Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

need ideas on how to make tau fire warriors/path finders more interesting.....they lack character!!!!!
richard

I'd go with sept markings, a heap of cool little geometric line patterns on their armour panels. It could spice them up a little.

Alternatively camo patterns on their cloth sections also look good.

I'd say give them a bit of a "Tron" look. As in aggressively highlight edges and cracks with a sharply contrasting color. I know it's not crazy but it'll make them pop while still keeping them looking like fire warriors.

Oh and post pics when done

Focus on the bases. cork tiles combined with tall grass/shrubs .

Richer wrote:
I'd say give them a bit of a "Tron" look. As in aggressively highlight edges and cracks with a sharply contrasting color. I know it's not crazy but it'll make them pop while still keeping them looking like fire warriors.

Oh and post pics when done

Oh no, no, no, PLEASE no!

"Tron Tau" are perhaps one of the most over-done and horrible looking paint schemes ever imagined, IMHO. Even the well executed Tron paint schemes just make the models look like toys. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the bright and gaudy Tau paint schemes, either. The Tau Sept colors tend to be based on the environments of the planets that Sept mainly operates on, as some sort of camoflage, and a neon-colored environment just doesn't seem plausible to me.

If you really want your models to stand out and develop some character, break out your hobby knife, green stuff, and extra bitz. Make some dynamic action poses, modify your pulse rifles a bit (you can make a pretty neat pulse rifle with grenade launcher conversion by replacing the pulse carbine's barrel with the pulse rifle's barrel). I also agree with Winter on the Sept markings and camouflage, as well as sean's basing advice. A well-based model definitely stands out. That's my two pennies, at least.

Someone's mad is showing.

-Anyway.

If you want to truly "jazz up" your tau, why not take some inspiration from art from the era?

 spectreoneone wrote:

Richer wrote:
I'd say give them a bit of a "Tron" look. As in aggressively highlight edges and cracks with a sharply contrasting color. I know it's not crazy but it'll make them pop while still keeping them looking like fire warriors.

Oh and post pics when done

If you really want your models to stand out and develop some character, break out your hobby knife, green stuff, and extra bitz. Make some dynamic action poses, modify your pulse rifles a bit (you can make a pretty neat pulse rifle with grenade launcher conversion by replacing the pulse carbine's barrel with the pulse rifle's barrel). I also agree with Winter on the Sept markings and camouflage, as well as sean's basing advice. A well-based model definitely stands out. That's my two pennies, at least.

This. Tau are one of the easier armies to convert, many of the weapons have a design to them that make them easy to cut a glue together without looking tacked on.

Zealot Miniatures has conversion parts that can be used to make female Tau heads and torsoes.
Tau generally have a modern sleek look, so don't need skulls, bells or whistles. Camo or sept markings e.g. in orange should be enough. But you can try to make them more individual with Cadian, Catachan or Kroot conversion bits.

 Ekoi wrote:
Someone's mad is showing.

-Anyway.

If you want to truly "jazz up" your tau, why not take some inspiration from art from the era?

And take some some inspiration from this bot for their drones


(No but seriously caste markings and adding small bitz and bobs will probably do the trick)

You could paint the Ui' helmet a different color or the half and half look. Add a bonding knife on the backpack or sept markings on the helmet and or rifle. Three little lines denoting a sarge kind of thing. Paint the top and the bottom of the left shoulder pad. Add a katana here or there. Adding scopes onto the rifle, an end to a kroot rifle thrown on top of a puilse rifle kind of looks like an eo tech scope off an ar15. Best of luck!!

If you're a great painter, digital camo patterns are perfect for Tau (but be warned, they look awful if painted badly).

I see the above point re a 'sleek' look, but I think Tau look good covered in equipment pouches, the way most real-world soldiers are. This also helps give figures subtle individuality, each wearing different (or differently positioned) gear.

I think that with the anime aesthetic, Tau look really cool with samurai style additions. I am not saying that you should go whole hog with it, though I have seen some pretty impressive armies where it was done, but some subtle Asian flavor might be in order. I like the idea of back pennants, though for sci-fi, you might want to make them look like light-weight fins. Kind of like these:
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Eldar/ELDAR-CORSAIR-CONVERSION-KIT.html
Only I would make them from plasti-tube/card/bitz. Any other such touches would be cool.

I've seen a nice conversion where the guy took a shield generator thing (not quite sure what they're called) from the crisis suit and gave his sergeant a rice paddy hat. that could work.