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Right this isnt a hate thread and i have a general reason for asking, im currently doing some objective markers for a tau force but some of these actually have tau firewarriors in in verying positions but i cant actually paint any lost limbs or punched holes because honestly, i dont know the colour of there blood and i refuse to believe every humanoid race in warhammer has red blood, some yes but not all!

so i have been thinking would it be a light (oxygenated) or dark blue or even green due to a high copper/colbalt content in there blood, and would it follow the oxygenation process like ours (lighter for more darker for less)? and there blue, this might just be the pigment but there has to be source behind it its why i was thinking copper because of certain creatures having blue blood. (see horsehoe crab for proof)

and on a second note if your injurderd without a puncherd lung would you have more or less oxygen in your blood?

but im all seriousness im at a loss, i dont know if this as been aproached before and i really dont want to do red blood for them it doesnt feel right so what do you lot think?

Blue...
If you get a punctured lung I think the blood is darker but I could be wrong... though you don't have to be bleeding externally to have a punctured lung.

mhmm a punchered lung would result in a bubbling bloody foam presuming it went through as for the colour i think it would be lighter and a more like soap bubbles crossed with cotton wool... id ask my brother but then things might get a lil... difficult D:

so were going for blue then i was thinking something along the lines of a 50/50 mix ice and regal?

Any blood on the ground will be the lighter shade, as the lighter colour is caused by oxygen binding to the carrier molecule (eg haemoglobin), whereas it appears darker without oxygen. Therefore as the blood will be in contact with the air it will be oxygenated, and therefore appear in the lighter colour.

Knew this biology degree would come in handy!

Castiel wrote:Any blood on the ground will be the lighter shade, as the lighter colour is caused by oxygen binding to the carrier molecule (eg haemoglobin), whereas it appears darker without oxygen. Therefore as the blood will be in contact with the air it will be oxygenated, and therefore appear in the lighter colour.

Knew this biology degree would come in handy!

Lol, you never now

Arterial Blood = bright red
Venous Blood = dark red

Therefore as the blood will be in contact with the air it will be oxygenated, and therefore appear in the lighter colour.

Sorry, but blood does not become instantly lighter in color when it hits the atmosphere outside the body.

thank you

and are we agreed upon the blue copper based blood for tau or is there any more suggestions?

James S wrote:Arterial Blood = bright red
Venous Blood = dark red

Therefore as the blood will be in contact with the air it will be oxygenated, and therefore appear in the lighter colour.

Sorry, but blood does not become instantly lighter in color when it hits the atmosphere outside the body.

Not instantly, but very quickly, and for the purposes of the modeling in hand the blood portrayed would be brighter.

EDIT: Blue copper blood sounds perfect!

Castiel wrote:Any blood on the ground will be the lighter shade, as the lighter colour is caused by oxygen binding to the carrier molecule (eg haemoglobin), whereas it appears darker without oxygen. Therefore as the blood will be in contact with the air it will be oxygenated, and therefore appear in the lighter colour.

Knew this biology degree would come in handy!

Of course that is assuming that tau blood has "(eg haemoglobin)"

And that also assumes that Tau blood reacts on contact with what passes for oxygen on any given planet.

This also assumes Tau are carbon based life-forms.

All of which can not be proven since Tau do not exist in our reality.

Bottom line is make it so that it looks good, and no one will care what the hypothetical color of a fictitious creatures blood is when exposed to any given situation.

I thought copper-based blood was green!

...or did Star Trek lie to me?

Clumpski wrote:thank you

and are we agreed upon the blue copper based blood for tau or is there any more suggestions?

I've heard that it's purple due to the mix of iron in there as well.

DeathReaper wrote:

Castiel wrote:Any blood on the ground will be the lighter shade, as the lighter colour is caused by oxygen binding to the carrier molecule (eg haemoglobin), whereas it appears darker without oxygen. Therefore as the blood will be in contact with the air it will be oxygenated, and therefore appear in the lighter colour.

Knew this biology degree would come in handy!

Of course that is assuming that tau blood has "(eg haemoglobin)"

And that also assumes that Tau blood reacts on contact with what passes for oxygen on any given planet.

This also assumes Tau are carbon based life-forms.

All of which can not be proven since Tau do not exist in our reality.

Bottom line is make it so that it looks good, and no one will care what the hypothetical color of a fictitious creatures blood is when exposed to any given situation.

This is entirely true, rule of cool wins everytime! Just thought I'd chuck in a real world example as food for thought.

and the blood must have a particle like haemoglobin, otherwise it won't be able to transport the oxygen equivalent around the Tau's body.

Edit: Typos

As with all things, colour of blood will vary according to the consistency of the athmosphere and "sun"- light spectrum available on any given planet, not to mention the biological make-up of the eye of different species beholding the colour.

But if you want to bring the point across that these are wounded guys from a modelling perspective, I'd go with classic red blood. Simple, clear, effective.

Arandmoor wrote:I thought copper-based blood was green!

...or did Star Trek lie to me?

Copper based blood bonded with oxygen would be greenish AFAIK.

The Tau have blue blood because of cobalt (Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium). Ork blood is green because of fungus in their bloodstream, while humans and eldar share red blood because of iron. Tyranid blood, or 'ichor' isn't exactly defined, while daemon blood is multicolored. Necrons don't bleed.

Tadashi wrote: Ork blood is green because of fungus in their bloodstream,

Blood Axes seem to disagree...




...as do GW-licensed games

http://gamerinvestments.com/video-game-stocks/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/warhammer-40k-space-marine-screens-1.jpg

Tadashi wrote: Ork blood is green because of fungus in their bloodstream

Not anymore, that got retconned way back in 3rd edition because they realised it looks rubbish painting green blood on green skin.

The consensus now is that Ork blood is VERY dark red, almost brown-ish due to the high haemoglobin count.

I don't know...the fluff may have changed, since I was using an older source for the green blood...

DeathReaper wrote:

This also assumes Tau are carbon based life-forms.

All of which can not be proven since Tau do not exist in our reality.

I thought they were ziliphone based! (Silicon)

No, the reasons why so many of life forms are carbon-based in 40k are: 1) Before the War in Heaven the Old Ones seeded many worlds with life in their image (Orks, Eldar, Jokaero, ancestral humans, etc); 2) The Eldar also followed the Old Ones' example although they never created intelligent life; and 3) During the Dark Age of Technology, mankind also did the same as the Eldar...

honestly i thought orks would of had a dark green almost black blood o.o

Clumpski wrote:honestly i thought orks would of had a dark green almost black blood o.o

A lot of people go for the almost black colour (a la LOTR orcs) because it creates a very good contrast against the green of an ork

Orks did used to have dark green blood, but then all the eavy metal painters pointed out that you can't paint orks blood on any orks because the dark green is a poor contrast, so went for a nice red instead to make the paint schemes more effective.

Horseshoe crabs have very bright fluorescent blue blood. They do not have hemoglobin in their blood, but hemocyanin to carry oxygen. Hemocyanin has a high copper content which in turn makes the blood blue.
I think it would be perfectly acceptable for non humans such as the Tau, unless to can find fluff that states blood color of the Tau.
I would do this for my Tyranids if they hadn't already stated that Tyranid blood is a very dark blackish purple ichor.

Castiel wrote:This is entirely true, rule of cool wins everytime! Just thought I'd chuck in a real world example as food for thought.

and the blood must have a particle like haemoglobin, otherwise it won't be able to transport the oxygen equivalent around the Tau's body.

Edit: Typos

Again this assumes that the Tau need oxygen to survive. which may or may not be the case. we just simply do not know.

they could have water within their veins and take the hydrogen from it to live instead of oxygen.

The color of copper based blood is dependent on what carbon compound is carrying the oxygen. If it is just straight elemental copper it would be green. If it's something else it might be green. If there are multiple oxygen carrying compounds (unlikely but possible), you could get black blood really easy. It could be like the aforementioned horseshoe crabs and be blue. Personally I would just use red, people will see what you're getting at. Other colors will lack the instinctual impact since we are very used to seeing !red blood.

I'm pretty sure they'll have blue blood, probably a sort of teal colour in the open air.
And to sort out a few arguments here; Tau will NOT have haemoglobin as that is an iron based compound, as stated earlier Tau will have haemocyanin, which, iirc, means they won't carry oxygen as efficiently as us, and also that their de-oxygenated would most likely be totally colourless, or at least lacking the blue colour from their 'red blood cells'.
Also, chances are, they probably would rely on oxygen, go look at a periodic table, not a lot of gasses on there, none that work like oxygen does in a respiratory system, closest thing to oxygen? Sulphur. I doubt Tau will be breathing Sulphur, as they tend to have their eyes on many Imperial worlds, rich in oxygen.
The only other option I can think of would be nitrogen, but then there would be no sense for copper based blood, or a need to eat, by our knowledge anyway.

So I say;
1. Blue blood, paint it however blue you want, inside the body, half won't be blue, so you decide, your models.
2. Haemocyanin, it was pointed our before aswel.
3. Oxygen, they breathe it, it turns their blood blue.
4. ????
5. You thought I was going to say 'Profit'.

I just thought you guys might like to see my finished piece i must point out its the first time ive truely done highlighting, layering and my first albiet failed attempt at lighting, but i went with blue blood and i just hope you lot will agree that ive done a pretty good job of my first objective marker because this was what the above question was about just 5 more different tau/imperial world to do im thinking muntions dump next i have enough gaurd and tau weapons spare, just need to find some barrals and crates... mhmm

The Tau have purple blood. Source: Savage Scars.

After skimming a few pages, I didn't notice anything calling out the color of Kroot blood.

As an aside, chainswords and bolt rounds do very unplesant things to Tau bodies. Must be why they like armor suits so much.

[/b]

DeathReaper wrote:

Castiel wrote:This is entirely true, rule of cool wins everytime! Just thought I'd chuck in a real world example as food for thought.

and the blood must have a particle like haemoglobin, otherwise it won't be able to transport the oxygen equivalent around the Tau's body.

Edit: Typos

Again this assumes that the Tau need oxygen to survive. which may or may not be the case. we just simply do not know.

they could have water within their veins and take the hydrogen from it to live instead of oxygen.

Dude, I really don't care.

I was just trying to help the guy out by giving him a real world example to help get some ideas rolling. I was trying to be helpful, and, frankly, you are starting to annoy me with having to argue with everything I say. Also, if you are going to challenge what I say, at least do me the courtesy of reading what I actually write. If you look above I said they need some form of carrier molecule ( see: particle like haemoglobin) to transport the oxygen equvalent. I did not assume they needed oxygen to survive.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, loving the minature, looks great!

Colour is the Visual Percpetion corresponding to the biological properties of the human eye and brain under the circumstances of the specific (most likely unique) light-spectrum of earth's sun.

Change the biological properties of the eye or brain (alien species, genetic tinkering), and the perception of colour changes.

Change the available light-spectrum (travel to a system with a sun different than earth's (Terra's) sun) and the peception of colour changes.

The colour of blood seen by a human watching a Tau bleed on Terra will be very different from the colour of blood seen by an Ork (or possibly even a Space Marine) watching a Tau bleed on a different planet under a different sun.