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So I got together some idea's for my new Tau army, I jammed them into the Fire Warrior Painter (found here) and wasn't too disappointed.

All schemes are based loosely on the four Earth Gundam stolen by ZAFT at the beginning of Gundam Seed. Take a look and tell me what you think.

- Aegis
- Blitz
- Buster
- Duel

All comments and suggestions are welcome!

I voted None of the Above, but only because I refuse to recognize anything that isn't Universal Century.

Why don't you roll with traditional colors for the gundam? Black, White, Red, & Dark Blue

Blitz

LucasLAD wrote:Why don't you roll with traditional colors for the gundam? Black, White, Red, & Dark Blue

The thought had crossed my mind as I have seen it used very well, but in an attempt not to sound cliche, I really wanted to have something very original and different. I've seen a couple people use the black undersuit, white armour quite alot, and even though I'd be adding red and navy blue, it'd still feel like just another black/white Tau army.

EDIT: Thanks to all those who voted, keep them coming. I see the pink isn't a favourite, haha.

From the choices you have, I would choose Aegis.

Freedom is my overall choice, even though it isnt on the list.

Edit: Well, I didn't check the links before I posted. I think Blitz looks the best out of those schemes, with Aegis 2nd.

Mk 1 Astray is where its at.

The buster sceme would by far look the best, but if you are going for originality choose something else. The buster scheme has already been done. In the cities of death book(i think) is were they show the army near the very back, and it is the best Tau army color scheme I have ever seen (not to mention there are some nice conversions).

I'm going to sound like are arse but what can I say.

Tau does not equal Gundam in any way shape or form. It's really old with people trying and trying to mix the two together. Please stop it. Be original and come up with something that you like.

Other things I don't like to see.

IG vs Nid = Marines vs Aliens
IG vs Necrons = Marines vs Terminator
Nid vs Kroot = Aliens vs Preditor

Although Dark Eldar painted like the Reavors from Firefly = Cool

I'm sorry if this sounds mean but people just really need to move away from Tau somehow being the same as Gundam.

I haven't watched any Gundam at all (not strictly true, I tried to - once), but the buster scheme looks really nice - the Tau are obviously inspired by anime mecha, so there's no reason in hell why you wouldn't want to draw inspiration from it, they've been colouring mecha for more that 30 years, they're good at choosing colours!

MauleedlovesYakeface wrote:I'm going to sound like are arse but what can I say.

Tau does not equal Gundam in any way shape or form. It's really old with people trying and trying to mix the two together. Please stop it. Be original and come up with something that you like.

I personally don't understand where I insinuated that Tau equalled Gundam. I didn't. I drew inspiriation from the colour schemes because I liked them. Not because at any time did I think that playing Tau in some way meant I had to choose a scheme from Gundam.

MauleedlovesYakeface wrote:I'm sorry if this sounds mean but people just really need to move away from Tau somehow being the same as Gundam.

I'm sure you didn't mean to come across as rude or mean, but I apologise if this thread is something that comes up alot. I never meant to sound like: "Omg, Tau have Gundams!" or anything of that nature, I just do appreciate the colour schemes, honestly.

Out of the Seed ones, Live Concert version Zaku is the correct one or Aegis.


The Haro will be your army's emblem and the word "love" must be printed across the chest of each Suit. Maybe the tanks

But if you want a serious answer maybe something from UC.



But, if you really want to use Seed those Seed suits aren't really good schemes for an entire army, there are better ones. But, what might seriously work is have different schemes for each type of suit matched by the sept colour. Blitz for stealth suits. Aegis for the commander. Duel for Crisis suits. Buster for Broadsides. Then for the Firewarriors use the zaft uniform for the scheme. Green for the normal Firewarriors where the below is red then red for the team leaders.

Platuan4th wrote:I voted None of the Above, but only because I refuse to recognize anything that isn't Universal Century.

Nu Gundam pwns Freedom.

Wing Zero.....c'mon Crisis Suits with angel wings would just be awesome.

But thats just me having watched all the gundams anything after Gundam Wing is just naff.

Forget Gundam, paint them in the schemes from the far superior Neon Genesis :p A scheme of Unit 1 style purple, or Unit 0 when it had it's funky blue/white scheme

Platuan4th wrote:I voted None of the Above, but only because I refuse to recognize anything that isn't Universal Century.

QFT!

I sound like a jerk, but I do have experience with this.

From a painting perspective any of them will be very hard to paint and look really poor across the table. They're too busy. Even the blue and white one has the colors applied in too many disparate parts to look like a cohesive model from 4-5 feet away.

Make the different colors closer to each other on the model and you could make any of them work, although the pink ones would still stand out on most boards.

Platuan4th wrote:I voted None of the Above, but only because I refuse to recognize anything that isn't Universal Century.

Hehe. Oh come on now, SEED is actually pretty darned awesome, but I can concede the point.

Volkan wrote:Mk 1 Astray is where its at.

WORD!

I voted for "Duel", because to me it looks the most like a "Uniform" that a militia might wear. The rest were just a little too out there, and the black/red color scheme should really be saved for Tau stealth suits. But that's just my humble opinion.



In the end, I will need to see pics, as I am living vicariously through other players ATM.

Dal'yth Dude wrote:I sound like a jerk, but I do have experience with this.

From a painting perspective any of them will be very hard to paint and look really poor across the table. They're too busy. Even the blue and white one has the colors applied in too many disparate parts to look like a cohesive model from 4-5 feet away.

Make the different colors closer to each other on the model and you could make any of them work, although the pink ones would still stand out on most boards.

Not at all. I'd prefer someone point this out to me than going ahead with one of the scheme's and realising this at a later stage.

When putting the scheme's together I really did just look at the model painter and attempt to replicate what was on the Gundam of inspiration for each one, I had no real concern with the difficulty or how busy the models would look at the time. Your point is valid.

For all of the schemes, except Aegis, they have a main colour a secondary colour and a colour for the decorations and odd bits. Do you personally think the scheme's can be simplified with these colours? Or would I need to reduce them to two?

White blue and red; RX-78 style.

Personally if I were to do Tau, I'd try to do something original, so go with the PINK one!

I voted for Buster, although I like the Duel colors too. Buster looks like it would look the nicest on the table. Like Dal'yth Dude said, they might look too 'busy' from across the table. I just finished my second squad of fire warrios with three different primary colors and I'm really starting to think I should have cut it down to two(good thing I've got two more squads still in the box). Different story on the crisis suits and other models though.

I'd agree that the classic RX-78 style would be nice. Someone had a Star Wars themed IG army in another thread with the red, blue, and white. All I could think when I saw it was Gundam.

blitz ftw

Merevale wrote:For all of the schemes, except Aegis, they have a main colour a secondary colour and a colour for the decorations and odd bits. Do you personally think the scheme's can be simplified with these colours? Or would I need to reduce them to two?

In general when painting Tau I find it best to paint the armor plates one color and the undersuit another color. Some bits can use a third color or a tint of one of your other colors. These bits include the tau symbol on the shoulder pad and chestplate, any combat webbing, and perhaps the gun. What you really want to avoid are thing like the helmet being one color, the undersuit another color, and different parts of the rest of the armor a mix of colors.

I have a few Tau pics in my gallery here. I'm not going to win any awards outside the plastic gray competitors, but I hope it gives you some ideas.

You may be able to get away with more anime/super hero type patterns on your vehicles, but the curves on them are going to be a challenge for people just starting out. I'd stick to simple geometric shapes like lines and circles which are already building blocks for most Tau iconography.

Good luck and I look forward to some pictures.

Voted. Blitz all the way ironically seconded by duel.

Well well well,

I never expected to get so much interest in this kind of topic, as they are seen alot. I thank everyone for contributing their opinions and voting. I've taken on-board what you've all said, and in conclusion I will be attempting to simplify the winning scheme, Blitz, and hopefully posting some WIP pics up here aswell as my blog (plug plug plug) sometime soon!

With that said, could a mod please lock this thread?

Thanks all!

Duel.

There is no need to lock this thread just make it your blog when you are ready.

I said Blitz. Most Tau armies are too bright, and this dark version would look great.

Duel am de best.

sonofruss wrote:There is no need to lock this thread just make it your blog when you are ready.

Good plan Batman, I shall do that.

I have a couple questions for you all. I have chosen to continue with the Blitz scheme, however, after priming the models Chaos Black, how would you proceed with the other colours? I was thinking Red Gore with Blood Red highlights for the odd piece of dark red on the shoulders and chest, but not 100% sure on how to achieve the grey undersuit. Anyone have any suggestions?