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Alright, so I've been out of it for a couple of years but decided to get a fresh start and the Tau's high tech, clean cut appearance caught my eye. I've done a little reading and remember a few other hints but there's still a bunch of questions floating around. So why not jot them down, maybe some readers here will have answers or at least get a kick out of seeing my work (hopefully) improve while raising an army to face the darkness the galaxy has to offer.

So just got the first few models in the mail, went out and purchased some paints and completely forgot the glue... lucky enough it seemed like most of the drones can be assembled in a ramshackle way to have at least a bit of something on display. Here's 5/6 MV7 Marker Drones which will eventually assist my commander in exposing high priority targets to the rest of the cadre's withering firepower!

Yes, they're poor pictures and unfisnihed drones but a little something to look at is better than nothing


Since I have some questions and am hoping for advice I'll outline my process thus far.
Black primer, followed by [The Fang] and [Ushabti Bone] base coat and a [nuln oil] wash. Then dry brushed some [leadbelcher] onto mechanical parts, though it can probably just use a coat of it. Added a few details with [auric armor gold] and [warpstone green] just to see how it would play out. While generally pleased with the color scheme the highlighting worries me since I've never really gotten into it; especially since its a round model with a wide profile on top. Does anyone have a good tutorial video or some insight? I have russ grey, fenrisian grey and scar white ready to give it a shot, in theory that should be the appropriate colors...

Onto more fun stuff, obviously I'm really looking forward to get some Crisis suits assembled but haven't bought any decent magnets or drills for the wargear upgrades. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Lastly any suggestions on squad markings and possibly which color would mesh well? Initially I was thinking of just running scar white but the Sa'cea sept's stark orange caught my eye.. I'm just weary of making the markings stand out that much when I have no experience free handing them.

Thanks for reading and I appreciate any advice thrown my way!


*UPDATE*
I got around to trying some highlighting and found that my brush control could use some practice...

Generally I'm pleased with the result and feel like I can field this squad of marker drones now, though the squad markings appear sloppy and I'll eventually come back to fix that upon improving.

As always any advice is welcome!

Hey these came out great and I like what you did to the empty antenna slots.

will suggest one thing is to use a pallet. You can probably find a cheap one at a local craft store or walmart for a $ or two. Then always use small amounts of water with your paint to get it to apply smoother and more evenly (too much will tend to pool). Only started using a pallet and this method after seeing warhammer TV tips and its really helped out tons.

For drones I've taken to basecoating them, then coloring the main top first, with a couple coats of slightly runny layer paint - just enough so the water naturally holds itself together on the dome, so the paint applies more evenly. Overplay with it and you'll get an empty spot but the 2nd coat can fix that. When thats done do the rims and trims. To get that black color back in the outlines after mistakes just watered down paint will do it - in your case abaddon black, it will run through the groove quite nicely, just have a dry and a damp brush both handy to fix mistakes quicky, mop-up is a breeze. Then, do your highlights. For gold accents orient the accent flat/against gravity and add just enough water to your gold to that it "shimmers" on the pallet when you swirl it, like a snowglobe, when you apply it be gentle and you'll find it should be pretty cohesive and stay/go where you want it to. Again just drip some wet abaddon black around the sides with its dry to fix any mistakes.

Getting a pallet is definitely something I need to look into. There a few DIY instructions I've stumbled across so far.

I really appreciate the advice and instructions and while I only have 1 more drone to paint I'm sure it'll come in handy for the strike teams as well. A local campaign has me inspired to put some more hours into painting asap, so that should help getting more models on the table

Regrettably the campaign turned to be a bit of a flop due to other obligations pulling me away from the hobby for a while. However, with 8th right around the corner and a few superb battle reports in another sub section I've found my motivation again...

I've used an egg carton and some tinfoil as pallet which seem to work alright though I've only used water to thin down the paint so far. Finished painting a few more models and even got a game in... though the poor Strike team got burnt off the objective in the last turn.


I've found myself wishing to get some color on more models in order to field them without bringing down the game ascetically so there's a few things I've tried. None are really terrible but definitely not quite as uniform as I'd like.


So all in all this is what I've done so far:

I've got another Crisis, 5 Breachers, 10 Strikers and a Railhead lined up and hope to get at least one of those squads finished before the new edition drops. That and start working on the bases (maybe Astrogranite debris, some dry-brushing and tufts of grass?)


Another project I'm looking forward to is adding some Gue'vesa to my ranks. While Kroot and Vespids seem interesting on the table the models just don't mesh with the looks which drew me to the Tau/T'au army. So surfing the web I've found a fair bit of people subbing them for human mercenaries of sorts. I like the idea and feel like it would make for some nice lore opportunities as well as personalizing my army.

Here's what I'm going to try for Vespids: Leftover legs, pulse blaster and shoulder from Firewarrior's, Torso and feet from Cadian Shock Troopers and Grav-chutes as well as System Trooper Helmets. This should make for some interesting replacements, keeping with an advanced tech theme.

Whatever's left of the Firewarrior and Cadian bits can probably be bashed with some Catachan or more Cadians for Kroot stand ins. What do you guys think? Does anyone have previous experience with these models/bits? Right now I'm just hoping the proportions match closely enough...

Only a week left until 8th =)

These look really nice!

Solid work, love the scheme. The contrast between the blue and white works really well, the first set of drones definitely had abit too much wash on them I think. I'm interested to see what you do with the bases actually because looking at them I'm not quite sure what would suite the models well haha

Thanks!

It's been a while again but I did manage to get some games in with the new Fate of Konor campaign:


And I did manage to finish a few of my human auxiliary shock troops (Vespid stand ins). I didn't go with the System Trooper Helmet in the end and kind of regret it since they look too similar to regular T'au Strike squads. By switching to a brighter cloth color and adding some ovious/more coarse use of sept color they might stick out a bit more. Also thinking of making the Grav-chutes a more distinct or adding heraldry/markings to their free shoulder pad...