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The first thing to decide is which Sept are my Tau from? There are some great choices of well established and legendary Tau Septs. Sa'cea and Vior'la both had aspects that I wanted in my Tau. (Seasoned by many long, hard campaigns, notoriously tough Firewarriors, accustomed to harsh conditions and urban warfare, etc.) I eventually settled on Ke'lshan. Their home world is located in close proximity to the Perdus Rift Anomaly, which is, more or less, the Tau empire's very own Eye of Terror, which makes the Ke'lshan Tau the first line of defense versus any Chaos incursion. Though Dal'yth is near enough to help.
The Ke'lshan Tau also put an end to the invasion of Tyranid Hive Fleet Gorgon with the help of the Imperial Guard. And all Tau have had their own run ins with Orks. The Ke'lshan Tau are known to be xenophobic due to having suffered at the hands of all manner of alien races. They've lost their innocence and naivete and are mistrustful and outright hostile to alien races.

I like it! I have badass aggressiveness, seasoned troops who've been exposed to the dangers of the 41st millennium, with the disposition of a stoic determination to get the job done whatever the cost. The other reason I like this Sept is because I have no desire to take allies. My Tau army will remain pure. I don't want Vespid, though fluffwise, they are cool in their own way. I don't want Kroot. Though they are quite stylish in and of themselves, they are a hideous eyesore in the midst of the smooth curves and sleek armor of the Tau.

My particular cadre is part of a Command which specializes in combating Space Marine aggression. In their own racist way, they don't distinguish between Chaos and Loyalist. If it has power armor and a bolter, they know how to effectively neutralize it. Though they are as familiar with combating other aliens as any other Tau.

Next comes the unification by basing and army composition. I decided I like the hard edges of urban combat bases. Concrete walls, broken support struts, razorwire, etc. Plus city ruins are an ideal setting to stage guerrilla warfare tactics, which seems to be the calling card of the Tau. It is how they overcome superior numbers and superior quality troops. It gives a solid look to the army and and the drab colors make the models stand out nicely.

With Pathfinders I want to take a different approach with basing and paint scheme. They are the commandos. But they have a much more important role than just scouting and reconnaissance. They are the ones that prioritize enemy targets for the rest of the army to destroy. Filling such an important role, they'd be dressed to be difficult to spot. Part of me wanted my Firewarriors to be painted camouflage but then I wouldn't get to paint them as FIREwarriors. Pathfinders satiate my camo desires, and It will be a nice way to differentiate the two units visually. Pathfinder MODELS are freaking expensive even if you get a good deal. Firewarrior models are very easy to convert into pathfinders. They even come with lots of pulse carbines. (irrelevant because I won't be using the standard pulse carbine design) I do like the elongated helmet of the actual PF models, but there's always a tradeoff. I plan to have my PFs bare headed anyway, except for the rail rifle snipers.
My PF bases will be jungle terrain to represent the teams supporting from wooded hills near the city, though I could paint a squad with urban camo, just for variety. But I'll burn that bridge when I get to it. First I have a question:
What is this?

Multitracker, right? Wrong... Well right, but when I looked at that antenna I saw some sort of Tau shotgun barrel.


I present to you the Tau shotgun. The weapon of my Pathfinders. The pump action pulse shotgun's high explosive rounds cause pinning and you can see an underslung markerlight built in. (For all intents and purposes it's a pulse carbine. No harm in being original!)

But I delve too deeply into Pathfinder territory. First things first. I'll start work with Firewarriors, because they are the workhorse of my army.

I love Firewarriors. I think they are far more badass than they get credit for. Their visual acuity is superior to that of humans and they see a broader spectrum of colors. They are born into a life of dynamic military training and educated in battlefield tactics. Soon their education is applied and they begin a lifetime of military service. Their armor is light but strong enough to stop a bolter round. Their weapon is lighter than a lasgun but deadlier than a bolter while firing at 1/3 the rate. It's practically a hand-held artillery weapon. Their downside is they're physically weaker than humans due to low gravity conditions... according to GW. Though this bit of fluff makes no sense, as that depends entirely on which planet they live on. One would think humans would be vulnerable to the same conditions on the same basis, but oh well.

Their helmet has no visor, thus their helmet has no weak points. Plus it has a chin plate that makes it look like they're grimacing.
Their armor has a built-in telemetry matrix and allows for cadre-wide two-way communication on the battlefield.
Their enlarged left shoulder plate effectively covers their vital organs when they're in the combat firing position.

Where do you shoot this guy? His torso vitals are double covered. The legs are a bit more vulnerable, though they are also armored. Now say he's firing from behind a low wall...


This is the paint scheme typically attributed to Tau of the Ke'lshan Sept.
Not bad, not bad... Not what I want though. I think Tau in black look great, but I don't think Tau in black look very Tau-ish. Luckily there is a stipulation with this specific paint scheme. According to the Codex, Ke'lshan Tau wear these colors for shipboard duty. So maybe DE who board a Ke'lshan space vessel will face resistance from FWs who look like this.
Being such a spartan Sept, I imagine Ke'lshan ship interiors look equally spartan. This is a paint scheme designed to blend with ship interiors. I can imagine Ke'lshan being deployed preferring a somewhat more striking appearance.
Needless to say, my Tau are not consigned to shipboard duty.

So what do I want? Found this image in an old catalog and liked it. As far as I know, these colors have not been claimed by any known Sept, so let it be Ke'lshan ground forces.

Dark but colorful.
Let me show you some of my Firewarriors and then I'll follow up with how I got there: My Firewarrior squads are called Blue Swords. Named for the distinct blue plasma rod on their pulse rifle. An upgrade that gives more punch to their pulse rifles for reducing Space Marine targets. (Ostensibly of course.)
It is a 1/16 inch acrylic rod. Coincidentally it's the exact width of a pulse rifle. I wanted to display a tube of charged plasma on the barrel of their guns, similar to that of Necrons. Unfortunately, the rod was almost entirely clear with only a trace of blue, so I painted the rod seat Ice Blue, and the rod seems to reflect that color pretty well. Try to ignore any shine you see in the shaded areas. I used a micron pen to get the small gaps and cameras tend to put a shine on that ink.




First finished FW. I have several FWs with no helmet antenna because they were given to me like that a long time ago. I finished this base before purchasing the finer sand. I'm considering putting rust on that razorwire, and maybe a small patch of green or brown grass. Ideas?




I just need to finish this base. I show this guy because the flame patterns on his helmet are a bit more symmetrical and I may pattern the rest of the army after this helmet. You may also notice the right bracer on all my FWs is painted fiery... Because that's their trigger hand. The hand that brings the burn of the Fire Caste!



I plan to have this as the pattern for the Shas' ui of each squad. No flames, just solid hot colors. Though my wife thinks I should make the middle section of his shoulder blue, as well as a section of his helmet, but I don't know... Thoughts?

You may be asking yourself "Why would you put flames on Tau?! That's not very Tau-y looking! That's too flashy for Tau!"
Well listen up boys and girls, this is the FIRE caste of the Tau. Not some limpdick Earth caste science pukes or Water caste choirboys. This is the caste of "diplomacy has failed and you are of no further use to us." The caste of the 'Give Us All Your Weapons Or We'll Blow Your Freakin' Heads Off' peace treaty. To me it was intuitive to paint FIRE on my FIRE caste FIREwarriors' FIREball-shaped helmets.

Working on Crisis suits now as well. Pics coming soon.
More on this army as it develops. Suggestions are welcome.

we need more

As I previously mentioned, the bases for most of my army will be urban ruin terrain for the hard edged look and to contrast the bright colors of the army.
I've got my rubble:


Razorwire:


And some good old Galeforce Nine concrete chunks:


And you may notice chunks of chipped plastic sprue on the bases for broken struts.


I like displaying larger bases. With more room to strew your debris you get a fun mini diorama effect. As somebody who has decent painting experience but no basing experience, I'm discovering you can almost tell a story with your larger bases.

My Crisis Suits:
I did a bit more bending and posing than I typically see on crisis suits. I think they look a little too stiff and not very dynamic. But with the right cutting and gluing I'm a little more satisfied with the way mine turned out, than I am with other people's.
You'll notice I put shoulder pads on legs to bulk them up a bit. One complaint I always had about crisis suits was the skinny bird feet. They didn't need to be skinny. And they're not supposed to look like bird feet, they're supposed to emulate Tau hoofed feet. Large middle hoof, smaller lateral hoof, and tiny thumb hoof. I found that adding some bulk to the leg gave my suits a heavier look.

The first Crisis suit I assembled was my Shas'o, though I wish I had done him later after getting better conversion ideas. All the same, it's cool to have him cooly stalking forward in a simple pose.


Attempt number 2 produced a more interesting Crisis Suit. I tried hard to base my work on the following picture:

But the actual models are a little more rotund. Still, I enjoy the effect.



With Fusion guns:


Next I wanted to pose my Shas'el on the ground like my commander, but a bit more dynamically. To get his arm horizontal the way I did, I just sawed of the arm above the elbow and I was free to turn it however.
I'll be magnetizing all my crisis suits, so slapped on some burst cannons to show you how weapons look on him.


On the 4th suit I decided I liked the modified arm and thought I'd try a different jumping pose. Perhaps he's frolicking, who knows. No weapons on him, but you can see the magnets.


After creating these I realized I had forgotten my desire to try my hand at this guy:

And here's the result, before giving him his shin pads (My big concern was whether I could do it and still have his feet fit on the base... Barely pulled it off!):


That's all I have for now. Sorry I'm not going about this project with the alacrity that some of you can manage. Right now I'm debating whether I should get more painting done, or get the army assembled first.
I think next, I'm going to sculpt cloaks from green stuff for my shotgun toting Pathfinders, and Ghillie Suits on the Rail Rifle Snipers. Stay Tuned...
Sneak Peek at the Pathfinders, before I put camo cloaks on them:

Very nice. Loving some of those poses of the Crisis Battlesuits.

The flame job definitely adhere's to the Rule of Cool so I say it's a win.

YOUR FIRE WARRIORS MAKE ME HAPPY!

Okay as promised, I'm going to talk about Pathfinders.

I see these fast attack troops as Firewarriors with extensive additional training in stealth and infiltration. They work in smaller, elite teams which sneak ahead of the main force to scout and reconnoiter, all without being seen. They then gain an advantageous position and wait for the main force to to move up. At this point, the Pathfinders will paint up priority targets with Markerlights for the Firewarriors and heavy support to focus fire. Meanwhile, Rail Rifle snipers will pick targets of their own in an attempt to pin enemy supporting infantry. They can also potentially disable light vehicles.

This is a perfect opportunity to try my hand at camouflage. First I'll show you my painting process:

As I showed at the end of my last post, I have sculpted cloaks for my pathfinders;


I really wanted them to stand out from my Firewarriors. Too often the two are painted so similarly that they're difficult to distinguish. Pathfinders have no left shoulder plate, no leg armor and an elongated helmet. Those are the only differences. So I set out to add the cloak, and for most of my Pathfinders, I got rid of the helmet. I think the bare head gives them a more raw, commando feel. Plus most of them have their hoods drawn, so even their head is mostly covered. Lastly, I changed their gun. Pathfinders are supposed to sport a pulse carbine with built in markerlight. I thought it would be cool to give mine a pulse shotgun. (Made that up myself, alternative names are welcome.) It also sacrifices range for portability, but is more compact. The markerlight is fixed neatly under the barrel, and the rounds themselves are high explosive plasma shells with the flashbang effect of a phonton grenade.

First pics: As always, suggestions/questions are welcome.

As you can see, this particular Pathfinder has withdrawn his hood for a better aimed shot.

(Above) I deliberately used the same colors on the models that I'll be using on the bases. Basic camouflage technique. I decided that their armor will not sport the camouflage pattern that their cloak will. Their cloth will be earthy Mournfang Brown to match the base, and their armor will be Deathworld Forest green with Elysian Green highlights. Their cloak is a darker Castellan green with Deathworld Forest green highlights. Lock of hair, gun parts and combat boots will be black. Head is Macragge Blue with Calgar Blue highlights.

(Above) Base and cloth washed with Agrax Earthshade, armor, gun and cloak washed with Athonian Camoshade. Head polished with Blue Ink.


(Above) Armor highlighted with Elysian Green, Cloth and ground highlighted with XV-88, Cloak and gun Highlighted with Deathworld Forest. Any black is highlighted with The Fang.
After some minor touching up, it is time for the camouflage cloak. Here are my colors (below): Castellan Green, Deathworld Forest, Elysian Green, and Rotting Flesh.

Elysian Green (Below):

Mournfang Brown (Below): As you can see, I put a lot of brown around the bottom of the cloak to blend with the earth.

Rotting Flesh (Below): Notice the gun is also being camouflaged.

(Below) Front view:

(Above) You can see the inside of the cloak is not camouflaged... Cause I'm lazy.
(Below) Details such as the gun barrel, Markerlight and right eye have been detailed. (Left eye is closed.)


Okay, now I'm asking you guys in all honesty, which path I should take with the camo cloaks. Should I leave it as simply the camo pattern, or should I go ahead and model on some vegetation like an actual ghillie suit? In any case, my Rail Rifle snipers WILL have the ghillie suit, but should I apply it to ALL my Pathfinders?
Let me show you some with and without photos. Here's a ghillie suit Pathfinder I did a couple days ago: Bear in mind, he has the same camo pattern on his cloak.
(Below: Back)

(Below: Front)

(Above) ignore that the above model is missing minor details (gun barrel paint, Markerlight, Rotting Flesh.)
(Below) A side-by-side comparison:

Please tell me which look you prefer.

(Below) Nearly finished model. (I added the black face paint and some touch-ups. Just gonna add some grass and maybe cloak foliage if you guys think I ought to...)


Next, I'll share my iteration of the Rail Rifle Sniper... It's gonna be sweet!
Preview:



P.S. Why are those hoods so long and elfy-looking, you ask?? The hoods were designed to fit over the elongated helmet of your standard Pathfinder.

My brief discourse on Rail snipers:
The rail rifle is superior to the imperial sniper rifle in most ways. The ways that really matter. While sniper rifles wound on a static 4+, rail rifles are typically wounding on a 2+ with their S6. Sniper rifles are ap6, rail rifles are ap3. Both cause pinning.
Antiquated rules deprive the rail rifle of Precision Shots and Rending, which the sniper rifle does have. But with Target Lock, Rail Snipers aren't restricted to the target of the rest of the unit.
While the other Pathfinders are prioritizing targets for Firewarriors and removing cover from the targets of Hammerheads, the rail snipers are trying to pin advancing enemies or whittle down heavy infantry. I like the concept of spotters working with the snipers so I included a model with binoculars in both my Pathfinder units.

The ghillie suits: As a team focused on getting close by staying under the radar, our infiltrators need to know how enemy scanners work. The Earth Caste has been given captured models of imperial Scanners and SM Auspices by which they learned that Scanners (or multi-scanners, or Auspexes) are Imperial short-ranged devices used to detect motion, invisible gases and energy emissions throughout a wide spectrum, such as heat, radiation and most forms of energy given off by vehicles and living troops. (Says Lexicanum)
To counter this, the Earth Cast developed the PF ghillie suits, which mask the wearer's heat signature with a hooded cloak which absorbs and dissipates body heat. Then the PF covers his own cloak with naturally occurring local flora. The idea behind their camo is to break up and obscure the hard edges of a humanoid silhouette while color blending with ambient terrain. This, of course, makes them hard to spot with the naked eye.
PFs have also been trained how to move without being picked up by a scanner. Deep in enemy territory they lie under their suit and move noiselessly by inches if their scanners detect enemy movement in their vicinity. Thus, even imperial troops with scanners can find themselves being suddenly blasted away from behind by troops they should have detected. Thus the PFs of this Ke'lShan Tau Command have been nicknamed "Bush Ghosts."


So let me show you some of the modeling supplies I used on my Pathfinders.

Water Effects:


Lichen looks fantastic as small branches, shrubbery, foliage, etc. It's also very soft and easy to work with. Medium green complimented my camo very nicely.



(Below) Peek-a-boo!

(Above) on the left sniper, I built up the earth on either side of him so it looks like he's hiding in a small watery furrow. The one on the right is in a shallow stream peeking over the lip.
The Water Effects goop was not as nice to work with as I'd hoped. I got it from an ebay seller. the lid was cracked and the substance was too thick as a result. It was like working with really sticky peanut butter. But I suppose it looks watery enough...

More angles:




Shots of the other Pathfinders:



Backsides:



One full Pathfinder unit finished! Now I think I'll get working on my Crisis Suits and vehicles soon...

What played in my mind as I saw those FIRE-warriors...
A devilfish with flame-decals going 150 mph with bullets whistling everywhere, then someone flips a switch and the external-com systems starts blaring: "I'M ON THE HIGH-WAY TO HELL *DUM DUM* HIGHWAY TO HELL!!" and all the enemies go "what in the name of the Emperor" before those flamy-looking Tau-bastards jump out of their ride, sprayin' plasma all over the place!

Harr, harr, not very Tau, but awesome still!
And I very much prefer flame-decals over "lollipop-colour-Gungnam-batllesuit-pewpew" that lots of people paint their Tau like... Purple-pink gloss has nothing to do on a battlefield...

Everything is really really awesome and I freaking love the two Rail Rifle Snipers. They're really MASTERPIECES.
Good Job, Keep up this work, I'm curious to see the rest of the army

Thanks a lot you guys!
@ hemmis92: I suppose there is a bit of '80's hard rock' with the flames. As the caste known for its aggression and stoicism, I thought it fitting that Firewarriors would proudly display their namesake... Which, now that you mention it, coincidentally makes them look like hippy-slapping bikers.

@ Launets: Yeah they turned out pretty close to what I was hoping for. Something that might look like pieces of terrain if not for the rifle. Those are my only two prone snipers though. The others will be standing, but I might put them behind tall grass... I just now thought of that, thank you for the idea. It's decided. ALL my rail snipers will be hidden somehow. I really want to set them apart from their squad mates somehow, because although they are part of a Pathfinder squad, their role is different than that of their comrades... They will still be dressed to match though.

This is pretty awesome. I really like the pathfinders. Where do you get your lichen?

It's a Woodland Scenics product. I happened upon it at a local hobby store.
Initially I had no idea how to make ghillie suits and was looking for ideas. I thought it would be a complex conglomeration of various things until I found the lichen. It was perfect and simple. Even the color was a perfect match. The lichen in these pics is unpainted and was applied after the models had been sealed.

Progress on "Blue Swords" Fire Warrior Infantry: I found that the matte sealer puts a nice frostiness on the blue plasma rods (I won't consider this squad finished until I paint 3 more FWs and a pair of Drones... Maybe a Devilfish too.) I promise I will get to those Crisis Suits soon...







And this is how my cat, Cusa, reacted when I told him I STILL have work to do on this squad:

Epic Facepalm.

That fire effect is awesome. Good work!

Wow these guys look awesome. Wish that my firewarriors were this cool. All I have is this silly district 9 theme going on.

I honestly never thought about using necron like rods on Tau, they look like they belong there. Good job man.

iheartlargeblasttemplates wrote:That fire effect is awesome. Good work!

Thank you. I used the same effect on my old DE, but found it more fitting on Fire Warriors. Smooth and flat surfaces are just a playground for cool designs. And Tau have plenty of smooth and flat surfaces.

Nafarious wrote:Wow these guys look awesome. Wish that my firewarriors were this cool. All I have is this silly district 9 theme going on.

I appreciate that. Though now I'm curious about your District 9 Tau and would love to see them!

Coyote81 wrote:I honestly never thought about using necron like rods on Tau, they look like they belong there. Good job man.

Finding those 1/16" acrylic rods was kind of a fluke. If you look at the normal pulse rifle, there's a section on the top that looks like it could be a non-ribbed plasma window. I've seen them painted in such a way and it's pretty cool. That was my original plan until I found the rods and my thoughts turned toward this Necron-esque approach. Thicker rods are available, and I'm considering using them on my plasma rifles. Also considering replacing sections of Burst Cannon barrels with these rods, but that might be going too far...

On with the show:
So in trying to decide how to distribute color on the Crisis Suits, I asked Cusa if they should be brighter than the Fire Warriors.


He said "No. Too bright makes them look cartoony and happy. You want them to look serious. Which means a good amount of dark color. It will contrast the bright, making it pop out a little better, while keeping the model dark and brooding."

Okay, so I'm thinking "This first one is just a test run. If I don't like it, I'll reevaluate my composition."





I finished the model, sealed it and pinned it to the base. Looked at it the next day and said to myself "This is not the best I can do... Something is missing! Not enough red? Too much black? Too much blue? Not enough fire?? What?!"
Still, I cannot decide what I did wrong. Do I need fire on the jetpack? On the shoulders? Should the flame on the head have two tails? Are the legs too plain? Suggestions are welcome.
I showed the model to Cusa and he tried to destroy one of my arms so I'd never paint again.

He was that upset, and I don't blame him. Progress on Crisis Suits is halted until I figure out how to make them look right... And even then it may be halted further in anticipation for newer, cooler Crisis Suits models which could be emerging in a month or so. Work on these models may be in vain altogether.

Vehicles though, are another matter.
I'll put down Crisis Suits for now (except maybe to fix the one I did) and I need to get pondering vehicle color patterns. I think the tanks will adopt the Blue/Red/Fire theme of the Sept, while most (If not all) of the transports will bare the Camo of the Pathfinders. But if the new rules no longer require PFs to take a Devilfish, then I may change my mind. For now I think it's safest to paint the Hammerhead.

Stay Tuned...

I think that the xv8 looks amazing. I think that more flames would make it seem a bit over done.

Your painting is just spectacular and I especially love your path finder designs.

That some sweet pathfinders, gotta ghillie them up mate.
Only criticism is how they vastly contrast the paint scheme of ur firewarriors and the rest of ur army. But meh right, rule of cool.
And friendly advice, read my signature.

Nafarious wrote:I think that the xv8 looks amazing. I think that more flames would make it seem a bit over done.

Your painting is just spectacular and I especially love your path finder designs.

Thank you. Your comment here got me thinking. Maybe it's not my color balance or composition. I think what I'm not liking is the distribution. The Fire Warriors all have a very asymmetrical look, but the Crisis Suit is very symmetrical!
Okay, I'm going to leave that Suit as it is, but I'm going to paint another, trying a different approach to color distribution. Again, thank you.

Novelist47 wrote:That some sweet pathfinders, gotta ghillie them up mate.
Only criticism is how they vastly contrast the paint scheme of ur firewarriors and the rest of ur army. But meh right, rule of cool.
And friendly advice, read my signature.

Thanks man. Pathfinders looking different was very deliberate. As I said in my first post:

With Pathfinders I want to take a different approach with basing and paint scheme. They are the commandos. But they have a much more important role than just scouting and reconnaissance. They are the ones that prioritize enemy targets for the rest of the army to destroy. Filling such an important role, they'd be dressed to be difficult to spot. Part of me wanted my Firewarriors to be painted camouflage but then I wouldn't get to paint them as FIREwarriors. Pathfinders satiate my camo desires, and It will be a nice way to differentiate the two units visually.

Painting them to match the rest of the army would not give them that sneaky look that I want my infiltrators to have. SM Scouts wear their chapter colors, but I imagine Tau to be more practical and less ritualistic.
I imagine the combat doctrine to say something like "Don't let the enemy spot your Pathfinders, the entire cadre relies on them. Draw enemy fire from them (by being bright and flashy, in my case) while Pathfinders guide the cadre from one target to the next."

And thanks for the advice on taking photos! I'll give it a shot.

This second Suit was given a less symmetrical look and I think it has made all the difference.

As a side note: Two unfortunate things happened to this model.
The first was that the primer, for whatever reason, went on a little thick. So many of his hard edges took on a slightly rounder contour. Upsetting, but oh well. It's not that bad.
The second is that, while dremeling holes for the magnets, I dropped the model and his extended leg broke off. My first attempt to glue it back was a failure, as was the second. I kept scraping the glue off the hip ball, but I didn't have a very good way of removing the dried glue from the socket. So now his left leg sticks out just a bit further than intended. Also not all that bad.

I used Novelist47's advice on using a white background, but I must have been doing something wrong.
This is WITH the flash:

This was as good as I could get it:

(Below) whereas this was without the white background:


Oh well, I must not be a photographer, or my phone cam sucks. But I tried holding the model away from the background. It worked but I'm not sure how I feel about the vivid shadows...
Anyway, here's the shading. I decided to try thinned chestnut ink on the red, but decided I didn't like it as much. Oh well, in the end it turned out fine. I just won't do it again.


And here is the finished Crisis Suit. Thick diagonal red stripe over the chest and leg. Small red stripe coming from the large one. I'm much happier with this design. I've decided none of my Crisis Suits will match. They'll share colors, but not designs. (Though the flames will be the same)


(Below) Good shot of the leg stripe:


(Below) And a good 'perspective' shot:

(Above) See how that left leg is way off the base? I'm going to have to extend the base with plasticard or something. It will be addressed somewhow. (Below) Before pic:

See how the feet used to both fit? (Barely...)


Now in light of possible new models for Crisis Suits, I'm going to hold off on the other 3 until we have more accurate info on new Tau models. Shouldn't be long.

So NOW I'll start dinking around with the vehicles...

Well I'm not quite finished with my Hammerhead, but I feel I've made some progress worth sharing.
I decided to start with the largest, most complicated piece, the chassis.

Determined not to make the same mistake that I did with the first Crisis Suit, I used masking tape and a pencil to sketch some straight lines over the hull for a good splash of sharp red angles... Rather than a nice organized pattern.

(Below) Base coat:


(Below) Shading with some highlights:


(Below) And the finished chassis:








The Targeting Array under the nose is fully movable.
I was going for a 'Cylon Eye' effect with that tiny window.
Initially I had a perfect mirror pattern for those flames on the left side of the hull as well, but then I remembered that I was going for Feng Shui, not necessarily symmetry. Don't despair though, if you think that's not enough fire. The rear-left turbine/engine will have fire on it, as well as the tip of the Rail Gun (which is also left of the midline.) Both Drones will also have fire on them. (Though with the new rules, I might be replacing the BCs with SMS.) The flames that you don't yet see are supposed to balance out the model.
I did not paint the inside. Since this is not a transport, the hatches will not be opening for anybody. I want it closed and solid.
Of course, I plan to share the finished model asap.

My plans as far as the new Tau models:

I want to get the Riptide Battlesuit. Justifying the expenditure to my wife is where things could get... Complicated. But how can I pass on that giant, fireball-shaped shield?!

I don't plan to use new Pathfinders. I was very happy to see that they haven't changed much and thus, I'm still very pleased with my Cloaked Pathfinder design. I'll keep it. Even if I decide that I want new PFs for the new weapons, I can easily put a cloak on them. I still plan to use at least 2 PF units.

I'm glad Fire Warrior models aren't changing. This means I can move forward with mine and they'll still be unique with their plasma tubes.

I'm glad Crisis suits haven't changed. Although, if the Commander in the new Crisis Suit is just too cool, then I might have to get a bunch of him to use as regular suits... The expensive road, I know. In short, the jury is still out on my Crisis situation.

I never was one for the Broadsides, but we'll just have to see. Jury is still out.

I'm LOVING the idea behind the Caste Fireblade!!! What a perfect way to give my FWs that extra punch that makes them the feared SM-killers that their fluff claims. Especially with a nearby Ethereal possibly juicing them up even more.
I may end up making a souped-up infantry army, if I see it's viable. (With a safe amount of Heavy Support of course.) Speaking of which, I have an unassembled Skyray standing by, just in case they're amazing.

It looks like we're getting some fun new options!
These are just Initial impressions based on rumors.

Back to finishing this Hamsterhead, heavy support tank...

Sorry I haven't updated in a little while. I haven't painted much. Too excited about the new Tau Codex coming this weekend, I've been pouring over White Dwarf trying to soak in the implications of our new toys.

Anyways, here are pics of my Hammerhead. I couldn't decide between the Smart Missile System (Which, if rumors are correct, will now come twin linked!) and the double Burst Cannons (Which, according to the new rules, fire 4 times instead of 3!) So I painted the SMS and the BCs. I decided I like the idea of firing at units that I can't even see. So I fixed the SMS to the drones. I also like the hot-tipped missiles. Adds to the heat of the model. I'll probably use BCs on the next Tank I paint, because I'm a firm believer in shooting quantity if you can't beat your enemy's armor save.




The last thing an impertinent Land Raider sees.


I still need to paint the Ion Cannon. I have both guns magnetized and they will be interchangeable.
As always, comments appreciated, criticism considered, and I can't wait to get started on whatever comes next!... Devilfish? Skyray? More Suits? More FWs? Something new? We'll just have to see which mood takes me.

First off, I don't usually like bright paint jobs on military vehicles. BUT, I think what you have achieved is really cool

Very well done, but your camo tau are even better, I just have a soft spot for the more military look.

Flames are nicely done and not over done, and the colors and shading enhances it nicely.

Very good stuff.

Thats a very bold color scheme choice, I like it, especially the hammerhead it's very well done.

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
First off, I don't usually like bright paint jobs on military vehicles. BUT, I think what you have achieved is really cool

Very well done, but your camo tau are even better, I just have a soft spot for the more military look.

Flames are nicely done and not over done, and the colors and shading enhances it nicely.

Very good stuff.

Wow thanks man, that means a lot coming from you. I'm really impressed by your conversion work and camo paint schemes btw.
Initially, my first idea was to paint my army much like yours. I love the gritty modern military look of various camo patterns. Then at some point I wondered why we never see any elemental symbolism for the Fire Caste and I resolved to paint an army which is proud enough to adorn themselves in their Caste namesake. (Makes me wonder how I'll paint the Air Caste Flyers, if I ever get any...) But so in love was I with the Camo idea that I had to find an excuse to incorporate it somehow.

@ hk1x1
I appreciate that. My primary effort seems to be making my army NOT look like Spiderman colors. That would be too bold to say the least. So I try to darken that red and blue just the right amount.

Another pic. This time with the Ion Cannon. I'm very glad I magnetized my main turret weapons...



Funny story. I painstakingly smoothed the top of the Ion Cannon to eliminate all traces of the seam. But when I painted it, I realized so much yellow on top looks too bright and flat... So I took my micron pen and had to sketch a seam onto the Cannon just so I'd have something to shade!

Those tanks look awesome. I can't wait to see some of the newer tau components in your army as well. Keep up the good work.

I love this color scheme you have going on! It is very crisp and bright, but has an element of badassery. Thumbs up to you!

No painting updates, but I did get my Riptide put together.

It does have some cool little pins that help you to pose the model, but I didn't want my Riptide to look so similar to others. I plan some unique poses, but for this first one, I wanted it to stand pretty tall. So I clipped the posing pins and made my model stand a bit taller than the ones you see in GW pictures. I had him raise his rear leg to brace himself on a pile of concrete to give him a bit of an organic, non-robotic, free movement vibe.

The front foot was planted on the ground as normal, but I modeled a shattered concrete slab under his foot with raised edges around the toes. I wanted him to look like he's just made a Smash attack.
I magnetized the weapons as well. I really want to love the Heavy Burst Cannon and maybe someday I'll find a reason to take one. I included some other models for scale.






You may have noticed I finally assembled the Skyray! I'm pretty happy that it's a viable heavy choice now...
Next Riptide I assemble will be crouching behind his shield.
The poseability of this model is just phenomenal... Makes it a bit of a pain to assemble though.

Wow, your color scheme is impressive. I'm usually not a fan of Tau but you are converting me. Looking forward to that Riptide. Everything looks great.