-Crisp & Grey- A NZ blog (May Update - I painted a Dragon!)

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**corpuschain**

Wow,, that's a lot of firepower. Very nice painting style that suits the Tau nicely.

**Gitsplitta**

Very impressive paint job on that model Knightley.

**Azazelx**

Great work on that big thing. It really looks like it means business!

**Knightley**

@Corpuschain - Welcome to the thread

thanks heaps for the comments, whats your favorite model so far?

@Gits - Cheers man, I'm happy with him as well

@Azazelx - Thank you

Update: first up the complete Tau army shots

And the full 11th push army shots - I think as an army the singular bronze/tin weapons blend in well enough its not that noticeable.

**inmygravenimage**

Wow mate. Totally worth emerging from stealth mode to comment on sheer awesome. Great job!

**Mad..**

So much biomass to consume!

Nice work as usual

**Camkierhi**

Stunning work bud, truly amazing looking army, client must be happy. I know you said you would go further, but these do look great, really suits the Tau. That army shot is really great.

**ZergSmasher**

This is why I can't do army commissions. Aside from the fact that my painting is not commission worthy, I don't think I could part with models that I put that much effort into and made to look so good!

**Gitsplitta**

That's simply stunning Knightley... really impressive endeavor. Congratulations on a job very well done.

**Knightley**

@Graven - Always like a lurker who pops up now and again, lets me know your still there

@Mad - Quite a bit to get to, perhaps our next game might have you pitted against these guys.

@Cam - Yeah my mate was stoked, we spent about an hour and a half just going over all the models etc, the added bonus is this army is set to live at my place for now as he doesn't have room or a gaming table and really only would play at my place!

@Zerg - I dunno, there are some really awesome schemes coming out of your blog, I totally get what you mean though, I spent 4 months doing this army and it really feels like mine at this moment.

@Gits - Thanks Gits, always great to get positive feedback.

Update: So a bit of a statistical round up for this army, I started on 2nd Jan and finished on the 30th April, I painted 201 models in this time which works out to be 1.69 models per day, every day over that time which isn't bad for about an hour a day of painting, and that I also did two Lord of Wars and one of those had a tonne of detail. If I compare that to the Necron Army which I did this time last year, I did 152 models from the 5th Feb to 9th May which worked out to be 1.65 models per day, every day still doing an hour a day, so statistically I am a little quicker but it doesn't feel like I was.

Here's a Necron vs Tau game on the weekend, no full batrep sorry, I think I lost this one as it was objectives and I pulled terribly on the maelstrom cards.

**Knightley**

Update: Whats next I hear you cry!

Gray Nights, ones I made up over a year ago and have been sitting in a box awaiting some love.

On the list we have
1 x Sammael on Jetbike conversion to Chapter master on a bike)
1 x Contemtor Dreadnaught
5 x Hammernaters
6 x Centurions (ranged) 3 converted to GK Cents
1 x Melta biker
1 x Telion conversion
1 x Tigerus
1 x Librarian with Jump Pack
1 x Chaplain with Jump Pack
5 x Terminators with Assault cannon (conversions from DV)

I am also doing a small job for MarsNZ here on the forums by edge highlighting all his tanks as a way to say thanks for trusting me with his models while he is away from NZ
5 x Leman Russ Battle Tanks (need to magnetise a bunch of items for this)
4 x Chimeras
1 x Rocket Chimera (not sure of the name - Manticore?)
1 x BaneBlade (need to magnetise the guns)

**Gitsplitta**

Ah... I feel complete now. The tau have been a fun dalliance, but it's high time you got back to business!

**Knightley**

You and me both Gits, there are models in this push I have been waiting a long time to paint and plan on doing as much as I can on them, expect squiggles.

Update: Here is a close up of the units in this push, I am really looking forward to painting the Chapter Master on THE bike, the Contemptor and the Hammernators

5 terminators with conversions from the DV set I managed to pick up from a bring and buy

Hammernators with resin cast hammer heads, built from Dark angel terminators

Slightly converted librarian from the DV set

Stock melta biker (made before grav had come out, stay tuned there!)

Sgt Telion Conversion

Reclaimed Chaplain from a bring and buy - added plasma pistol and interceptor backpack as thats what my jump packs all are

Chapter master on a bike - Sammael conversion with thunder hammer and sheild eternal

Contemptor from a bring and buy, interesting tidbit here, the tau was added well before I had thoughts of painting a tau army and was going to be painted up as LDP's tau scheme but will be in the black/neon scheme now

Stock Centurions from a bring and buy

GK centurions (counts as normal cents) also from the same bring and buy

Old school Tigerius metal cast from ebay

**Gitsplitta**

Love that samiel conversion. Going to be a GREAT time watching you get back to your GK!

**Knightley**

Cheers Gits, there was more I wanted to add, but it ended up leaving the whole thing very top heavy and all out of proportion.

Update: After looking back at the tau I really liked having all the basing done right off the bat, so here is the result of glue, sand, glue, dry, prime

**Knightley**

Update: Bases all browned up, need to wash and drybrush, do the dark brown on the rim and they will be good to go

**Solar_lion**

Crankin another batch.

**Knightley**

Thanks Solar, slow going this time, but still going eh?

Update: had my birthday this weekend, so in terms of productivity, there wasn't any. however, bases basically done

**Gitsplitta**

Happy birthday Knightley!

**Camkierhi**

Happy Birthday bud.

**whalemusic360**

Happy Mother's Day. Wait, that's not right.

**IceAngel**

Happy Birthday! I hope it was full of cake and squiggles

**evildrcheese**

Excellent work on the Tau Knightly, they look cracking.

Some cool conversions in the new Marine project, looking forward to seeing it progress.

EDC

**Knightley**

Thanks for the well wishes guys, makes me all warm in side

Update: Over the past week I've been magnetising some Leman Russ tanks for MarsNZ as he is overseas and even if he was in NZ he hates painting tanks

I realised I work in an office when I got blisters from using the pin vice...

6mm holes in the sides of the tanks and 3mm holes for the sponsons.

6mm for the turret weapons

2mm Holes in ALL the push in sponson weapons (I think this is where I ended up with the blisters)

**Solar_lion**

It seems like a long chore to magnetize but the results really open up your options. That's a lot of SS.

**ZergSmasher**

I feel your pain about the blisters. My wrists got tired after drilling magnet holes in a bunch of Crisis suit arms and weapons. As Solar_lion said above, it really is worth it because you don't have to get new models to use different options.

Also, let me wish you a happy (belated) birthday!

**evildrcheese**

Yeah I both love and hate magnetising. It's definitely worth it in the long run though.

EDC

**Solar_lion**

Happy Belated B-day

**Knightley**

@Solar - Thanks man, It really was a chore, then making sure I put the magnets in the right way was very nerve wracking

@Zerg - Cheers, yeah having so many options for my mates tanks made him a very happy camper indeed!

@EDC - Thats the thing, I hold off doing it because I worry I'll get the wrong polarity and that would be it, can't undo that (with super glue) where as when I'm actually doing it just gotta make sure I check polarity before applying glue which is easy

Update: On to the priming!

After the priming was done I put my airbrush to good use and base coated all the tanks

**Knightley**

Update: What typically happens in my pushes is I start out doing all the smaller stuff first and end on doing the larger models at the end, by this time I'm usually tired and just want to get through it, then I end up rushing the model. However this time I want to do the larger models first, lucky for me that means the Contemptor is up first

I spent an hour edge lining everything with a nuln oil wash, long time readers will notice this is a departure from how I used to paint where I would base coat the model in a Dark Grey, then fully wash the entire model with nuln oil then layer up each armour piece to medium grey then highlight. After watching plenty of Duncan Rhodes how to paint videos I realised I was wasting a lot of time doing this and just edge shadowing gets the same results.