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Hey,

I hope someone can help. I've recently started collecting an army of Tau empire models for 40K. I've painted a few models before but never a tank and now I have a devilfish to paint.

I always undercoat my models with a black spray paint and then paint with a brush. I am concerned with the tanks though that I will get a lot of unsightly brush marks! :(

I have looked at getting the GW spray gun but it's quite expensive and the reviews I've read say it's actually rubbish.

Has anyone painted any tanks with a brush? Do you get brush lines and is there a way to reduce / eliminate them?

I really like the look of the Tau stuff when it's painted well so I hope someone can help.

Many thanks,

Brian

I'm actually about to do my Devilfish today. However, I've been cheating. I bought a can of Army Painter colour primer, which I spray right over the Chaos Black primer. Hopefully it'll work nicely on the Devilfish as it has done with my Piranha and Crisis suits.

I'd strongly recommend trying to find a spray can in your chosen Tau sept colour if possible. It'll save a world of pain.

Other than that, all I can suggest is lots of thin, clean layers.

I paint all of my tau tanks and everyother tank I have by hand, I use a drybrush technique to mininize brush strokes, check out my gallery if interested.

Hey thanks for the info. I was going to go for the Sa'cea sept look I like the colours. I had thought about getting a none GW spray but matching the colour could be difficult. I'll have to try some out on some empty sprues first.

Good luck with your devilfish!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Thanks Soo'Vah - your tanks look great. So you apply the whole base layer using dry brushing? I've only ever used that to apply detail.

I take it it's pretty time consuming?

nope black undercoat and all main colors drybrushed over the black

goes alot faster than you would think, uses a fair bit of paint though.

when i played tau i just watered down my paint a load, so that it was kinda like milk. that way there were no brush strokes at all. of course i was using tau sept ochre, so i'm not sure what results you will get with which ever colour you are using

Or choose a camo scheme. The colour changes in the disruptive pattern help mask any variation in colour or brush strokes.

Try a badger airbrush.

WAAAAGGHH-god wrote:when i played tau i just watered down my paint a load, so that it was kinda like milk. that way there were no brush strokes at all. of course i was using tau sept ochre, so i'm not sure what results you will get with which ever colour you are using

This. Water your paint down and give it a couple coats so it covers well. It's time consuming but the results are worth it.

Back in my scale modeling days I painted many tanks and aircraft that are much larger than Tau tanks by hand. The key is making sure the paint is the right thickness, and not slopping it on.

However, if you can get a spray paint in the right color, Id advise going that route.

In my Tau blog thread (link in sig) you can see the results of my spray primed red Devilfish. For sheer speed and quality of coverage I don't think theres a better way than to spray.

Thanks for the info folks, much appreciated I now have a few ideas to work with

Been there, done that, hated the amount of time it took :( still hate doing tanks to this day