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Well Ive decided to jump back into 40k after 3 years off and Im going to go with Tau as my first army. I need some help on my new color scheme. Here is a pic of my first devilfish painted in the new scheme, (sorry bout the lighting, need to get a 100 watt to brighten things up) its not done but the basecoating should give you an idea of the way the colors work.

Im not sold on it, and just wanted to get a thumbs up, thumbs down as well as any suggestions to change or improve it.

thanks in advance

I like it but I think it's a bit too white at the moment. Maybe do the drones in yellow and add some more black to the rear of the 'fish just to break it up a bit more.

Would be interesting to see the scheme on a Fire Warrior as well.

Would be interesting to see the scheme on a Fire Warrior as well.

Will be basecoating the firewarrior squad this weekend and will post pics of that as well as the finished fish.

I did a lot of heavy blacklining on the back end of the fish to break up the whiteness and added some red on the little sensor buds along the dorsal ridge. I also used a good glosscoat finish to help since its so hard to highlight white and black especially with no hard edge lines.

Ill throw up another pic of the finished fish tonight.

I like it. The colors are very stark and the placement looks rather good. Better lighting (as you plan on ^_^) will help us give some more constructive crit.

I like it very much. It is very bold.

Well, it will definitely be ORIGINAL.

It does NOT look bad. That's not my point.
IMO, however, it's just WAY too busy.

Tau look best with one main color and one highlight OR secondary color (secondary colors are more prevalent than highlight colors) and a third color splashed in occasionally for good measure and to break things up.

You have one main color (white) and 2 secondary colors (more than a highlight, less than a main color). It looks lik eyou were trying to have a main color and balance the other 2 colors as evenly as possible.

My advice:
Don't do that.

I don't, personally, like the white as a main color. That's just me, though.
Presuming you keep it, I'd ditch the black and find something more neutral. Something lighter.
You have this pale white & pale tan then stark and vibrant BLACK. it kind of makes the eye want to go all over the place & not stay focussed oin one spot.

That's not good..


I'd say that, everything you have currently painted black, you should go back and paint it your tan color... except the turret/drone in the back (sorry... Don't know Tau terms too well).
The black on the top of it I'd do white.

Once you have that done, look at the model and decide if you NEED a third color. If you think so, pick a rather muted earthy color to match the earthy tan you have there.

Use it on NO MORE THAN 7 or 8 SMALLish areas (not drones bodies).

What qualifies as SMALLish areas?

The small tan streak you have going across the top center black section.
The thin white rings you have around each of the engine/thruster/whatever ports on each side.
Tips of antennae.
Guns and Antenna tips of drones.

There are my thoughts, anyway... take 'em or leave 'em.


Eric

MagickalMemories wrote:Well, it will definitely be ORIGINAL.

It does NOT look bad. That's not my point.
IMO, however, it's just WAY too busy.

Tau look best with one main color and one highlight OR secondary color (secondary colors are more prevalent than highlight colors) and a third color splashed in occasionally for good measure and to break things up.

You have one main color (white) and 2 secondary colors (more than a highlight, less than a main color). It looks lik eyou were trying to have a main color and balance the other 2 colors as evenly as possible.

My advice:
Don't do that.

I don't, personally, like the white as a main color. That's just me, though.
Presuming you keep it, I'd ditch the black and find something more neutral. Something lighter.
You have this pale white & pale tan then stark and vibrant BLACK. it kind of makes the eye want to go all over the place & not stay focussed oin one spot.

That's not good..


I'd say that, everything you have currently painted black, you should go back and paint it your tan color... except the turret/drone in the back (sorry... Don't know Tau terms too well).
The black on the top of it I'd do white.

Once you have that done, look at the model and decide if you NEED a third color. If you think so, pick a rather muted earthy color to match the earthy tan you have there.

Use it on NO MORE THAN 7 or 8 SMALLish areas (not drones bodies).

What qualifies as SMALLish areas?

The small tan streak you have going across the top center black section.
The thin white rings you have around each of the engine/thruster/whatever ports on each side.
Tips of antennae.
Guns and Antenna tips of drones.

There are my thoughts, anyway... take 'em or leave 'em.


Eric

Thanks so much for the detailed feedback, VERY helpful. I will definitely try that on my next one, and compare them, then I can go with the one that works best.

My origional thought was white primary, black secondary with a little bit of the yellow. I may have gone overboard with the yellow and added too much ( the big yellow stripe on the engine pods )

What about killing the white and replacing the bright yellow with a darker yellow/gold. Kind of like the color scheme from Bumblebee in the Transformers movie but with a little more black?

I would alternate the main color as black and then use the yellow? as the secondary color. You could possibly use some bands of white/off white near the yellow. I'm not a fan of so much white. To me it looks a little unfinished, like something is missing. Thats just how I perceive it and only my opinion. I would have to agree with MagickalMemories' ideas for the most part.

The technique and neatness of the painting is incredible though!! great job there.

Thanks so much for the detailed feedback, VERY helpful. I will definitely try that on my next one, and compare them, then I can go with the one that works best.

My origional thought was white primary, black secondary with a little bit of the yellow. I may have gone overboard with the yellow and added too much ( the big yellow stripe on the engine pods )

What about killing the white and replacing the bright yellow with a darker yellow/gold. Kind of like the color scheme from Bumblebee in the Transformers movie but with a little more black?

Glad to offer it.

LOL.

I don't know if it's your picture, my eyes or my monitor, but your "yellow" looks tan to me... like a desert tan.
Desert tan on white I like.
Yellow on white... kind of scares me.

I'd never EVER mix yellow & white, myself. Not on something like this (Maybe harlequins or Tzeentch or something).

As for your yellow/black scheme....

Hrmmmm. I'd have to see pics to tell, but I honestly don't think I'd like it.

Do this.
Paint up a firewarrior in that scheme.
Now, imagine 10 of him, side by side.
Then imagine your various suits painted in those colors, side by side.
Now, imagine a few tanks painted like that, side by side.

Now, imagine all those minis displayed side by side together.

That's a lot of yellow, man.
I mean A LOT of yellow.
Take a flashlight to games with you. Reflect it off your models & into your opponents eyes.
While he's blinded, move your models an extra 6". He'll never know.

If he says they seem closer now, tell him it's just the light playing tricks on him & that they're all actually lined up at YOUR BACK EDGE of the table.

...then, wave your hand in front of you and tell him "These are not the sniper drones you're looking for..."

Honestly, I don't like such a bright color as a main color.
(You might have noticed LOL)

I think the TAN might look good in the scheme you mentioned, in place of the yellow... but a LOT of people do the black & tan scheme... that's why I liked it with the white.

The bottom line is that *I* can give you my opinions all day long. In the end, it doesn't matter. Opinions are like A-holes. Everybody's got one. Some just stink more than others.

In the end, you just have to find the stink that you like the most.



Eric

I agree with MagickalMemories that three strong colours is too many.

White/Black is the biggest contrast you can make. Introducing a lot of a strongly contrasting third colour is over-egging the pudding. Keep the yellow for detail accents like warning panels, fuelling points and so on.

Take my advice with caution, not only is it subjective, but I have a degree of RG colour blindness.


Whatever you go for in the end, are you going to do some shading and weathering?

I agree that a bright yellow as the main color would be too much and I dont want to do tan and black as that just seems to close to a desert camo scheme and weve all scene that more than enough lately in RL as well as on tables.

The color I was thinking about was something like this



bigtmac68, all attached images must be miniatures game related. uploading pictures of cars, even as an example of your paint scheme is not permitted. --yakface

Because I find it very hard to make a silly suggestion in the off chance that someone wants it...

Repaint the white to a vibrant purple, and the yellow to gold.

The Tau Pimpmobile.

Seriously though, I'd probably change the white to a light/mid grey, it would darken things up, but make it a bit more cohesive. Either that, or change the black to a mid/dark grey.

Black and white sounds good in theory, but doesn't seem to work that well in practice for most.

While I was reading your reply earlier about replacing the white as the main color ( sitting in my truck at lunch on my iphone ) I caught my eye on some guy with a new mustang in that exact color scheme and thought it might look cool on a fish.

I do want to do some shading but white as the main color was a real problem with that, since I am really aweful at shading and highlighting white. And I have never mastered weathering but since Im trying to make this army something that I can be proud of at a GT Im going to try to learn.

Again everyones help is deeply appreciated, im going to go paint up a firewarrior in each scheme now and post them before bed to see how they look, and get y'alls opionion ( asuming my wife lets me paint tonight )

Because I find it very hard to make a silly suggestion in the off chance that someone wants it...

Repaint the white to a vibrant purple, and the yellow to gold.

I love it, give it a heavy gloss coat and give all my Kroot mink coats and leopard print hats

Ok, here is version 1, gonna have to wait until I buy my next fish to try out the suggestions, but I will post again as soon as I get some alternate firewarriors done up

I realy like it, but I personally think the red needs to be richer & just a touch more & maybe blacken out those screens for the air intakes for the engines.

Another idea, if you are really keen on a black/white scheme, take a look at WW1 and WW2 naval camouflage. There were some startling schemes done in black, white and grey. It would mean moving away from your current idea of delineating the sections of the vehicle because the purpose of the camouflage was to disrupt the normal outlines. It's another idea to bounce around.

On a wider and slightly OT note, there are in my opinion three basic ways to approach the design of a 40K colour scheme.

1. Single flat colour with good weathering effects and details. The colour could be military, such as olive drab, or heraldic, such as Ultramarine blue. The standard Tau desert tan is almost a perfect compromise between these poles.

2. Stylized "heraldic" painting which is what you are going for. The colours while not specifically heraldic are not camouflage and the purpose of the scheme is to emphasise the structure and detail in the models.

3. "Realistic" campuflage, usually using military colours and a pattern designed to disrupt and obscure the vehicle's structure and details.

GW's recent Tau painting is an interesting variation between 2 and 3 since the splinter pattern camouflage taken from some WW2 German aircraft designs has a significant structure to it, while overlaying and obscuring the vehicle's structure.

Splinter pattern is not as tactically effective as looser, more organic patterns, which is why it disappeared from use. But it does have a striking look.

Another interesting idea would be to go back to WW1 German air camouflage which consisted of a pattern of coloured hexagons. You can probably buy decal sheets of this and avoid a lot of painting.

I like the tri color scheme. Its bold. And somehow, oddly familiar.

Looks like my camera cant get good enough resolution for small figures but you can get the idea, gonna do a crisis suit next

Definitely need to invest in a real camera, but here is the suit

I'll be honest. I'm not a fan. The colors are just too stark and are clashing. Your Shas'o is rather painful to look at. The green might have worked with the black, the yellow, or the white. But not all three. The problem is you have no complementing colors. Nothing that is bringing the colors together. As it is, each one is shouting "look at me!" and your eye really doesn't know where to go.

Don't take this the wrong way, but do you have a color wheel? I'll lend you mine.



Notice there is no black or white on it. Thats because these are colors are stand alone and never complement anything by themselves. Now there are secondary color combos that work well with white and black (black and yellow, red and white). Just not when white and black are both competing for top spot.

Hope my comments don't sting too much. Your army will definantly stand out on the battlefield, but unfortunatly not in a good overall way.

Honestly the paintjob looks unfinished.

The white parts seem like they are waiting to be painted.

It's a little unfair, but you did ask.

The green is should definitely go. It just doesn't fit at all with the colors you're already using.

As to your overall color scheme, Might I suggest using the yellow over the whites?

Pay no attention to the nit-pickers! It looks fine.

That said, here are my nit-picks:

The green on the crisis suit absolutely must go. Paint the weapons black with yellow trim, or white with black trim, but that green just doesn't work.

Perhaps it is the lighting, but the yellow on the Devilfish looks paler than the yellow on the crisis suit and fire warriors. The darker, more orange-y yellow looks better, I think.

Laserbait wrote:I like the tri color scheme. Its bold. And somehow, oddly familiar.

It think so, too - it reminds me of Space Ghost!

While I like the combination of the White, Yellow, and Black, it does seem too bold for Tau. That is, if you prefer them in camoflage of some kind. If you like them better in an Anime style of painting, then keep these three colors.

Having said that, please get rid of the Green! It is one too many colors.

To give some depth to the white, maybe add grey for shading?

Having said that, please get rid of the Green! It is one too many colors

Yeah, your both right there, was going for the "glowing plasma weapon" effect but did not pull it off, better to go with flat black so it matches the fire warriors weapons.

I will try a light grey in the shadowed receses of the crisis suit to see if it can add more depth, good idea.

And yes, and Anime look is just what I was going for. That and since my commander will be Shadowsun I wanted the army to have synergy with her colors as well.

The inspiration for the white,black,gold scheme was actually Rick Hunters Skull Squadron Veratech fighter from the oringional Macross seried. I would post an example but Yakface would get mad at me again.

edit - I found something to give an example of the effect im going for, since I cant attach it as a pic due to forum rules, I changed my avatar. I like it as an avatar anyway, so ill probably keep it, but it also serves as an example of the effect im trying to accomplish with the color scheme.

Thanks for the color wheel ( no sarcasm , thanks really ) and the advice. I know im trying something a little bold and different with this and I may end up going with gold and black and kill the white, but Im starting to really like it especially on the suit ( once I get rid of the green ).

Ill have to see how it works with multiple models, picking up another fish combo set friday and well see how it works in a group. Nice part is that if it fails, I just have to paint over the white with gold and I have a nice two tone black and gold scheme.

i happen to love your color choice, white, yellow, black. I personally would use blues for lights, plasma, etc. Probably a medium blue hue with light blue highlights. Keep it up.

Well, as best as I can make out from the pics I really like the white Fire Warrior.

But as others have already said - Please loose the green. It just doesn't work with the rest of the scheme.

Scott wrote:

Laserbait wrote:I like the tri color scheme. Its bold. And somehow, oddly familiar.

It think so, too - it reminds me of Space Ghost!
While I like the combination of the White, Yellow, and Black, it does seem too bold for Tau. That is, if you prefer them in camoflage of some kind. If you like them better in an Anime style of painting, then keep these three colors.

Having said that, please get rid of the Green! It is one too many colors.

To give some depth to the white, maybe add grey for shading?

BINGO! I always liked that show.

As to the crisis suit, the green is too distracting.

paidinfull wrote:i happen to love your color choice, white, yellow, black. I personally would use blues for lights, plasma, etc. Probably a medium blue hue with light blue highlights. Keep it up.

That was actually what i wanted to do until I opened my paint case and found ( horror ) that my ice blue pot was dried up. Gonna pick up a new pot and try blue on the plasma and cib barrels, if that doesnt work will just go with flat black. Might try the blue for the lights and sensors as well, Ive allways been able to highlight and blend blue better than red for some reason.

Thanks again for all the feedback, positive and negative, it has been a huge help and motivating me to paint. I would never have gotten that crisis suit done sunday if not for all the posts here encouraging me.