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Hey there hive,
I know this isn’t to do with nids so I’m not expecting as much interest, but I’m trying to work out a colour scheme for my newly stripped Tau, and saw this from a video a while ago (by Blue Table Painting - search “black and red Tau supremacy suit” to find it), and I think it looks awesome. Here are some screenshots from the video:




So things I need to work out:
-What paints were used
-Edging/highlight techniques
-General painting tips/plans (I know for a fact an airbrush was used so I’ll have to think of a way round that...)
-How to translate the scheme onto other units in the army
-One of the key things I’m struggling with is the base black colour. Is it just abbadon black with grey edge highlights? Or is it very dark grey with true black in the recesses? Thoughts?

If anyone could help with the above that would be swell
BabyRipper

It's basic edge highlighting. Just use some greys on top of black to get that result. There's a ton of tutorials on Warhammer TV about edge highlighting black. If I had to guess approximate colors use abaddon black >Eshin Grey >Administratum Grey?

The red is a bit more complex. It's probably wet blended between a dark and lighter red.

Ah thanks for that. I’ve looked up a couple of tutorials and I’ll attempt a test model later. How do they’re achieve the metallic look on the red? Is that just the eyes tricking the mind because the black (with the silver outline) appears metallic? Or is there some metallic element to the paints/finish?

BabyRipper

Im pretty sure base colors are all airbrushed

hard to say what kinda blacks or greys were used without just asking them.

id say prime black, touchup black by hand in areas that got missed

airbrush blend up to what looks like eshin grey (it has a slight brown purple ting from what i can see)

then edge highlight carefully with probably eshin grey or something a little lighter (actually definitly lighter)

That red isn't metallic, it's not a fully matte finish so it's slightly reflective.

Since it's a commission painting service I'd wager it was probably airbrushed rather than wet blended, but you should be able to achieve the same with the latter. Hell, you could probably layer it too. Take a fairly dark red, add as much black as you want for that shadow, work your way back up to the base red, add small amounts of an off-white to get a couple of different edge highlights (some of the edges have a pinkish tinge).

The 'Black' looks like very dark grey (something like Vallejo Charcoal), edge highlight with a lighter grey to taste.

The red isn't airbrushed.

As others have noted, the red can be achieved via wet blending or layering with transparencies (mix with acrylic medium)

Thanks for the info guys. Just a couple of things to recheck before I go buy the paints (on a tightish budget and would rather not have to rebuy later ).

The grey highlights are light grey (i'm thinking Administratum?) and not light metallic grey? It might just be the effect of it being on a dark colour but it does appear to shine slightly...
Second, should I definitely go for a very dark grey and not absolute black? Possibly dull down even more with nuln oil if not dark enough?
Thirdly, what metallic paint(s) would be best for doing the large exposed metal bits (ie. the legs)?
And finally, what paint would you recommend for the brown (again, metallic or not?) bronzey bits toward the barrel of the gun? Really don't know my paints very well - having used a very basic scheme on my Nids

Thanks again for all your great answers so far, i may post WIP later when I get round to it
BabyRipper

Very dark grey allows you to have pure black in the recesses for shading and that's definitely what they've done in the example. I'll leave others to answer specific highlight colours since I don't use GW paints. (To me it look like Vallejo Basalt Grey, but that's the line I'm used to working with). Any shine is due to it not having a fully matte finish, more of a satin one.

The metal looks like a bog standard dark silver (Army Painter Gunmental, GW Leadbelcher, etc. etc.) highlighted and washed.