HQ
Farsight (Twin Fusion/2 shield drones/Iridium armor) - Complete 0/1
Darkstrider - Complete 0/1
Elites
Crisis Battlesuit x3 (Plasma/Fusion w/ 1 POS relay/vector thrusters) - Complete 3/3
Riptide (Heavy Burst, Skyfire, Interceptor) - 0/1
Riptide (Heavy Burst, Skyfire, Interceptor) - 0/1
Troops
Firewarrior x12 (Shas'ui) - Complete 12/12
Firewarrior x12 - Complete 12/12
Kroot x10 - sniper rounds - 0/10
Kroot x10 - sniper rounds - 0/10
Fast Attack
Pathfinders x8 (Shas'ui) - Complete 8/8
Pathfinders x8 (2xRail Rifle) - Complete 0/8
Pathfinders x8 (2xRail Rifle) - Complete 0/8
Heavy Support
Sky Ray Missile Defense (BSF, SMS)- Complete 1/1
Hammerhead Gunship(BSF, Railgun, Dpod, Drones)- Complete 1/1
Hammerhead Gunship(BSF, Railgun, Dpod, Drones)- Complete 1/1
Emplacements
Aegis Defense Line (Comms Relay) - Complete 0/1

Hi everyone I've finally decided to take the plunge and start building my own army. Unluckily for you I've decided on Tau which means your stuck with me.

With all the rumors I've been hearing about the upcoming codex (lots of new models?!?) I'm trying to play it safe and build up the mechanized aspects of my army first on account of tanks rarely ever getting new models. But on to my first attempts at building one of these "minis" (The hammer head tank is anything but!). Overall I'm pretty happy with my first attempt at painting however I was woefully under prepared for the actual assembly. There are plenty of botched mold lines I should have cleaned up much better and small cracks between certain pieces that I should have compressed better and used some of that "green stuff" I keep reading about on the forums. I am particularly proud of how the front light widow turned out after redoing it after reading the Support Drone painting a glow effect guide (very helpful by the way).

Anyways if anyone has any tips that would get this thing looking a little better it would be much appreciated. I'm trying to avoid any overall weathering effects since my fluff depicts a very specialized cadre that is deployed in pinpoint strike missions where night fighting is expected (Not deployed long term where you get the weathering). I'm probably going to pick up a devil fish or two next, but I was wondering if anyone had any tips on models that are unlikely to change in the next codex (Fire warriors maybe?).

Looks good so far! Only pointer would be to copy the window glow effect onto the actual engines, they just look a bit... green at the moment.

Great work!

Pantherus

Great work! As for new models, i would expect Game-WorkShop to really only change hq

This isn't really true. Vehicles are really easy to get dirty, even without full-scale combat. That training mission your cadre did? Paint scraped off the front hull where your Hammerhead pilot rammed a small tree out of the way to get to the target faster. Maintenance crew doesn't care about your pretty paint job? All your access hatches have paint chips around them. Engines are leaking a bit of oil, but not enough to delay the mission? You've got some nice oil stains. Maintenance crew has better things to do than re-paint your tank every few weeks? You've got exhaust stains. Operating on a dry, dusty planet? You'll have dirt all over the bottom of your tanks the moment they leave the Manta. Etc.

Even if you're not adding serious battle damage, subtle weathering will still add a lot to the model.

A great paintjob you done there. But as Pantherus said, the engines could "gow" too. At the moment, they're just green.

Weathering effects are cool. Personnaly I don't use them. I'm not sure, I can them paint good enough and I won't waste that many time I've spend on my models only to ruin them. But you, seems to me, are a very good painter, so you should go for it.

Like Peregrine said, weathering effects can happen very fast. But it's a personal decision.

Would like to see more.

Chris

I like the colours, very evocative of a night-camo.

Personally, I could take or leave the weathering. I like to add it myself, but I think your colour scheme's strong enough without it.

Looks fantastic, love the glow effect. Its spot on. Nice paint scheme w/ the purple.

Very impressive, especially the glow effect. I'm trying to get that down for my own models but it's a lot of trial and error so far. xD

If it accidentally helps anyone I will list out the paint mixes and techniques for the front light:

1. Actual glass (Light Emitter) 1:5:2 (white):(goblin green):(water) wet brushed double coat to make solid.
2. Glass sheen 2:1 (white):(water) basically I used it as a wash and let it sink into the edges of the window light. 2 coats where needed to get sufficient whiteness. This could probably be done with a thin brush and a quick white stroke to make a solid white line.
3. Outer ring glow 1:5:2 (black):(green goblin):(water) Dry brush. Slightly dipped into paint and double wiped on paper towel. Push down harder on the edge nearest the emitter and end your stroke by pulling it off by a gradual lifting motion.
4. First ring glow 4:1 (green goblin):(water) Same technique as above but reduce pressure faster so you lift the brush about halfway through the outer ring glow.

TIP: When working with shelves or anything in the way of the emitter try to emulate how light from a single source would work

_____
_____\_ <= Light emitter
_______\___ <= Vertical Shelf is below and out for range of the light making it black or only slightly lighter perhaps only outer ring glow bright (3).

Well, I finally had a few nights without previous engagements so I decided to break out my Fire warriors and assemble/paint them (I only managed two fully assembled/painted ones so far). My goal is to have a "cave" like base set-up for my cadre and I think the green stuff stalagmites and cave water (Glowy lichen and water effects) turned out well. Overall I think I have discovered a new love for dry-brushing it really helps make the cloth stand out on the fire warriors especially since my two main colors (Black/Dark Purple) left me feeling a lack of distinction before I applied the grey highlighted dry-brushing on the cloth.

Well I've gone and finished the first 6 man Firewarrior squad. I put some lighter highlighting on the first two I painted and it seems to have helped differentiate the black from the purple. I did a little bit of non-standard kit work on 2 of the 6. The second from the left i used the arms from the tank commander(?) model since I really love the binoculars but I couldn't ever see a Tau tank driver say "Hey you know what would be intelligent? If I ignored all this sophisticated telemetry and sensor data and exposed myself to gunfire so I can see what's going on outside!". The one on the far right was my first use of green stuff to adjust the arms position. I was trying to get the motion of the Fire warrior dodging out of his stalagmite cover while just swinging his arm up for a grenade throw.

Now the real question is which one of these guys is cool enough to deserve a field promotion to Shas'ui? Give you recommendations or any comments about the general modelling and paint job quality.

Hello Darkwater

I love those bases !
I've never seen something like that before.
Did you model them by yourself ?

The paintjob and poses of your firewarriors are also very good.
Well done !

I think, the warrior, who is throwing the grenade, is the coolest one. But a Shas'ui (like i imagine) wouldn't do that.
Maybe the one with the binoculars is the Shas'ui. He oversees the situation and tells the others what to do...

Really nice. I was thinking of using the same colours (though applied in a different way) but was worried it would come out too dark. You have done a really good job with it though. The green works really well against the dark purple and black.

- To Pantherus and Chris I present you a mediocre engine glow effect.
- To Peregrine and his spirited defense of weathering I present you a light buildup of rock dust from the local stalagmite fields.
- To myself I attempt a lens glare effect that I think turned out pretty decent but you decide.



Also thanks for the comments about who should get the field promotion. I think I am going to go with the FW with the binoculars. Now I just need to paint this accursed tiny little knife and get it glued onto him.

I love the color scheme on these guys and actually half considered something like it myself before I finally settled on my current scheme, almost makes me wish I had followed through on that idea haha. My favorite firewarrior is the one furthest to the right on the bottom picture (Hugging the stalagmite) and that glow effect on the tank is incredible.

Those glow effects are incredible! Probably some of the best I have seen!
And your paint scheme is very good too, it really suits Tau.

I saw this on another post somewhere so I thought I would give it a try and see if it will help me paint my army a little bit faster. Basically I'm going to throw down my army list and edit this post as I complete units. Also looks like I have my work cut out for me .

My basic strategy will be to attempt to fire half my skyray's seeker missiles on the most annoying 3+ armor save I can see with a lowered cover save the first 2 turns(Here's looking at you long fangs) as well as split fire 3 transports with broadside (crosses fingers).
Then hope I can get a decent deep strike (With the re-roll) with Farsight attached to the gun drone squad (Gun drones should do some shooty damage w/ Farsight's plasma). Hopefully Farsight will be able to survive a round of shooting with 8 ablative drone wounds for instant kills and proceed to do something very un-Taulike (If you don't kill enough drones in the shooty phase a mass of high INI with a decent amount of power weapon strikes will make even Termies very sad which coincidentally should be on the other side of the board chasing my mechanized army at this part of the game leaving me with expensive shooty units to assault).

Hey!

Also I'm not a pro, I will try to give something, you can think about.

Also Farsight is good in close combat for Tau standards, he isn't really THAT close combat monster you think. I think Commander Farsight should be better used as some kind of "personal defense".

The second point: the Skyray isn't that good to. And there will be always cover for your enemy.

Finally, the gun drones are just wasted. I know, you need them for your "special tactic", but (as I can imagine) it won't be that fantastic idea.

I think it would be better, to get for some additional Krisis with tank hunter ability. Only your 3 Broadsides won't be enough i fear (and a Hammerhead with Railgun should use his submunition). Piranhas with Fusion Blaster can be an option. But they have other battle roles, too.

I hope, I could give you some additional thoughts, but other members with more field experience will give you surely tips to.

Best regards
~Chris

Finished up my second group of Firewarriors, I also took aside my two shas'ui and took a quick picture. They get to have some Sept markings and a bonding knife, if you can actually notice in the picture I put some extra black panels on the one with the binoculars, which Shas'ui color scheme do you prefer?

Also I've looked over list again and no matter how sad it makes me I will probably switch out my Skyray (I love how the model looks) for a team of 3 suits (BC/MP/MT). I will probably switch Farsight over to a defensive role with the BC/MP team since they carry all assault weapons and I can just forgo shooting Farsight that turn. I will however keep my drone squad for deep striking near transports with expensive units and giving them a move-run hug before slinging rail gun shots at it and hoping for a wrecked.

Also a quick question for anyone perusing this if I burn markerlight tokens to increase the BS of a unit while split firing with target locks (Broadsides) do they all still receive the benefit. With removing cover saves it obviously doesn't work because the wording says it effects the marked unit but with BS it simply refers to the unit firing at a higher BS.

Send in the drones! There is actually eight of them but one got cut off when I took the picture. Top vent and metal under workings are done in bolt-gun metal with some black ink to darken up the color. I think I'll use the same color on the metal parts of my battle suits.