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MIG is really good, I think small tribal markings would be cool in turquoise, to break up the camo, but still make them camo

Here is a quick and dirty idea done via MS Paint here at work for the squad markings to be added. I think with will bring it out a bit from the front.

Perfect, If its like that it should look great, but That is a really bright blue

After reading all the comments I went to work on test paint Pathfinder when I got home from work. So I added more color and a few squad/army/rank markings. The color I decided on is the P3 Meredius Blue which is very close to GW Hawk Turquoise. There is five markings and four of them are squad rank markings. There are two on the helmet, one on the chest and the last on the outside of the carbine. Finally I colored in a segment of his left thigh armor for the army color which will go through out the army.

So here is the Pathfinder with new markings and a bit lightened (on white back ground):







I am not crazy about the look of the white back ground pictures as it seems to wash out the mini. So decided to use a the overhead light that more like more gaming rooms and stores to take some pictures of the test Pathfinder. I believe that the miniature looks better under this light. These pictures do show that this paint scheme will look great in a store or game room. Not GD quality but I have never strived for that. If the minis look great on the table that make me feel great. But I am trying new things with this army to make them look that bit better.

Here is the Pathfinder under normal gaming light:







I know there is room for improvement but I think he is turning out better each time. He is 1000% better than my last stab at Tau. Tomorrow after a shift of Overtime at work hopefully I will be heading to a true hobby store (not gaming) to get my weathering powders. If my wife is not up to it (we work for the same agency) I will order them online. If all my minis in this army are going to look like this mini I will be a very happy gamer.

So what do you think?

That looks great Mike. I really like the desert/rough look you got going---looks straight out of the trench! Are you going to add some shrub brush to the base?

The only critique I have right now without seeing it in person would be to highlight the turquoise a bit.

AgeOfEgos wrote:The only critique I have right now without seeing it in person would be to highlight the turquoise a bit.

Seconded!

Have you considered applying a wash to the base? Perhaps orange or yellow? This would give a bit of separation without ruining the camo/rough look. I feel the model and base are to close and you're losing a lot of the details. My free 2 cents


Lastly, I use a piece of light gray felt (that I picked up at a craft store) as a background for photos. It seems to work well.

take care

I have most of the army painter grass tuff packs and they are just too green. Even the highland tuffs. So I am thinking on getting the gw dead grass tuffs as it is all light brown. It will blend well with the weathering powders.

Trying to think what a good highlight is for the turquiose. I might just add 1 part white to the turquiose and highlight from there.

I might try a yellow or an orange wash. That might give it the color I have been lacking in the base. Between that and the weathering powders it should give a good desert look. I never thought of gray felt for photographs. It should mute that glare of my painting lamps. Thanks for the tips because I would have gone many more posts frustrated. If I have time I will hit the store for that felt.

Honestly, I think once they are all painted sitting on a good desert board the look will pull together. While I was in an boring 4 hour training on recovery of Social Security overpayments workload, I was sketching a rough picture of a desert kroot warrior. It got my brain going on how to expand past 1850.

What I see is Kroot with leather banded sun goggles, loose scarf over their mouths and a kind of loose hooded poncho with bandoleers, belts, pouches and knifes hanging of them. The poncho is more for temporary protection from the desert sun and a form of camo. As the kroot are more forest dwellers they would require this type of protection till they can get acclimated to the battlefield. Or more in line with the kroot would be that they need that stuff till they ingest enough dna to force their bodies to evolve to the conditions.

I would use a black background, that would bring it out, It looks perfect!

Hello again. I was surprised that when I started on my Suicide XV-8 Crisis Battlesuit (GW) that it took less time to paint than my first infantry mini. I guess I knew what paints needed and how to be used.

If you are wondering why I didn't finish painting the Pathfinder squad it is because I wanted to have test minis for both infantry and crisis suits to use as an example especially for the suits since they are going to make up over 80% of the model count of my army.

Yesterday I went after working 5 hours of overtime and picked up the MIG Gulf War Sand weathering powder to coat my minis in a light dust. I have used their Dark Mud on my Khador with great effect. So when I finished this suit I went over it with the Gulf Sand weathering powder and then a heavy soot over the back of the jet pack, missile pods and plasma rifle. The between the wash and weathering powders it does give the Suit a well worn combat suit look. Enough talk, more pictures so here we go (there is alot of pics):
















That is alot of pictures to put in but a blog about minis would be nothing without pictures. Looking at the mini in the pictures I have to make the color parts of the lens a bit brighter. Honestly, close up pictures do seem to ruin the weathering effects on the mini. The three foot rule of war gaming the looks really pulls together especially next to other minis.

I hope you guys and gals like the work so far. So keep the C&C coming please.

Thank you for looking. See you guys soon.

Looking good.

Two things:
1. How are the pigments to use? Do you just brush on the pigment or do you mix it with something?

2. Have you considered using a Sakura Micron pen (black or brown) to help give a little separation to the armor plates?


Thanks and take care

For the powders I used it almost right out of the bottle. First I used a dedicated thick dry brush. The brush is dipped into the powder and then rubbed a majority off on a paper towel. Lastly, I lightly dry brushed the remainder on the mini where I wanted. Just remember I little dab will do you.

I am going to use wash directly into armor segments. I keeps the color but it shows the different armor segments.

I never understood weathering powders... do they stick somehow? Or you at risk of the powders coming off during play and handling?

I read about people using them all the time, but never knew the process of the stuff.

The turquoise looks good, it really helps give the model just a touch more going on, and it looks great under the 'gaming' light.

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:I never understood weathering powders... do they stick somehow? Or you at risk of the powders coming off during play and handling?

I read about people using them all the time, but never knew the process of the stuff.

The turquoise looks good, it really helps give the model just a touch more going on, and it looks great under the 'gaming' light.

Thanks for the C&C and I like the turquois also.

Now about the weathering powders. While I am no where near a physics expert or even a novice but I believe it has something to do with friction. It is possible that the powders can rub off or fall off over time but you can seal them onto the model. MIG and other companies do make special brush on sealers that will seal the powder onto the mini without losing the look. If you use regular matte spray sealer the propellent can mover the powders or the sealer can change the look of the powder because it becomes a very, very thin paste till it hardens. It isn't too noticable but there is a change. I recommend that anyone that wants to use weathering powders is to pratice on a junk vehicle bought off ebay or the dakka swap for cheap. Now, once you get the hang of them you will never go back because of the effect that it has on your minis.

Great stuff ! Keep up the good work

Just another quick thing about weathing powders. If you are going to try them out I recommend that you go on to EBay and get the 4 pack of rust colors from Bar Mills. They are for train cars but it is what I used on my Ork Vehicles and Bases.

There is four colors, Light, Medium and Dark rust and a soot color. They come in baggies so I recommend putting them in empty and dry screw top paint pots like the type that reaper sells. It's cleaner that way. That four pack is going for around $9.00 USD on EBay plus shipping and it is a huge deal espically if you are just learning how to use them.

The other color I would pick up is a dust or light dirt color because it will give it a nice dusty, out in the field look.

As for a sealer, I havn't bought the MIG Pigment sealer yet and have just sealed the powders along with the rest of my minis using a spray sealant. I don't mind losing a bit of the powdered look because it did not change it much. Here is a view of a looted wagon I sold to the owner of FLGS that was done with the weather powders and sealed with matte sealent:



Hope this helps some that are wondering about or wanting to start out with weathering powders.

Speaking (or showing of) tanks--when will you be doing your first tank?

Should be soon. Just need to break away from overtime at work and house repairs to get to Tabletop or order online. Been working ten hours a day and six hours on Saturday inorder to be able to replace all the gutters on my house and pay for it in cash. So, so in two paychecks my wife and I will have saved over $2500 to replace the gutters that are original to the house amd this house is almost fifty years old.

Plus I am not in a hurry to finish the two fish in my army because it isn't vehicles that kill my motivation. Historically that is the job of infantry units when it is time to paint. I only have twenty infantry in my 1850 l ust so I am going to finish them first to get my biggest road block out of the way.

Honestly, that is what killed me with my Orks. I was stupid enough to build 300 Ork Boyz, 50 Nobz and all those vehicles then put them on the shelf behind me. Every Ork I painted was like every blow from the Joker's crow bar when he killed Robin. Paint, Bam! Paint, Bam! Paint, Bam! Till the passion was gone.

So, when I finish my base on my test XV-8 it is on to finishing my first Pathfinder unit. So, here is the rough time line for the build:

Unit One: Suicide XV-8 Crisis Battle suit
Unit Two: First 4 man Pathfinder squad
First FW order made: 3 XV-88s
Unit Three: Second 4 man Pathfinder squad
Unit Four: First 6 man Fire Warrior squad
Second FW order made: 6 XV-88s
Unit Five: Second 6 man Fire Warrior squad
Unit Six and Seven: Pathfinder Devilfish
Unit Eight: FW Tau special character (which is on it's way here right now)
Third FW order: remaining 6 FW suits for the army
The suits will just be one at a time since I consider them like vehicles, fun to paint.

So following this time line I should get the infantry done first so I am not burnt out. keeping to a strict rule of built snd paint one unit at a time before taking the next one out is the best way of keeping me motivated for the long and expensive haul. So paint on some devilfish will be awhile away, sorry. I am really wanting to see 9 XV-88s Broadsides painted and lined up.

Veyr nice! Sorry if I'm asking a question that's already been answered, but what sealer do you use? I'm form the South too, and most stuff I find at places like Wal-mart just don't come out 100% matte or gome out really "fuzzy", so it'd be a great help!

Nice job.
I hate playing against the tau but it would be an honor to face your army. Nice looking figures.

I love the colour scheme, keep it up!

sennacherib wrote:Nice job.
I hate playing against the tau but it would be an honor to face your army. Nice looking figures.

Brother-Captain Scotti wrote:I love the colour scheme, keep it up!

Thank you. I am glad that you guys like this so far. It has been fun so far and will get more stuff out soon. I have had some ideas on how to change the look of the Fire Warriors around a bit. I will post my ideas soon.

Kepora wrote:Veyr nice! Sorry if I'm asking a question that's already been answered, but what sealer do you use? I'm form the South too, and most stuff I find at places like Wal-mart just don't come out 100% matte or gome out really "fuzzy", so it'd be a great help!

Not a problem. I completly understand about the matte sealant in Southern States. It is the humidity that is causing the fuzzy look. I was stationed in Ft McClellan, AL for several months, Ft Bragg, NC for a year and a half and Ft Belvior, VA for 2 1/2 year and also in Korea for year which has horrible humidity. The funny thing is that Kansas City, MO has almost as bad humidity as all those other places.

So when I bought my house I made sure that I had a nice open and ventilated basement and garage area that was climate controlled so that has greatly reduced the fuzzy look due to humidity. However, some Matte Sealants have work better than others even in the climate control. Right now I am using Testors Flat Sealent since it is working the best but alittle expensive due to the small amount you get.

I have used the matte sealant from Hobby Lobby for a long time but about a year and a half ago it seemed that their matte was becoming more gloss with each new can. As the change was happening it start to get more fuzzy at the same time. So I switched to the Army Painter Matte Sealant. Great Stuff for a long time but I switched to Testors because the Army Painter was super expensive per can. All I can say is that you just need to find a place to control the humditiy the best you can. Now there is some great threads on here that show you step by step on fixing a mini if the fuzzy-ness happens. Hope this helps abit.

Well see you all soon.

Testor's, gotcha!

A quick update for tonight. I have started painting my XV-8 Suicide Crisis Battlesuit's base. Most likely won't get it done tonight since I started pretty late. However, as I was getting some fresh water in my paint cup I had an idea about my Fire Warriors that I need to build.

The Pathfinders and the Fire Warriors both have 4+ saves but the Pathfinders are running around without those power pack looking back packs. Why? The Pathfinders have heavy equipment, carbines with grenade launchers and still have the same save as a Fire Warrior with a power pack. Do Pulse Rifles use that much more energy that they need a Ghostbuster's proton pack. Most likely not. It was most likely someone at GW thought a smaller model would look like a scout so they scrapped the power pack.

My thinking is why should the Fire Warriors have equipment that honestly doesn't make sense when all they do is fly around in their heavy purple heart boxes, jump out to shoot and then clamber back in just to repeat it all over again. And on the off chance that they have to squat on an objective or most likely, knock out of their fish shouldn't they have some basic field equipment. So along those lines I hit my bitz box for stowage equipment for the Fire Warriors. So here is a picture of my idea of replacing the power packs:

(Sorry for the blur)



Ok, the center is the power pack that is on the normal Fire Warrior. The one on the right is the equipment bag/back pack I am using for my Pathfinders. The one on the left is my idea for the replacement of the Fire Warriors power pack. It is roughly the same size of the Pathfinders back pack and it covers all the same space as the Fire Warrior power pack.

So, what do you think? Fire Warrior Power pack or the Replacement Backpack?

Thanks for reading and C&C is always welcome. Your ideas are what make this project better.

These are quite possibly either the best Tau I've seen, or the second best. The other guy had a really cool blue lightning effect for his stealth suits.

The two minis look really go great together and I can't wait for more

Oh, cool, desert Tau! The dirty tan look gives them somewhat of a feel like the models of Heavy Gear. Good stuff mate.

Ratbarf wrote:These are quite possibly either the best Tau I've seen, or the second best. The other guy had a really cool blue lightning effect for his stealth suits.

Capitansolstice wrote:The two minis look really go great together and I can't wait for more

Meph wrote:Oh, cool, desert Tau! The dirty tan look gives them somewhat of a feel like the models of Heavy Gear. Good stuff mate.

Thanks everyone. Hope you like the stuff that is too come down the pipe.

AgeOfEgos wrote:Speaking (or showing of) tanks--when will you be doing your first tank?

Thought you might like to know. Two Devilfish are ordered and on their way to me as of this morning. My only two tanks are bought


So here is the list of my army bought, yet to be bought and completion status:

Commander: Bought and enroute to me
Suicide Crisis Suit: Bought and 95% painted
Fire Warriors 2 x 6 men squads: Bought and in the queue
Pathfinders: Bought, first squad built and 25% painted. Second squad in the queue
Devilfish x 2: Bought and on their way
6 XV-89 FW Crisis Suits: Yet to be bought
9 XV-88 FW Broadsides: Yet to be bought

Army expansions:
12 Kroot and 1 Krootox: Bought and in the queue
1 GW XV-8 Crisis Suit: Bought and in the queue.

I really like the idea of some of the FWs having some "baggage" ... it also lends itself to the army being veteran; some having abandoned their origional packs for alternatives.

Bear LaMorte wrote:I really like the idea of some of the FWs having some "baggage" ... it also lends itself to the army being veteran; some having abandoned their origional packs for alternatives.

I completely agree. I am looking to have a more realistic looking army than what GW produced. So the upgrades to the Crisis Suits, different and more realistic infantry load outs and lots of dirt and dust will make the army look just right for me. The idea of having super brightly colored Crisis Suits and Tanks moving around the battle field is something that SM get to do because they are T4 and 3+ save. Not Tau, they are more about surviving and not getting shot in the first place. So, the idea of uniforms and equipment that blend in more to the terrain and that are useful is what I want to portray with this army.

Should have the Crisis Suit base complete by tonight so I will post pics of it when it is done. Might put together a test FW tonight as putting stuff together is a huge stress relief for me. Been having a really hard week at work and today was the worse so far.

See you guys tonight.

Wow that is a great looking tau army, I think the scheme is great! The models also look very real, like they have been out in combat. The contrast with the bright blue/turquoise is really cool and unique I think. Most people would go with red in this situation I think.
What shade of brown is it that you have your army painted in? Commando Khaki?