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as said in desc, completely new to warhammer. decided on tau as my first army as i like their theme. but wasnt to keen on their paint style as of series 8 so decided to mess about with my own style. i wanted to have a blue and black them but decided the blue was to overpowering and made it look like a squad of space marines. so splashed a little orange and white in there. here's some pictures for feedback particularly with the wash/shade. i used nuln oil and watered it down slightly. it just seems to make the white and orange look dirty, and dident sink into the cracks like supposed to? maybe im just using it wrong.

great start! looks really striking

It looks like you applied a minimal amount of the wash, I myself put enough to "glaze" the model, using a large brush, and that should seep into the cracks. Your blue is nice, but a little dark with the black cloth, might I suggest a touch of lighter blue highlights on the armor?

I like the blue and orange, I havent seen a tau force like that!

Hey, welcome to the hobby!
I quite like the scheme you've picked, striking and draws your eye.

A few suggestions though in terms of technique:

1) Remember to thin your paints with water. It'll give you more control and also give it a smooth finish. Working with white is also a tough job, and requires even more thinning. I'd recommend using an off-white, like Ulthuan Grey, and only highlighting with white.
2) With any pale colours, I'd recommend using a different wash, other than Nuln as it's too stark. As the rest of the armour is blue, you could use Drakenhof to blend it in a bit, or you could use Agrax to give it a more warmer tone to contrast. Either way, I'd avoid using Nuln unless you're working with a dark colour.
3) A wash will make your model look dirty at first, but you can go over everything again with the base colours, except for the recesses, to neaten it all up again if you want a cleaner finish. Also, I wouldn't thin it down, most washes are good as they are and can end up not doing what they're supposed to when thinned too much.
4) An extra step would be to highlight the edges with a brighter colour, but that's not necessary, it just adds an extra level of finish. It's possibly the longest stage of painting a mini but well worth it though.

The scheme looks cool though. I'd possibly go with maybe a stripe of white going down his shoulder rather than the whole thing being white and maybe a bit of a lighter blue for his body, but that's just personal taste.
Have you painted before? Because, while there are things to improve, you've done a pretty awesome job, especially keeping the paints in all the right places and having tones pick out the right things

 bubber wrote:
great start! looks really striking

thanks


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Battle Brother Lucifer wrote:
It looks like you applied a minimal amount of the wash, I myself put enough to "glaze" the model, using a large brush, and that should seep into the cracks. Your blue is nice, but a little dark with the black cloth, might I suggest a touch of lighter blue highlights on the armor?

I like the blue and orange, I havent seen a tau force like that!

im defo gonna get a lighter blue and pronouce certain areas as i agree the blue and black dont contrast well. i think in future im going to wash blue and black then do the orange and white areas after and any tiny details i will carefully touch with black or gray depending where they are. thanks!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Tiberius501 wrote:
Hey, welcome to the hobby!
I quite like the scheme you've picked, striking and draws your eye.

A few suggestions though in terms of technique:

1) Remember to thin your paints with water. It'll give you more control and also give it a smooth finish. Working with white is also a tough job, and requires even more thinning. I'd recommend using an off-white, like Ulthuan Grey, and only highlighting with white.
2) With any pale colours, I'd recommend using a different wash, other than Nuln as it's too stark. As the rest of the armour is blue, you could use Drakenhof to blend it in a bit, or you could use Agrax to give it a more warmer tone to contrast. Either way, I'd avoid using Nuln unless you're working with a dark colour.
3) A wash will make your model look dirty at first, but you can go over everything again with the base colours, except for the recesses, to neaten it all up again if you want a cleaner finish. Also, I wouldn't thin it down, most washes are good as they are and can end up not doing what they're supposed to when thinned too much.
4) An extra step would be to highlight the edges with a brighter colour, but that's not necessary, it just adds an extra level of finish. It's possibly the longest stage of painting a mini but well worth it though.

The scheme looks cool though. I'd possibly go with maybe a stripe of white going down his shoulder rather than the whole thing being white and maybe a bit of a lighter blue for his body, but that's just personal taste.
Have you painted before? Because, while there are things to improve, you've done a pretty awesome job, especially keeping the paints in all the right places and having tones pick out the right things

well noted, i do water my paints down. but im finding different paints need varying stages of water. i.e. i end up doing like 4-5 coats of white. i was thinking of doing the blue and black base shading and then doing the white and orange seperate as i can draw any details carefully on, hopefully wont be to tedious. i'll definalty pickup a lighter blue from my local gw. as the blue and black dont contrast to well and need something to break it up. and again i agree. im not sure on the white shoulder pad. i mainly have experience with painting on a larger scale. i work as a automotive and bodyshop technician. so its abit strange to be thining paint with water and not thinners. but i'll get used to it. thanks!

Changed up the pads. decided on less white, more orange. broke up the legs with the knee pads, added a little blue racing stripe to make them faster plus the drones and DS8 TST. most of all got round to painting more than 1 figure. looks alot better as a squad

Moved to the correct forum.

Are you looking for a out of 10 or constructive critisism out of 10 its 2\10

Blue and red generly should not be painted togeather that's not to say never but in general google colour spectrum.

You need to edge high light it this is done by using a color to your original color so khorn red would be highlighted with mephiston red on the very outer parts of the model escpecialy the edges of the armour plates.
They need basing these models are a wip work in progress and not completed yet.

They need washing with a wash this will pool in the recesses and add shade to the lower parts of the model very easy to do, I generally wash everything with agrax earthshade, it creates great low lights on any colour other then white and black the 2 hardest colors to paint in particular white.

You need to use a mid tone google this as its quite comolex, a simplified version of it is acrylic paint is translucent no what color you paint the paint under neath it will show through and change the upper layers color shade tone or contrast, the paint on underneath is a base color then color on top is the mid tone' dont confuse the primer as a base color as they are completely separate stages, primer is more often then not enemal.

You need to thin your paint it should be the consistency of milk as bizarre as that sounds the thinner the paint the better your model will look it adds to the smoothness of the paint job and help with your transistions its quite common for advanced painters to use 20 plus layers of paint GW tends to promote 2 layers of paint which will give you the table top standard.

There's more I could point out but I think I've given you enough advice without overloading you.

Keep at it and you will get better good luck buddy.