Taus on ThethVI

[le Mediko]

Hi!

Along with the imperial 2nd Selenia and the Sons of Vulcain SM chapter, I built a Tau army for my daughter.
Nobody knows why the Taus pay interest to the burned wastes of TethVI, but they send 3 different expeditionary corps on the planet : the Blue force, the Red force and the yellow one. Due to the climatic conditions, they suffer high losses and both fight now together.

Comparing with my IG, the Tau army was intended to be built with only minimal conversion work, and mostly a painting challenge using only two basic colors on each party and adding heavy weathering.
Stated three years ago, the army has growing up to 2000pts, but the plan is to push it to an Apocalypse size around 4000.

I Begin today with the last entry : the yellow force antigrav support :

The Hammerhead tank :









I hope you like it!

[warboss tweed]

i do like it, it's simple but good. the weathering on the yellow really does it.

[TimLeeson]

I agree with the above comment - its a simple yet very effective paint-scheme! look forward to seeing more.

[le Mediko]

Thank for comments!

Next step with the yellow force, there are the firewarrior : two squads yet supported with a defense drone. The defense drone is converted from a classical attack drone.






The yellow force is supported by two broadside, maybe the most heavily converted fig on the army :





I hope you like it!

[Xer0]

Love the Broadside. How hard was it to do the rail guns on the arms and the missiles on the shoulders?

[le Mediko]

One more step with the Kroots :





The unit is supported by two Krootox :







The yellow force will be soon reinforced with a Pirana squad.

I hope you like it!

[VolitsCitizen]

I LOVE all your logs, this is excellent, the red sand coloured kroot and the tau grav-tank markings are sooo good looking. I love the creativity and skill here.

[bravey]

These are painted very different from all the other Tau you see on the forums, but I REALLY like 'em! The weathering is excellent, could you post a tutorial?

[Asi the Red]

These are very nice!

I'd like to know what basing method you use, it looks exactly like what I want to achieve - except that it actually gets there...

[le Mediko]

Thanks a lot for comments!

Regarding the fading and battered effect on the vehicles, I is very similar technic the one I use on my IG. The basic fortress grey is shadowed with a black wash, then drybrushed with different mixes of Fortress grey/bleached bones and skull white (but never pure white!) using a very soft brush. On the blue areas, I lightened the color only at the places I will add grey patches for damages. Strangely, it seems better to use a darker grey (codex grey) to paint the patches.

About the Broadsides, I converted the original figs more than I planned at the very beginning.
Legs are longer than the original GW (I used an old crisis for the job) cause I thought the original fig is a bit to short for such a heavy weapon. I enforced them with hydraulics jack in order to make the fig more impressive.

About the main weapon, it was not a big problem to fit them on each arm, it just needs to drill holes on it and add metallic wire to make the fitting stronger. The original metallic LR arms are inverted and fitted on the reactor's side.

Here are some "in progress" pics to help :

[fluffy05]

Tau are difficult to get a colour scheme that works. In this case I think you have done it extremely well!

Thanks for the idea

[Tokamak]

I love the colour scheme,

though isn't it a bit depressing having to paint what used to be a grey plastic model, grey again?

[le Mediko]

Thank Fluffy05!

To answer Tokamak, The grey scheme is a bit frustrating, you're right, but It was an evident choice to me as I wanted to use a specific contrasting colors for each squadron. The grey is neutral enough to pass with either Yellow, blue and red.

Another yellow unit today : I've built a Pirana even if my daughter doesn't use this unit very often, because I DO like it. I've done minimal conversion on it, moving the rear spans.









I hope you like it

[fluffy05]

How did you get such a nice bright yellow on the models?

What colour do you use to undercoat the model?

Love the Piranha

[le Mediko]

Hi Fluffy05

I always use white undercoat for my models. About the Yellow, the first coat is made with Bleached bone, then three coats with Sunburst yellow. The figs are painted with a mix of Sunburst and Golden to provide some contrast.

[Hammer49]

Your tau look very good. THe weathering on the vehicles look very good!
Look forward to seeing more

[le Mediko]

Thank you very much!
I try to add some more pics tomorrow!

[Commander Zane]

personly i like the grey used on your tau cause as you said it contrasts well with other colours better.

what have you got in mind next?

[le Mediko]

Thank you!

The next fig will be the commander.
I didn't want to make extensive conversion, and I allready got the O'Shova fig I havn't painted because we don't use special characters.

O'Shova will eventually be transformed into a regular Tau commander changing her head against another one taken from de commander box.





Even maybe too simple conversion, I like how the new design fit, even if the fig is a bit small to present a commander. I cut the right weapon to allow some change and I would do the same for the left arm.

[le Mediko]

The commander eventually finished and painted.
As she is not as impressive as the other battlesuits, I use a slightly higher base end. The idea of adding a personal banner comes to the japanese taste I always found in the Taus army : in my own point of view, individual battlesuits warriors are close to samourai, fighting along with more conventional firewarriors.




Personal escort drones are painted in the very same color scheme :



Weapons are made mobile to provide some versatility in the battlefield. The banner could be removed too, but is is more to protect the fig during transport!



I hope you like it!