After seeing Firestorm's excellent work, I realized that I had better work on posting my progress with my army. I've been working on the army slowly over the past four and a half years, and this is my latest Tau Project. Right now I need to finish the weathering, work on the front turret, add the sept & unit markings and finish the top port. As you can see, I've pulled ideas from eiglepulper's and Jordtron's vehicles. The interior was supposed to light up, but this devilfish has turned into a learning process on lighting miniatures instead. At least I learned my lessons on the first model.

Devilfish attached to Vash'kal's Pathfinder Team.
Urban Mid-Altitude Insertion Pattern
While the 110th often is on foot due to the nature of urban hive combat, they often utilize devilfish on operations outside the close confines of imperial hives. The 110th often paints their vehicles in the Urban Mid-Altitude Insertion Pattern of a grey underside with a camoflage upper since typical deployment of the cadre involves medium altitude drops from Mantas behind enemy lines.


Devilfish Front


Devilfish Rear


Devilfish Side - Boarding Ramps Deployed


Devilfish Rear - Boarding Ramps Deployed

I should get back to this at the end of January, after I finish the Space Wolves I'm working on.

Wow, it looks great!

I really like the look of the weathering and the Camo is stunning!

Don't let us wait to long for more updates.

Woah. What lovely, awesome work! Keep it up!

Man, now I HAVE to do urban camo with all these great vehicles popping up! This is really a beautiful model. I love all the detail! You really nailed it with the battle damage. Thanks for posting it!

I...I LOVE that devilfish!
How did you get those straight lines?

Shadowblade

Lots of practice with brush control, and quality brushes. The only GW brush I use is the small drybrush. For wide lines like this I'll usually use a flat brush so the width of the lines stays the same.

Here you can see a tutorial I made on how to paint this style of urban camo.

Now thats the kind of work that first inspired me. And if I had nearly the patience and experience you had I'd do everything I could to match it. Alas, for now I can only dream of such work. But I still got plenty of time.

Weathering, amongst other things, are just not something I'm comfortable with yet. And with all the work the camo is I feel I should wait to take a stab at it.

I must ask though, whats your plan for that Burst cannon?

Keep up the amazing work Lostinnm!

Well I started off painting it boltgun metal, but it doesn't fit with the rest of the model. So now my idea is either codex grey or fortress grey with either bleached bone or black trim. It needs to pop from the rest of the model, but at the same time not look out of place.

lostinnm :
I don't know how this languished in the Lower Concourse for so long... It has been moved. Excellent work on this 'Fish, and good luck finishing it. I can't wait to see some of your other larger models, especially if they are painted to the same calibre as this and your Stealthsuits.

- Shas'Vre SpartanTau

This a fantastic model! I love the camo, it works very well with the subdued blues. I also like the battle damage, just enough so it doesn't look too busy, but not too little that its not noticed. Great work!

So so keep this updated until I have new stuff, here is some of my previous work.

Sniper Drone Team commanded by Kel'ur
Urban Stealth Pattern
Often tasked with the most dangerous reconnaissance missions, sniper drone teams are often deployed well ahead of the 110th's main force by stealth equipped Devilfish. They are usually tasked with directly observing the enemy's movements and coordinating initial troop movements where the enemy's surveillance is too concentrated for pathfinders to sneak in. Without the Sniper's recon Shas'El Mal'caor would be forced to initiate many attacks uninformed. While they are well equipped with stealth fields and the deadly rail rifle, the 110th is often forced to quickly defend or extract these forward eyes of the cadre causing very high casualty rates within the sniper teams.


Sniper Drone Team right side


Sniper Drone Team left side


Sniper Drone Team above left


Sniper Drone Team above right

This is the stealth pattern which all the stealth equipped units in my army conform to. The terrain is run off the sides of the base to give them the effect that they are blending into the terrain. The gemmed stealth field emitters still need to be covered with a gloss varnish, but they're pretty much done.
I was amazed that this squad survived tonight's game. Normally they act as bait for outflanking kroot or Firewarriors in reserve but this time they stuck out the whole game with only the loss of one drone.

I apologize for double posting this, but I was looking through some of the ATT guides, and I found another answer for Shadowblade's question:

If you don't have the brush control required to pull off this paint job, check out this guide using painters tape. You can find it in the ATT guides under "Painting Guides" -> "Painting straight lines by Vak"

The weathering on the Devilfish is superb! Really like it a lot. It gives the model a sense that it has really been at the front lines.

Wow there's some fantastic painting going in in here! I agree the weathering is beautiful and your rendition of the urban camo very nice.

Is there a reason why one of the sniper drones has no antenna?

Absolutely stunned by the work on your devilfish. I was curious about your battle damage however. From what I can make out you do a basic shape in black and then go over it in the final shape with a grey or boltgun metal. I think I have seen the technique before but I was just wanting to check for when I start painting. Was also curious as to the black patches. Is it just a drybrush or did you airbrush on these effects. Either way it looks excellent.

-Rab

@Mangozac, I wanted the Drones to have a "Field Maintained" feel. Like each has been deployed so long, each drone now has its own personality and look

@Rabbage, So far the battle damage is Scorched Brown>Chaos Black>Codex Grey. But some are only Chaos black and Codex Grey, and some are only Codex grey some hits only would have scratched the paint. The next steps in weathering it will be to add Fortress Grey to the marks since the damage isn't apparent when your looking at it from over 18" away. Then I'll add some Beastial Brown/Chaos Black weathering to the Damage to finish it up. As for your other question, the black patches are actually black primer and where I left the model bare. Everything else on the tank is done by hand. I don't own an airbrush.

Hey lostinnm,

Your work is flippin' incredible! All the gemming effects round the fish and Drones really make them look good, the effort has paid off.

Two questions,
Why did you go for a not so urban base style with your Snipers? Is the rest of the army based like that?
And secondly are you gonna do up your Piranha's like the Devilfish? Because that would be the coolest thing I've seen in some time.

Awesome job mate.

Wow absolutely wow. I would truly love it if you posted a basic tutorial on you camo method. (My pathfinder Dfish needs sprucing up)

-Airborne

@ 1st Tau Airbourn Thanks, the tutorial is already stickied in the Painting thread. I'll post a link later when I'm not on my iPod.
<edit> You can access the tutorial here.

@ Sherpa I based them in grassy/gravelly ruins because when I used urban colors because it was hard to see where the model ended and the base began. The rest of the army is based the same, but my 2x squads of Firewarriors and kroot need to be re-based. And yes, the pirhanas will be this same scheme.

Sorry I'm late getting new photos up, I had finals today. When I get home I'll take photos.
Up Next: Kroot Hounds!

Just a list of what I have painted & what needs to be Finished:
Done:
24 Firewarriors
14 Kroot hounds
12 Kroot
Shaper
4x Shield Drones
6x Marker Drones
5x Gun Drones
2x Stealth Suits
1x Sniper Drone Team

WIP:
Devilfish
Stealth Suit
Wolf Lord
5x Wolf Guard

To be done:
Devilfish w/ drones
2x Hammerheads/Skyray
4x Pirhanas w/ drones
2x Shield Drones
3x Gun Drones
4x Crisis Suits
3x Stealth Suits
12x Firewarriors
27x Kroot ( I'm not looking forward to this)
Shaper
Ethereal
Another 80 Space Wolves w/ transports.

Shaper Vuurk Korak with kroot Hounds

Vuurk Korak leading his Kindred's Kroot Hounds

Top Left

Close Up

Left Rear

Right Rear

Here is my current WIP Project, Camran Stormfury
Right now The armor and wolf claws are mostly done, just need to finish the blending, then I'll starting putting all the details in.