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 CREEEEEEEEED wrote:
I'm fairly sure they run on radioactive material and the pathfinders who use them have very short life spans. And why not use rail rifles? They're awesome, like the paint job.

Radioactive bees? Or 24k gold containment units?

My other Pathfinder squad (old conversions) have rail rifles. Here's a picture of them.



These were made when only metal Pathfinders were available, and that's who I stole the guns from, using plastic Fire Warriors to build Pathfinders.

More work on the Pathfinder squad, including some drones. I left the scout drone unfinished, largely because I don't see myself using it very much.



Edit: and this is the point where I realize the underbarrel of the pulse carbines is missing its blue paint. Mea Culpa, I'll have to fix that up.



The drones flying stalks aren't glued in yet, which explains the wonky angles. The pulse accelerator drone originally had a darker shade of blue on the glowy bits, but I switched to a brighter blue when it didn't work out so well. I don't know if I'll actually use Markerlight Drones with the squad, but I have very few Markerlight Drones painted up as it is, so it was a good time to get a few more painted up.



And the whole team for a group shot.

Looking good. I love the colour splashes... makes everything stand out nicely.

Okay, due to lots and lots of overtime at work and a general painting malaise, I haven't gotten much done that last 4 months or so. I finally got some gumption to finish off my Ghostkeel, which has been staring at me in a half-painted state since February.

I did this similar to my Stealth Suits, with more of a green rim-lit effect than my standard armor plate highlights.


I used a lot more blue on this model than I would for Crisis Suits. I figure Ghostkeel pilots are more independent and probably a bit more eccentric than standard suit pilots. I also wanted to see how using more blue would work on the larger models before I attempt a Riptide. Something this big needs breaking up or you end up with a grey blob of a model, especially since I'm using green for 'stealth' elements and green for fusion weapons.



Here's a picture with the Stealth Suits:



And a picture with my Fusion Commander for contrast in styles. I think when I do a Coldstar Commander I'll do a lot more blue, as this one's a bit subdued.



I still need to finish the stealth drones, but hey, progress.

Drones are done.



And a group shot.

The blue makes for a very interesting accent colour in this paint scheme. I like it! Subbed

Still haven"t done the drones for mine. Great paintwork.

Really nice clean colours mate I love Tau and you've done then justice here

 ApaceKittens wrote:
Still haven"t done the drones for mine.

I almost always stall out on the big pieces like tanks or giant robots. Drones are nice because they're quick and easy - for the most part.

The next Ghostkeel (or Riptide/Stormsurge) I do I'll be doing in subassemblies. I hear leaving off the armor plates is easy with the Ghostkeel, and from experience I think leaving the head off would have been wise - maybe the small guns too. It wasn't terrible, it's just a big model and easy to lose steam on.

More than anything, though, I need to get more Fire Warriors painted. I have 6 half-painted and another 16 I salvaged from another person (who used an excessive amount of superglue and put the backpacks on up-side-down) that took a ton of work to get serviceable. There's lots of fun things to paint in a Tau army, though, and I know I'll sidestep into other models somewhere amid all that.

Another 6 Strike Team done (first 6 of this group were done on page 1).


And a group shot of all 12.

Quad Fusion Coldstar Commander, go!



I decided to add more color to this one. I don't paint much purple, so I thought I'd give it a go. Still has lots of blue commander accents.



I was a bit worried it would turn out too busy, but keeping the torso, arms and engines mostly grey helped. Still, I didn't make the big side bubbles orange like I did on my Commander, as it would have been too much IMO.



It was fun loading all the guns onto the arms. You get a nice configuration.



The black wash on the mechanicals turned out a bit lighter this time, but it's visually distinct enough that I didn't feel like going over it again.

It was tempting to keep the high output burst cannon, but it would ruin the symmetry! Shame a Coldstar can only take one of those.

Droneport completed. All aboard!



Rather than using GW's Dawnstone, I used INSTAR Moon Grey Matte. I also used INSTAR Obsidian Black Matte as a primer. Both require significant dilution to use in an airbrush, but they work fine.



I don't have any Marker Drones on short stalks yet, so doing pictures with drones aboard isn't an option at the moment. Sorry.



I didn't bother to shade the deck plates, as it's so tiny and I think a simple shade would be too messy for such a regular floor. The Tau symbol is done in Vajello Ghost Grey, not pure white. It's a bit less lumpy than most whites.



And here we are loaded with the most likely occupants, Firesight Marksman and some Pathfinders with Ion Rifles. Here you can see how close the INSTAR Moon Grey is to Dawnstone, which was used to paint the infantry. Slightly less room in one of these Droneports than I thought, it might be a struggle to get 1 Firesight and 9 Pathfinders in there.

I really dig you scheme. It feels very urban. Very clean. Keep up the good work

Building a Droneport made me re-evaluate how many drones I had that were not Gun Drones, and it wasn't much, so I built 8 Shield and 8 Markerlight Drones. The Shield Drones are done.


I decided that my previous scheme for Shield Drones was too much of a pain to paint (orange center of top disc), so I went with something a bit more glow-y.



FYI, the blue is Vajello Model Color Andrea Blue, which is freakin' awesome.

Drone port is legit! Those edge highlights make me so jealous

I too admire your crisp highlights!

Thanks for the comments! Good edge highlights is mostly about keeping the arms braced and painting with the wrist. The other part is holding the mini at the right angle, I often wear paint off of edges holding it weird ways to get a steady line.

Markerlight Drones finished.

Longstrike!


This is actually my first experience working with Citadel 'Finecast'. It wasn't too bad, minor mold lines, no bubbles, but so many attachment vents in so many places.



I painted this in many, many pieces. Longstrike, the hatch piece, the turret, the gun (which is magnetized to future-proof it if rail guns ever get good again), main body, thrusters, missile pods, landing gear!



I actually built 2 Hammerheads, but after all the work of painting one I need to take a break from Tau tanks.

 John Prins wrote:




I actually built 2 Hammerheads, but after all the work of painting one I need to take a break from Tau tanks.

I know the feeling on that, I haven't finished the Skyray yet but the thought of doing another tank is putting me off a little bit

Looking good! Love the colour scheme.

Planning on painting along with a Twitch stream challenge to paint a Start Collecting (or equivalent) in a 48 hour span (Oct3-4th). Going with Farsight Enclaves, mostly because I have several Start Collectings kicking about.



So Breachers, Shield Drones, and Crisis Suits with 2xCiB + ATS. The Ethereal lost his hoverboard to a Cadre Fireblade (who fits the board very, very well). The CiBs are 3rd party bits from Shapeways (and surprisingly chonky, but that's ok).



Test scheme on some shielded missile drones. Doing these two took 2 hours, which is a bit high but I was fiddling about with choices and such.




And a test on a triple plasma crisis suit. This guy took just over 3 hours, a substantial improvement over the drones, but still quite a while when you consider I'll have 3 of them to paint. Dunno if I'll actually finish but we'll have to see how it goes.






Automatically Appended Next Post:
Pew-pew-pew!

Got my test models done.

Very well done on the reds for the farsight enclave, and nice switch out from the ethereal to the fire blade. If you have a few start collecting boxes, it makes a lot of sense to not make three etherals!

I also really like your greys from earlier, and it fits the style I’m hoping to do on mine when they come in.

 416_SpaceWolves wrote:
Very well done on the reds for the farsight enclave, and nice switch out from the ethereal to the fire blade. If you have a few start collecting boxes, it makes a lot of sense to not make three etherals!

I also really like your greys from earlier, and it fits the style I’m hoping to do on mine when they come in.

Thanks! Let me know if you need any pointers.

Another test model. Because Fusion Blades.

Didn't quite finish it within the 48 hour window (thanks, shift change weekend), but it's done now!

These look great. The reds are very well done, and I love how you've fit your bases into the theme, to really sell the camo aspects of the tau lore.

 416_SpaceWolves wrote:
These look great. The reds are very well done, and I love how you've fit your bases into the theme, to really sell the camo aspects of the tau lore.

Thanks.

The Farsight saga continues! A few finished models I haven't posted to Dakka yet...



Good old (finecast, bleh) Commander Farsight.



And a Farsight Enclaves Piranha. I probably should have added a grey stripe or two, it's pretty darn red.

I also finally finished off my first old school Stealth Team! Old metal Stealth Suits are way better than eggs-on-legs newer ones, though I did include one to carry a Fusion Blaster.



I think this is something like the 4th time I've painted these metal minis! They've gone through a lot of paint schemes.