The Tau Army

All of it set out and looking ok. I went with a Blue and Grey clean look. The idea is that this Cadre is a newly provisioned group that has been recently re-trained in the art of urban combat. The world they are fighting in is covered in vast blue silica deserts. Small outposts and cities dot the landscape, most of which are made of unadorned grey plascrete. Their color scheme should keep them hidden in the bombed out cities and emplacements as well as in the open stretches of desert.

Kroot

I have very few of the 28 or so Kroot painted. These guys come with a shaper that has moved their skin tone towards something that matches their partnered Tau cadre. I plan on setting some of these guys up for a cool Kill Team squad so I hope to do some conversion work. They won't win me many games I think, but they should look cool! Please note, these guys eat anything and anyone :) If you look close you can see a bit of Ork on a hook...

Gun Drones

Because every tau army needs them apparently :) Gun drones! They are easy to paint, and I did it as lazily as possible. PEW PEW PEW!

Crisis Suits

These are the cool Mech suits of the Tau army. The guy with two guns is my armies Commander (Or Shas'o if you will) and is armed with twin Plasma guns and a missile pod. The other unpainted one is sporting a similar setup, but with twin missile pods and a single plasma gun. The painted guy was the first Tau anything I painted and is sporting a converted (I'm not sure I like it, but is BIG) fusion blaster and shield generator.

Fusion Blaster Guy!

The goal of this unit is to close on vehicles using his shield as cover and get close to deal big hits with his melta twin linked Fusion Blasters.

Kroot

Lots of them. I have thought about painting them next several times, but the task is a bit daunting.

Kroot Shaper

A sort of shaman and leader of the Kroot. He is going to be the leader of my kill team and will likely have some conversion work done to him as well as a longer time in the painting process. I hope to make him look as good as possible, which probably means he'll be painted last so I have as much practice as possible before starting.

Fire Warriors Painted

So, this is my first unit of guys I ever painted. They came out, well, kind of crappy. I'm not worried about it though, as they'll spend their time in a transport or dying anyhow :)

The team leader with the helmet-less head was not meant to be. A tragic butterfingers accident broke and lost his original headgear so I had to use what was left to me in my bits box. Damned thing looks bad. Tau are supposed to be blue/grey in skin tone, so i had NO intention of showing their skin as it would look bad against the armor scheme of the army. So now my tau are black and charcoal grey. Oh, and they have green hair. You know, because I have green paint to burn.

Fire Warriors

The unpainted of the two fire warrior squads. This one is going to turn out better for sure as my initial spray coat is not so thick. They all also have the same gear loadout. I even did some modeling work with a few to make them look a little different.

Fire Warrior Reaching

I like to imagine he is reaching for some batteries for that gizmo he has in his left hand :) This was fun to do, I simply cut a grenade out of his palm, filled the scars from the knife with putty, cleaned it up as best I could, then glued his gun to his pack. I imagine the Tau use magnetic couplers for that sort of thing so its just stuck on straight with no retaining device.

Fire Warrior Recovering

This guy either had some trouble with his pack/power supply or is about to put it on. Not sure which. I had to cut his hand open a bit to get the pack set in there. It didnt pose "exactly" how I wanted it but was close enough. I had to fill a hole on his back with putty and he was done.

Pathfinder Squad

These guys are the forward scouts and infiltrators of the cadre. They specialize in lying in wait, looking for a perfect shot, or gathering intel on the enemy. I did them in browns and reds to show that they work best in the shadows and at night. I like their big contrasting cables going from their targeting systems to their helmets too. I also tried freehand painting for the first time, working the armies designator onto their shoulder pad. For vehicles and drones I used transfers, but the space was so small here I gave it a go. Its not the best but I'm satisfied with the result. For my first try its not the worst thing.

Snipers

The pathfinder team has a couple of snipers. I need one more though I think, but for now these two will do. I like the look of the railgun. Looks like it'll hurt something :)

Pathfinder Details

Here you can see my efforts at freehand painting on the shoulder as well as the wires going from gun to head. Oh, these guys also have a ton of static moss on their bases so I could hide how boring their feet were, and because they are supposed to be using cover and moving through shrubs and whatnot.

Devilfish

I have two of these who's purpose it is to move Firewarriors from place to place and Pathfinders to the front lines. I tried to do some drybrushing on one and it sucked hard. The clean look is much nicer I think. The gun drones come off and can mount in a flying base. One devilfish also has some seeker missiles on it which I think will be fun.

Both Devilfish

I did one fish with an openable hatch, the other with it permanently closed. I like it better perma closed I think. The reason one of these is not on a base is because I forgot it at my friend Jerad's house. Doh.

Hammerhead

The big hitter in my army! The Hammerhead grav-Tank sports a BIG ASS RAILGUN on its turret. Its big, it can shoot the entire length of the table, and damned if it didn't come out looking pretty good.

Hammerhead Frontview

The missile pods on the side were done in a bright orange color applied thick. I like the contrast and think all missiles should be alarmingly colored.

tau army 48.jpg

Hammerhead Again

Ok, last picture. I just finished painting this the other day and am very happy with how it turned out. The railgun colors are perfect for making you take notice. Love that railgun.

Stealth Squad

So, I didn't know how to paint some guys in a "shimmering mirage of colors and light" so I simply painted them darker than the rest of the army. Lazy, I know.

Broadside Dodge!

I love the broadside battlesuit models but felt that they were usually displayed in very boring poses. I hope that you'll agree that a giant mech with big ass guns on its shoulders dodging nimbly to the side is WAY cooler than simply standing there shooting stuff.

Broadside Anti-Air

He is either shooting an Imperial Guard fighter jet or a group of VERY unlucky jump marines. Either way I like to think that this guy just punched a hole in something big with his railguns and turned to the sky quickly to launch a volley of missiles at some poor airborne bastard.