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Hello fellow dakkites,

After taking a few months off from painting to expand my knowledge of tactics and strageties, I have decided to return to the painting and modeling world to work on my expanding tau force. I started this army a few years ago, and it is easy to see that I wasn't an 'exceptional' painter at the beginning. However, I feel like after learning a lot of painting tips, I can really improve my skills. So I'll post my opening pictures of my 2000 point tau force, everything was like it was 3-6 months ago (painting wise) except for my commander, who I decided to convert into something more...dramatic.

Speaking of, here they are



My commander model, in the beginning he looked like all of my other suits, but I thought it wouldn't be fitting to have the Shas'El of the Expeditionary force looking like a common Shas'ui. With that in mind, I modeld his pose to look more dramatic and added to his base. Hopefully this provides life to the model and make it look like the commander of this expeditionary force is actually...exploring...









Now the shiny, metal heart of my force, the crisis suits. During my (very) novice years, I made them all most likely the same. Howver a few months ago I branched out and started converting them to be unique. Like the commander, they are all magnitized in case of a change of heart (I'm still learning about what works and what doesn't)









Now for the more squishy underbelly of the force, the Firewarriors. I love these little guys with a passion because they are the guys that really got me into the tau force. Of course they aren't the most powerful unit, yet they really show what the Greater Good is all about. These are the first type of model that I painted, so they are naturally the worse. However, after many cleanups, they are presentable.





Ah Kroot, the complete opposite of the firewarriors, which leaves a lot of ability to make them unique from the rest. However, these kroot are due for a new paint job as they are going to be brown (good or bad idea?) with the force's colors, Gold and Blue, on their shoulderpads. But for now, here they are





Pathfinders were just recently purchased, and the majority aren't painted yet, the ones that are are probably going to get a quick touch-up. I hope to convert their ride alittle so it shows that the pathfinders fish has a locater beacon for deepstriking suits. (any ideas?)



Piranhas....haven't been started yet, moving on...







Now its time for the big guns. I would like to introduce broadside team Omega, Hammer(HH on left), and Anvil(HH on right)

I have honestly lost count on how many enemy vehicles these boys have taken out...

The drones are still unpaitned as of now, but that will be recified soon enough. The Hammerheads also need to be finished up, but soon inspiration will come and I'll finish them.

Well thats what I got ( at least in my 2k list), As you probably noticed, the majority of my models are unbased. Once I am done painting a squad/ vehicle, I will base them. I hope to keep this going until I am finished (hahaha, like I'll ever be truely finished...) This blog will most likely also include my soon to be dark eldar force.

Comments and Critique needed and appreciated. Any tips/ strategies to improve my painting would be just amazing.

I think you ought to dull down the gold more. That being said the camo looks excellent though it could be more dulled down aswell.

gold is faaaar to shiny, looks like its supposed to look like gold rather than being actually gold

Oh yes, I know...Soon the entire force is going to be washed.

Question though: What would be the better wash to use? badab black or delvin mud?

Probably Devlan Mud. You might wanna consider redoing your bases, they look pretty weird ATM, sorta like finely chopped up bits of peanut have been glued to them? You also need to lay down another layer of gold on your figures, the current gold has black primer showing through it. Still though, looks promising!

_Tim?

for realistically looking gold, use 1-1 shining gold and scorched brown, then wash with devlan mud, thick highlights with 4-1 shining gold and scorched brown, then wash with gryphonne sepia, then highlight with 3-1 shining gold and mithril silver, then do the edges and reflective surfaces with tiny bit of pure mithril

Just got some delvin mud (already had some of that brown) so pics should be coming within the next few days.

Today I finished the unpainted parts of the commander and generally touched everything up. After which I washed the model (except for the white) with delvin mud, with some degree of succes.

The drone needs some work, but that should be rectified with a layer or two more of delvin mud/ badab black to make it look grittier

Front


Left


(blurry) Back


Right


So what do you guys think?

Edit:

You might wanna consider redoing your bases, they look pretty weird ATM, sorta like finely chopped up bits of peanut have been glued to them?

ugh...I know right? I (tried) to base them during my novice years but much of the sand was rubbed off as that was before I had proper cases. I will soon go back over them and give them proper basing

Hmm, your pictures are so blurry I cannot make out the details of the model. I trust you have macro on?

_Tim?

I'm sorry, I am not very experienced with cameras so I do not no what/where the micro button is.

There is a (M) configuration, would that be it?

The macro function often looks like a flower.

Found the macro button! Here are the new pics of the Shas'El

Front


Right


Back


Left


Drone

That gold looks much better with a brown wash over it. I can actually see the pics now you have macro on!

I am still working on the El, but now my focus has shifted over to the muscles of my force, the suits.
I will start working on blue team, as you can see with the pictures, they are in various stages of WIP.

It is pretty obvious which one I was working on recently, however.

Crisis team Blue


My unwashed suit


My most recent WIP




My team leader, I just started converting this one to look alittle more menacing, as of right now I am trying to get some marine/guard bits to simulate his most recent kill. Right Now he is just taking a nice stroll.






As for the eyes, they are going to be gemmed soon, wish me luck!

UPDATE:

I just obtained some bleached bone today so I will have a chance to do some highlighting on my suits

In conjunction with that I hope to start displaying some battle damage on my units as well.

Pics coming soon!

Sorry for the long drought of pictures, but a combination of school and sports have really slowed me down. I did get some work in over the week though and am proud of what I have accomplished. But enough talk, here are the highlights of the show.

As I stated before in my most recent post, I have gotton some bleached bone for highlighting and started testing it out. I have to say, highlighting is very ardous, but lucky somewhat simple with the bulky suits.




As you can see, I'm still learning how to highlight, but its coming along. As you might see I repainted the drone and liberally applied delvin mud and badab black to it, to make it look wreaked/ dirty. He is very back heavy though so I put some green stuff on the bottom of the base to balance it off, it seems to be working well.




Now from my 'oh so so close to being done' squad, or WIP squad for short. A couple of things to comment on.

.Finally got the washes done on all of these guys and am going to highlight the shas'ui in the near future
.Once I get some sand, I'm going to really start basing them and hopefully improve their luck.
.and lastly, I'm so proud of the team leader, I'm not sure, but he might be my best painted model to date. I just loved how he turned out and the scene (hopefully) speaks volumes. As you will soon see, my army in the middle of the third sphere expansion and is stationed on a former pleasure world full of beaches and oceans, their gold armor imitates the sand while the blue on the vehicles resembles the ocean and the creatures to which they got their names. The fighting is tough and my bases will show alot of battle damage/ wreakage. Many of my troops would have to forge on 'For the Greater Good' even though they fighting seems grim.




Here is my WIP Piranha, sporting my new vehicle camo scheme, which will include three colors instead of the two I was doing. Also, the colors will be facing a uniform direction instead of the the random configuration of patterns on the old scheme.




Here is the piranha's base, As you can see it is part of a railgun and you may see the other half of this weapon on another's base. Hopefully it will look alot better once the base is covered sand.




This is giong to be my new kroot color scheme, and I really like it. It is way better than the green scheme as brown seems like a more natural skin pigmentation

Also, all of my kroot shoulder pads are going to be painted differently to give each individual kroot some character.

Well that's it so far, the next things on my agenda are:

1.Finish painting/basing the WIP suits
2.Same with the piranha
3.Start repainting the kroot squad
4. Start on the rest of suits

Thanks for reading. As always C & C is welcomed and appreciated

Short Update for this week, almost finished on the piranha, all I have left is the crew, the base (still have to get some basing material...), and some general touchups, kroot squad as 11 members left and I will have atleast 6 done this week

For the suits I'm just waiting for basing material then they will be 'done'

Here is the updated piranha pics, as you may notice, I have added a third color to the mix (the name of which I forget) and touched up the camo all together. This theme will be repeated on the bigger ships when I get to them.






And here are the three kroot that I have made, conversions on each using SM bits. The rest will have assorted bits from all races. My personal favorite is the kroot eating the SM leg.



mmmh...tastes like chicken

Just a few things to say, mostly based off of personal preferance.

1. I like the Devilfish, I think that's what you should have done with your force as a whole. Blue armor with gold as a secondary color. IMHO there are very few armies that can pull of a paint scheme that is in the majority gold and that would be Custodes.

2. Some of the poses of your Battlesuits seem off, you've got one thats primed whose center of mass is moving one way while his arm is pointed off in another direction presumably shooting? They just don't seem natural to me.

3. Whenever you put white on a model with a black base coat put a layer of fortress grey over the area before you put the white on.

Thank you for the comment, as for your points

1. I, myself, am a fan of the devilfish camo. However I will redoing it (and all of my other vehicles) to make the camo/blue seem more pronouned and stremlined. Right now I wouldn't see that camo helping anyone/thing. As for the gold I tried to make the army more breathtaking and it backfired to a degree; However, with the washes that I have recently learned to use will tone down the gold and make it look better.

2. As yes, the glue on that suit's legs are a little of, the suits should look stationary and be pointing in the distance, directing fire to that position.

3. Hm...will try to use that in the future

< Am disappoint.

Clicked on this thread expecting to see a Hammerhead painted up like the Firebird in Smokey and the Bandit. Now I'm going to go cry in the corner

FYI, thread is being moved to http://www.advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=16702&p=208840#p208840