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Greetings Dakka

A recent interruption from my FLGS (Pathfinders came in!) during a Legendary run prompted this idea. I intend to do a full Tau army painted in the Covenant's colors from Halo.

I would like (and need) some input on painting schemes for the force.


The pulse rifle (since its widely distributed) is getting the Covenant Carbine's Colors
I have yet to decide on the Pulse Carbine
While My XV8 suits and XV88s i had the idea of painting them to look like hunters (so far have a XV8 in peices with Royal Blue), i'm still out on how to make the Shas'o stand out from the other suits.

Devil-fish and piranhas will likely get painted the Ghosts and banshee's shiny purple (lich purple with 'ard coat) , with Hammerheads and Sky Rays getting the Wraith color treatment (no idea there).

All ground troops, both FW and Pathfinder's are getting the Elite's Armor color ranks throughout.
Lowest of the low gets a light blueish suit. (not sure what to use, started with enchanted blue so far)
Sergeants Get a deep red. (gore red)
Honorgaurd and officers get Gold (shining gold, Duh)
and Admirals along with other massive fleet leaders get a whitish silver (again, no ideas here).


direct links to the weapons and races that this is based off of:

info on armor ranks can be found here: http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Sangheili

For Weapons:
The covenant carbine, adapted to Pulse Rifle: http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Type-51_Carbine
The covenant plasma rifle, Adapted to Pulse Carbine: http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Type-25_Directed_Energy_Rifle
The covenant Beam Rifle, will likely be adapted into Rail-Rifles when they show up: http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Type-50_Sniper_Rifle_System
The covenants Anti-Everything Fuel-Rod launcher, Definitely plan on using these colors on XV8 and XV88 Missle pods and Smart Missle System, toying with the notion to giving the XV88 Railguns this treatment and mocking up the SMSs to look like the Hunter's "Shield" arm. http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Type-33_Light_Anti-Armor_Weapon

For Vehicles:
The Ghost reminds me of a Half-sized Tau Pirahna, and the latter will likely be painted as such: http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Type-32_Rapid_Assault_Vehicle
Seeing as the devilfish is the ONLY troop carrier available to me it is getting painted to match the Phantom Dropship: http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Type-52_Troop_Carrier
Both the Skyray and the Hammerhead fill similar roles to the Anti-Air Wraith, and Wraith respectively: http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Type-52_Anti-Aircraft_Artillery and http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Type-25_Assault_Gun_Carriage

For Units/troops:
Prophet - Will, i repeat, WILL be the Space Pope of Truth. http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/San_%27Shyuum
Elite - as they are (according to the MAJORITY of Halo) filling the majority of the rank and file throughout the Covenant, these guys are Tau http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Sangheili
Hunter - Biggest of the big, and heavily equipped to boot. They are getting casted as XV88 Broadsides. Toying with the notion of attaching both raill-guns to one arm. http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Mgalekgolo
Drones - Stingwings http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Yanme%27e
Jackals - wish i could use them as Pathfinder snipers, http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Kig-yar
Grunts - again, i love the little buggers. . . but nothing in the Tau codex can be used. . . . . hmmm maybe Grots http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Unggoy
Brutes - Big, mean and ill-tempered. Will get filled in as the primary XV8s, looking into splicing GW XV8s with GW WHF beastmen, but that will have to come later http://halo.wikia.com/wiki/Jiralhanae


ON TO THE TAU!

This is a Shas'la, the lowest rank in the army. I think enchanted blue is a bit too blue for these guys. Personally think the Pulserifle/carbine is spot on



Now the Gun drones (and soon, sheild drones) are supposed to be standins for the Sentenels. These two are painted purple sole due to the fact that the Devilfish they will be attachted to will be aswell. Still have no idea how i should do the remaining drones



The Pathfinder Shas'ui, i finally settled on the colors for Pulse Carbine and matched it up with the Plasma Rifle



The Phantom Dropshop, its a major WIP.

I command you to get the space pope tau guy and paint him like a prophet. or dont, just an idea.

Hmmm, I now have to buy Mr. Pope to make him the Prophet of Truth.

Its a shame Commander Farsight is in an XV8, i'd think he'd make the perfect 'Arbiter' in this army.

Probably going to pick up a box of Kroot (brutes) and Stingwings (those flighty fers) just to flesh out the multi-raceness of the army.

Shame i cant have something for Grunts or Jackals

For jackals you could use kroot with a circular shield placed on the non gun arm. Also instead of the normal Tau snipers you could use converted kroot to be more like the jackal snipers. Im not sure what you should do for the bugger guys maybe you could give gene stealers wings.

the buggers are pretty much the Vespid Stingwings, only the stingwings dont slouch.

hmm, i envisioned the Kroot more as Brutes than jackals. . . can you think of any WHF that might do for either? lord knows i have the spare bits for em

You could convert the Crisis suits to look brutish. I like the Ethereal as the Prophet of Truth idea tho!

ah kroot just dont seem big enough or brutal enough to be brutes.

maybe battle suits + beastmen= brutes

fire warriors + lizardmen= Elites (maybe just one or two a unit like they were the captains of the unit)

Fire warriors + gastanks & other backpacks= grunts

Kroot are a bit spindly to be brutes. More like jackals, despite they're melee tendencies.

I think Stealth suits would be more like Brutes with jump packs (If you can see them and get a shot off, they die pretty easy) while the XV8s could be flying elites.

Personally, I think your Broadsides should be hunters. Run them in pairs, and nothing speaks hyper-destructive fuel rod cannon in 40k terms like a TL Railgun.

Yay, focal point of booze!
40 of miller, Captain Morgan and Baccardi spiced rum... and Goldschlager?

Move the camera further away from the mini's and zoom in all the way. You should be about 2-3 feet away, 1 foot if you have a macro setting. Take the highest quality/ largest photo your camera can handle and then crop the image in a photo program.

That should get your mini's in focus!

BobboDaGreen wrote:Yay, focal point of booze!
40 of miller, Captain Morgan and Baccardi spiced rum... and Goldschlager?

151 and Goldschlager, but yeah. . . you can see where my priorities are currently are
Once a new rechargable for my Kodak these'll turn out prettier

Pvt. Jet wrote:
I think Stealth suits would be more like Brutes with jump packs (If you can see them and get a shot off, they die pretty easy) while the XV8s could be flying elites.
Personally, I think your Broadsides should be hunters. Run them in pairs, and nothing speaks hyper-destructive fuel rod cannon in 40k terms like a TL Railgun.

Gold and Green Railguns here i come!

crimsonmicc wrote:ah kroot just dont seem big enough or brutal enough to be brutes.
maybe battle suits + beastmen= brutes

True, but the Kroot model is about 0.5" to 0.75" taller than the FW, though i love the idea of making a beastman/XV8 conversion, It'll be a bit challenging though. . .

Anidem wrote:I appologize for the low quality, actual camera is dead so this is my cell.

Actually it just looks like your field of focus is in the background. Try taking the pics from a little further away and drop the center of your focus onto your models.

Is that a little Captain in them?(background... )

Better pictures taken, updating main post in 5

You could do the Shas'o in dull gold like in ODST

Dull Gold? Just main armor plates you think?

hmmm, going to try doing that tonight.


This is just the shas'o (in peices) in the shot above, but the Regal used was going to also be used for the Hunters (XV88s). What Do you think?

Your Avatar is scarily hypnotic Anidem.

joker8911 wrote:Your Avatar is scarily hypnotic Anidem.

Its what i use to Lure Dakkittes into my threads

Updated the 1st post with info/links on to what each part of the army is getting based on.

now here is the current armor ranking scheme for the lower ranks of FWs. The Shas'la are in Enchanted Blue (Getting a Black wash afterwards so they dont look soFabulous) and the Shas'ui are getting painted Scab Red. Should i Darken one and Lighten the other?



And here is me toying around with colors for both armor and weapons. In no particular order on there is, Lich Purple, Regal blue, ultramarine blue, enchanted blue, ice blue, hawk turquoise

I gotta ask since it's been mentioned but is that from 'the road to eldorado' (your avatar, I mean)

Yes its Miguel from The Road to Eldorado

Sorry to necro-post, I just wanted to say that I am attempting something similar to this, also as far as Brutes go, you could use Kroot. That's what I'm doing.
otherwise, this thread was a great help and inspiration.
I don't want it to sound like I'm stealing your idea, you did however help drive the idea further.