First post after the membership profile here!

Just started on my Tau army getting them ready to fight Tyranids and Ultramarines. Just finished my first FW so I thought it would be nice to get some C&C from you guys.

Here he is! (He was finished at night so the lighting may not be the best!)






Incidentally this is my first attempt at painting miniatures! So be kind but please do point out areas for improvement. This hasn't been highlighted but i will probably go back and do highlighting at a later date. Just trying to get a fully painted game ready army to play first!

By all counts, its a massive undertaking for a beginner like me. I have:
48 Fire Warriors (of which 1 is done! )
40 Kroot
20 Kroot Hounds
12 XV8s
6 XV25
4 Hammerheads/Devilfishes
3 Piranhas
2 XV88s
and a crap tonne of drones which are not important but I'll get round to them eventually

Should keep me preoccupied this summer! I will post more pictures of the army as I complete them.

Anyway signing out for now

Ack! Your ability to precisely paint those lighting components on the backpack and lenses on the helmet on something as small as the firewarrior fills me with painters envy. Are you thinking of perhaps edging, washing, or dry brushing the actual armor plating (Or a combination of all 3)? I think it would really make this thing phenomenal as the lighting is already very impressive. Also do you have any tips for painting those small visual components or does it just take a steady hand?

What shade of red is that...?
I'm not up on the new names, but that looks like it may be Khorne Red?

Damn it!
Over the last month or two since I started painting my army, I've kept seeing people doing an almost identical scheme to me, and most of them are doing it much better!

Envy aside, thats a really cleanly painted model. And for a first attempt too! I'm also impressed by the detail on the lights for the backpack. If there is a particular technique your using for it, do share it.
I like what you've done for the cloth on the leggings as well. Overall, a very nice miniature.

For any critiques I might have, the only one I can think of is that the rim of the base looks a little splotchy. You might want to consider a second coat over that - Unless of course that was what you were gong for.

As for highlights, I've been using a simliar-looking red, and haven't found any effective colours to use for highlights as of yet. My plan at the moment is to detail some ware and damage on the armour to make up for this, but if you find a shade that works, let me know.

If you are trying to highlight that color I would try mixing that red and a little flash yellow or fire dragon.

Thanks for all the comments guys!

@Cr'shu: I am using The Army Painter Warpaint range Dragon Red but if I have to say, it'll be either Wazdakka or Khorne Red.

@Darkwater: I'm not a big fan of washing Tau model in general, I like mine clean and it might be just me but when I do it it tends to make the model dirty. I am planning to highlight the models at a later date but since I have so much to do and I want to play with a painted army, I am satisfied with this for now, will do touch up later or when ever I feel like it. As for painting the small visual components, you'll need a steady hand and a pointy tip brush to do the bottom line, I use this guide here with abit of modification http://www.advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=6790. I only use a dark blue followed by a lighter blue for the rim and then white for the dot. To do the dot, I've picked up a tip from youtube and use a pointy toothpick to do it! MUCH EASIER than a brush!.

@Aun Tier: I know, i'll touch up the rim later as well, just wanted to cover up the black for now. As for the glow effect, I defer to this guide, http://www.advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=13633&p=168792 MUCH better glow effects than mine. But the way I do it is similar to the lens, dark blue followed by a smaller dot/line of lighter blue then white in the middle, then with a wet brush blend the edges of the white and light blue or just have a very thin layer of white followed by a thicker layer in the middle. (If you would like I can try and take some pictures as I go on the next one as a sort of guide)

@Chris in the socal: Thanks for the tip, I will keep that in mind, all ready got some idea will report back at a later dater with fully highlighted models!

Totes jelly, mate. Looks fantastic!

Ah a toothpick! That is genius, thanks for the tip...ba-dump-chee. I'll have to give that one a try.

...that's your first attempt painting miniatures? Jesus. I'm very jealous.

You've got quite a warhost to paint, too. Things go much more quickly in groups; go for say, 6 Fire Warriors at a time instead of 1 and you'll be done before we figure out how to steal your beautiful models. Don't worry about highlighting the red plates for now; it'll make them look even better (which is saying something) but with that many dudes to paint, you should probably come back and do that in one fell swoop.

Oh, and having had some fun highlighting stuff with red recently (Word Bearers)... make sure that the red you pick for highlights is very similar to (but still noticeably lighter than) the one you used for the main color. Go too bright and it REALLY stands out, and not in a good way; especially since you said you like your models "clean" (I have the same preferences with Tau... very different from painting Skaven...). You could also try a more severe highlight followed by a light, thin coat of the original color, but that can be a bit trickier, and you said you weren't overly fond of washes.

Good luck, have fun, keep us posted!

You can't go from Khorne/Gore red to Mechrite/(I don't recall the new name for it) Red, but you CAN go from Gore red to Blood red, that works fine.

From Darkest to Lightest, it goes something like Gore > Mechrite > Blood, and it seems you need to step two shades to get a decent highlight. If you used mechrite, I'd say you'd have to use Blazing Orange, or a mix as suggested earlier.

I paint reds. Lots of them.

Oooh I like the scheme (mainly because its just like mine, I admire your taste!) keep it coming!

Back from the dead! Progress waspainfully slow with me contemplating suicide everytime I paint the same things over and over again! Batch painting sucks!

Anyway, managed to finally complete my first FW squad! Going to paint something else now before I lose my mind...

Here are some pictures, enjoy!





I think I shall do a piranha or some suits next.

Started on my piranhas, done the cock pit of one of them so far.




Will have more pictures when I finish. Quite please with how the cock pit turn out though.

I am really liking the color scheme you decided to use. I just started painting a few figs as well (no where near as many as your current project), but I was wondering, since I saw you did it too, what color should that "ball" at the end of the pulse rifle/carbine be? More specifically, which Citadel paint did you use for it? I have a blue/grey theme with my characters and I thought about using something more like Boltgun Metal for that ball.. any advice?

The pulse rifle/carbine is supposed to shoot out bolts of plasma so blue or green would probably suit the plasma theme. I use the army painter warpaint range, not citadel so i can't say what the direct conversion is but i did a circle of deep blue followed by a smaller circle of electric blue and then even smaller circle of white. you should check out the glow effects tutorial in the resources section. on an additional not, green is usually bioplasma like tyranids stuff while blue is for gun plasma. hope that helps

Oh oops, I get what you're saying, but I meant the gold/brass ball that goes through the entirety of the rifle versus the two on the very end acting as the "barrels." However, I do like the concept you had for those, I will have to try it.



*The white/glowing ball with the slit down the middle.

Ah! sorry about the confusion, those can be any colour you want them to be, bronze/gold is the normal but any colour that provide a break from your blue/grey but doesn't stand out too much is fine. To paint my gold, i started with a layer of bronze then gold on top.

Finally graduated with a 1st!

Just started to work on my army again after a break...DayZ is addictive!

Well its not finish but the main body is mainly done, just a brief update to say I've not disapeared!








Also, I've also just bought the new rulebook! reading through it now! Not sure what to think about the new allies rules yet...battle brothers with space marines...really GW...

Well thats it for now! See you soon with more of my army painted hopefully!

I like the army so far -- and it sounds like you have quite a lot of models to work on.. exciting and daunting at the same time. The models are painted very cleanly, and look good (I am especially fond of your attention to detail) but they could look better if you added some more depth to them, specifically a subtle highlight. A slightly paler red highlight would really make the armor on these guys pop. There are plenty of guides on here if you are looking for some help!

EDIT: Link to Tael's firewarrior tutorial. He does a superb job of demonstrating simple highlighting viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6667

Excellent painting job, Hammerhand. I'm being picky here, but there are a couple of smudges on the silver control panels in the piranha's cockpit - red and blue. Using the side of your brush should be able to clear that up.

Since I too have a red based army, I'm liking the look of yours but then I suppose I'm biased! Seriously though, keep up this good work. We look forward to seeing a family shot once you've completed it.

E.