[Project Log] T'au Kill Team

[Restayvien]

As promised, here's the project log for my new T'au Kill Team. It's a jungle/forest/swamp themed force vaguely based on the aesthetic of MGS3, so I'm going for a relatively gritty, 'realistic' paint scheme. I'm not too good with weathering etc, so I've gone for earthy colours and subtle highlights to achieve this.

The kit:

1 Pathfinders
1 XV25 Stealth Battlesuits
1 Darkstrider
2 Drones
Jungle bases (not pictured)



I've decided to use a colour scheme I found on YouTube, at least as a starting point - Raptors Camouflaged Power Armour.

To summarise:

- Black undercoat (they use grey in the video)
- Castellan Green basecoat
- Recesses and lines picked out with Nuln Oil
- Highlighted with Straken Green
- Fine highlights with Ogyn Camo

Here are the drones so far. Final highlights not yet done, and 'antennae' still to be added to most of them:





Here's a close-up of one of the gun drones. Despite my best efforts I missed some flash - I'm torn between leaving it as it is, or painting it as dirt (it is a jungle force after all):



I haven't done much more since taking these photos. My jungle bases arrived, and I've assembled the Pathfinder Sniper with a Rail Rifle. I have attempted to paint the lenses of one of the drones with a glowing effect based on the drone in this video, only red/orange instead of blue. Sadly it hasn't come out that great, but the link in the description of the video to the tutorial that shows you how to achieve the effect is missing.

Updates to follow!

[Narric]

Looking great so far Res!!

[Restayvien]

Thanks Narric 

Ok, here's the Pathfinder sniper specialist Shas'len'ra. Nothing much to see here yet, though he's resting on an unpainted jungle base. I wish they left more room for feet. It's going to make it tricky to stop him from looking like he's floating above the foliage. I wanted him to look at though he was actually lining up a shot - surprisingly tricky to do with this model. I didn't think I could get him looking right down the barrel without chopping the model up, and I didn't want to risk ruining it, so he's either about to take a shot, or surveying the damage from one he just made!



I haven't assembled the finecast (my flatmate referred to it as a 'failcast') model of Darkstrider yet. He was a pain to remove from the sprue as there was so much flash that was almost indistinguishable from legitimate parts of the model. This guy will represent Pathfinder Shas'ui Ukos (aka 'Spoon'). I decided to use the Darkstrider mini instead of a regular Shas'ui model because it looked more unique (fitting for Kill Team) and had optics which seemed appropriate for a sniper's spotter. I haven't decided yet whether to use the elevated T'au ruin base or one of the jungle bases. I had to remove the 'pins' on his feet as the bad cast made them useless for mounting on the supplied base.



The recon drone. It's not yet fully assembled because certain parts of it will be really hard to paint if it's glued together. I wanted to get the paint scheme and any lighting effects down before I painted this larger drone where any mistakes will stand out more.



My first attempt at 'ambient lighting' on the markerlight was a bit of a disaster. I think I'm going to paint over this and maybe just go with the traditional gem effect for these, unless I can find a decent tutorial for painting ambient light (that's not too difficult).


I'm a bit happier about how the effect turned out on the drone lenses. It's not quite finished - I might add brighter orange/yellow highlights.




Let me know if you have any suggestions re: the lights (or anything else)!

[Cammerz]

I've not watched the video you linked to, but I've found that a thin layer of 'Ard Coat onto lenses gives a nice gloss effect so it looks a little more real.

I've painted red lenses myself and my scheme for them is; Mephiston Red as a base, Evil Sunz Scarlet over most of it, leaving the top right corner clear, Blazing orange (I've not got a newer replacement yet) at the bottom left corner, then a drop of White Scar at the top right. Cover the entire thing with 'Ard Coat and I'm very pleased with the result.