40k Hobby Weekend Tau of the Shattered Sword

Mostly finished….Some time has pass since any work was done.  Finally have the infantry all painted.

And now for something random… a Sky Ray Gunship.

Not a lot of time to work on the Tau force, but some progress on the drones. Painted the Crisis Suit drones in the same greys as the suits. The Broadside Suit drones received the same camouflage as the Broadside. The Fire Warrior drones received the grey look but with a hint of Prussian blue and red squad markings. The blue was to signify the drones are part of the Fire Warrior squad. Unfortunately the support turret looks a bit like R2-D2. Some yellow was added for extra colour.

Short update, continued to paint the suits and fix the bases. The Broadside received some black lining with a black wash.  A subtle drybrush of Tyrant Skull was applied to the Broadside.  Worked a bit on the drones.

Slowly working on the broadside. There has been some experimenting with colours to get something similar to the camouflage pattern from the Ha-Go tank.

The suite was re-coated in Vallejo Hemp; it looked  better than the sand that was painted on the weekend.  A citadel brown and Vallejo Oliver was added. The brown parts received a washer of darker brown paint to make it a bit darker.  The sun stripe was added using a Vallejo dark skin.

A dark grey was added to the mechanical bits like the legs, barrels, elbow joints and power pack.  Brass was applied to tech bits.  White and red paint was added to the Tau symbols.

The lens on the gun and on the head were painted yellow and then Waystone Green (a Citadel technical paint).  The lens standout more with a light base coat before the Waystone.

A series of blue paint were used to make and energy effect.  It is possible to do a glow effect with a paint brush. This was one attempt at that.

Working on the bases.  The following is the detail for the base of Tau Crisis Suit, but the infantry will be similar, except for there is no cork.

The base was painted two coats of  Burnt Umbra.  Once the paint was dry, a layer of texture paint was applied.  This was left to dry over night.  The base was dry brush in a sand.  The cork was dry brushed a mudstone.  Everything was dry brushed Tyrant Skull.  The edge of the base was touched up with the Burnt Umbra.  Finally some tuffs of grass was glued on.

Unfortunately not a lot of progress today.  Work focused on the Crisis Suits.

Painted some panels on the suites a slight darker grey. The mechanical bits and weapons painted a very dark grey.  The fingers and a panel on the back of the leg were painted white.  White was added to the Tau logo. A lighter red was used to provide a slight highlight to parts previously painted red. The lenses and misses received a coat of yellow. The heads were painted a light grey; like the radar done on some fighter jets.  The exhaust nozzles of the jet pack receive some metallic coat.  Still more to do; to be continued…

Continued to work on the Tau Fire Warriors and Tau Commander.  Painted the rifles and puttees.  Started to focus on the Tau Commander.  Put a light drybrush of purple onto the outside of the cloak on the Tau Commander. Still much to do.

Time for a break from the Fire Warriors.  The transparent flight stand for the one Using an airbrush, primed the tau suits and various drones.  The transparent flight stand for the one  Crisis Suit was masked off prior to priming.   This was followed up with a coat of USAF Military Grey.

With the airbrush out, the Broadside Suit was also primed.  For easy of painting the rail gun was not attached.  The spots where the rail gun will be glued, received blu tack as masking.  The suite was primed black and this was followed by a coating of Vallejo Arena Sand.   As the barrel of the rail gun was going to be painted black, this received minimal attention while air brushing the Arena Sand.

Small update this time. Working through painting a lot of blue.  The process was pretty much as per the test paint, except focusing on the blue before doing any other colour.