Hey all. I figured I should show what my Tau collection of six years looks like. I'm more of a painter than a battler as I don't live near any hobby centers or Games Workshop stores. While I go to school in Ottawa, my home town is Owen Sound, and its truely in the middle of nowhere.
At this point, the army, as it is set up as right now, is just shy of 4.000 points. I know that in the old Tau Codex, they list different colours for TASH'VAR sept, but I like to think I have the ceremonial colours. As a quick recap on my colour scheme, (which is also in my profile), my main armour/primary colour is Dark Angels Green. My cloth/secondary colour is Snakebite Leather. The command colour is Blood Red, while all lenses are Lightning Blue. The Kroot are Camo Green with a Thrake Green ink wash. The Battlesuits and vehicles are Boltgun Metal with several layers of Thraka Green to make a metalic equivelent to Dark Angels Green. Also, last but not least are the Vespids, which I used Sunburst Yellow and Chaos Black with gloss to do a wasp theme.

Now without further delay, here are the shots:
























So, this is but a few shots of the army, and its various aspects. I welcome feed back and later I may show off some of the non-Tau models which are in my collection. As a side not, some of the older battlesuits don't use Thraka Green, but the old Dark Green Ink that was sold before the introduction of the newer citadel washes.

Thanks for sharing. I really like that vespid colour scheme. Did your crisis suits sprout wings?!

For the "wing men" Shas'ui, I use the wings (and grafted on Target lock bits) to represent the Targeting Array. As for the Shas'Vre, its just for looks. I just felt the need to use Carnifex talons. They make neat wings with this paint scheme.

Love the army! Very original!

Its rare you see dark Tau like this...

Yea, and I don't have any good shots unfortunatly, but my tau skin is also very dark as well.

Interesting color scheme; I'm a big fan of darker Tau, and this one looks pretty good. The photos are kinda lousy, though, you might want to try a simply lightbox (carboard box, grey paper on the sides, white on the back, lamp aimed into but not directly at the models) next time, as the reflections off stuff are pretty harsh.

What's your feeling on the Greater Knarlock in the back there? I can't say I've ever seen one used, so I'm kinda curious how they run.

My camera is pretty old, and bad......... though I'll try your suggestion and see if that helps.

I haven't actually had a chance to field my Knarloc yet, so I can't really say if its worth the use. But it does look nice

I did an article on this a while back. Some of the tactics are a little absurd, but I feel it's a decent breakdown of their strengths and weaknesses.
You can find it here: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=11859&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=20

Cam

Ah, thank you. I like Tau a lot and I'm looking at building towards some kind of Apocalypse-viable force, but a lot of the Forge World stuff is... expensive. The Gnarloc seemed like potentially a good place to start.

Yea, I just had to get one after playing DoW:Dark crusade. I've been thinking about getting the Bolt Thrower Gnarloc, but it will have to wait until after the Tiger Shark. Its next on the list after it though. I try to get one FW model a year at Games Day. Although I couldn't find where in IA3 it say what kind of unit a Gnarloc is. Which is just a random remark after having read the Gnarloc thread Shas'O Cam wrote. Love the clown fish idea, lol!

Ok, I went and borrowed a friends camera to try and get some better shots. Hopefully these are better quality.

My Monat with the helpless IG.


The Newest Battlesuit in the cadre.


My Ethereal and the Honour Guard Shas'Ui. This is a good example of my skin tones. I think you could say my part of the TASH'VAR sept are a bit like the SM Salamanders chapter, minus the creepy-ness!


My Great Gnarloc which I've named "Buddy" after my grandparents dog (which is a little terror! )


A good shot of my Pathfinder Team. I was inspired by Tylermenz's post doing green stuff work for his pathfinders, so I did some too! I've always been jealous of Eldar Rangers for their cool cloaks.


My only sniper team so far.


And a better shot of my Vespids.


And here is a close up of one so you can get a good look!



The Vespid look great as a squad because I randomly do the yellow bits on their armour. This makes it feels a little more like they have character. Take not of their heads. Its the easy one to spot.

Just as a quick up-date, I picked up another battlesuit and a hammerhead for the cadre. Pics will follow. I've alread got the battlesuit done, as he's joinning the other new one since they are becoming my deep striking hunters. The hammerhead is still coming along, though this one's aim is to be my command tank and recieve the plasma cannon turret as soon as I can get my hands on it! Also on a side note, can anyone point me in the direction of where I could locate the command tank bits? I know they came with the apoc tank set, but those were limited time offers. And most online orders are no good to me as I have no credit card or paypal. What other means are left? (other than making my own which would be a neat idea and I'd love to know if someones got a tutorial)

Czar Ziggy

Hey! I also did wasp themed Vespid!
Great minds think alike I guess!

Owen Sound you say? say, I'll be posted on the Meaford base in march. PM me your contact info and we'll play a few Tau vs Tau games ^^ and by the way, Love the colour scheme. very powerful. its good to see that you have 4000 points of Tau. long time collectors tend to have a lot of models lol. is that big kroot model the one from forge world?

So, I have added a few new models, mainly that battlesuit and new Railhead. I figurered for fun, it would be worth pulling everything off the shelf and putting it onto one table top, (since its been 2 years since the whole cadre was on one table), and getting a Cadre shot. As well, it was a chance to get some pics of other parts of the army that I hadn't done well yet. You might note some of the conversions I have done. So here is my december up-date.


















My next project will be to finish the battlesuit squad. But after that, I have a feeling that I'll shift back into a Nid phase since they were my first army, and the new stuff comes out in January. I'm looking forward to plastic Ravener and Gargoyle sets as well as the Trygon. I'd love to hear any thoughts on the cadre so far. I'm sitting at just over 4,000 pts now.

Czar Ziggy

Looking good Ziggy! I really love to see such a big army complete. You've done a really great job modeling these guys; they have a lot of character. The metallic effect comes off great (even though I'm not much of a metallic guy) and makes these guys look really high tech.

My one issue if the Kroot. I feel like they could really use a wash to bring out the details. Especially on the Great Knarloc. The beak looks so plain! I use washes on all my Kroot and they are a thing of beauty. I'm not too sure what would work for the green you're using though... How did you paint them?

The Camera doesn't do the kroot justice, lol. They actually have two different washes now. The Green skin has had a Thraka green ink wash, and the leather has had a Devan mud wash. I haven't done one on the beak of the Knarloc yet though, might use the ogryn flesh on that. I've been slowly going through the army doing washes. The cloth I've been doing Ogryn Flesh on. Only two squads left to go to have it done. I'll have to try and get a better shot of the kroot somehow.

Czar Ziggy

Very nice work there Czar Ziggy I like your vespid scheme and I am going to steal it for when I get some it thats okay with you?

Yeah, maybe the camera is the cause. Is still feel like the Kroot lack definition. Hmm, maybe I should just wait for better shots.

Oh and I know how you feel about the new Nid stuff. Tyranid are my first army as well and I made sure to restrict myself to just buying the new Codex and waiting till I finished my Tau to start working on the Nids. It is really hard though!

@ Whitefire: Absolutly! I don't mind if any of this army's elements are used or modyfied. All the better for seeing different takes on similar designs.

@ Wolfs16: Yea, the codex is the first thing I'm getting too. I need to plan out how I'm going to expand my Nid forces before I commit any more resources on them. Also, I'll see what I can do to get some better pics of those kroot. I've gotten some better shots with my friends camera, but I'm still losing the deffinition of them. I also just did a coat of Ogryn Flesh now on the Knarloc and its looking more unified in its tone and the beak detail is looking better now too. Thanks for the suggestion. OH, and the kroot are painted with choas black (undercoat), Camo Green then Thraka Green ink wash (skin), Snakebite leather then Devlan Mud ink wash (sash and cloth), and the armour is dwarf bronze. Then various minor details.

Czar Ziggy