Archive for August 9th, 2009

I did end up going a week over, but I finished my July painting project – my unit of Tau Pathfinders. They’re still not complete, as I need to base and seal them, but the actual painting is complete. Technically, I do need to finish their Devilfish, but it’s technically tournament legal (i.e., three colors) and is in the detail stage, so it should be done this week. This project did mark my first time using GW’s Foundation Paints, and I will say that they give very solid coverage. I’d be happier with a wider and/or brighter range of colors, but I don’t think that the same opacity would be available from lighter pigments. As is, I had to build up my colors in layers to get the look I wanted to achieve.

The armor started out with a basecoat of Knarloc Green foundation, topped with Goblin Green (Vallejo), and then highlighted with Scorpy Green (Vallejo). The clothing portions were basecoated in Adeptus Battlegrey, with progressive highlights of Dark Bluegrey and Cold Grey. Finally, the shas’ui‘s helmet was done in Mechrite Red, layered with Red Gore, and highlighted with Blood Red. Armor gaps were mostly colored with a Sakura 005 Micron Pen; however, I also played around with some Devlan Mud wash, especially around the shas’ui‘s neck, where the gaps were too small even for a pen. I’m mostly happy with the effect, although I generally prefer the sharper lines that the micron pen provides.

Other than finishing up the Devilfish this coming week, I’ll also be starting on August’s painting project. This month, I’m finishing a Hammerhead with a railgun. It’s already basecoated in Knarloc Green (thanks to my spray gun), and I’m planning on keeping that as the primary color of the tank (as opposed to my Devilfish, which is in Goblin Green). That should get me to my goal of having approximately 1000 points of Tau finished before the end of the summer. Of course, in the meantime I’ll also be assembling and priming my Chaos army, which is now finally completely stripped of paint and ready to start life over.