast can be discussed in greater depth (and we shall) it's very easy to summarise it as follows: From what distance will you be viewing your fielded army? How close up does one really study your paint job?

As you might realise, when playing you don't bother with close-ups that much (except for checking that juicy true line of sight). And in order to judge the general appearance of an entire army, one does not get very close, and believe me, neither do judges of painting competitions when evaluating entire armies.

There are two sides to the coin when discussing contrast: the internal and the external contrast of the model. Internal contrast deals with the model's colours compared to other colours on the same model, whereas external contrast is the entire model's contrast compared to other, external parts such as game board, terrain and opposing forces.

External colour contrast is a minor area, so I'll bring it up immediately. External contrast is important when it comes to getting attention, which for instance is important in competitions and such. For example, my army is bright orange. That cut like a knife in the eyes of the judges and caught their attention when I entered Games Workshop's latest official painting competition. Furthermore, external contrast is interesting when facing off against an opponent playing the same colour or team as you. Have you ever seen Ultramarines vs Ultramarines, Necrons vs. Necrons or (sweet heavens forbid!) Bretonnia vs Bretonnia? It's – quite frankly – a sight for sore eyes.

Not only does contrast create depth in colours, but also distinction. With ”distinction” I refer to shifts of colours – where one colour ends, and another one begins. Remember that we're dealing with models 30 millimetres tall here (metric system is standard – get used to it ). In order to see colour shifts on them distinct contrast is not preferred – it's mandatory.

This is where we enter a sensitive area for many Tau players: camouflage. Camouflage is a sign of great painting skills and patience. It is also said in the Tau Codex that Tau usually utilizes camouflage colours. It's important to make a difference between camouflage colours and camouflage patterns. A camouflage colour can be one colour applied to the entire model, much like the T'au Sept's yellow armour is a camouflage colour in their dry sand environment. Camouflage patterns however, always incorporate many different colours in order to reflect their environment. I'm going to piss off a few of you now, but this is the deal: camouflage colours are great in all aspects, but camouflage patterns is a bad road to travel. Camo patterns viewed from more than 40 centimetres always look blurry and murky. In all its awesomeness and and talent requirement, it simply doesn't look good from afar. And remember that you paint for the Greater Good here, not for the benefit of solitary models. And believe me, I know - I've painted camouflage patterns myself. The unit looks great, but they do not belong with the rest of the army. Enough said.

How you divide your chosen colours over your model is another aspect of contrast. It might be tempting to have large areas in your primary colour and then pick out smaller objects and areas such as knee pads, gloves and separate ”scales” with the secondary colour, but this is the wrong way to go. Many small areas in separate colours distributed all over the model suffers from the same dilemma as camouflage patterns – it becomes blurry. Example: consider the effect of looking at a Rubik's cube from ten metres distance. A shuffled cube looks chaotic and lacks distinction. A solved Rubik's cube looks really organised and clear. It looks better if you distribute your chosen colours very clearly and apparently, say for instance a specific side of the model or a obvious part, for example the left shoulder pad on a Fire Warrior.

Contrast also deals with highlights and shadows of your chosen colour scheme. On this topic it's sufficient to say: ”Don't hold back!” Highlight colours and shadow colours shouldn't be too close to the standard colour, because this won't read clearly from afar. Often if you go out on a limb and paint them slightly darker or brighter than you initially would have preferred, you'll be amazed by the great result.

One last guideline on the topic of contrast: the colours black and white. Seeing how they are both at their respective end of the light spectrum it's tempting to use black and white in your colour scheme. That is perfectly okay (seeing how they both are really strong colours), but bear in mind that they effectively negate aspects of depth. White cannot be highlighted with anything whiter, and black is the shadowest of all colours, hence negating further shadows. If you want black or white, use bright or dark grey as main colour, then use white or black as highlights/shadows. Lacking a highlight or shadow colour means lacking contrast. For more ideas, consider taking a closer look on a Space Marine Chaplain in Terminator Armour and the Space Marine Apothecary on Games-Workshops website. Bruno Rizzo's Shas'o Commander is another great example, but we all know that. If Tau army painting was a religion, Bruno Rizzo would be God!

The following is a example study with my own models, where I put all theories into practice.

SEPT BACKGROUND.
My Tau sept – named Tok'ahn – resides on a planet named Vermillion, famed for its deep red deserts and lush green jungles. According to my backstory, the Tau main force have taken refuge in the desert landscape, relying on Kroot and Pathfinders to guard and watching the surrounding jungle areas. The Fire Caste have adapted their armour colours after the red sand and white chalk of the arid landscape.

FIRE WARRIORS.
My Fire Warriors clearly reveal the Tok'ahn colour scheme. Notice how the squad has Blazing Orange as their primary colour, but with the beige Bleached Bone covering up the right side of their armour. Might be worthwhile here to mention that all my Tau soldiers also carry a piece of white/light grey cloth somewhere on their body – that is also part of the backstory.




CRISIS SUIT.
The Crisis Suit shares colours with his Fire Warrior brethren, with the beige colours moved entirely to the right side of his armour. Although no seen from this angle, his orange left side is broken up with sept markings, this to prevent the orange areas to become too large, i.e. dull and repetitive. My Crisis Suits also includes a tertiary colour to their scheme – black – and this is to create even more diversity to the model.




KROOT CARNIVORES.
Kroot are interesting because they will automatically break away from other Tau army colours naturally due to their large areas of skin (unless the rest of your army shares this skin colour, in which case it looks rather stupid, actually). In order for my Kroot to ”belong” with the rest of my Tau army, I chose to paint their armour in Blazing Orange. And it worked like a charm – my Kroot definitely look like they belong with the rest of the army.




KROOT SHAPER.
I've always liked the idea of Kroot Shapers having more contact and trust from the Tau than their weaker brethren, and thus relies more on Tau technology. Once again a little Blazing Orange was just the thing to make him look ”tau-ier”.




DEVILFISH.
Although my Devilfish definitely could use some more markings and decoration, it clearly indicates what army it belongs to. Once again the right side was given the beige secondary colour, and this way of dividing your colours on the model is – quite frankly – well, fill in your own word! =)




PATHFINDERS.
This is where things turned sour. I never liked the idea of Pathfinders having bright colours – they are experts in hiding and silent warfare, and this just doesn't fit well with them having bright colour schemes. Jungle fighters don't dress like Ronald McDonald for a reason, yeah? I decided to go with ultra-camouflage for my Pathfinders, and although they look really cool (and camouflaged) they stand out waaaaay too much from the rest of the army, and don't belong at all. You might think that this goes against everything that I've been saying, and that leads us to the most important rule of army painting:




THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE: Paint your army in a way that pleases you. Nobody else's opinion matters compared to yours, because it is your army, your sweat, your time and your hobby. It's a freedom not to be taken for granted.

Now, you might think: ”Why didn't he say that in the very beginning of this monster-article?” I tell you why. Because, fundamentally, that rule trumphs and overrules everything else said in this article, thus rendering it ultimately pointless. =)

Thank you for your time, and have a nice day (although it's probably evening at this point).

/Douglas

Lots to think about there - an excellent read!

I agree about camo patterns - it takes a lot more effort than normal painting, for less result. I am a fan of it on vehicles, although their scale ensures the 'muddy' effect does not occur.

I love the weathering on your crisis suit. Very effective, without making it look uncared-for.

I am not a fan of the Devilfish, and think the lopsided colouring doesn't work so well there. Of course, you have your Most Important Rule to fall back on! I just prefer symmetry in vehicles.

Oddly enough, I went with something similar with my Space Marines, although their armour is Bone White with Blazing Orange shoulder pads, and black as the 'back up' colour.

Sholto

A very well written and illustrated article here!

Some good insight to the introducing paint-theology to the lay person and well expanded thoughts using your own personal experience.

I accidentally came across your force the other day and (given that you are using orange) it naturally caught my eye;-P

I can't say I disagree with any of your thoughts here, but would add that I would say the key question you ask at the top of the article, the answers are interchangeable. By yearning to want an army that 'looks awesome' a person by default will naturally become more practised and therefore more of an 'expert' at what they achieve.

I would add however, that as part of your 'quality' heading, the key thing I look for in any paint job first and foremost is neatness. Tau do indeed lend them selves to this very well, but the number of models I have seen compromised by not 'painting in the lines' and trying to over stretch to highlighting and shading is beyond number! Also keeping paint thin- there is nothing worse than seeing a nice flat, sharp panel be 'changed' to look as though it is a plastic sheet put through the microwave.

In regards to your own force, I would love to see more shots- it is very intriguing! I find my vision being irritated by the split between the cream and the orange in such distinct blocks, and am confused as given your thoughts, would have imagined that the use of the cream to break up the orange would have been more random? Also the highlight colour used on the orange on the suit, I find tonally to close to the darker shade of the cream? (It may be the photos?)

These are not critisisms but my take on your theory and application, and as you quite rightly say (and as I have to remind myself quite often) "Paint your army in a way that pleases you".

My favourite element of the imagery is the oh, so subtle camo used on the Fish- great use of visual spectrums, and also ties in with the fluff given fact that Tau see more in infra-red and violet rays;-P

Nicely done sir!

cheers
W

Hi!

Thanks for the kind words. I've already noticed two major flaws in my own article, the first being that the images don't really show the correct nuances and hues compared to the reality. The second being that I speak of look-n-feel of an entire army, but the pictures themselves are so close the camera practically snuggled with the models. This is easy fixed by looking at the images from a meter or so away from the computer screen! =)

Warhound,
I must concur with you that the highlight on the orange areas appear a little "creamy", but rest assured they are not in reality. I used pure Vomit Brown for highlights, and when painted unto orange areas, it reads yellow.

I am aware that my Devilfish looks almost unfinished, this due to lack of markings and so forth, but mostly because the photo doesn't show the colours very well. The camouflage for instance is clearly distinguishable in reality. I just have to become a little more experienced with the camera I guess. Furthermore I need to paint up a few more Tau units. This is pretty much all I got right now.

I am very impressed by this, Freeloader. We go very much with "first impressions" here, so thank you for the obvious effort you have put into this article.

E.

Hey freeloader,

when I tried to paint my Tau first, I used a similar scheme (Firey Orange as Armor Colour) ... sadly it didn't turn out as well as yours.

But why I am writing here is something else :-P

About what you wrote to the topic 'Kroot' i have to completely agree!

I heard from some Tau players that they have problems with implementing the Kroot 'visually' into their army, for all those people, you have shown the way.

Luckily I found that out myself (pure luck):

I painted my Kroot = Skin/Ice Blue Cloth/Bleached Bone and Armor/Firey Orange, as that's what the DoW Armypainter turned out after trying out my Firewarrior scheme and I liked the look of it.
Now I more or less reversed my scheme the Ice Blue I used for my Firewarriors' markings is now the Main colour, and the main colour (Firey Orange) is now my Marking colour ... and still, the Kroot scheme fits that.


Edit: i hope its better now

Edit protocols acceptable.

Wow.



Fantastic article. Amazing painting. Skilled conversions. What more could we want!?
I'm a big fan of the Pathfinders, especially the extra sensor on the side of their helmet. Not much more to add except I look forward to seeing more of your work. And I know WIP shots are always highly appreciated by a number of us

I'm going to have to disagree a bit on the issue of "internal contrast". Coming at this as an artist (and with some experience in scifi modeling in the digital form), in my experience there are two kinds of detail you need to give an object to make it look convincing:



1) Obvious detail. Think of this as the big things, you want it to be obvious that you're dealing with a fire warrior with a pulse rifle and EMP grenades, for example. Or that even from across the table, you can tell that your XV8 is armed with plasma and a missile pod, not a pair burst cannons. Likewise, you want your color choices to be apparent, even from a longer distance. This is the easy part, the one that most people do fairly well, even in the digital world where you don't have pre-built models to help you out.



2) Hinted-at detail. This is the really hard one. Think about it this way: you start walking towards our fire warrior friend. At long distance, you can see the general outline and the basic details in the previous step, but you can also see that he's carrying some gear and seems to have some markings painted on his armor, but you can't quite make out exactly what they are. You walk closer, and not only can you now identify the EMP grenades, extra ammo, etc on his belt and the cammo pattern on his armor, but you can see that the armor doesn't seem to be in perfect condition. If you look really closely, you can finally make out the scratches/paint chips/etc in that armor, the texture of the fabric, etc.

Or consider a flat plate, such as you might find on a vehicle. If you keep it perfectly smooth and uniform in color, it stands out as incredibly unnatural, like you were just too lazy to finish it. On the other hand, if you add some subtle variations in color, a mechanical bit or two, maybe a subtle panel line, etc, that flat plate suddenly turns into a deliberate choice that looks a lot more like flat plates you are used to seeing in the real world. Essentially, you are saying "I am capable of making other things, but I WANT this to be a flat plate", and this produces a much more convincing model.

The important thing to note here is that at all distances, you can still see that more detail exists, even if you can't make out exactly what it is. In your Rubik's cube example, sure, all those faces blur together somewhat, but the important thing is that it is not a solid cube.




Cammo paint schemes are one way of getting that very difficult second kind of detail. Even when they seem to blur together a bit at longer ranges, your eye can still make out that it's not just a solid color (unless you're looking at it from across the room), which is a big help in "selling" the realism of the model. And, unlike the random chaos of a Rubik's cube, you have the ability to pick your colors to produce a result that looks good at both longer ranges and on close inspection. This is especially true of vehicles, where you have both larger and more visible patterns, and larger surfaces on the model to break up.


Now, obviously they aren't the correct choice for every model in every army, but they're a very useful tool in your toolbox, especially if you're aiming for a more realistic army where "blends into the scenery" is a good thing.

Duly noted, Peregrine!

I was starting to wonder how long until someone bashed my theories to smithereens. You speak truly, indeed. To hint that there is "more than meets the eye... at this distance" is a powerful tool to get not only attention, but dynamics unto your model.

However, what you speak about can only be accomplished - with good results - if you're a damned good painter, according to me. To think that a model has more than you thought, only to walk up close to it and find it's sloppy is a big disappointment. Also, bear in mind that I'm talking about armies, and nothing I've written is really lean towards stand-alone models at close-up.

But nonetheless, a very important and true point. I'm glad you all put some effort into your answers. I was fearing comments like "dood, you suck!"

I wouldn't really call it "bashing to smithereens", you make some very good points. High-contrast colors can be a very effective technique, if that's the look you're aiming for. After all, there are a lot of 40k players who deliberately choose that look (Ultramarines anyone?), and get good results with it. My advice is merely meant as an alternative tool in your toolbox, and to suggest that camo and similar effects are not inherently a lost cause.





I wouldn't say it requires amazing skills, I certainly wouldn't consider myself a master painter, but I'd like to think my stuff looks at least decent. Rather than skill, the thing it really requires is time. There's no getting around it, painting camo/etc takes a lot longer than painting a couple primary colors and doing a black ink wash. But assuming you're willing to invest that time without going insane, it can be done with a pretty average level of skill and still look good.




I think it's just as true of armies. The "just out of sight" detail is still going to be apparent at tabletop level, so I think it should look the same whether you're talking about one unit or a whole battle full of them. Just, as I said above, the time factor may make this a less appealing method for painting your entire army.

The first premise of ATT is "make an effort in your posts". ALL members, whether Shas'O or Shas'registered, are expected to do this.

The second is to encourage/constructively criticise/discuss etc in a mature manner. Anyone posting something like "dood, you suck!" would be Markerlighted very quickly indeed.

E.

..And something like that would most likely ensure the poster's quick execution via Airlock. - F
...After cleaning the entirety of the Officer's washrooms. - ST

I have to agree with this to a degree, the coloring is somewhat lopsided however that's not to say it CAN'T work. Visual weight needs to be considered, if you're going to put make the left engine white then something needs do be done to the right side. Thats not to say that the exact same color idea needs to be applied to the opposite side, I actual prefer asymmetry. You might consider putting several thick bleach bone stripes on the front right of your devilfish, or even on the other engine.

Balance is key though, asymmetry can be boring and isn't necessarily the best route but you have to strike a balance. That being said, I really like the idea, it has a ton of potential and I may use it in the near future =).

Also, consider the camo cloaked pathfinders idea stolen as well =D.

A superb article and read, accompanied by great photos. I must concur on the cool factor of the camouflaged Pathfinders. Obvious thing to do when you make one think about it! haha.

Having transferred it over, I'm adding this to the resource topic for ATT's painting section. Thanks for your work Douglas!

- Tael.

Very well composed article. You touch on a lot of good points on painting philosophy. I am more interested in the Devilfish.

I think if you painted the right nacelle body (from DF POV) tan but the front panel of that nacelle red around the intake, then did the obverse on the left one, you would have the asymmetry you desired without the overall being too off balance.

Very nice article mate, I'm curious, would you be interested in writing up a walk through of your paintjob? I'm interested in seeing how you do it and how you did the damage on your suit and managed so much detail on him. I'm thinking of mixing ideas here, maybe go with the Sa'cea colors, but then using a beige on them like yours. Basically switching the orange for that blue.

Very well done, and it's given me many points I need to consider for my next project and ideas on how to improve my existing army. Thank you!

And I agree with Draconis on the writing mock-up. It make understanding about what you wrote about far easier.

Using your tri-color scheme on the xv8's. How would you do it with a Sa'cea scheme? I was thinking about a more violet than blue version with the black and white/off-white/bleached bone right arm/head.

Tri-color with the Sa'Cea colors is very simple. Personally, I use Blazing Orange, Shadow Gray, and black. This can also be done by replacing the black with Codex Gray, white, gold, or anything similar. If you want to do something along the lines of this exact paining scheme, leave the black as is, replace the orange with Shadow Gray, and replace the beige with Blazing Orange. That will provide the most accurate Sa'cea scheme based on this painting style. To pass it onto fire warriors, drop the black and go with just the two colors.

Oh, and I just read your quip about buying Typhus. Hands down my favorite model in the GW lineup. Second would be the dark master demon from warhammer fantasy. And thanks for the color scheme. Though Im not sure I'd go with blazing orange. I'll probably keep the bone white with the shadow grey. Also thinking of a twilight (not the movie) scheme. A purple/violet instead of a shadow grey.

Well it works for basically any color combination. Just substitute them.