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.

Like my favorite (totally Loyalist) Primarch, I have disappeared from sight only to return at a more advantageous opportunity...or rather, I am a wargamer who tactically retreated due to real life circumstances but am returning to the hobby and wanted to finally officially join the site! About a decade ago I picked up Warhammer 40K for the first time, so I'm not exactly "new" to the block, but finally have gotten around to signing up here despite perusing the site on and off for years.

You see, right after I finished my first army (Raven Guard) and was pleased with it, I was beginning to build a second (Tau)...and, well, tragedy befell my poor miniatures. While I was out of town a horrific storm wiped out a good chunk of my house, many of my possessions, and this included (of course, because why be lucky?) my entire miniature collection. And the couple dozen Warhammer books I had right next to it. Demoralized, I kind of stepped away from the whole collecting thing for a long time, but never lost interest in Warhammer 40K itself.

I knew plenty of people who were still involved in it one way or another to get an idea of how things were going, hear the latest gripes about codex X or Y, and always reading up on whatever I could in regards to the lore while still picking up an occasional Warhammer book. It might not make up for losing my personal Black Library, but I hung in there for years basically in a subdued way.

Fast forward many years and I have finally, thanks to a gift from someone, been able to try and get back into the hobby. To honor the Tau army I was building when the storm struck I decided to make something Tau, and settled on a Sun Shark. The reason simply for this is that I am a Gundam fan and liken the Sun Shark to the Gaw, and I like the Gaw, so it was an easy pick without defaulting to the Broadsides and Crisis suits (my other favorite Tau units) that I was half-finished with (with all the baggage that may hold). I'll make some of those some day, just don't think it'll be good as my first outing now that I'm back.

Given that it's been around ten years since I last modeled in any serious capacity (I've dabbled with Gundam/Gunpla and other such things, but those are mostly snap-fit) I am woefully unskilled now at the craft and would appreciate any advice anyone has regarding painting, supply quality, and other such things. I am not super OCD about detail, but I don't want to blunder out of the gate given the expense of the hobby. Anything from how to properly handle paints to properly cut something out of its tree without damaging any of the plastic would be most appreciated.

If anyone knows any good advice regarding Tau (or rather T'au now I think they are called), their gear, and what good builds are I would be most interested as well. Knowing some meta would be nice, as I do hope to one day conquer the tabletop with my Tau (cough, Zeon, cough) army, conquering whatever Imperials (cough, Earthnoids) stand in my way! Just ignore the Broadsides that will be painted like Dynames or the purple Sun Shark.

I mostly run RPGs and things in my spare time over on the Spacebattles forum, so if people like RPGs I'm always up to chat about them. One I'm running has a protagonist who is represented physically by Captain Titus from Space Marine and I cheekily named his son's group the Alpha Legion, so even while on hiatus from WH40K I've still been showing my love for it. As the title of this post may imply the Alpha Legion are another favorite faction of mine, though I'm probably going to take awhile to build anything for them...the Tau just fit my tastes a bit more since I've always liked artillery and long range combat, but if anyone wants to discuss the Alpha Legion in lore or in the tabletop I'm game for that too. I may ignore Praetorian of Dorn exists for the discussion (why you do this, French? I liked Ahriman's books...), but I do love my Alpha boys! (For the Emperor!) I might just prefer the lore from when I got into the hobby where people theorized maybe Alpharius was alive after fighting Guilliman...

Anyways, I think I've said too much, but I wanted to properly greet you all so I hope you don't mind! I apologize in advance for being a Space Wee-aboo (learned while making this that without the hyphen it becomes anime fan!), as I've never heard amazing things about Tau or their players (something something Fish of Fury) but I look forward to learning from you all regardless!

That is a huge intro post. Hello!

Sorry to hear about your tragedy, welcome.

Byte wrote:That is a huge intro post. Hello!

Haha, I know, but hello to you too!

Stormatious wrote:Sorry to hear about your tragedy, welcome.

Thank you. Looking forward to getting back into Warhammer!

Hi,

Welcome to Dakka

Well i am too alpharius, or am i Meinel, jk.

Welcome back, good luck and hopefully you will grow further and above as modeller.

Knightley wrote:Hi,

Welcome to Dakka

Thank you.

Not Online!!! wrote:Well i am too alpharius, or am i Meinel, jk.

Welcome back, good luck and hopefully you will grow further and above as modeller.

We are all Alpharius on the inside.

Also thank you, I am working now on making an army list so I can discuss it in the army list section. Hopefully I can find some Tau people who are able to give good advice.