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Hey cats and kittens! I just purchased a friend of mine’s Tau army off of him. Now I’m not too familiar with getting feedback from the internet, and you, good internet, are not too familiar with critiquing my work. So I thought I’d take this opportunity to get some new experiences with you. Like a prom date, only I won’t snag my braces on your corsage while fumbling to undo your bra, and you hopefully won’t later on tell everyone that I turned you into a lesbian.

Ahem.

I like Tau. I like the subversive, Orwellian vibe that comes off of them. To me, they’re just as grimdark as everyone else, they just have better PR. With all the overt threats in 40k, I like that there is an army that wants to be your friend, wants to earn your trust, wants you to be their ally. And since you’re all such good buddies now, would you mind terribly much standing between them and those rampaging orks over there? I know some people claim that they are very anime, but honestly I don’t see it. “OMG,” you sputter, “how can you not see the connection?” The truth, internet, is that I hate anime. I’m not saying you shouldn’t watch it, it’s just that I don’t, which means my mind is blessedly clean from the tropes of the genre. When you say giant fighting robots, I think of Mechwarrior, not Gundam or whatever.

I picked this Tau army up for a cool hundred bucks. (Which makes it a damn sight cheaper than my prom date.) First is a box of Fire Warriors. Now, about thirty of these have pulse rifles, and the rest have pulse carbines. I was thinking I might use those as Pathfinders. I’ve never seen a Pathfinder (unless you count a movie that was so bad even Clancy Mother F-in Brown couldn’t save it, and you shouldn’t) so I don’t know what they look like. Would such a conversion be easy, internet?



Now that you’ve seen a picture from me, you’re coming to a similar realization to my prom date: I’m a little clumsy. Hopefully my skills will improve, or you’ll just have to fake it. Hey-O! Anyone? Anyone?

Screw you guys. Here’s some tanks.



Devilfish, yes? Both of them are lacking the top hatch thingie. I had a bunch of drones, and since I had the piece, and there was a hole, I let instinct take over. (Is this prom date metaphor getting old yet?) I don’t think that’s the way it goes though.



Pretty sure these guns go with them. Not really sure what the hell these even are, though. Anyone? They look cool, I’ll give them that. Anyway you cut it though, I can’t put guns up top and still use it as a troop transport, so these are just icing pieces.

The Tau wouldn’t be complete without their robo-suits, and I just so happen to have one. Or a bunch. Looks like seven crisis suits and two broadsides.




I’ve got enough bits to finish all of them, although bases might get to be an issue. The commander model is just a crisis suit guy, right? Or do I need to buy a special model to have a commander?

I’ve got a single lone piranha. He’s sad. I think he’ll probably sit around unless I happen to need the extra points to fill out a roster and can’t come up with them any other way.



So that’s my army, as it stands. I’d like this project to be something I get feedback from the Dakka community on as I go.

Here’s what I’m thinking: lavender paint job. Anyone remember the paladins of Lathander from 2nd ed Forgotten Realms? Always rolling around in plate mail colored lavender, pink, and rose. I like that idea. As I said, I prefer the subversive angle with the Tau, and the idea of them painting their army in friendly colors appeals to me. A color scheme that says “Hey buddy, I’m a gentle little bunny rabbit. You know, if you’d just put that bolt pistol down and let us talk I’m sure we could all be friends…”

What do you guys think? And now that I come to it, I’ve got lots of different weapon load-outs for the crisis suits. (Or is it Crises Suits?) I think they are going with burst cannons and plasma rifles right now. (Can anyone tell? Like I said, not too familiar with their weapons by sight.)

I hope you’ve enjoyed this so far. But I tell you what, if my prom date taught me anything, it was this: if you can’t get it done yourself, let the machine do the work.

For 100 bucks, looks like you got a pretty damn good deal. 7 crisis suits is a pretty awesome start; those alone are worth more than you paid!

Good find, and good luck building the army!

Thanks! I'm having a little difficulty finding a good source for the primary color of paint I want to use. Since I'm looking for such a light purple shade, I'm having trouble locating a model paint that fits the bill. I don't mind mixing colors, but I don't want to have to do the entire army with my own custom paint recipe, the mixing would get very tedious. Any suggestions on a good lavender color paint?

Hmmm... have you considered starting with a white base coat and doing layers of purple washes?

I haven't really futzed around with washes going onto a base layer that doesn't already resemble them. (Purple washes on a white basecoat, for instance.) All I've ever done is, say, black on gray, or dark green on a lighter green. You think that would give me the soft, Easter rabbit purple I'm looking for? Or would it just be patchy dark purple?

It should come out even if you do a couple layers and be careful to do even coats.

Loved the opening paragraph.

I remembered you said you'd bought a Tau army from your "objective Tau hate thread" I think. Good to see you've decided to start a blog.

Those guns that you weren't sure about - those are ion cannons for Hammerheads. Looks like you've got 1 hammerhead (the one with the turret) and a devilfish there, so you've got a couple of spare ion cannons.

Much like Space Marine tanks, the chassis appears to be the same, unless I'm mistaken. Since I lack the railgun, I was going to remove the turrets and use both tanks as Devilfish. Is there a size discrepancy or equipment issue I'm not seeing? (As I said, very new to this army, so there's lots of things I'm unsure of.)

Jimsolo wrote:Much like Space Marine tanks, the chassis appears to be the same, unless I'm mistaken. Since I lack the railrun, I was going to remove the turrets and use both tanks as Devilfish. Is there a size discrepancy or equipment issue I'm not seeing? (As I said, very new to this army, so there's lots of things I'm unsure of.)

Nope, that's ok. A hammerhead is a devilfish with a turret and fixed weapon pods in the place of the drones.

edit: ... and no burst cannon at the front.

good luck with your tau and if your looking for some kroot assembled but not,painted im your guy i want to take a krootless army and just get another squad of fire warriors send me a pm if your interested

(i only have one assembled at the moment but i think i can do them all in a day or 2 so just send me a pm and we can work out the details i would say for the price 25 euro as the original price is 30 euro if you want to up or down it its ok)

I've also got a lone, sad Pirahna... But at least he is painted!

Anyway, good to have another general all about "the greater good" (For the Tau that is... Screw the auxiliaries) ;P

Jimsolo wrote:Thanks! I'm having a little difficulty finding a good source for the primary color of paint I want to use. Since I'm looking for such a light purple shade, I'm having trouble locating a model paint that fits the bill. I don't mind mixing colors, but I don't want to have to do the entire army with my own custom paint recipe, the mixing would get very tedious. Any suggestions on a good lavender color paint?

Have you tried spraypaints? There are plenty of good acrylic-based spraypaints you can pick up from art shops - in the UK we tend to get Montana, which comes in 300 or so colours, but I'm sure there's a US equivalent. If it's your base armour colour, you should be good to spray the whole model lavender (over a white primer) and go from there...

For color, I think the reaper mini Amethyst Purple with a black primer would do you well. Give it that friendly warm "hi, how are ya", but still make it pop. White primer would white it out honestly, make it look more old and worn, at least with that paint. The reapers are very high pigmant concentration, so you can dilute them down a LOT and still get coverage. Then let it dry, and repeat with a similarly thin wash. With the reapers, I use about half and half (water and paint). That was how I covered the large areas of my crisis suit. Four coats.

The Devilfish has a burst cannon on little spinny gubbin on the bottom front. That and the big turret are the only big differences.

Hope to see more of it, I love the Orwellian theme.

Get yourself some Vallejo bottles because they are droppers, and then go to Michaels and get some of those empty paint pots. Mix 50/50 Hexed Lichen (Lich purple) and Bleached Bone. This is what I use to highlight my Lich Purple for any Emperor's Children models I have. Maybe this is what you are looking for. Good luck with the greater good my friend, glad to see another blog.

Thanks for the advice, kommander. I'll try that out. I had the good fortune to win a few pots of Howard Hues paints that may fit the bill, but I will definitely try a squad with your mix to see how they work out. (I'm anxious to try Vallejo paints, since I hear they are good!)

Jimsolo wrote:Hey cats and kittens! I just purchased a friend of mine’s Tau army off of him. Now I’m not too familiar with getting feedback from the internet, and you, good internet, are not too familiar with critiquing my work. So I thought I’d take this opportunity to get some new experiences with you. Like a prom date, only I won’t snag my braces on your corsage while fumbling to undo your bra, and you hopefully won’t later on tell everyone that I turned you into a lesbian.

Omg! My ribs hurt! And I'm crying! You sir, have just made my day.

oh, Jim for the pathfinders, just tear off the large shoulder pad. If you want, you might consider putting markerlights on them, but I don't know how you'd get them without having to buy some actual pathfinders.