The Tao of Tau

Hey all, I am very excited, after a busy weekend of cutting, sanding, assembling, and painting, this evening i will be test firing my broadside squad of doom!  No pics yet as the wife took the new camera with her to Chicago this weekend (which should take much much better pictures than our old one.  With the addition of a 5 piece broadside squad (1 XV-88-2 plasma 2 XV-88 and 2 shield drones) and another 12 man Firewarrior squad (which sadly is not fully painted yet) i now have a full 1000 point army.  I'll be bringing the camera with me tonight to fightclub and hopfully be getting some great pictures of the action.

While at my local gaming center (Pandemonium) for my Tuesday 40k Planet Strike league (i'm fielding Blood Angels currently) I had a quick look through the used bins and walked away with 9 unpainted Tau Pathfinders
and an XV8 Crisis Battlesuit (with plasma rifle and missile pod) all of only $30... a pretty good haul... I've got a bunch more assembly to finish on my fire warriors, but barring work and a trip to the Michigan Renaissance Faire this weekend I should have plenty of time to get them painted up.  Stay tuned for more Warhammer 40k Tau goodness.

This weekend i finished my first Tau Fire Warrior.  I did him as a test to see how my selected color scheme would work and to try a couple of new techniques.  Here is a basic run down:

1. Based model (using PVA glue, and a mixture of sand and kitty litter)
2. Attached model to the base.
3. Primed White
4. Base coated. (Liche Purple for the "cloth parts", Catchatan Green for the Armored sections, and black for the gun and base.
5. Attached right arm, backpack, and shoulder pad. (i painted these seperatly to insure better coverage.
6. Dry-Brushed gold on the sept on the shoulder pad and the round part of the gun.
7. Inked the model in black. This added a lot of depth.  (I made the ink myself by using 1 part cheap black paint and 5 parts water)
8. Painted the lenses. Red, a mixture of red and silver for the highlights and a dot of pure white.
9. Painted the edge of the base black.

Although it was a very time consuming and tedious process, I am extremely happy with the way it turned out.  Hopefully this week i will have enough time to complete the rest of the squad.