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Pardon my horrible lack of prior knowledge and a decent camera; but for my Tau army, I decided to go with a sort of ocean camouflage scheme. I applied a blue basecoat, used nuln oil to fill in the crevices of this drone then painted on my pattern (for lack of a full paint set the drone is yet to be finished).

Did I go horribly wrong in applying the pattern too early/too late, and if so, what's the correct way to go about it?

I think that is pretty good, some more angles and using a camera instead of a potato would be handy to confirm though

Yeah need some better shots mate. If you want to make the camo a bit less blocky, you can apply your lighter stripes, then stipple the edges with an old brush which will give you more of a fade effect

It looks a heck of a lot better than most peoples first stab at camo (as far as i can tell b/c camera seems to be covered in vaseline)

There's no such thing as a wrong way; just whatever's easiest for you. Some people paint, shade and highlight the underlying colour completely before adding the second (and third, etc) colours, some do it diffferently.

In your case, both colours are similar - blue-greys. Doing both colours then putting a shading wash over the top works pretty well there, and can help to tie the two colours together. If you had something like grey and tan, for example, I'd consider shading them separately because the two colours would be quite different.

A better photo would help. Try taking it outside in daylight if you've got no other artificial light sources.

Worry not. It looks fine, the idea of camo is to break up the shape - as the drone is so small, you have successfully done that. If you make the pattern any smaller, it will look very strange when you start to paint larger units.

Camo pattern looks good, you just need to add another color to the camouflage overlapping a little bit. Then use a detail brush to pick out the lens etc. and add the decal marking.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
Worry not. It looks fine, the idea of camo is to break up the shape - as the drone is so small, you have successfully done that. If you make the pattern any smaller, it will look very strange when you start to paint larger units.

In theory, yes. In practice, on miniatures, it's better to simply suggest the idea of camouflage patterns. otherwise it works too well, and you end up with what looks like a shapeless blob. That, and the difficulty of painting them, is why camo patterns on miniatures tend to be much simpler than real life.

As per request, here's a few shots of the model with a camera instead of a potato, I appreciate your tips and feedback!

Though it probably does look a bit messier without all the film grain now.

Blue ocean camo for a flying object? Well, I guess you have your explanation for that I think the pattern needs to be smaller with additional colors for more contrast. Looks too much like brush strokes to me atm. Adding an off-white and darkblue like here for example:
http://s707.photobucket.com/user/lrdlion/media/untitled.jpg.html

I would add the wash after painting. Oh and highlighting camo is a b$&§%.

Personally I think blue/grey camo patterns are urban camo and should have digital patterns, using templates. Like here:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/483238.page

I messed around with (oak leaf spring) camo for my DKOK. Check this youtube channel for some great tutorials on - mostly real WW2 - camo patterns:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXUyQpCqwIM