This is a set of Tau Buildings I've made over the past year.
Here is what I call a "run'
el'al" (small strong building). It is a standard bio habitat dome used all across the Tau frontier, assembled from locally gathered materials that are processed on site. The basic structure is a flattened done with a walled roof terrace, and has entrances on one wall and the roof.
The dome is easily adapted for a variety of purposes, so different equipment items are often found on the roof.
Basic Structure A Japanese soup bowl (chawan) made of polycarbonate. A local Japanese supermarket had them in a sale for £1.29 each and I bought 16.
The base is a scrap DVD. ArbitorIan pointed out that without basing the bowl, they could be nested inside each other. However I like the idea of a standard size base.
The side hatch is from a scrap Devilfish bought off eBay. I have run out of these now, so I am making hatches from circles of sheet plasticard.
The roof terrace is floored with a circle of Tau anti-slip material -- a sheet of plasticard embossed with 4mm granite setts. It almost exactly matches the flooring in a Devilfish. There is a circular hatch, difficult to see in this image, made from a circle of plasticard with a circle of granite setts on top.
The underneath of the chawan is not 100% flat, however by cementing in the anti-slip flooring with a good blob of Araldite, I made that work nicely.
The truncated dome structure is a cap from some kind of household spray can. If you to to a supermarket and look at personal hygiene and household cleaning, you will find all kinds of interesting shapes of bottles and caps. They are great for terrain because it is really hard to make such smooth curves by hand.
The cap was cut into the roof terrace wall, and I filled the void underneath, where it did not reach the bowl wall, with Plastic Padding and Milliput, in two stages, sanded to get a smooth finish.
There is a control panel on the cap. This comes from the range of
SF bits in Antenociti's Workshop.
Painting The roof terrace and hatch were painted separately and cemented in place after the main paint job was finished.
The bowl was primed with grey spray, then covered with several coats of Rustoleum Textured spray paint. It comes in various colours and gives you a rough surface and colour variations all in one go. Spray light coats or the paint will
sag.
The roof panel, hatches and control panel were sprayed a complimentary Montana Desert Yellow, then cemented in place with Araldite.
I weathered the dome with various colour inks and dry-brushing. The whole was then sprayed with matt varnish.
Above the door is a self-printed decal which says in Tau and Kroot "Emergency accommodation for 12 people inside. First Aid."
Done!
Tau Defence Tower 
The basic construction and painting methods used here are the same as in my "run'
el'al" dome.
Obviously the main tower is different. It is a tall, hard polystyrene cup I stole from work where they had 100s as PR items.
I added some detail to the surface with plasticard, drawing pins, and round bases. The turret on top is from Anteoniciti's Workshop with guns taken from a very old Mattell Star Wars light
AT-
ST.
The large circular door hatch is made from severl pieces of plasticard.
Refuelling Station 
This uses a cap from some household dispenser as the tank. The pump is from the Antoniciti's Workshop range, and the items are mounted on a DVD. I cut a bevel plate for the tank so it didn't mount directly to the DVD's surface.
Some extra detail was provided with anti-slip flooring to the top of the tank.
Plasma Reactor Power Station 
This is the polystyrene box from a Japan Air Lines promotional after shave, and a shampoo bottle from a Marriott hotel. The roof detail is provided by a cunk sawn out of a scrap Devilfish off eBay, and the missile from a Terminator 3 movie toy. The "chimney" is the jet exhaust from a very old Buck Rogers fighter kit. This shows the value of keeping a good bits box.
Everything is mounted on a DVD.
Long Range Sensor Array 
The sensor array is the tall oval building. It's basically made from a used up bottle of some posh men's champoo, with a bit of detailing added.
The dome is a variation on my basic "run'
el'al" design.
Bulk Storage Silos 
This is a kind of industrial building that might contain fuel, chemicals or just grain. The silos could even be emptied and converted into strong points for a defensive role.
The base plates are a mouse mat + wrist rest item from work -- worn out and being thrown away.
The tanks are large yoghurt pots with detailing added from the good old granite sett platicard, a bit of plastic tube, a drawing pin, and a manhole cover from architectural model supplies. (These are cheaper than you might think.)
The items on the front of the base are a pump and a secondary cooling vent from the Anteoniciti's Workshop range.
The mouse mat bases had quite a deep rim so I built up the floor with plasticard.
I have four of these silos so I can make quite a wall of cover if I want.
My current armies are IG Valahallans done in a ww2 style soveits and Bad Moon Orks.
W:4 D:1 L:3
W:5 D:2 L:3
7000 
WIP 
