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More Pics please! I would like to see your Pirahna's if they are finished being painted too. You make me want to start my Tau army again!

So, after finishing priming at around 2am last night, I let it dry overnight, and here are the results:







Please excuse the pink blur in the first image, that's my hand.

Overall, I'm quite happy with the way the suits turned out, there are some small imperfections around seams that I neglected to GS over, I'll have to figure something out to fix them.

So, here's what I've accomplished today:

I found the right screws and nuts:

4-40 1-1/2" stainless partially threaded hex socket cap screws for the stands, and 4/40 knock in tee nuts for the model.

The recipe:

Drill out the hole in the flight stand almost all the way through with a 11/64" Drill bit, then drill it about 1/2 way with a 3/16" drill bit. Press fit the screw. If it doesn't go flush, pull it out and drill a bit deeper with the 3/16" bit. Use superglue if desired to permanently affix.

Drill out the hole in the model with a 9/64" drill bit, press the tee nut in with finger pressure to mark the spots where the prongs sit. Drill out those spots with a #66 drill bit. Press fit with more finger pressure. Use superglue if desired to permanently affix.

To use: Screw model onto stand.

McMaster-Carr part numbers used:
Screw: 92196A119
Nut: 90975A002

Possible variations: Use a fully threaded screw and a hex nut to increase security of screw to base attachment. Use longer or shorter screws. Use threaded rod instead of screws for truly absurd heights.


I also got a bit over halfway through laying down the grey on all 7 crisis suits. No photos of this as it isn't really dramatic.

It's looking more and more like I won't hit my original painting goals by CanGames unfortunately.

Here's where I stand now:

Finished in new scheme:
Nothing.

Finished in old scheme:
1 HH
24 FWs
4 Gun Drones

Partially done in interim scheme:
2 Hammerheads/Devilfish

In progress to paint to new scheme:
7 Crisis suits

Missing from the above:
1 Devilfish, 2 Piranhas.

As it stands, I could probably get away with fielding the tanks that are done in my interim colour scheme, though my painting score will utterly tank. Oh well, I knew going in that my painting score would utterly suck.

Another quick update:

All the crisis suits have had their gray applied, now technically they are not finished yet, I still need to apply space wolves grey, ice blue, and enchanted blue...

But, to get them ready in time, I'll probably just slap enchanted blue onto their eyes for colour number 3, and away I go.

I've also got 1 devilfish and 2 convertable devilfish/hammerheads primed white, as well as the 2 piranhas.

So, my to-do now looks like this:

Get 2 piranhas painted, get 1 hammerhead painted, then get as much done on my crisis suits as possible.

And yet another update:

Both Piranhas have had their gray applied, the hammerhead is about 1/2 way through gray.

This was not helped by my nice new can of GW primer leaking paint, and me having to fall back on a 4+ year old can of Citadel primer, resulting in some nasty-ass orange peel which I had to file down and then re-base with foundation white.

My to-do now looks like this:

Finish Hammerhead, get 3rd colour on to suits, piranhas, HH.

My 3rd colour will be the lenses, painted blue.

And another update...

Done! Wheeeeeee!!!

Seriously however,

I have completed (to a playable standard):
1 Hammerhead, 2 Piranhas, and 7 Crisis suits.

I will be using 2 Devilfish in my interim scheme, and 1 Hammerhead, 24 Fire Warriors, and 4 gun drones in my old scheme.

I fully expect to get almost 0 for my painting score, but I don't care, I'm on my way to having a painted army that I'm happy with.

My to-do for tomorrow: Relax and enjoy Cangames.

You make me feel bad about not finishing my massive pile of bare metal and plastic Any chance of some pictures of the painted stuff?

There is, I'll be taking photos of my army, and games, at CanGames. So, I should probably have photos up sometime late tomorrow.

My apologies for the late update, I made a last second change to my army list, removing a useless Target Lock and replacing it with a Flamer, meaning I had to stay up late on Saturday to get it magnetized, primed, and painted before the Tournament on Sunday.

Combine this with a tournament, and I was pretty drained by the time I got home.

So, at last, here are the photos:


The gallery contains photos of my army, as well as each game I played.

Game 1 was an "Assault the Battery" mission where the attacker received bonus VPs for destroying each of the 3 Earthshaker platforms, and the defender received bonus VPs for each turn that the Earthshakers were firing. As the attacker I used the SMS on my tanks to blast the earthshakers from behind the trees, and then waited for the marines to come out and play. At the end of turn 5, the Tau were victorious, but only succeeded in meeting one of 3 bonus victory conditions.

Game 2 was a "Defend the Airfield" mission where the attacker received bonus VPs for controlling the earthshaker platform and the control tower, as well as getting units into that side of the table. The Defender received bonus VPs for controlling the objectives, and getting units into the attacker's DZ. Luckily for me, I had better luck getting my reinforcements than the DE player had, so I was able to roll his army up piecemeal, highlights included the first shot from my hammerhead on turn 2 splattering 9 out of 10 Dark Eldar warriors, and his Command Raider scattering off the table at the bottom of turn 5. At the end, I had succeeded in meeting all 3 bonus victory conditions, as well as completely wiping out the enemy army.

Game 3 was against Orks in a "Midnight Patrol" mission, the Orks got first turn and rushed both a Boyz Mob in a Trukk and his Nobz mob in a Trukk up. I made the mistake of trying to punch out a mob of Nobz with Cybork Bodies and a Painboss. That cost me the game since it meant I had to get close to them, and they just sucked up my fire before killing both my Hammerheads, a Devilfish and its FireWarriors, and my Shas'Vre. In the end, no bonus victory conditions were met, and the Orks won.

So, it's been almost 3 weeks since I've updated... and in that time, I have done exactly this with my Tau: played 1 game.

I hit a minor burn-out from the week of prep prior to Cangames, and just couldn't really muster the energy to keep slogging forwards.

Until 2 things happened: 1) My local GW started promoting their washes intro day, which consisted of a free large figure - ie, 'Nid warrior, Slann, Troll, etc for those buying the wash set, and 2) Several people jumped onboard a challenge to build and paint a 1500 point army before the local GW store closes (1 of 2 stores in Ottawa is closing.).

So, I'm starting a 'Nid army. I've got a sweet colour scheme that's pretty darned easy to paint, the motivation, and a somewhat relaxed timeframe. So, for the moment the Tau are officially on hold. I'll start up another thread for the 'Nids soonish. Including the first examples of the new scheme.