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Just finished A skyray. Unfortunately Im having a heck of a time getting decent photographs of this to show up. Unlike the monolith the contours and contrast on this make it even harder to get proper photographs without saturating or loosing data to the black.

Constructive criticisms(so I can get better) and ideas for what to paint next always appreciated.




Some details

SLICK!
Air brush?

... go make so Stealth Suits or Legion of the Damned.

*jaw drops*
whoaaaaaa
do a rhino next!

edit is cuz i fergot to reccomend the next thing

It looks like a T-shirt.

The work is brilliantly done, but unlike your Monolith, I don't think the subject matter quite fits. The Necrons are all star gods and crazy-advanced technology, whereas the Tau are much more practical and pragmatic about their warmachines. Still, the contrast is striking and your skill with the airbrush and stencils is hard to fault!

Your next project: I second a Legion of the Damned Rhino. Black armor with flames seems to be built for your skills. Plus, the Rhino is an even smaller canvas to practice your scaling on.

So this Tau guy goes to the local Eldar paintshop and says 'hey dude ! pimp my ride !"

seriously though, its awesome. there's not really much criticism I can give other than it does look a bit 'Eldarish' and not the normal flat colours of Tau. But hey if you like it like that, then why not.

An army in these colours would be a great sight.

looks damn cool man.

now to make your fortune on ebay

Yes, I realize the tau are more practical about their cammo and painting. I remembered from painting cammo as a kid that I hated it. Its generally boring and unrewarding.
So yes I fully agree the paint schemes are a bit more in keeping with the eldar or chaos(hence I had been thinking about painting one of their vehicles next).

Besides perhaps the tau are becoming a bit cocky. Or perhaps they realize that while not as useful as camo it may make an enemy go , whoa look at that paint..*sschwwwick crack*

I just looked at the FW models and realized their aircraft are a bit less practical. the tiger stripe or watery effect doesn't make sense in space unless their aircraft are also submersible. so perhaps the air caste breaks from the practicality.

Things I would like to paint. A phoenix or void dragon. A hell blade or talon,
A thunderbolt or lightning might be ok, I could use my traditional storm theme on them but.. I kinda detest marines on principle. I like the tau because they are , IMO, hard to play well.

Things I will probably paint. A wave serpent, maybe a chaos rhino, a drop pod(more chaosy though).

And my fortune on ebay. .. I don't think Id be pleased with what id be paid for one of these. Not until I can paint one in under 5hrs. The sky ray took probably 12hrs. Im generally the kind of person to paint it and keep it even if it never gets used.

edit: do chaos players buy the standard rhino kit and does their codex allow use of a drop pod or only if you use FW rules?

Looks jaw-droppingly amnazing.

For your next trick, the Nightbringer?

Amazing model.

If I may voice a criticism. The only thing that bothers me is the engines. The final white colour seems to be focused at the front of the model. For me the white blocks on the front of the engine pods look too regimented, where the rest of the model is all about beautiful blending colours. Perhaps the white areas there would have been better blending from the blue back into black. That way the white areas stays at focused at the front of the skyray. Apologies if that sounds convoluted, I'm just not great at explaining things.

My two Imperial Creds.

That looks very Japanese i love it whats next?

I'm guessing that you're a one model person. What I mean is that you probably like to spend much attention on one model at a time - Especially when using an airbrush... Am I correct in thinking so? This leads me to suggesting this: Have you ever considered painting a batch of the same type of model (at the same time), or is that too early on at this stage? That would test your skills greatly, as you'd have to make sure that every single one is the same as the others. Still, though, the Sky Ray looks stunning alright!

Oshunai wrote:Amazing model.

If I may voice a criticism. The only thing that bothers me is the engines. The final white color seems to be focused at the front of the model. For me the white blocks on the front of the engine pods look too regimented, where the rest of the model is all about beautiful blending colors. Perhaps the white areas there would have been better blending from the blue back into black. That way the white areas stays at focused at the front of the skyray.

I agree to some extent. Originally the front of the vehicle was all white too, segmented by the panels. But I hated it and had to bleed the flames onto it so it looked better. The nacelles however I didn't mind due to the contrast with the intake it provided so I left it after debating doing the same as I did to the front.

Cosmic wrote: I'm guessing that you're a one model person. What I mean is that you probably like to spend much attention on one model at a time - Especially when using an airbrush... Am I correct in thinking so? This leads me to suggesting this: Have you ever considered painting a batch of the same type of model (at the same time), or is that too early on at this stage? That would test your skills greatly, as you'd have to make sure that every single one is the same as the others.

While I agree this would be a test of skill there are a couple reasons I don't.
1. I dont want all the flames looking the same. However If I did it wouldn't be too hard to make them about 90% identical. But not worth the time.
2. I hate uniform armies. I think they look boring
3. I dont want to have to do the same paint job X times because I have too many ideas I want to try and they keep getting better and more complicated. Painting a squad of fire warriors is maddening. I have to work hard enough to make sure there is a subtle underlying theme to my army with the variety of paintjobs Im giving them.

chaplaingrabthar wrote:
For your next trick, the Nightbringer?

I was actually considering a nid guard or an eldar avatar(GW version) that would be a challenge! But im presently painting some scratched flyers(Moray, Barracuda). Pictures soon. Assuming they don't revolt me to look at. Incidentally the base coats for this were red and blue on a white primed background. When I finished the base coats I wanted to puke and was so disgusted by what I had done(even for a base coat) that I was fighting the urge to smash my ugly creation. I was very happy when my vision of it started to get fleshed out.

StubbyGB wrote:So this Tau guy goes to the local Eldar paintshop and says 'hey dude ! pimp my ride !"
An army in these colours would be a great sight.

My wife was laughing her A@#$ off at this joke. Thank you

Does it have under lighting and a crazy stereo system?

Edit: What are the skimmer equivalent to hydraulics?

Admittedly, those pictures weren't very good. Im having a hard time getting lighting right on such high contrast models especially where fluorescent paints are involved.
I hope this one shows the details a bit better


As for the bottom , its painted to look like clouds, IE "waats daat ooooh I sea bear in dem klouds... " *SPLAT*


Yea the bottom lacks a bit of detail but since its almost never seen Ill probably never get around to finishing it.

Also I played with a background for the picture. Which of these look better and why?

Very impressive work, not much more I can say about it.

The black and white one; it looks less like one of those horrid wizard t-shirts.

I love the first pic. The model is VERY impressive. Probably one of the nicest tau paint jobs I've ever seen.

neither.
Leave the first background and invert the facing of the model - the nose is getting lost in the light space on the right of the image.

I like the paint...always wanted to see latino Tau

Try taking the pics with a white back ground and not a black one. Try a lighting box and use a small tripod for the camera. That will help with the pics. Dont use the flash on the camera as that will wash out your whites and bright blues. Just use two or three high intensity lights about 4-5 feet away and coming from different directions.

Uhm...WOW!!

It's amazing, and at the moment I can't spot any faults in the paintwork, unfortunately I don't like the whole "My tank is a mural" thing but it certainly shows alot of skill.

That said, I really love that pink glow effect on the air intakes and would love to try and replicate it (although, probably with a colour more suited to my chosen colour scheme)

Airbrushes, with practice, allow some amazing things to be done at ANY scale.

This Skyray and the Monolith are very good examples. I'm getting back into airbrushing myself and even for just a simple paint scheme (traditional colors, markings, etc.) the airbrush is SUCH a time saver.

Best use for an AB in Warhammer scale is basecoats. I can basecoat a LR with a single coat of paint in 3 minutes....it would be around 15 with a GW tank brush and look like crap compared to the smoothness of airbrushing.

I hear people say it's cheating. It's not cheating, it's working smart instead of working hard. I could achieve AB smoothness with super reduced paint and a brush (like the French do) and it'd probably still take 15 mins. Would look smooth as silk but for something as large and flat as a LR why put in so much effort. I'll take the time I save and use it as extra time alloted for when I do pull out the old stick and hair brush....

Great job as usual OP. I look forward to your next project.

This maybe a goobie question but is it all done with an airbrush or is some of it done with a regular brush?
The more I look at this thing and some of your other work I am wanting to give the AB a try. I am not crazy though, I know if I try it would take a long time to get even close to your skill levels.

Again, hats off.

Stump wrote:This maybe a goobie question but is it all done with an airbrush or is some of it done with a regular brush?
The more I look at this thing and some of your other work I am wanting to give the AB a try. I am not crazy though, I know if I try it would take a long time to get even close to your skill levels.

The only hand brush work is the reflective dots on the gems, some of the smaller gem/lens gradients though not as many as you would think, some dry brushing on the landing gear, the black edging and black recessing on the nacells to make the metalics stand out, and most of the copper color because I didn't feel like masking those tinny pieces off. On the monolith tiny pieces like that were masked and AB'ed. My only caution is that don't have too high of expectations if your getting into it with a relatively cheap brush. Im sure there are some cheap ones out there that can do most of this but a better brush makes it significantly easier. Its the difference between a cheap 50cent brush and a nice 8dollar brush for blending and detail. you can still do it but with more frustration. If your buying spend a bit of time doing research on ABes

Fateweaver wrote:

I hear people say it's cheating. It's not cheating, it's working smart instead of working hard. I could achieve AB smoothness with super reduced paint and a brush (like the French do) and it'd probably still take 15 mins. Would look smooth as silk but for something as large and flat as a LR why put in so much effort. I'll take the time I save and use it as extra time allotted for when I do pull out the old stick and hair brush....

Great job as usual OP. I look forward to your next project.

I thought this was an interesting comment but addressed it in my airbrush tutorial as I felt it belonged there.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/251253.page

I like it and don't like it. I can't help but think it should have an etherial riding a kroot hound on a rainbow in space on the side of it. It just seems too fancy.

Still, I really dig what you did with the engines and source lighting on the lenses etc. The latter look almost photo realistic.

atropos907 wrote:

Stump wrote:This maybe a goobie question but is it all done with an airbrush or is some of it done with a regular brush?
The more I look at this thing and some of your other work I am wanting to give the AB a try. I am not crazy though, I know if I try it would take a long time to get even close to your skill levels.

The only hand brush work is the reflective dots on the gems, some of the smaller gem/lens gradients though not as many as you would think, some dry brushing on the landing gear, the black edging and black recessing on the nacells to make the metalics stand out, and most of the copper color because I didn't feel like masking those tinny pieces off. On the monolith tiny pieces like that were masked and AB'ed. My only caution is that don't have too high of expectations if your getting into it with a relatively cheap brush. Im sure there are some cheap ones out there that can do most of this but a better brush makes it significantly easier. Its the difference between a cheap 50cent brush and a nice 8dollar brush for blending and detail. you can still do it but with more frustration. If your buying spend a bit of time doing research on ABes

Thanks for the tips

Your blending is flawless. You even used feathering to do designs it seems. This is VERY impressive. Extremely good work here.

atropos907 wrote:

Can I have some of your talent?

I'll PM you my address.

I dig that. Terrific stuff.