Merrick's Tau Blog. Beware, sloppy painting within. :D

[Merrick]

Oh hai guys I made you some Tau.

Well, some early WIP shots of some Tau anyway.

A hour or so's painting, and voila.

[Minako]

Paiting is better than what i could manage, is it meant to be red, or orange?

[Merrick]

Red. Damn midnight lighting. Better images before too long.

[Merrick]

Wow. Threadomancy. I sure neglected this.









Now then, for those wondering what that thingamabob on the Commander's right arm is, it's my cyclic ion blaster conversion.



I didn't want to pay £18 for an extra metal part....

[Anubis]

Take your photos in natural light, these aren't doing you any favours

Your work could be easily improved with some practice using washes and highlighting.
It's relatively clean and the models aren't caked obscuring details, so the basics are there for you to work on. Don't be scared to try out new things with painting, it's the only way you will improve
I suggest you read thantos' articles on painting technique, you would be suprised how quickly you progress if you learn some new tricks as it were.
Keep up the good work.

[Narric]

I think you painting is very good

A tip on taking pictures. Take large ones from a distance, then crop them. Usually, more detail gets captured.

I like the CIB conversion. I take it this is an Out-of-the-Box army, with a few additions?

Are you doing a dual force army? Thats what I'm doing to

[Merrick]

Yay, a reply! 

My apologies on pictures.
I usually roam a forum where there is an auto-resizer, so completely forgot to resize these. I can assure you the quality is better when it's not so freaking large.

Thank you on the surprising comment that the painting is very good, as this is one of my usual efforts. 



I suppose the blue tones and flat surfaces help on the Devilfish.

And no, it's not a dual force army, I just wasn't happy with the initial red/white scheme, so I changed it. 

[Lord Zambia]

It might just be because the picture is so large, but your devilfish looks to have an awful lot of dust over it, same with the drones...a glass cabinet of some type is good for storing your recently painted models which you arent putting them in a case. Then just take out the models for the photoshoot and return them. No dust, no spring cleaning required

Otherwise, good painting, but try not to be too bland on the colours. I know when i first painted my Tau i had everything orange, with black and blue on the weapons. Recently i went over and redid the weaponry with some boltgun metal, purple, turquoise and aqua and its looking so much better. Try not to paint your plasma rifles all the same colour, put some cool brightish colours on the different parts. You can keep the constant blue/red whichever on your suit and spice up the weapons and it will look great.

As the others said, try something out - its the only way to get even better!

Zambia

[The Man They Call Jayne]

The thought occours that we have lots of what we do want to see, but with a few people distressed at the state of the WD SOBs, is there aything that we Really wouldn't want to see, that are possiblities?

Personally, im terrified that we're going to have another Tau -> Tau Empire fiasco.

[Meister Brony]

What I wouldn't want to see:

Giving all our Tau units Markerlight special abilities, that require markerlight hits to activate, still fired from a squishy Heavy 1 platform. In doing so, they nerf what markerlight abilities can do.

(OTOH, if markerlight hits can be generated on a D6 roll per turn, increased by pathfinders, that might be better.)

OR, they do a half-assed attempt at making us better in CC...

[GreaterGoodNewZealand]

For me, what I wouldn't want to see is the Ethereal as it is now, and I also concur with Meister Babylon's second point. A half-hearted attempt to make us better in close combat would, IMO, be absolutely awful.

[Enderwiggin]

I don't want to see Matt Ward's name anywhere near the codex.

I don't want us to suck, but I also don't want us fanwanked to hell and back.

Fluffwise I don't want us to lose even more ground than we have, or to have excessive fluff (beyond made-up ground).


Not asking for the moon and sky, just some incentive to play the army I spent mad monies on.

[The Man They Call Jayne]

The Tau race, should not be good in CC, hell you shouln't even be competant unless you're wedged into a 12ft Battlesuit. We have allies for that.

Markerlights shouldn't become Orders/Psychic Powers.

Crisis suits shouldn't become Tau Marines, each one should be a significant threat in its own right, rather than slightly glorified line troops.

[Walrus Man]

Codex creep and assorted fanwankery is inevitable, so I'll just settle for no more space pope.

[Charistoph]

What I would hate:

Ethereals being the only HQ.  Price of Failure is expanded to affect more units, and with a debuff to boot.

Crisis Suits only have access to one short-ranged weapon, much like Stealth Suits now, but are still only 1-3.

Stealth Suits will have their SFG changed to just Stealth.

Vehicle prices don't change, but the wargear goes up in price.

Kroot lose Fieldcraft, and the +1 Attack on their guns.

Vespid get more expensive, but have their I reduced and/or their gun nerfed.

Carbines are reduced to 12" range and lose Pinning, but stay 2-handed and one shot.  Pulse Rifles reduced to Bolters, Kroot Rifles reduced to lasguns.

Railguns get turned into Lascannons.  Ion Cannons become Autocannon.

Fire Warriors get their Carapace Armor reduced to Flak Armor.

Of course, that's just being paranoid...

[Meister Brony]

Codex creep and assorted fanwankery is inevitable, so I'll just settle for no more space pope.

Problem is, codex creep doesn't always happen. See: SoB WD :s

So true. See You Space Pope. :p

*is shot by Spike*

[salamut2202]

I don't want what happened to the Tyranid Warrior to happen the Crisis Suit. Heavy troops that gets too expensive when marginally effective? No thank you!

I also don't want to see ;

Heavy weapons other than the marker light given to troops.

Psykers which are not of an allied race.

Tau become more elite and better armed with their infantry (Space marine syndrome)

Tau become outnumbering in troops and realiant on vehicles (Imperial lard syndrome)

Tau become too mobile in a blitzkrieg style (Eldar syndrome)

"Written by Matt Ward"

Becoming good in combat (unless you're kroot or something)

[GreaterGoodNewZealand]

I don't want what happened to the Tyranid Warrior to happen the Crisis Suit. Heavy troops that gets too expensive when marginally effective? No thank you!

I also don't want to see ;

Heavy weapons other than the marker light given to troops.

Psykers which are not of an allied race.

Tau become more elite and better armed with their infantry (Space marine syndrome)

Tau become outnumbering in troops and realiant on vehicles (Imperial lard syndrome)

Tau become too mobile in a blitzkrieg style (Eldar syndrome)

"Written by Matt Ward"

Becoming good in combat (unless you're kroot or something)

Sorry if this seems stupid, but to clarify what you have said. First off, heavy weapons not being given to troops (other than markerlights), which I believe is how the tau's troop choices are now.

Psykers of an alien race - so no new race with psychic powers, but maybe something along the lines of an experiment to create psychically capable fire warriors or a piece of wargear allowing a unit to use psychic powers is what you would prefer?

Space marine syndrome, Imperial lard syndrome, Eldar syndrome and "written by Matt Ward" I understand.

And finally, instead of, say, creating a battlesuit specially equipped for CC, they make kroot better somehow or something like that?

[Raving Bonkers]

I agree to not wanting Tau being good in CC.

The biggest thing I would hate to see is a mass of alien ally units in the book. While the idea is cool and what not, I like and play Tau for the Tau. If there was to be an influx of other species I could see it being more Tau Empire winning matches but not the Tau themselves.

[Meister Brony]

I shall go against the grain by saying that I actually DO want "Written by Matt Ward", simply because that alone will ensure that the book is balanced against the other Matt Wardian spawn...