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So I have been looking around at alot of different methods people have used to paint Tau and one thing I have noticed is, that pretty well across the board all the troops the carriers and heavy supports all look imaculate.

I want to have my fire warriors look as thought they have been in sustained fighting for some time. I am going to do an urban camo paint scheme for them (black, gray, blue, white) but I was wondering if any one here knows a good method to make their armor look like they have sustained fire before without making thier armor look too metalic. Thanks in advance for any tips or tricks you may have.

Check this out www.coolminiornot/120818 & www.coolminiornot/120781. Not my work, I'm not that good. It's a Hammrhead tank weathered not in your camo-scheme, but it might give you some ideas

I can't get the links you posted to work =(, but mainly I am looking for ideas to show a glancing hit effect on my fire warriors armor but not make it look like there is metal beneath since Tau armor is a composite; similar to Eldar armor.

Would you like it to glow? I tried that out on some Thousand Sons of mine and it looks pretty awesome. I can describe it if you want. It takes 'Power Armor' to a whole different level.

Or are you just looking for some dull "Plasteel" looking composite? If that's the case, just tell me your base armor color and I could probably give you a tip or two. Just please don't have them in black armor...

The base is going to mainly Grey but but I had not thought of a glow effect, From what I can gather from the codex the Tau armor is a super hard polymer so I would think it's natural color would be white or tan. But either efftect would be cool, and ya instrtuctions and or photos would rock.

Ah, see, everyone describes Tau as "Having Power Armor", and I've never read their codex. See, when someone tells me someone has power armor, I tend to believe them. No one ever mention "Power Armor Equivalent".

Well, that just makes me feel like a fool.

Anyway, yeah, I was thinking something like a Bestial Brown would be the best base for something like that, but I just thought it might look strange with a neutral color like Black or Grey. You can try it anyway, just to see what you think.

Okay, a few quick questions:

1. How good are you at painting? I.E. How much help do you need, and how much detail would you like me to go into?

2. Do you already have pits/slashes/marks cut out of your tau's battle armor, are you sitting there with your plastic sprues, or are you stuck with a bunch of already painted fire warriors? If you're not already done, what's your goal here? Bolter craters? Or lasgun scuffs? Something else? How available are modeling tools to you? Do you have green stuff and such ready to go, or are you just stuck there with an exacto knife?

3. Would you like me to describe the glowing effect to the best of my ability anyway, for use in something else?

Sorry, I don't have a very reliable camera at the moment.

Chrysaor686 wrote:Ah, see, everyone describes Tau as "Having Power Armor", and I've never read their codex. See, when someone tells me someone has power armor, I tend to believe them. No one ever mention "Power Armor Equivalent".

Well, that just makes me feel like a fool.

Anyway, yeah, I was thinking something like a Bestial Brown would be the best base for something like that, but I just thought it might look strange with a neutral color like Black or Grey. You can try it anyway, just to see what you think.

Okay, a few quick questions:

1. How good are you at painting? I.E. How much help do you need, and how much detail would you like me to go into?

2. Do you already have pits/slashes/marks cut out of your tau's battle armor, are you sitting there with your plastic sprues, or are you stuck with a bunch of already painted fire warriors? If you're not already done, what's your goal here? Bolter craters? Or lasgun scuffs? Something else? How available are modeling tools to you? Do you have green stuff and such ready to go, or are you just stuck there with an exacto knife?

3. Would you like me to describe the glowing effect to the best of my ability anyway, for use in something else?

Sorry, I don't have a very reliable camera at the moment.

Ok

1. Still new to painting miniatures but I am learning quickly, moderate help should be sufficient.

2.I do not have holes or cuts made yet because i have debating on how I want to show them, whether glances or actual hits. They are assembled but unpainted, no green stuff right now fresh out =(, I have most of the availabe modeling tools, when i do somethign I don't do it half assed. So I am stuck here with an exacto knife maybe until tomorrow it depends if Hobby Town gets any green stuff in tomorrow.

3. Yes I would that could be fun if I have a Tau suit with a hole in it too show it's power core radiating threw or something.

Don't worry about the camera bit I was just curious it is always easier to do things when you have an example to look at, but I have a couple extra fire warriors to practice on as I planned a head.

Okay, well I use a wet palette technique, as I find that it produces much better results that mixing my paints beforehand, so if you don't know what I'm talking when I refer to anything, just say so. Just make sure your paints are sufficiently watered down (50/50 works)

I'd start with a basecoat of about 50/50 Chaos Black to Dark Flesh on any area you would like worn or exposed (we'll work on the modeling part later). Make sure this step goes before you paint your actual armor, because any small scrapes and scratches will need this treatment as well. Paint every layer described here numerous times, or it will turn out very dark. I assume that you want this to be a bit quicker (I am one who spends hours on every model, regardless of size or point cost), so I'll make it a bit more painless. Switch from here to straight dark flesh, and make sure it's sufficiently watered down (Keeping black in your paint will 'grey out' browns, which is not what you want). Apply this to all but the darkest areas of the pits or scrapes (You may need a fine detail brush, depending on the size of the damage to your warrior's armor). Be sure to leave at least a little bit of the previous coat showing. Now I'd say go about 50/50 Dark Flesh to Bestial Brown, going over almost the same area you did with dark flesh, just recede a little bit farther from the darkest areas. Next up is straight bestial brown. Be sure that your paints are watered, or they may obscure some of your shading, especially at this lighter point. If you don't get all of the excess "Water" from your paint at this point, it will probably end up streaking. Again, go over the same area as before, just again, slightly pull away from the darkest areas. This part may be a little trickier, because you probably don't want to apply it to all of the same area as the bestial brown/dark flesh. Take a quick look at your model. Is the pit on the shoulder pad? If so, since it's probably facing a direct light source, it would be okay to just go over the same areas. But if it was, say, on the chestplate, you wouldn't want to highlight the top half of the pit, since it's lower half is the only part receiving light. Got it? Okay. Final touches. Go halfway between bestial brown and snakebite leather, and just do the edges of any mark that would be receiving light. Rule of thumb: If it's on the front of your model, chances are you should just highlight the bottom edge.

This might have been really confusing. If it is, and you either want me to explain everything more in-depth, or just give you an easier technique, I can.

At the moment I'm trying to find an article on GW's main website that came out some years ago, just to give you a step-by-step guide with pictures. But I can't seem to. So, when you decide exactly what you want, let me know. Know that significantly smaller holes and glancing hits, such as those made by a lasgun, autogun, and shotgun, will require a much less elaborite and much easier painting technique, but they don't tend to look nearly as dramatic or cool, if you will.

A glow (I assume you want a blue glow. But really, any color can be inserted where the word "blue" is found) is achieved by a sort of backwards shading technique, where the darkest recesses of whatever has been shot open receive the lightest color, and the outer edges receive the darkest color. The most important thing to remember, though, is that normal properties of lighting do not apply to a glow, as it is technically it's own light source. Also note that you should probably only use this on larger areas, as small cracks and such are such a pain to do that it's not even funny. Start out with Ultramarines Blue/Chaos Black 50/50 as a basecoat. Again, make sure you do this before you paint anything around the glow. Next, move up to straight Ultramarines Blue, making sure that it's a nice, clean, bright coat. Mix Ultramarines Blue 50/50 with Skull White, and paint a nice large area of it within the Ultramarines blue, but be careful to leave Ultramarines blue around the edges. Be sure to paint several coats of each layer, until it looks exactly like (if not extremely close to) the paint that you have mixed. Next, do a 50/50 of the mixture and Skull White, creating an even paler blue. Again, paint a rather large area, but make sure to leave a small area where the previous mixture shows around your current one. Now move on to straight skull white. You want to get this as bright of a white that you can while leaving a small ring of each previous color around the white. Almost there. Paint your armor, or whatever else has the pit in it that's glowing, and once that's finished, do a very light drybrush of ultramarines blue just around the glowing pit in the armor. If you want to get really in-depth, you can drybrush anything else that's relatively close to the glowing point on the model, as long as you're very careful. The farther away you get from the glow, the less heavy the drybrushing should be.

There you go. Trust me when I say it's pretty convincing, when done right.

Awsume ty will do some practice attempts tomorrow after I pick up a few new colors to work with =) and all of that was very straight forward sounds like fun I hope it turns out well.

The middle post was an attempt at asking if you know what damage style you're going for, because I can help you with that as well.

I guess it just didn't come out of my fingers right, or something.

I am still unsure whether I want it to look like a super heated hit las/plas/melta or a bullet deflection bloter/sluga/shuiriken look.

First thing's first. Be prepared to make mistakes, especially if this is your first conversion, because that's how you learn. Luckily, you picked some pretty cosmetic stuff that's fairly easy that you wanted to do, so you really shouldn't be disappointed with your results. In fact, you may even impress yourself.

I really hope you're not adverse to removing some of the shoulderpads you've already got glued.

For a "melted armor look, you're going to need green stuff, and possibly (at least) a hand drill and an exacto knife. A pencil may also help. This covers plasma and melta hits (Melta should be a little more drastic).

You can do it the easy way, since you already have all of your fire warriors assembled. For this, you just need green stuff. First, decide where you want the shot, and decide if you want it to either be a direct absorbed hit or a glancing "streak". For a direct hit, you would roll a tiny ball of green stuff (smaller for plasma, bigger for melta), and for a streak, you would roll a tiny snake (Keep in mind that a streak should probably go all the way across a flat surface, and to go across any sort of round surface without pitting it first wouldn't look right at all. Also, be sure that the shot is being fired TOWARDS your model. I.E. A glancing shot would go across the shoulder, not up it.). Scuff up the area that you want the green stuff on, just a tiny little bit (The green stuff needs to be able to take to something, or it will come right off). Flatten the green stuff to the affected area (I assume you at least know the very basics of green stuff, at least enough to know that you should keep your tools and hands wet at all time). Smooth out your fingerprint. Now, take a slightly dull pencil (scribble a bit with it if you have to, until it's round at the tip, but don't make it too big at the tip). You might want to put some petroleum on the tip of the pencil, to keep it from peeling off the green stuff. Now, poke at the green stuff until it resembles something like a mottled scar. Now, last step. Petroleum up a plastic card of some sort and VERY gently, press it against the mottled green stuff, and I mean hardly at all. Voila. A very simple melted battle wearing. The only problem with this method is that it sometimes confuses people as to what it actually represents, but at least you don't have to drill or cut into your already assembled model.

You can do it the hard, realistic way, and "pit" it, using a drill bit and an exacto knife. To do a "direct" hit (somewhat unrealistic, as anything hit directly by a plasma or melta weapon should be in need of a coffin, though I guess it could represent an exceptionally powerful angry flashlight), take a reasonably large hand drill bit and twist it into the place you want the shot. Now, form up a little bit of green stuff (enough to fill the hole). Press the green stuff into the hole, flatten it, and peel off all of the excess, careful not to pull the green stuff out of the hole. Now, grab another pencil. Dull this one quite a bit, until it's so fat at the end that it's about the diameter of the hole (if that's at all possible). Get petroleum on the end of the pencil, and press it very gently into the hole, until it will go no further. Pull it out, and you should have a relatively round hole. Now this would be nice for a fatty autogun slug, but that's not what we're looking for, so grab that pencil from the first technique (the very slightly dulled one with the small tip), make sure it's still got petroleum on it, and start poking at the pit until it's very generously dotted, again about like a burn scar. Now, take the fat tipped pencil again, and VERY gently push it back into the hole, but only part of the way. Pull it out, and voila. Direct hit.

Now, the most realistic method is also, of course, the hardest. A glancing hit from a melta or plasma gun requires an exacto knife or a keyhole saw, that pencil from before, Something kind of small cyllindrical object, such as a tootsie pop stick, and some green stuff. First of all, this will require a bit of drawing out. This is kind of hard to explain, so bear with me. Across a flat surface with a hard edge, draw two parallel lines. These lines should be as far apart as you want the glancing shot to be wide. Now, around that hard edge, in the very center of the two lines and down about a fourth of a centimeter, draw a dot. Make it easy to see. Now, connect the dot to both lines, making a V. To do a rounded surface, you should draw another pair of lines. Definetly do not make these very long, as if you do, it will dig way too far into the rounded surface and will look quite awkward. Connect both lines with a V on both ends, like before. Either way, you should have a pencil pattern that looks something like this:

/\
l l
l l
l l
\/ (Crappy, I know, but it gets the job done.)

Remember, all the way across a totally flat surface with the V's around the edges, and a smaller pattern on a rounded surface.

Now, a keyhole saw will make this immeasurably easier, but if you have an exacto knife, that will work. Just remember to be very careful with the sawing motion. Lay it flat on something. You never want to cut towards yourself. First, cut a notch in each straight line, deep enough to know that the knife is in the right place. The idea is to get down to eye level so you can see the V (on a flat surface) or a small amount of line and V (on a rounded surface). Place the knife or saw in a notch, and begin sawing towards the point of the V. Stop when you get to it, slide the tool out, and do the same thing for the other side. Carefully remove the piece of plastic you just cut from your miniature. The carving process of the glancing shot is finished. Luckily, you're playing Tau, which has flat shoulder pads, or this would be a lot harder for you.

Now, form enough green stuff to fill the line. Remove the excess, making sure that it's as flush as possible with the rest of the armor. Now, remember that little tootsie pop stick? Get out the petroleum jelly, and grease it up a bit. Push the stick into the green stuff, as far as it will go. There will be more green stuff pushed out. Again, remove that excess and make it flush with the armor as much as you can. Now, take out that slightly rounded pencil (Coming in handy yet?). Again, repeatedly poke at it until it is completely covered in little pits. Take the tootsie pop stick again, and very gently push it slightly into the gs again. Clean up the edges if they need it. Voila. You should be very proud when you finish one of those.

One of the main thing is that "melted" armor should be painted differently than simple shots, as it melts the paint and material together, and chars it. If you simply basecoat anything melted with a watered down bestial brown, ink it with some watered down brown ink, and then finally sparsely drybrush it with some chaos black. That should look pretty good. If you want to go painterly with it, follow the same paint mixtures I gave you for a hole or crater, but simply highlight gradually less and less of the raised polymer folds each time. Finally, stipple (Just like drybrushing, except for that you're using a "poke" motion, as opposed to a "stroke" motion. Poke, don't stroke. I'm sure you won't have any trouble remembering that one.)

Another post is forthcoming, and I will consolidate them if I can.

Ya know this is really good information, you may want to consider reposting this as a thread I am sure other people could benefit from this information.

Okay, next up is the natural battle damage! On the plus side, they're a little easier to do and to describe, but you'll be doing a lot more cutting than green stuffing. Always watch out for yourself, and don't pull anything stupid. I don't want to end up sending you to the E.R. (Or Worse; Khorne's Skull Throne) over some FAQ about battle-damaging your Tau.

For this section (At least all but the shuriken/claw/sword marks and what have you), you will invariably need a Hand Drill, preferrably a somewhat large one and a tiny one.

First off is the shots from the Autoguns, Shotguns, and Shootas. These are really pretty easy. You'll need a small hand drill, a little bit of Green Stuff, and a slightly dull pencil (again). Now, envision where you want the shots to be, maybe mark them off if you want to. Take the small hand drill, and drill a little bit into your miniature wherever you wanted a shot to be placed. Now, force some green stuff all the way in there, flatten it, and peel off the excess. Take the pencil, cover the tip in grease, and poke it into the green stuff. Pull it out, make sure the green stuff is done, repeat for all of the bullet holes, and you're done. Easy enough, right? Oh, painting these is pretty simple. A 50/50 mix of dark flesh and bestial brown highlighted on a smaller area by straight bestial brown should do the trick. Experiment with going messily along the edges of the bullet hole with the bestial brown, as if it had chipped off some of the paint on it's way into the armor.

Secondly, battle damage that can represent all sorts of blades, claws, shurikens, etc. (Hopefully your Tau aren't too hardened in close combat. That would be unfortunate). You'll need a knife with a bigger blade than an exacto, but NOT one with a serated edge. Try a pocketknife. This one is simple. Mark a line, and saw back and forth on that line until you're somewhat deep into the armor, pull out when you think you're done, and voila. Just try not to have to put the knife back into the cut, or it will come out looking like a modeler was carving up his models, not a Tyranid Warrior (Don't lie. You know how many times that's happened.) This one can use the painting techniques described above, but it may be a little bit more difficult than a bolter hole.

Thirdly, the Boltgun crater. Now here's a fun one. For this, you're gonna need an exacto knife, a hand drill, and a shoulderpad detatched from one of your warriors. Now, remember, a Bolter Round explodes on impact, so this is not just gonna be some neat little dent in the side of your armor. It's a whole lot more visceral than that. But this is also probably the most dangerous "wear and tear" conversion, so just remember that and be careful. Okay, first, take a somewhat large hand drill, and drill through the shoulderpad all the way wherever you want the bullet to have hit. Keep in mind that it's gonna get a lot bigger than just this little hole, so place it somewhere near the center (unless you want to knock out a corner from your shoulderpad. Not that there's anything wrong with that). Now, start taking out very small chunks of the shoulderpad at a time (You should have quite a bit of shoulderpad left when you're done, and you don't want any of the original hole to show). The more ragged the better. It may help if you make a couple "starting notches" outward from the center hole to get you started. When you can no longer see the center hole (Careful, don't get too carried away with it), slightly chip away at any of the sharper edges you may have made. The final step is to make a few small lines outward to represent the armor material being pushed backward by the force of the initial blow. Once you have those in, you're done, and you can now glue the shoulderpad back on your Fire Warrior. The hole may look a little big on the first one you make, but that doesn't necessarily look bad, and you'll get better at it.

While I'm discussing weathering, I might as well mention a technique for splattering your Fire Warrior's boots with mud and dirt(if you want). It's very simple, just be very careful to not overdo it, and only put it on areas where it's reasonable (Just a little bit around the feet adds plenty of effect). Simply mix together some elmers glue, some basing sand and rocks (mostly sand), and some dark flesh. Apply it with an old brush a little around your model's feet (if it seems appropriate for the terrain you've based him on). Dirt is really easy. Simply stipple (Remember, the stroke not poke) around the feet and lower legs with a sparse layer of bestial brown, being more generous the closer to the ground you get.

Now, if you plan on buying paints, you shouldn't just buy the ones I recommended to you for these techniques alone. You should have at least three different shades of any color your plan to paint, with the color you want in the middle. So for instance, if you want to paint your armor mainly Codex Grey, buy Chaos Black, Codex Grey, and fortress grey (Though skull white is acceptable if you're mixing by the drop for highlighting and shading). Most of the time, I'll never highlight black or shade white over 50/50 towards the next color, so you should be okay with two for any one of those colors, unless you want a really defined dramatic highlight. If you're short on cash, you should at least have two different shades of a color at all times, and they should be at least one color step apart (Say, Scab Red and Blood Red for red), as you can mix these both 50/50 to create the middle color (For instance, 50/50 Dark Flesh and Snakebite leather with make something close to Bestial Brown). Most hobby shops can help you with this, or at least have a color chart where they put their paints at. Tau are fairly easy Two-step shaders, especially with their armor (Just go one 50/50 step lighter over your base color and it should look great, as long as you leave some base color showing), but that's a good thing. You can learn to paint as you go, without alienating yourself from your old models because they "look like crap". Tau couldn't look like crap if they tried. Even so, try applying highlights to everything you possibly can. You will thank me later for it. Especially if you ask someone for tips on how to use a Wet Palette. I would if I could, but I'm about to be without internet in a good six or so hours for a month or so. I'm sure someone else here would be happy to help you.

I hope I was of some help, and if so, I'm glad I could help someone before I had to leave so soon.

This is the Scheme I am going to try for probly not that cluttered but similar. So skull while is kind of neccessary if I want it to look right but I guess I could drop it for a really deep blue.