The Dead Tau Project (An Eldar Army Log)

[nix]

So I have begun a bit of work on my new project, and I even came up with an appropriate name! "The Dead Tau Project" will be my primary modeling and painting project for 40K in 2008. Prior to the release of Eldar in 4th edition I had an elder army that I had assembled and not painted much of. I really enjoyed playing with it and when the new elder came out I put it away until I could buy the new models and figure out which way I wanted to go. In the interim I built a Tyranid army for my home case (~2K mixed) and also assembled and painted a complete WHFB Dwarf Army (2250 points) because I just got hooked on putting them together. Now I am headed back to my largest project yet and assembling my future Eldar army.

So this is to get my thoughts straight for the project as well as an initial update. I put the overall list at the bottom in case you want to take a look. An interesting note is with just straight models if I field everything, this army will be about 3700 points. The stats come out to approximately 19 units with a model count of 103. My plan is to customize all pieces of this army, even if it is just to add appropriate Tau Debris and bodies to the bases. As a matter of fact, the majority of the personalization and customization for this army will be on the bases and the incorporation of Tau bits. Overall, I am least looking forward to working with the 5 Grav Tanks as I have never assembled or painted vehicles.

So, couple notes about the army. First, it is a Biel-Tan Swordwind army, so lots of aspects and no guardians. This means no Grav Platforms and no Guardians on Bikes. It also means I am not planning on putting together any Vipers for the army. I do have a Viper kit from the Army box, so this could change in the future but I doubt it as I am not a big fan of the look of the Viper. I may add in some Shining Spears at a later date, but they are not in the plan for now.

Second, I am modeling the army based on the concept that the Eldar are in conflict with the Tau at the moment. This means I am using Tau bits on the bases and thus the explanation for the Project Name. I will be using the basic desert Tau theme from the codex, and will likely be focusing on fire-warriors for my bits. I want to get a couple Crisis suits for some of the bigger bases (War Walkers, Wraithlord, possibly the Avatar). I am also playing with the idea of making bases for the Grav Tanks and using some wrecked piranhas or devilfish for those bases.

Third, the color scheme I am planning to use is to stick to the Codex Aspect Colors, but somehow denote their allegiance to the Biel-Tan Craftworld as well (Green and White). The Warp-Spiders have green gems and their Death-Spinners are green in color. There is also a variety of small ribbons and on their legs and waists because I am using the guardian sprue to scratch build them. These ribbons and such will be white and green for the craftworld. I am not sure what I am going to do for the Farseer, Warlocks, War Walkers, or Grav Tanks. Planned color-schemes for the rest are as follows:

* Power Weapons – light blue and white "classic" color scheme
* Firedragons – TBD, I want something a little darker than the standard Orange and Yellow
* Banshees – Classic bone armor, Red Helmet Mane, Green+White Tabards
* Scorpions – Green Armor, Black and yellow Ribbing
* Wraithguard – Green Body, White Head
* Dire Avengers – Blue Armor, considering Green and White Crests, Green +White Tabards
* Pathfinders – White Armor, Green helmets, Brown and White cloaks inspired by "Chrono" on his Eldar Blog (http://warseer.com/forums/showthread...=106345&page=4)
* Swooping Hawks – Light Blue and White (not sure how to denote Craft World Affiliation)
* Warp Spiders – Red Armor, White Shoulder/Knee Guards, Black Jump Generator, Green Gems, Green Death Spinners
* Dark Reapers – Black and Purple (not sure how to denote Craft World Affiliation)
* Wraithlord – Green body White head, like the Wrait guard
* Avatar – Molten and Cracked, like the LoTR Balrog.

So, I did complete my test model for the scratch-built Warp Spiders. The test model was scratch built and put on a plain flocked base, no added bits. I painted it up in the colors I will use and it does not look to bad. This pretty much means I will be putting my Warp Spider unit together first. (See Below)

I was inspired (heavily) to scratch build my Spiders by "Dark Apostle" on the Warseer forums in his "Winter Themed Eldar" thread (http://warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=93276).

I have also completed assembling my first base including some stones, sand, and 1 dead fire-warrior. (See Below) I am gluing together the Spider for the base and will base and paint everything when completed. This first complete model will really prove out if this will be worth doing for the rest of the army. Needless to say, I have high hopes.

So the list I have so far is going to look something like this:

HQ
1 Avatar (Forgeworld)
1 Autarch with jump pack, mandi-blasters, fusion gun, Power weapon
1 Farseer with swords
3 Warlocks with swords

Elite
5 Firedragons plus 1 Exarch
4 Harliquins with Kisses plus 1 Shadow Seer plus 1 Troupe Master
9 Howling Banshees plus 1 Exarch with mirror swords
9 Striking Scorpions plus 1 Exarch with Scorpion claw
5 Wraithguard

Troops
9 Dire Avengers plus Exarch with Twin-Catapults
9 Dire Avengers plus Exarch with Twin-Catapults
5 Pathfinders

Fast Attack
9 Swooping Hawks plus 1 Exarch with sunrifle
9 Warp Spiders plus 1 exarch with twin Spinners and Power blades

Heavy
4 Dark Reapers plus 1 Exarch with Tempest Launcher plus 1 Exarch with Shurican Cannon
2 Falcon Grav Tanks
1 Wraithlord with Sword and Bright Lance
3 War Walkers with Shurican Cannon and Scatter Laser

Misc
3 Wave Serpent Grav Transports with Twin-linked Missile Launchers

[Fable]

To denote craftworld I do two things. One is I use a unifying color to the non-armor plate parts of the Aspects (I do ulthwe so black is the unifying color). I also paint any sashes, tassles or loinclothes with the two tone craftworld colors, usually two stripes of bone white going across black.

The tassles are a good way of showing the eldar use the flair on their armor and weapons as a way of denoting unity rather than individuality.

[Bregalad]

Humiliating one single opponent is not what I call a good army theme, but tastes differ.

This is especially strange, since in most campaigns Tau and Eldar fight on the same side (some even think the Eldar steered the Tau development and genetically engineered the ethereals to have an ally resistent to Chaos).

[nix]

A quick update while I am waiting on the glue to dry on the model. I have completed my first coats on the dead Tau base and mounted the partially assembled spider on top. The paint is a little sloppy, so I will have to work on that. I think it will work on the base, since I have to glue over the model. I will be able to go back and touch up the model after painting the spider.

Saw the comments and I have some thoughts, but will have to post those later. I am aiming to complete this model today and get some pictures done to see how it looks.

Here are the current pics.

[Dark Apostle]

Nice warp spider!

[nix]

Ok, so I completed the first model. Below are a set of pictures, comments and critique welcome.

Overall I am fairly satisfied with how it looks. Now to put together 8 more bases for the basic Warp Spider squad. I am going to leave the exarch until last, although I have some ideas for the base already.

Also, some responses to previous posts:

Dark Apostle - Thanks! Your post is great and your Spider models were certainly inspiring!

Bregalad - I guess humiliation is really going to come down to how good my paint job is. As for where the idea came from, I play an awful lot of Tau in my area. I also have a Tyranid army with a variety of dead marines ( marines are modeled after another army in the area) in the middle of combat with the Nids. This has been a well received army modification, so I took the idea a bit further with my new Eldar army. I expect this will be received in the same fashion.

From a Fluff Standpoint, I imagine that should a Tau expedition army begin to intrude on exodite worlds or such, Biel-Tan would be one of the first to send a "Disciplinary Force" against them, regardless of how guided the Tau development has been by Eldar.

Fable - Thanks for the advice/confirmation. I tried some green and white on the ribbons on the spider, I am going to have to work on my technique as I am still a little unsure how it came out.

[sigur]

Hi there!

Things I would suggest:
.) Thin down your paints. This is essential. It makes the paintjob look less chunky and cleaner. The paint might not cover just as good but whatever - several layers of colour are always to be preferred over one thick layer.

.) What kind of brushes are you using? It looks a bit like you're having a hard time keeping a proper tip. Maybe you can find some hints here.
.) crop your pictures. They are just way too big for the stuff you actually want to show.

.) Kudos to you for doing freehands on your miniatures. Just try to get some training in brush control. Go ahead doing as many runes as you like; they never will turn out wrong, it's all training. Try going for a few lines of heavily thinned-down paint and then build it up.

.) Maybe you can try shading the white parts a bit by either applying a darker wash after the white layers and then neatening up the whole thing again with white or by using a darker base colour and leaving out the recesses when painting the white.


This is quite a lot of Eldar to paint; looking forward to future updates!

[nix]

Thanks for the suggestions Sigur. I noticed as I browsed through the pictures that I need to thin the paint out. It was not as easy to see just painting, but the camera has always pulled out those types of flaws....

For shading the white, I am currently base coating with the Astronomicon Grey foundation paint then going back over and layering in Skull White. Is there a better transition that will make this smoother or should thiner layers even this out?

As for the brushes, I do almost all my painting with the GW fine detail brush. I will check out the link provided and see if that helps.

[Maki]

What you need Nix is more pie.

That's all.

Everything else is perfect.

[nix]

Holy crap it’s been a hell of a month. I just realized it’s been a damn month since I posted on the blog, which also (sadly) means it’s been a month since I crafted! Life sure has a way of screwing up a good plan!
So, this is a crafting log, which means you’re probably not overly interested in my personal life. I have not given up on the blog or on modeling and assembly of the mighty Eldar force. I have essentially been swamped with work, wife, kids, and more work and kids. It is my intention to get back on track this month (holy crap its February), but there will be some things slowing me down.
Biggest delay will be two trips over the next two weeks. These trips are for work and put a crimp in my crafting time. Once they are over (and possibly on the weekend in between) I should be back to crafting and posting some pictures.
Next up on the project list is 8 bases with various Tau bits on them. I listened to an interesting discussion on “Epic Bases” on the Drop Pod Cast podcast and their comments mirrored my thoughts. While I am happy with the modeling (needs a better paint job) of the existing Spider, it has a whole lot going on with the base. I will be scaling the bases back on the next 8 to something a bit simpler. Then, I have some good ideas for the Exarch, which will be in an epic style similar to the current Spider.
Anyway, keep your eyes on the project log, as I expect to be back in action soon.

[nix]

Below is the update on the recent project work I have gotten done. I assembled some bases and bodies, and also started to look at assembling my Exarch.

Here are the bases. Dead Tau parts bits everywhere. I will be base coating and painting these up, then coating the entire base with sand. The aim is to have the Sand cover the Green Stuff and make it look like the bits are partially buried in the sand. I am worried about the base in the bottom left corner. This base uses one of the resin pieces from the 40K basing kit and the resin did not seem to sink as far into the green stuff as I had thought when I set it to dry.



Ok, onto the bodies. This gives a good picture of how I am constructing the spider bodies. I pin Guardian bodies with no backpack onto the Spider carapace (Warp Jump Generators). I then Super Glue them together and will pin the bodies to the legs before using some plastic glue at the waist. I just realized when I was taking the pictures that I am 1 spider short. It’s back to the bits bucket to find the missing spider carapace!





And last we have a picture of the partially assembled Exarch. I have been looking at several ideas for the power blades, and finally decided to go a bit different from others. I am using the Mirror Blades from the new Banshee Exarch, which I think will look pretty good. The arms will pin into the sockets, while the dual Death Spinners will pin below, just above the waist. I have some green stuff to clean up with my hobby knife. For this model I used the Autarch Backpack, which leaves some large gaps between the backpack and the guardian body. These gaps need to be filled with green stuff after the pieces are pinned to help with stability.
The Exarch will be on a slightly larger base with a Tau Stealth Suit he has just sliced in half. I usually end up hunting stealth suits with my spiders (similar movement) against my regular opponent, so I thought this was somewhat fitting! I did not get a good picture of the base, so this will have to wait until after the painting process.



Well, there things are. I am headed back out on travel this week so will not be updating again until after I return. On a side note, I will be in Atlanta for my next couple trips and looking to try and get some WHFB games in with my Dwarfs. I am bringing 1000 points of Dwarfs, so if you’re in Atlanta send me an email if you’re interested in playing!

[Triggerdog]

those spiders are schweet as candy. and I like the dead Tau schtick because its Tau and they deserve to be displayed as fodder and trophies.

[Dark Apostle]

The spiders are comming along nicely. It will be interesting to see the exarch fully assembled.

[nix]

Unbelievable as it may seem, I have returned from the lands of WHFB and Dwarves. On top of that, I have returned with my assembled and painted Warp Spider Exarch!

So here are pictures of my Exarch. If you look back in the log you can see the layout prior to construction and painting. I noticed once I took the pictures that I have some touching up to do, but overall this is how he looks. I always notice little dings when i take pictures.

Keep in mind, the goal is just slightly past table quality.









I still have to mount him on a base. He will be mounted on some rocks slightly above a crouching Tau looking at its marker light. The pose should set the Exarch just about to strike with his power blades.

[daemonkin]

Great posing on the exarch but thin down your paints and take your time to apply an even coat on your models. Combine the foundation paints with the new washes to produce great and quick results.

D.

[nix]

I am looking forward to working with the new washes, but have not gotten my order yet. I have it tied up with my pre-ordered 5th edition... sigh.

Thank you for the feedback, I am still working to find the right mix for thinning my paints. Once I finally find the correct mix I am going to have to mix an entire pot of the colors I am using.

[nix]

No washes or air-brush yet, but I did get the base for the Exarch completed and everything assembled. Here is the Exarch on base.

C&C welcome.

[nix]

So we have gone nearly a month and a half between updates. I plan on making this better, but I realize I have been saying that since the beginning of the year. On a positive note, I have finally completed my first full squad, and I believe this is the most difficult squad I will have. The Warp Spiders are complete.

Here is a "Table Top" quality picture of the complete squad. I tried to take the picture from far enough back that they will look similar to how it would look on the table.



Here is the same picture with more focus on the Exarch:



And here with more focus on the squad



I am moving onto my next project with this army, which should bring me up to the point where I can play some Combat Patrol missions. My blog has more detail on my progress, but for those just following along on Warseer, here is a teaser:

[nix]

Monthly updates? I certainly need to get more work done on these!

Ok, onto my Avengers and Stage 2. My intention was to use the airbrush to lay down a solid base then a wash on all 18 avengers. The goal here would be to get good definition, be able to quickly go back and do some highlighting, and get some great looking models. Unfortunately, the shortcut did not work all that well. After looking over the dried result, there was no true definition between the depths and the ridges, it just looked like the air-brushed wash stained the entire model darker.

Overall, the darker color is not a bad thing. I chose to paint on a brighter blue to the armor plates, leaving the darker blue plus wash as a shadow.

So, I have now completed the bases (painted, highlighted, flocked), mounted teh Avengers, and painted the armor and armor plates. Still to do:
Helmets
Crests
Tabards
Gems and decoration
Add Arms and Guns
Paint Arms and Guns
Build Exarchs

Now to the pictures!

Here are the Avengers from a "Table Top" Distance.



Now a closer look at the 18. First picture is 12 from the left, while the second picture overlaps and shows 9 from the right.





A quick look at some of the bases in the rear.



Comments and Critique welcome.

[nix]

And I am back with another update. As always, please see my blog (linked in the signature) for more in depth information, additional pictures, and such.

So, I have put some work into one of the Avenger Exarchs, gluing him and priming him black. He will be holding a Tau Fire Warrior out in front of him. The following picture has the arm and Tau resting in place, but not glued together. I will be painting them separately to get better detail.



Now back to the Avenger Squads. Here are some Table Top distance pictures of the 2 squads plus one picture of both squads from the back.

Squad 1



Squad 2



Back Shot



Comments always welcome!