Edit: Changed the title since I will use this as an informal log until such time I can post to the projects section.

Hello all, I'm new here at ATT, which I found while searching for pictures of converted battlesuits for my new Tau army I'm starting on. Since I can't yet start a project page and the Lower Concourse seems to be the most appropriate page I will post some pictures and thoughts on my new army here for now.

My original Tau army was the standard codex color for the T'au sept, being essentially Vomit Brown. But for my new army I was thinking of going a new direction. While I like the "just off the factory floor" look I wanted to go for a more "we fight for our jobs" look on my Tau, while still trying to maintain the clean paint style that the Tau require. I did some hunting here and found Jordtron's project log and devoured his tutorial on how he weathered his Hammerhead and have decided to try and adopt that to my army. Theme wise I'm going for an urban scheme.

I used the Tau Fire Warrior painter over at Bolter & Chainsword to come up with an initial paint scheme of light grey armor with a blue-grey undersuit:



Next I painted up a Fire Warrior model to figure out the appropriate colors and technique on the model:



The model isn't 100% finished as it was just a test model to determine how the color scheme will look. For the undersuit I used Games Workshop's Foundation Fenris Grey and for the armor I used Foundation Adeptus Battlegrey. I then washed the entire model in Badab Black ink. The undersuit was then given an initial highlight with Fenris Grey again and a final highlight of Vallejo Game Color's (VGC) Sombre Grey. The armor was given a coat of VGC Cold Grey, minding the panel lines, followed by a final highlight of VGC Stonewall Grey.

Overall I'm pleased with how the model looks, but I think it needs some panels done up in a very light grey. I'm going to do a test Crisis battlesuit over the next couple nights to see how this scheme works out on a larger model as well as attempt to use Jordtron's weather techniques.

Any comments or suggestions on the color scheme are welcome! Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read my post. Cheers!

I think it looks great. It is not over the top. the model looks much better than the cartoon. I would continue with the good work. Please post more when they are ready.

Nice work! Looking forward to see how your army develops.

Nice work.

Rus'El

I like it! You picked a very nice color scheme (I am partial to grey myself) and you painted that mini to a superb standard! I'm interested to see how your weathering turns out as well. I plan on weathering my boys when I finish painting them, but I want to get them up to a good standard first. One thing though, are you going to paint the little circle near the front of the rifle? I find just adding a metallic color to it makes it look really nice.

Now all you gotta do is base that sucker and you'll be in business. Might I recommend Dark Arts Miniatures Urban Bases for a little style? http://www.darkartstore.darkartminiatures.com/products.php?product=Urban-Core-Base-Pack They are cheap and look great.

I'm looking forward to more!

Thank you for the kind words. I nearly finished up the test Fire Warrior last night while waiting for the undercoat to dry on my test Crisis suit. I ended up doing the raised areas of the Tau symbol and the decoration on his chest on his armor using VGC Stonewall Grey highlighted with VGC Bone White. I think it adds a little extra depth to the model. I will get him finished up and post new pictures of him in a day or two before I start the weathering experiment.

I also started on laying down my base colors on the test Crisis suit last night. I plan to paint some panels in the same blue-grey as the FW's undersuit to carry the color throughout the army. I also plan to use the lighter grey on some panels as well. I think the weathering will be key to giving the grey scheme additional depth so I'm excited to see how it turns out.

I plan to build this army for an upcoming escalation league at the LA Battle Bunker in Westminster. Starting forces are 1000pts, so here is a rough breakdown of what I plan to build over the next 2-3 weeks:

HQ: Shas'O w/slightly converted Crisis suit
Elites: Stealth suit team and Crisis suit Monat (probably Fireknife configuration)
Troops: 2 units of Fire Warriors mounted in Devilfish
Fast Attack: None*
Heavy Support: Hammerhead Tank or Broadsides (haven't decided)

*Depending on how points workout for upgrades and such I might include a squadron of gun drones.

More pics to come soon!

Broadsides!!!!

Here is a WIP shot of my test Crisis suit. It still looks a bit "cartoony" because I'm still laying down the main colors and haven't started highlighting it yet. As I progress on this model the large flat areas are only reinforcing my initial thoughts that the weathering will be key to giving some added depth to the larger flat areas.

HELL!
They're looking awesome!
I really like the color sheme.
And I don't think that the minis on the WIP are looking 'too cartoony' - I like this look.

Keep up the inspiring and also awesome work!
-Cheers

The blue contrasting color is very nice. now your color scheme is up for grabs lol. Got a long story about my color scheme but will save that for another day.

Again very nice clean looking models.

Looking great
Keep up the good work.

Lovely, makes me want to start up my army even, just need to find a fitting scheme, always a pain when it comes to Tau
Do I spot some white panels on the suit? If not, adding some would fit the scheme methinks

Keep it up! /sLai

Those are very light grey panels, it's Vallejo Game Color Stonewall Grey, it's equivalent to Citadel Fortress Grey. I highlight it with Bone White, which is obviously Citadel Skull White.

Quick update: Did a new flying stand base using a brass rod rather than GW's clear plastic flying rod, which has a tendency to break. Also detailed the base to look like urban rubble using some plastic sidewalk sheets and some bitz from my bitz box. I also finished the main colors on the suit and started doing the shading along the panel lines. Didn't get a whole lot done this weekend because I was busy cleaning house for impending relatives who are visiting and spending the day at Disneyland on Sunday. Hopefully I'll get the suit finished up this week.





You can also see I did some test weathering on his right middle toe and was very pleased how it turned out. I can't wait to get started on the rest of the suit, but I still have to finish the base work before the fun stuff!

Looking good! I like the urban base; especially the barbed wire (I have to try that for some of mine!). The little bit of weathering is also well done. You have to show us how you did it later.

Keep going! This is some great stuff.

Great job with the colour scheme. It works perfect with the blue/grey imperial buildings of urban areas and snowy landscapes. Keep up the good work!

So after reading some of the Academy articles I've decided to modify the army I'm planning to build for the up coming escalation league. This particular list is also a little more detailed that my last build list, which is to be expected as I've had more time to work out the details.

HQ:

• 1 Commander Shas'o (Airbursting Fragmentation Projector; Hard-wired Multi-tracker; Twin Linked Missile Pod)

I'm still debating between the Shas'o and Shas'el, but for the most part the suit will be the same. I plan to convert the airbursting fragmentation projector based on some designs I've seen online as I'm not a fan of any of the metal bitz from the commander suit. I also stumbled upon my FW stash this weekend, so I will probably use a few battlesuit bitz in the conversion work on the suit.

Elites:

• 1 Crisis Battlesuit (Missile Pod; Plasma Rifle; Multi-Tracker)
• 2 Stealthsuits ( Burst Cannon x2); 1 Team Leader (Bonding Knife; Burst Cannon; Hard-wired Drone Controller; Markerlight; Marker Drone)

Troops:

• 6 Fire Warrior (Pulse Rifle x6); 1 Shas'ui (Markerlight; Bonding Knife; Hard-wired Drone Controller; Hard-wired Target Lock; Pulse Rifle; Marker Drone)
• 11 Fire Warrior (Pulse Rifle x11; Photon Grenade); 1 Shas'ui (Bonding Knife; Pulse Rifle; Photon Grenade; Hard-wired Target Lock; Markerlight); Mounted in a Devilfish (Disruption Pod)
• 10 Kroot Carnivore Squad (Kroot Rifle x10)

I'm not sure how I will model the disruption pod yet. I have yet to hunt around ATT to see what other folks are doing, but when I get to building the Devilfish I will be sure to do that.

Heavy Support:

• 1 Broadside Battlesuit Team Leader (Twin linked Railgun; Broadside Battlesuit; Smart Missile System; Bonding Knife; Hard-wired Drone Controller; Shield Drone; Shield Drone x2; Advanced Stabilisation System); 1 Broadside Battlesuit (Twin linked Railgun; Smart Missile System; Advanced Stabilisation System)

I kind of have a sweet spot for the old Broadsides, so those will probably be the ones I put together for now, although with a couple minor conversions to represent the ASS. I do have 6 of the FW Broadsides, 3 w/Smart Missile System and 3 w/Twin linked Plasma Rifles!

Cool. They remind me of my first tau army. One thing I found with grey armour is that it sometimes looks like bare plastic.

Good luck with these.

Yeah, that's a valid point, but that's why I plan to weather them up. Additionally, on the Hammerhead, Devilfish and when I get to them, my FW aircraft, I plan to use the Adeptus Battlegrey to create the hard-edged camo pattern (Does it have a specific name? ) found in the codex, so that should add some additional depth to the color scheme on the larger models as well.

I'm using the 'command bits' from the Apocalypse Command Sprue for mine. I call the little sensor pods a disruptor pod, and the funky vein/antennae things are a multi-tracker. I then also have the targetting array from the regular vehicles and that does it for my upgrades

brotherjason :
Relocated to Project Logs. Keep up the excellent work, Shas'La!

- Shas'Vre SpartanTau