Speaking of Tau...

I have been painting my Tau lately, and with a tournament coming up on Saturday, I'm hoping that I'll have them all painted up in time. For now, here's how I'm painting up my Fire Warriors.

Pictures after the jump:


First, I prime them gray, then apply a heavy black wash:
















Then, I paint the cloth sections of the mini a bluish gray, shadow gray to be specific.
















After that, I hit the cloth with a dark blue wash.

















Not that you can really tell in these pictures.

Now I'm ready to apply the white paint. My friend Thomas showed me how to paint this on quick and dirty. The key is to simply tap the paint in along the edges of each surface. To illustrate this, I'll show you the shoulder pad in progress.















Here's the shoulder pad at the beginning. Note that it's divided into 4 planes, the top and bottom wedges, and the left and right sides.

I start by dabbing some whtie paint onto the top wedge:

















Next I fill in along the bottom wedge as well:
















I'm careful to keep the white paint only on the individual section I'm painting, to leave some darker colors to create the appearance of separate pieces of armor:
















By putting on white up to the edges, the black and gray lining still shows through, which gives the illusions of straight lines and evenly divided sections of composite armor. You can really see this on the Leg Armor:
















I also go in with a little red for accent. The same principle of creating the illusion of solid/straight lines by filling in the planes of each piece of armor helps to create a very distinct look.

I'm still experimenting with what I'll ultimately do for the gun. Right now I like painting the panels of the rifle in white and using another color for the top accent:
















I am thinking a metallic color, like a bronze would provide a nice contrast and help to make the rifle pop a little more.