Warning! Contains Offensive Images to those that Worship Clean Tau and Extreme Highlighting!

Seriously, this is not for the faint of heart and even I was scratching my head a couple of times during the process. With some skills and techniques picked up during recent builds that have their orgins in scale armor modelling as applied to the SF Ma.K range I have been working on, I wanted to try scaling them down and using them to heavily weather a Crisis suit and give it a finish that suggests both extreme weathering through exposure to a toxic environment and heavy use.

An example of this can be seen in the archived footage of Tau'N Expeditionary Forces sent to reclaim the Research and Development Labs on Alternative Fuel Sources on the Death Moon orbiting Aru'Te'Ha on the upper plane of the extreme edge of the Tau'N Sept as when viewd from Tau.

Updated Pics!



* Paints are Mr. Hobby Color lacquer and Mig oils, no acrylics used this time.
* All scars, scratches and damage to the surface is real and not simulated. All done with a hobby knife, files and sandpaper.
* The mini has no highlights added at all, only has had paint removed to reveal under layers.
* Set in a fictional Spring Thaw, the base is meant to look like old snow, melted and dirty with run off. First time I've tried a snow base.

It was very interesting to do and I was surprised that it didn't end up a total write-off by the end as I thought it probably would.

Comments and advanced critique appreciated.

AWESOME!

sorry, to be more constructive- great flat work, nice pallet, nice useof parts and a great distraction from the normal tau look.

All in all I would mark this as a 'first' for all Tau kind!;-)

cheers

Warhound

When I first saw it, I thought it was a computer-generated image of what your objective with the project was was. Then I thought "OH! THATS THE SUIT!" No joke. Very well done. The alternative paints give it a really different appearance from acrylics. I really like the blast marks and scars done to it. It may be overdone, but it's exactly what you were going for in the first place. Awesome job.

Kai'lore :
Great job with the weathering. The files/sandpaper/razor/etc. take on it makes it much more realistic, if for the simple fact that
it is. A great suit all over. Now I need to find something to critique... The black parts look a little less weathered than the rest
of the suit. This may just be from the way that the suit was weathered, but some parts look a little too clean in comparison.
The brass rod also sticks out, unfortunately.

The no-highlighting thing works. I didn't know that nothing had been highlighted until after I read that comment, looked back
at the photos, thought "that can't be true," then spent the next few minutes trying to figure things out. I also really like the
single-light-source pictures compared to the multiple. I feel like it simulates a night fight or dawn/dusk setting more accurately.

And a thank you for having us scroll all around! It's keeping me away at 5:15 AM!

Great work! It gives a 'lively' feel to the model. I especially like the effect that it's as if the hatch can be opened at any time. Also it's more weathered at the feet, it looks like the model is bigger than it really is. One bit of critique, I'm distracted by the green lightning, it looks like its too strong. Though, I don't know how it looks from a distance looking at the real model.
About the base, it's really well done. One of the most realistic snowbases I've ever seen. The melting snow works really well.

I absolutley love it! This is the look I want to give my entire Cadre. They are all vets of fighting Tyranid and the use of scars and paint wear on the suits fits the theme perfectly.

But is there any way to get the same effect usuing GW paints? That's all I have for now and I don't have the money to buy more paints. Any way you could give us less advanced painters a tutorial?

Boy is that guy impressive. If I was some lowly IG trooper and I saw him hopping over the fence to come after us, he'd be freakin scary.
I really like the effect you have gotten with the real weathering, instead just painting it on. The sublte sorce lighting on the upper chest plates is very well done and not over powering. And I see that you have some leftover armour plates from the Kotobukia MSG sprues and the simple edition of just a few can be just as striking as the full up version.

Over all, I love it, but he sure needs to get to the Fio shop for a oil change, some bodywork and a wax and buff job

Hoser

I have to admit I am more fond of clean crisp Tau than battle hardened rough around the edges Tau but wow

That is a really nice model, maybe he's a part of the Farsight Enclave, maybe? or leads a "black ops" crew that are behind enemy lines and need a patch-up

Just thought I'd chip my 2 cents in and just offer some praise for that splendid model

I love your work, but this one just doesn't do it for me. I think the damage didn't come off that well. It looks like someone with black stuff on their hands was picking up your mini, rather than battle damage. Maybe it's the fact that it is everywhere and not just here and there that gives it that effect. To me it just looks like a dirty white mini not a battle damaged white mini.

thanks for the comments all round.

After having a good look at the photos myself -they are new to me too -I am going to lose the reflection on our viewing right on the upper chest. Lousy, ill thought out last minute addition.

Don't worry at all if it's not for you and I always find this idea amusing as nobody every asks if I like what I show. Just because I did it doesn't mean I like how it turns out. Does that make sense? Sure I have the idea, the inspiration and vision to try something out but then I follow the process and get to the end. An end.

It is what it is, a very extreme version of weathering to try out some new ideas and techniques. Not married to it and not pitching it as the next big thing. Just something interesting to share.

What I am liking about it is that it scales a crisis suit up tremendously. Often the standard GW way makes them look like the little 7cm tall plastic gimps that they are but this looks like it could be a deal bigger. Have had a few people say that and I think I get what they are saying.

Last one, there is a much easier way to do this if someone is interested over an army -Wolfs16. Drybrush with a darker colour instead of a lighter colour. So a dark grey or so. It doesn't turn out at sharply as this but it will still give them a really beat up look. Then if you have Brush-Fu you can pick out some points with sharp brush and paint some damage in too.

Yes, it really looks very well done, very nice job you have done here. Really like the small details like modified jump pack "slides" or added decals. But i think you know me so....
critic! critic!
There are some things that could be a little bit better.
- The underside of the feet. Same amount of weathering as the rest of the suite....they should be blank metal or something like that, because they are the surface with the heaviest wear.
- I personally find the white a bit to yellow in a icy diorama. It looks too (sand) dusty.
- And i miss a little bit of oil and ink staining. If the suite operates in an cold, icy enviroment snow collects at different parts, thaws, washes away dirt that collects somewhere. Think about a car after a winter.

Whoa.. you weren't kidding when you mentioned this suit privately..

I suspect someone has been watching wayyy too much Stars Wars Prequ-ology...

Great work, intense but it works for the project goals. I'm not a fan of the light glow effects, but it is difficult on white, more diffusion really. I suspect you've realised this in the photos already.

I think the weapon rails on the intakes is inspired, I had never looked at them this way and will very quickly be addressing this oversight on all of my suits. It really adds a third dimension to the armor 'casing'.

Could yah crunch down or re-distribute the images though? the thread is spread wide and I can't read folks commentary easily (poor me I know chuckle)

~ Tael.

Wow. Most impressive, Aun'O, as always!

Very nice Kai, very nice indeed. You are going to have one very impressive looking display cabinet.

Are you considering working yourself up to a diorama in the near future? I think you would end up with something quite spectacular if you did.

OK here's my view. I have to say I'm very interested in the idea of literally removing paint to reveal colurs beneath. Some possible future applications there methinks.

As this is an experiment there is a certain amount of leeway with the weathering, but I think a bit more thought into how the suit would actually weather will improve the appearance a lot. As mentioned already the feet should be much more weathered than they are. I also think that some of the chipped panel lines should have been left clean, eg thighs and chest front. These plates do not seem to be articulated and their edges would be relatively protected. A largeish abrasive surface will catch the right places as opposed to every raised edge on the model.

Apart from the feet there is very little grime weathering. Soot around the weapons and thrusters would be nice.

I'll stop being picky now, it's a good model.

more insightful comments, this is good!

First, and I think this is a great tip that helps me a great deal so I want to share. I set a very specific target in mind and this one is "extreme weathering in a toxic environment and heavy use", in a spring/early thaw setting.

It may sound pedantic but it isn't, it's very helpful because after you have decided this, it makes it a simple road-map to try and follow through. Simple to follow, it's the steps that are difficult.

You've all made some excellent points, thanks for that. The nitpicks are fine too, they are accurate but are mostly things I didn't really mind and/or where just using for convenience. This wasn't a Golden Daemon try out, just a "hey, wonder how this would look" sort of job. Pretty quick too.

Too Yellow - it might be, it's left over paint from the Lunar Ma.K which I've been told is not yellow enough. Now that's funny!

The Feet -they are pretty stripped of the white, it's the oil colours that perhaps look like they are covering it? It's a muddy look of Pale Ochre, Brown and Blue Grey. Perhaps a little thick, I don't have much experience with painting with oils but a little bit more now. You rreally should have said I needed to add the spiffy Warhound tread.

Edges -some artistic licence, it's an inverse highlight right? So to keep the shape some not quite right physics are employed. Remember, for this kind of work this is a tiny mini. This is usually done on much larger tanks and gundams that can keep their shape due to being many times bigger.

Soot -yes I want to do that but it wouldn't show up well on the dark weapons. The weapons need to be dark to balance the off-white. Then there is the very real danger of too many effects in a small area that overloads the mini and this thing is close to past that now! Definitely for a future project though, it's something I want to do for sure. A burnt steel look to a fusion blaster would look most cool.

Tael- redistribute images -ahh, that's what the other chap was mentioning. My bad, sorry folks. My screen runs at errr, 1960 or something so it all fits and I had no idea, sorry again. Thanks for picking out the additions to the suit, they've mostly gone unnoticed it seems -Sgt Hoser of course spotted them. I'm pretty tired of puttying up the bad GW fit so decided to try and implement a different build philosophy.

Don't repair, add detail!!!

So hatches up under the arms on the jets to cover the injector marks and plates to cover the shoulder joins. To smooth off the back pack I removed the engine nacelle cover "thingees" completed, worked to a nice smooth finish and then re-added new kit-bash parts. Shoulder rails though... do you mean they way I have cut in the circle at the top of the shoulder groove or ...?

Dal'yth Mont'sha -cabinet is very full now though so... some of these guys will make their way to market... Diorama -yes sir, that is the next planned step.

Might try a slightly toned down but scaled up version on a Devilfish/HH. Less edges but more flat spaces to show dirt, grime and the like.

Will re-post the pics today.

Kai'lore :
No need to apologize. It actually was fun for me to scroll around (not that not having to scroll around wouldn't be
good as well...). I even zoomed in so that I could scroll even more! I guess running on not a lot of sleep and
browsing ATT really late at night just makes everything funnier... And great work again. I am looking forward to
see how you handle the Devilfish.

Thats really cool. Even though the painting is smooth, it looks like what a couple of my models looked when they came out of some Simple Green.

Updated Pics. Thanks for the comments.

Holy-schmoley.

Good to see some beat up junkers amidst the pristine ranks of battlesuits!

Two things I notice: first up, the source lighting from the helmet to the chest. Looks somewhat out of place, can't be sure since I don't have the model in front of me, just looks like it shouldn't be that bright, or quite possibly the light wouldn't reach there. Could be wrong, just think it could be something to check. *ack, you fixed it! looks better now I think *

Since snow is really hard to get right, even more so to judge if it's right from pictures (different snow types for different seasons/locales). I'll just throw it out there that the shading on it seems really pronounced. On a full display I think it would most likely look fine, but since I'm staring down a single model, I want to say it's not "snow-y" enough (as vague as that is)

Oh, and fantastic job, really nice weathering/paintwork. I'm a big fan of the low-key-but-interesting-still base. Though I'd try to make the grass seem more of a mix of dead/alive, being spring and all that.

Gah, can't finish this: Love the suit (really, really love the suit), just wanted to throw out some CC at the same time. Hope my ramblings made some sense