When I first started on painting my Tau army, I came to an early and disappointing realization: my freehand skills were not up to snuff when it came to painting Fire Warrior armor. More specifically, I had issues with painting the individual plates and leaving the gaps visible. I tried a number of techniques – freehanding each plate, drybrushing the plates over black, and using ink washes on the gaps – and none of them gave me the quality I wanted or the speed I needed. Fire Warriors are rank-and-file figures; to get them up to tabletop quality in a reasonable time, I needed to find a different way of going about things.

That’s when I remembered a tool that I’d purchased for another set of miniatures, but had never tried. A few years earlier, I’d been painting D&D miniatures for a friend, and I read about a technique for doing tattoos that involved using colored micron pens for fine detail work. I picked up a set of Zig Millennium 005 pens, and then promptly forgot all about them as no one with tattoos was needed. Fast forward to mid-2007, and I had a squad of Fire Warriors with a bunch of tiny gaps that needed precision detail. Taking a chance, I pulled out a base-coated Fire Warrior and went to work. I was very pleased with the results.

My first inked Fire Warrior

The work was quick, easy, and very precise. Better yet, the pens worked equally well for coloring the lines on everything from Gun Drones to Crisis Suits to Devilfishes. Since then, I’ve sworn by the pens, and I keep a full set around in my painting kit. I mostly use black, but I’m holding onto the other colors (blue, green, and red) just in case the opportunity for a tattoo or the like presents itself.

Some things to know about micron pens:

• There are a variety of nib sizes on the pens, ranging anywhere from 08 (0.65mm) to 005 (0.20mm). For miniature work, I recommend the 005; much larger than that, and the tip won’t fit in the small gaps between armor plates. For tanks like the Devilfish and Hammerhead, you might try an 01 (0.25mm) or even an 03 (0.35mm), but an 005 works just fine with an additional pass.
• The ink is archival quality, so it should not fade over time. It’s also waterproof, so it shouldn’t run if you use a wash on the figure.
• The ink remains wet for a brief time after applying, so if you go outside the lines (and it will happen), you can just rub off the excess with a paper towel, or even with your thumbtip.
• The best micron pens come out of Japan, but can usually be found at most hobby or art supply stores. I recommend the Zig Millennium and Sakura Pigma Micron sets of pens.

For achieving a clean, sharp look on your Tau models, or on any models with thin detail lines, give a micron pen a try. They’re fast, easy to use, and provide good results.