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Soooo just got my Tau army finished off, and hit the tables for the first time with them in their 6th Ed form, at the Tempus Fugitives "The Gulf Waaaagh" Event.. so thought I'd share some photo's of my army.

I'd like to first thank Thirdfatecreations http://thirdfatecreations.com for their various airbrushing technique PDFs and also for answering some of my persistant questions !

I'd also like to give a shout out to Paulson Games, who's fantastic alternate heads and weapons really spruced up my Tau.

Ok... on with the show...

The O'Taka Cadre








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These are absolutely awesome. Never seen anything quite like them. The techniques you've used are executed very well and (importantly) fit in perfectly with the overall Tau aesthetic. Much respect.

Lost for words.

Absolutely fantastic stuff.

Your vehicles look amazing. I love the pattern.

Thats all sick, except for the one suit above the pirhanna. Looks like he has a nerf gun XD

OMG...kneel before Zod lol. These models look out of this world. I absolutely love the little grid pattern thing you have going on with them. Never seen anything like it. And good use of Paulson weaponry. Hats off to you, very well done.

my god awsome

i wonder how he did the hexagon grid

i cant find it on his tutorials, though im guessing he base coated it that cool color then used a hexagon mesh to mask it as he sprayed over with black

Fantastic. Those are some great looking Tau.

I just HATE Tau and their railguns...
But...
I really LOVE yours! Great paintjob mate!

How did you do the hexagon pattern? At a guess I would say you applied the basecoat and then airbrushed the top layer with a hexagonal mesh applied.

Very nice.... and all for the greater good too !!!!!!

This is more than awesome

That is all.

Wow. That's all I can say. Seriously some amazing work.

When I first saw them I thought "That's a strange camo scheme" but then when I realised what you had done with the energy fields my jaw dropped. Also your OSL is amazing, so bright! Genuinely thought you were using LEDs. Stunning army.

Looks really really cool! Definitely would like to know how you did the hexagonal grid, as I've seen it before (from thirdfate) but haven't found a tutorial about it yet

My guess would be to apply the lighter coloured undercoat, then cover the area in a wire mesh, then apply the vehicle's main colour by airbrush!?

Cheers Guys !

In terms of the painting, it was all done with an airbrush, other than the lenses on the suits and the firewarriors who are about 7 years old now... I tried, but it was a bit too fiddly to figure out !

I started off with the jade green layer (the overall colour of the army), added the circuitary over the top of that, then masked off random bits with friskett.. once that was done, I painted the whole model black.. then randomly sprayed a very bright silver into the areas where I wanted the carbon fibre like effect to appear.. laid down a hex mesh over the top and sprayed the black through that..

Once that had dried, I went over the areas with Vallejo premium candies.. transparent airbrush paints... and by layering them over each other, got the various colour varients and blends.. annoyingly, before I varnished the models, the colours would actually shift as you moved the model in the light.. but went flat once varnished.. which was a shame..

After they were done, I removed the friskett... and very very carefully went around each patch of green with the light blue, airbrush on about 5psi and paint set to the bare minimum to come out of the brush.... and then after that, added in the white hot points..

My biggest concern was that people wouldn't understand what I was aiming for... its great to have a interesting idea, but if it only works in your own head, your going to have a lot of confused faces ! so glad to see people did see it as the "disruption" effect from the disruption pods kinda thing, with the gaps in the energy field showing the hull in places. Though one person did suggest that I should put little contrails of fire behind them and see if they go back in time once they hit 88mph...

I've got a few pictures of the undersides of the flyers to put up at some point... where they have a "sky camo" effect in place.. it looked great, but rarely seen unless you placed your eye line at the table edge and looked up....

All credit to thirdfatecreations though, without their guidance, i'd have not been able to pull the effect off..


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Like a Boss.


You truly are AMAZING. How did you do all of those hexagons?

Using a template?

If it isnt too much to ask, what kind of hexagon mesh, and where did you get it? especally the smaller mesh as i would like to try to apply it to my remoras and stealth suits if possible.

Dear god this is a cool effect. Well done.

The large hex's were done with a airbrush stencil that I picked up on eBay, from Airsick stencils.

As to the carbon effect.... I saw the tau that thirdfatecreations did and puzzled it out from there... If you look around at different materials etc you'll be surprised as to what you find.. Sorry about being vague there..


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Couple of wip pictures












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Barracuda underside

Sick

thank you

Great looking models!
I like the colors and effects that you achieved.

Fantastic!

I'm not the biggest fan of the colors themselves, but the execution of the paint scheme is top notch! That is some outstanding work you did there. I am digging the hexagonal template, and I might have to try it out with my stealthsuits, just with a more subdued color. Great work, though!

Cheers for the replies guys, glad you liked the army !

I got it out again at the weekend, along with my Soul Forge army, to setout a quick diorama at the TTN venue, to show off the Tempus Fugitive events and the special codex's etc that they do, hopefully will post some photo's soon.

Great stuff dude. I hope your new codex comes soon. Your airbrush work fits so well with tau.

Some pictures from the Tempus Fugitives "fugitive fest" at TTN last weekend, Tau vs Soul Forge Dark Mechanicus

I've never been a fan of airbursting anything except aspect lighting, but the army looks fine.

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The hexagon pattern and the glowing effect looks awesome!

I have seen tau like this before. Good job on the osl and carbon fiber. I'm not a fan of the bases and the green design in the vehicles though. I also feel like the love went into the vehicles and the other models were neglected as far as highlighting etc they seemed flat except for their weapons. Over all though the army looks good, and good job.