This here, will be the home of my army collecting shenanigans throughout my stay at ATT. Please bare in mind that this is very much a work in progress in all imaginable aspects and I expect to make many mistakes along this daunting voyage of discovery. With that in mind please be forgiving and I look forward to all comments, critique and help that I'm sure will come my way in the fore coming months and possible years!

So without further ado here we have the Third Phase sept Lu'shulin...


By pilgrim_pod at 2011-02-08

Lu'shulin, or Greenforest in the Tau tongue is a sept very much in its infancy on the southern fringes of Tau space.


By pilgrim_pod at 2011-02-08

I currently envisage the septs forces to be made up of a smattering of seasoned veterans surrounded with wave after wave of 'greener' unseasoned troops. Of course in these early stages all of this is very liable to change!

A number of fire warriors sacrificed themselves for the Greater Good in an attempt for me to finally nail down a colour scheme I was happy with. I'm almost there... Below are a couple of my efforts followed by the final decided theme.

My first effort consisting of an armour colour scheme of scab red. I just couldn't get a finish that I was happy with and abandoned him before applying the finishing touches and details to him.


By pilgrim_pod at 2011-02-08


By pilgrim_pod at 2011-02-08

My second effort consisted of a dark angels green basecoat with snot green poorly layered over the top of it on the armour plates.


By pilgrim_pod at 2011-02-02


By pilgrim_pod at 2011-02-02

I finally felt happy with the fellow below. I used catachan green as my primary colour. The grenades and belt probably need a little more attention throwing their way as they don't really stand out. I'm also not too sure about the shin guards. Should I paint them green like below to go along with the Dawn of War fire warriors or paint them cloth coloured like the miniatures displayed in the codex book...


By pilgrim_pod at 2011-02-03


By pilgrim_pod at 2011-02-03

Constructive criticism and advice regarding sept background story, my painting dilemmas or anything else for that matter would be greatly appreciated.

Hey, Min'Qing! This looks like an excellent start to a Tau cadre. On my FW's, I paint the shin guards in the colors of the "soft" armor or cloth. IMO, it helps break up the solid armor color (in my case Codex Grey, so it gets boring fast if I have too much of it ). It's completely a personal preference thing, though, and either option would look fine on your FW's.

A couple other tidbits about your painting:
- The glow effects on this 'La's backpack are very well done! You display very fine brush control, especially on the two vertical pieces (whatever they're called ) and on the lenses on the helmet.
- I've found that it helps to do all of your highlights in as few brushstrokes as possible (one stroke if possible), especially on the edges of armor plates. It gives them a smoother look and keeps the edges of your highlights clean. Here's a visual of what I'm trying to explain:


On the left is a line done with one brushstroke. The line on the right has been done with multiple strokes. Can you see the areas where the strokes overlap? That look is what you are trying to avoid. Of course, some lines are just too long or awkward to do with one stroke, but minimizing the number of strokes helps.

- This is entirely my opinion, but I would like to see more orange on this guy to break up the olive green. Of course, these are your minis, so if you don't like that look, feel free to ignore this comment.
- Do you water down your paints? It looks to me like you are putting multiple layers of orange on your sept markings, so I would guess yes, but if not, give it a try. It makes minis look a lot smoother.
- You took the time to base you minis! Excellent! The bases are simple but look great and add a lot to the model.

Wow, looking back through this, I feel like I've talked too much about the flaws . Let me make one solid point: your minis look great! When viewing minis this close up, it is very easy to get nitpicky, and that is exactly what I did. I would be perfectly happy to see these models on a tabletop .

I apologize for the long response, but I hope it helps!

Lynu

That Firewarrior looks great and is a clear winner when compared to the other ones. I agree with Lynu's comments on the highlighting. I feel like it could use a little more on the thigh plates and if the edges were hit with a little brighter color they would look great.

Also, just to be clear, a Sept is not a world, but a collection of planets or solar systems. Just wanna make sure you understood that.

@Lynu - I'll try painting a FW with the leg plates the same colour as the soft armour as you do. I think I'm in agreement that in doing so it will help break up the overbearing catachan green solid armour colour! I'll paint up another trial FW and make a decision on what I think works best for me and my cadre.

I've also taken on board your advice regarding highlighting my FWs armour edges. I'll try and limit the highlights to one stroke of the paintbrush as opposed to two or three! I think it sounds easier said than done though, as I don't often get good coverage with just one stroke. It sounds like something I can work on to further my painting skills.

Thirdly, no need to apologise for the long response! I certainly value your advice and opinion.

@Wolfs16 - As you've quite rightly pointed out the thigh plates do need a little work doing to them. I've taken a closer look at some of the folks FWs in their project logs and am going to try and emulate some of their highlighting on the legs and other areas I think would benefit from them. The raised armour points I've been picking out with camo green. As an extreme highlight in places I could try something along the lines of bleached bone perhaps? I might have a look into that.

As for my fledgling fluff, I was thinking that Lu'shulin was a newly founded/colonised third phase world on the fringes of Tau space and running with that idea could be a newly founded sept also. I'm imagining nearby neighbouring worlds sprouting up around it and joining the sept as I intend for it to be a 'beacon of light' and leading example of how to exemplify how/what it is to act for the Greater Good. I'm just spitballing here!

Part of me wants to carry on and paint my miniatures to the best standard I'm capable of but there's a little voice over my shoulder and I'm not sure if it's a little angel or little devil that wants me to just glue my FWs together, undercoat and throw on the quick basecoats and quickly amass a 500 to 800 point force with which to start learning the games mechanics properly by playing a few games with my new found buddies at my local gaming club...

Enter the following morning...

The pictures below are of my latest attempt at painting a FW. I've taken the pictures of him standing next to my previous attempt for comparison.


By pilgrim_pod at 2011-02-13


By pilgrim_pod at 2011-02-13

Please excuse the FW's grip of his pulse rifle... I assembled the model without the gun arm attached for easier access of painting. Low and behold when the time came to attaching it, I just couldn't get the fit right at all and was worried about removing the other arm to marry them up in case I damaged it. A valuable lesson learnt! For fluff purposes I imagine him to be a confident, cocksure Shas'saal tapping his rifle up in the air and catching it, killing time, whilst waiting for his next order to be given!

I'll hold off showing any more picture's of fire warriors until I've completed the squad, which I'll then take a couple of photo's of. All of them are assembled, undercoated and basecoated so it's just a matter of applying the details and finer touches. On another note, I should hopefully be purchasing a battleforce set next weekend to truly get my cadre under way and give me something other than FWs to work on. I can't wait!

Awesome stuff Mini'Qing!

I'm not here to offer any painting advice, (I would need quite a bit myself to reach the level that you're painting at) I think it looks great. But I will add that I really dig the grey on the pulse rifle. While non-solis coloured weapons do look less GI than multi coloured weapons I think that the latter looks more Tau-esque.

I am really interested in hearing more of what you've got worked out as your fluff. i myself am working on a background for my own cadre in the making and maybe, if you don't mind, I can steal some inspiration from you.

Okey doke here we are! Another well intentioned Shas'Saal wanting to start a project log and then disappears from the 40k universe after a few weeks you were asking yourselves? Nope, it's been a busy five or so weeks for me in the hobby. I've added the battleforce set to my collection as well as a few other items. There were a couple of steals that I came across on eBay which I would have been mad not to purchase, one coming in the form of a second battleforce set including a Piranha for just shy of £15 ($24).

Unfortunately, or not as the case may be, that little devil I mentioned in my last post got his way and I've commenced with assembling and basecoating all of the units I've collected over the past few weeks so that I can field a small force and play a few games. By play, I actually mean learn the game.

Such as the distraction life is, I haven't really managed to do as much as I really could have in the last few weeks but below is a snippet of the force I've collected so far.


By pilgrim_pod at 2011-03-25

The eBay force I bought came 90% assembled and stuck together with ten times as much super glue as was needed. The Crisis Battlesuit below has taken up quite a lot of my time and attention. It came assembled with every weapon system on the sprue attached. It took considerable kettle boils and soakings accompanied with gentle persuasion on my part to remove the unwanted equipment and alter the little guys pose. I now have what I believe is known to the initiated as a 'Fireknife'.


By pilgrim_pod at 2011-03-25

I actually think I've spent more time on the bases than the actual models themselves! Could this quite possibly be a first for a newbie army collector?


By pilgrim_pod at 2011-03-25

Below, I actually think the gun drones look alright as they are with just a basecoat. It could be that those bases draw the eye away from their paint-job.


By pilgrim_pod at 2011-03-25

Well there we have it for the time being. I've got a few more Kroot, six Pathfinders and two Crisis Suits left to assemble, not to mention a load more basecoat to slop down on the army, but it's slowly coming together. My next three purchases in the pipeline are to be a Battlesuit Commander and a couple of Broadsides to give my boys some bang. Thanks for taking the time to read this post and I look forward to seeing and drawing inspiration from your lots cadres as they are updated.

I like you're colour scheme a lot, ignore the devil telling you to pain quickly nothing as rewarding as having a beautifully painted army when its all done




Love it

I'm loving your colour scheme as well, mate.

A question since I've yet to do any bases for my models, but what colours were used? It's pretty much exactly what I want my bases to look like.

@Firah - I'm glad you like the colour scheme I've opted for. It took me considerable attempts to get it just the way I liked it. Even now I'm not 100% happy but to improve them any further I think is out of my level of painting experience at this moment in time.

As for the Crisis Battlesuit I kid you not as to the state of disrepair he was in. Terrible pose accompanied with glue seeping out of the joints and along the armour panels, not to mention glue covered mould lines and Dark Eldar inspired spikes in the form of hastily removed sprue. I shouldn't really complain when I only paid peanuts for him. I learnt a lot trying to patch him up too and he'll be my tester XV8 when it comes to a paint job! It's just a shame I couldn't remove a few items and tried to magnetize him.

I look forward to the day I can field a fully painted army on the battlefield. I'm sure that is the ultimate goal for any newbie starting out in the hobby.

@fallschirmjager - Another person likes my colour scheme. I find your kinds words very encouraging and I'm grateful for them mate.

As for my bases, because I'm relatively new to this hobby I kept them as simple as I could. I'm sure, if memory serves my style is just from an old GW guide. I just slopped watered down Bestial Brown over the sand, dry brushed it with Bleached Bone, then a final light dry brush of Skull White. Around the rim of the base was just a coat of Snakebite Leather. It takes minutes to do and although it won't set the world alight I think it finishes off the miniatures quite nicely. I was feeling a right flash Harry and glued a little static grass to them just to give them a little colour . I'm thinking of buying a broom head next so I can cut the bristles off and use them as long reeds. I've also seen at my local Hobbycraft centre some torn, green stained foam they peddle off as shrubbery which looks quite real too. I might have to have a go at fashioning my own.

Really like the colour scheme, fits in well with the forest planet idea

I just wanted to do a very quick update of my blossoming cadre. Over the last couple of weeks I've continued painting the bases and basecoating my troops during my work breaks. My reasoning being that even though it's only an hour's worth of painting each day an hour every day is better than nothing! At home at night the only thing I've managed to put together is a unit of six Pathfinders as my focus has been drawn to creating a gaming board to resemble the forests of my sept's home world, Lu'shulin. Pictures of its progress follow below...


By pilgrim_pod at 2011-04-11

The three polystyrene mounds are 25mm high. I'm not quite sure if their height quite comes across in these photos.


By pilgrim_pod at 2011-04-11

The smaller mounds and pools rise up off the board from between 5mm and 15mm. I've tried my best to blend them sloping into the board rather than be stepped above it.


By pilgrim_pod at 2011-04-11

All that's left to do is spray the board brown, flock it and fill the small pools with water effects!

In the buying department I've purchased another Crisis suit, a Commander and two Broadsides. All are waiting to be thrown together.

I still haven't managed to actually play a game of 40k but each night I've been flicking over the rules. I hope to remedy this with a game/tutorial I've scheduled in for just over a week's time with a 40k seasoned friend. My 1000 point list has been meticulously put together and bar the new purchases needing to be assembled and basecoated I'm ready to go. Now all I need to purchase is dice and templates!

Thanks again for reading.

Very good! I'm impressed.

At our store we lack a proper gaming table; It's two tables pushed together with masking tape marking the 4'x6' boundaries and a rubberized terrain mat over top of it (from Zuzzy?) At least we have some terrain pieces!

Your stuff is looking great, have fun learning the rules!

Is the tale only going to be fixed in one way? Or will it be like the modular GW table which can make several different terrains all in one kit?

I'll be following your progress intently.

Keep us updated!

Tiny, tiny update here. Just a few shots of how the planet Lu'shulin (meaning Greenforest in the Tau tongue) is coming along...



Almost finished now. All that really needs doing now is flocking. I imagine it will look loads different again once fully flocked.



It has taken me all blinking week to gradually fill up the pools with 'water effects' resin. Now they just need fish!



Dangerous terrain or a nice fishing spot? You decide!

@fallschirmjager - Unfortunately mate, the dining table which the board will be sitting on at home is only something like 3' 6" x 3' 6". I wanted my board to be made up of four quarters but I was worried that with the overhang they wouldn't be steady on the table and unable to take the weight of someone leaning on them. I'm more concerned with models ending up broken on the floor than the board being damaged! At least in two parts it's a lot sturdier and can take much more weight without tipping. In fact I'm more concerned now with the table legs buckling! I've covered the back of the boards with a thin red rubber/foam to stop them moving about on the table and to prevent the table itself from being scratched. I've jigged the board up so they can be turned 180 degrees on themselves for a slightly different set up. In short, I guess it's semi-modular if there is such a word!

Templates, dice and most importantly the rulebook are all now in my possession. I'm just waiting for my Commander and a few of his troops to arrive through the post and I'm ready to play my first game (hopefully next Friday!). Most of my cadre are undercoated and basecoated and ready to fight for the Greater Good.

My first 1000 point game will consist of the following models...

1 Commander
6 Crisis suits
6 Fire warriors
1 Devilfish
10 Kroot
2 Kroot hounds
2 Broadsides
1 Hammerhead

I can't wait to see them in all their glory on the battlefield! I may even have a go at writing a battle report...

After all that it doesn't feel like such a tiny update. Thanks for reading.

I'm liking the direction that this board is taking. If you want to get the most fun out of your board, however, you may want to add more vertical dimension to the board. Right now, your 25mm hills won't even be a hindrance to anything trying to assault you, and most things (with the exclusion of some on-foot infantry) will be able to shoot right over the top of it. As for the pools, the first thing I thought of was Tyranid bio-matter pools, but I don't think that's what you were going for . Perhaps acidic or bacteria-filled hot springs, that would be dangerous to any infantry? If you are going for a "green forest" or a rain forest, that kind of thing might just fit in (altough in real life no trees grow within 100 yards of a hot spring).

Congratulations on getting some a solid colour scheme nailed down. The armour fits in well with the forest world feel of your army, one thing I would suggest is to give the fatigues of your fire warriors a light wash of gryphonne sepia, that will give you a nice effect. I think that will help get the depth that you want on them, then add a small highlight on the raised edges to make it more realistic. You've got quite an army started here and I look forward to seeing the battlesuits as well as some kroot and the hammerhead and devilfish. Keep up the good work, I look forward to seeing how this log progresses.

Hello ATT, update time. I've recently started playing small 1000 to 1200 point skirmish games with a couple of friends of mine who are kindly teaching me the game mechanics. For those who are interested in checking out a battle report compiled for my second game by a mate of mine for his blog it can be found here... [1200pts Battle Report] A Lu'shulin cadre skirmish with orcs.

I'm planning on making the jump up to 1500 points for my next game in a couple of days time. My list is sorted, it's just a case of getting my models assembled and ready to go. Here are a few pics of my work in progress...



Please excuse the pictures. They aren't quite as sharp as I'd like them to be and the lighting wasn't quite right. I need to swap out that energy saving bulb for something with a little more oomph! Anyway these photos are only to show my work in progress so I guess the picture quality isn't quite that important.



My Commander followed closely by Lu'shulin Crisis suits. All assembled, magnetised and basecoated for battle!



Unfortunately I'm having to proxy a couple of Gun Drones with my Broadsides as Shield Drones for the time being...



My Kroot Broadside protection unit. Be it going to ground or hiding in nearby cover I'm hoping they'll start performing in my future games! Notice the three colour schemes I tried out on them. I've opted for the one furthest left, camo green with a thraka green and ogryn flesh wash on top.



As you guys can see I've finally gotten around to flocking my board! The right hand side was done first and I think you'll agree I did a better job on the left hand side.



My not so trusty Fire Warriors bringing up the rear who I intend to spend most of their time cruising about in their Devilfish.



I'm pretty happy with the progress my Hammerhead is making. Just a few highlights, possible battle damage and sept markings and she's complete. Now I just need to assemble and basecoat her sister for three days time on top of everything else...



Thanks for taking the time to look fellas. As always any comments and criticism greatly appreciated. Ta ta for now.

Hello, me again. I've not really been up to anything hobby related for the past three months because of other interests getting in the way. I've rediscovered my mojo for all things 40k again though and with this sudden burst of enthusiasm decided to throw some paint at a Crisis Suit this weekend. So here we have my trial colour scheme for my suits...



It's probably 90% complete in this picture. I just need to do a little tidying up at a later date. Now I just have another nine suits to paint...

Impressive, this is a quite a progression from your first models. The light-source effect is well placed and you have really refined your style of painting. Really brings the XV8 to life.

Had missed your notes on the table, quite envious! Personally, I'd fish there. Being Australian, I'd use dynamite mate.

- Tael.

@Tael - Cheers dude. I feel like my painting is coming on leaps and bounds and that's mainly down to the inspiration and advice I'm taking on board from these forums. I'm loving it here!
As for the fishing spots... They'll be disappearing in the near future as I 'landscape garden' my board to make it more even a surface and easier to maneuver models on. They kind of get in the way even though I do think they look cool!

I just wanted to share a little hobby progress whilst I'm still in the zone and getting my 'paint on'. Here we have a very much still WIP Hammerhead but I'm happy with the direction it is taking.



I need to get some highlighting and sept markings down on this bad boy to finish it off. Then there's the matter of do I attempt battle damage or not??? I think that route could really bring this tank to life and make it look 'real' but I'm not sure I'm confident enough to risk harming the work I will have already put into it.