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Ok so I am just about to start actually painting my Tau, I should be able to finish modelling by tomorrow night (finally got the rest of my models on Friday as they were out of stock for a while)

I have in the realm of 160 models to paint including vehicles and drones and to be honest I am not terribly concerned with them being top notch but I do want them to look decent because I think it is kind of disrespectful to your opponent to field a really crappy looking army.

I have tried the following on a few models so far and have been pretty impressed with the results but could use some tips in here to help me along making it look better.

1. I am 'basing' everything with dark cherry red acrylic spray paint from home depot (except the kroot who are getting a yellow start), Vallejo paints stick well to this afterwards so that isn't an issue.

2. After that I am painting on browns and blacks (browns for cloth & black for metal bits)

3. Ink entire model with chestnut brown ink, I prefer this to the idea of dipping because you get better control of where your ink goes and to be honest, at the end of the day, it only takes 1 minute per model to ink and although dipping is slightly faster, there is set up and take down time to take in to account and I don't have a designated area to paint and let mini's dry en mass so inking will probably take the same amount of time.

4. Drybrush boltgun metal on metal bits

5. Drybrush lightened brown on to cloth

6. Details (eyes, sensors etc.)

7. Flock

8. Clear coat.

Suggestions are wanted PLEASE, I know that this isn't winning best presentation any time soon but I figure I should get a decent look in a reasonable time frame.

Hey...I don't know about the red primer. IMHO a light Brown primer is best when not painting white or metallic over top, it its rich and gives depth at the same time accepts colours easily. What I learn after each model I paint is which steps are unneccessary, I usually go from 7 steps to 5 when painting. The more experienced painters in the group will show you some short cuts.