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So I have started the first phases of my tau army, I have my first mini done to figure out the color scheme.

the base green is orkhide shade with snot green highlights and a light dark green inking (the old citadel inks), the black is chaos black with codex grey highlights.

the gun is reaper shadowed steel with devlan mud wash and the furniture is reaper brown (sample bottle so unsure of the exact color, replacing is going to be a fun one) with a flesh wash

i used shadow grey for the skin and the same brown for the hooves, all the blue is enchanted blue.

let me know what you all think, the idea was based off of the look of american WWII colors, with a basic green, some black and silvered and wood weapons, I took some liberties so this isn't meant to be an exact copy it is just based off of it.

anyway here is the first model, my converted fireblade;











after taking this I noticed a couple mistake that will be corrected, namely the overpaint on the left hoof, and the paint on the gun's viewfinder. any other advice, suggestions, or comments are welcome.

Hey, I know the pics are not the best, but that doesn't mean I don't want feedback. Please help me out here, all I am trying to do here is get better.

Dip him in alcohol and start over...

 smurfORnot wrote:
Dip him in alcohol and start over...

I know i was asking for advice, but this is not constructive, let me know where I can improve, not just start over, this would allow me to gain some skill, not just do the same thing over.

and smurf I would have to say, I don't think I would take your advice in the first place, you have only 18 posts since january, no pics of any models in the gallery, you have advocated codex piracy multiple times (and been warned about it at least once) as well as resin recasts of gw models, all things that are banned on dakka dakka, forgive me if I don't take your advice and maybe lean towards some other folks on here, that being said;

Anyone else have something to say that is constructive I am not expecting rave reviews, but a couple tips to improve on what I got so far.

If you have a Macro setting on your camera, use that when taking photos so you get a cleaner image. It's really a little hard to give any proper feedback because the photos are blurry. Makes it hard to see whether the paint is blotchy or it's just a product of the photo's themselves.

I think you should go over the green sections again.

Thin your paint and do multiple layers, allowing it to dry completely between each layer. That'll give you a nice even coverage on the green areas.

The colours (green, black and brown) don't seem to work together very well either, but again that might just be the photo's/lighting rather than your painting.

 Paint_To_Redemption wrote:
If you have a Macro setting on your camera, use that when taking photos so you get a cleaner image. It's really a little hard to give any proper feedback because the photos are blurry. Makes it hard to see whether the paint is blotchy or it's just a product of the photo's themselves.

I know, as everyone seems to have problems is the cell-phone camera issue, I tried to compensate as best I could at the time, I may try to get a better background and lighting setup built tomorrow so that i can compensate for the camera issues.

I think you should go over the green sections again. Thin your paint and do multiple layers, allowing it to dry completely between each layer. That'll give you a nice even coverage on the green areas.

ok, will do, i see what you meen,

The colours (green, black and brown) don't seem to work together very well either, but again that might just be the photo's/lighting rather than your painting.

I have been thinking about changing the brown to a darker shade, so as to better match the darkness of the model, this may actually work as long as i make the weapon blued as well. at least i am hoping it will.

If you hold it a little further away it should focus, you'll just lose a bit of detail on the model but that will be okay because you'll still get a clear picture of the overall look.

The photo's themselves look pretty decent (colour, size and focus on other objects) otherwise. Do you know if your phone has a macro setting? A lot of phones from the last few years do, even the crazy obscure brands lol.

I looked around for a macro setting, and as far as i could tell it is 'always on' but i will look again just to be sure.

I like the conversion actually. The colours aren't the best but its not bad.

For the gun I woulnd't use gold personally because I find that gold or bronze tends to be hard to paint.

I think if you try to do some highlighting would make the mini look a lot better. Just on the green portions try a highlight of something a bit brighter but not much.

Also for the silver parts I would recommend a drybrush over black for that which is easy to paint and comes out with a good result.

The pants as well might benefit from a grayish blue drybrush or highlight.

But overall its pretty decent just need some touch ups and you will be fine I hope that helps

 chaplaincliff wrote:

 smurfORnot wrote:
Dip him in alcohol and start over...

I know i was asking for advice, but this is not constructive, let me know where I can improve, not just start over, this would allow me to gain some skill, not just do the same thing over.

and smurf I would have to say, I don't think I would take your advice in the first place, you have only 18 posts since january, no pics of any models in the gallery, you have advocated codex piracy multiple times (and been warned about it at least once) as well as resin recasts of gw models, all things that are banned on dakka dakka, forgive me if I don't take your advice and maybe lean towards some other folks on here, that being said;

Anyone else have something to say that is constructive I am not expecting rave reviews, but a couple tips to improve on what I got so far.

only 18 posts since January? so what...I play/am in touch with 40k for almost 10 years...
codex piracy is common thing here,actually more people have printed codex than bough ones in my gaming club.
resin recasts,hell yea, GW models at 50% discount,what's not to like(except to deal with resin), as long as GW wishes to keep their prices as they are and rise them every year,no problem. I have other sources where I can acquire their models, whatever it's china or ebay.

And yes,my first tau army were around same paint quality as yours model. You know what I did,repainted them...
I don't post pics online, crap camera, so there is rly no point in doing so...

Constructive criticism time. Your camera and lighting gives you no favors but going off the picture, its excessively dark.

Dark pants on dark armor on dark skin makes it really hard to see.

So I have my updated color scheme, I tried to do better with the pics, I think they look a bunch better with a decent background, so as always any constructive comments and criticisms are welcome.









and both side by side, the new one is on the left.

One tip: Work on the eyes. A huge white blob with a tiny black point is not what eyes look like. You only see that much white (and that small pupils) in extreme situations. Even a small amount of black within (!) the boundaries of the eye slits would look better.

Here an advanced way of painting them: http://www.destroyerminis.com/paintingeyes/