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Hey folks, recently I acquired a buddy's old Tau army. I dig the color scheme he has, but I want to refine it if possible. Attached is one of his fire warriors that kinda demonstrates the sort of thing he was going for when he painted them. My guess is that it was bronze on the armor, brass on the gun, and bright orange for the highlights on the armor, though I could be entirely off base.

I'll admit I am just learning how to paint, so a for dummies sort of explanation of how to get this sort of color scheme would be very appreciated.

I'd say a quick and easy way to achieve a similar style would be:

Armour - basecoat with warplock bronze, drybrush with brass scorpion (or maybe fulgurite copper), wash with agrax earthshade

Gun (and large shoulder?) - basecoat with retributor armour, drybrush with skullcrusher brass, wash with agrax earthshade

Uniform (underarmour) - basecoat with abaddon black, drybrush with eshin grey, wash with nuln oil

Eye/lenses - basecoat with khorne red, paint a smaller circle with evil sunz scarlet

oh, and a little leadbelcher, with a highlight of stormhost silver and a wash of nuln oil if you want, for the silver parts of the gun.

that should get a pretty close colour scheme

(you said you're new to painting, I'm not sure how "new", so here's a bit of basic beginners advice...but if you already know about thinning your paints, and drybrushing, feel free to stop reading )

now, the paint on that model looks quite thick...when you do your basecoats, don't just use paint straight from the pot - get a couple of brush-loads out onto a palette (I use cheap disposable plastic plates as palettes, but a lot of things will work, just make sure it's not something that will absorb liquids), and add a little bit of water to it, and give it a little stir...this is something you'll have to just get the hang of, straight from the pot is too thick, but you don't want to make it too thin either, just thin enough to flow nice and smooth over the model...it will probably make it take more than 1 coat to get good coverage, but the finished result will be nice and smooth and keep all the model's details nice and crisp...rather than being thick and chunky, and basically spackling all the little details.

no need to add water when you're doing the drybrushing steps though, just an appropriate brush (one with fairly short, stiff bristles), and a sheet of paper towel...basically, get a little bit of paint on the brush, then kinda scrub it into the paper towel, wiping off pretty much all of the paint, then basically just lightly flick the end of the bristles over the model - if it doesn't do anything, well, repeat the process, but don't wipe off the brush quite as much...like thinning paints, this is another thing that you just kinda have to get the hang of...not enough paint, it does nothing...too much paint, it'll leave a big ugly streak/splotch on the model...you need "just the right amount"

Perfect! That's exactly what I was looking for. Thanks a lot!

And by new, I mean like absolutely fresh. I've watched some tutorials, but I wanted to get an idea of what paints I should buy to try to replicate this look before I began.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 ZoBo wrote:
I'd say a quick and easy way to achieve a similar style would be:

Armour - basecoat with warplock bronze, drybrush with brass scorpion (or maybe fulgurite copper), wash with agrax earthshade

Gun (and large shoulder?) - basecoat with retributor armour, drybrush with skullcrusher brass, wash with agrax earthshade

Uniform (underarmour) - basecoat with abaddon black, drybrush with eshin grey, wash with nuln oil

Eye/lenses - basecoat with khorne red, paint a smaller circle with evil sunz scarlet

oh, and a little leadbelcher, with a highlight of stormhost silver and a wash of nuln oil if you want, for the silver parts of the gun.

that should get a pretty close colour scheme

"

A quick question. Given the colors i'll be working with, what color should I use as a primer?