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One small painting step for man... Pirahna and Camouflage The first was a pattern used on an Eldar Warwalker. It was a stippled pattern of black and blue, that gave a dirty, sort of scattered effect. I'd have to modify the colors to fit my scheme, but it looked pretty interesting and not too hard to do. Eventually, though, I decided it looked too "dirty" and wouldn't fit well with the rest of my army.
The second was a much more blended stipple pattern. It was used on a Leman Russ Tank and the smooth look was quite nice. Although I thought I could probably use the technique and it would look pretty good, I eventually went with a different choice. It was a close race, but I finally decided on a crisper, clearer technique to go with my (hopefully) crisp, clear Tau.
The final choice was actually an infantry model (Cadian Imperial Guard, to be precise) not a vehicle at all. It used an angular and irregular breakup pattern that managed to look crisp while still looking like effective camouflage. While I hemmed and hawed between this one and the smoother stipple pattern, I eventually chose this one because of the sharp lines on it.
After priming the Pirahna and removing the Gun Drones, I began painting little random starlike shapes onto the Pirahna. I tried to put some of them across different angles of the airframe, and across changes in armor plating and such, given that camouflage is supposed to "break-up" the shape of the vehicle. After a little bit, I found it was easier to draw the internal lines of the star (ie, start at the center and make a series of lines radiating out that would be the tips of the star. Then I would go back and fill in the outline. That kept my breakup pattern a little less regular. I used Lightning Blue for this step, matching the "blue-lining" I did on the FireWarriors and Crisis Suits. After that was completed, I went back and outlined each one in black. Partly this helped the stars to stand out and look more crisp, and partly it helped straighten out some lines that had gotten a little wonky when I painted them. (Any wonky black lines were then touched up with a bit of white or blue paint.)
Then I turned my attention to the Gun Drones and the crew. These were painted in a fashion already described in my previous articles, so I won't bore you with the details. One complication was trying to paint the crew in their seats. Fortunately, one of them hadn't been as well glued down during assembly, so that one was taken out to paint, which also gave me a little more room to paint the other one. The final step on the Pirahna will be to put the stands on it and the Gun Drones. I didn't want to do that during painting as it's very hard to keep paint off those clear flying stands. The final Crisis Suit
I used a different brush when doing the blue-lining this time, and it gave a bigger paint patch. This meant my initial pass with it gave me a very sloppy look. (You can see this in the picture above.) Instead of going back to the narrower brush, I decided that I'd simply fix it in the touch-up phase of painting. The touch-up phase is one that is often overlooked by miniature painters. I would hazard a guess that most of the better painters use it on a regular basis, but they rarely talk about it, because it is sort of automatic to them. As you can see in the above picture, the blue lines were very sloppy. Sometimes wide, sometimes wavy, not in quite the right spot. I went back over the model with Skull White and touched up all the lines. Since the bulk of the model is white, it only matters if the side touching the blue is straight, so I concentrated on that. There were a few areas that were so sloppy I had a hard time making out the details of just exactly where the blue was _supposed_ to be. In those situations I used a technique akin to dry-brushing. I wiped most of the paint off the brush and gently flicked it back and forth over the area. In this way, it just hit the high areas and didn't go into the recesses (which was where I wanted it to stay blue.) While that didn't give me the white color I was looking for, it made it easier to see the gaps so that I could paint right up to the edge for a much crisper look. As a note, while I painted this model, I used a previous Crisis Battlesuit model as a reference point to make sure I didn't miss anything or paint something in a different way. Often I would hold the reference model in the same hand I was holding the current model, so I could see the reference without having to put anything down or look away.
After the touch-up phase was complete, I went back and did the now-familiar steps of adding black in areas that would be rubber or plastic (as opposed to ceramic, metal or composite like armor would be) and Shining Gold on a few details, then adding some Blood Red accents and lens flare to the optics. A last bit of touch-up, and then I went over it with the Matte Varnish spray that I used on the others. This protects the paintjob from chipping or scratching and it also dulls the shine down. While I sometimes like the look of shiny models, I think it really helps this army stand out and look cleaner and crisper. So, I've completed the initial segment of my Tau army, the Combat Patrol force. Technically, the force has some points leftover (since Asi the Red caught my error and I adjusted from a Shas'El to a Shas'Vre) but I'll play it as-is now while I puzzle over what to do with the remaining points. I'll also keep going on adding more Tau to my "painted" list so that I've got more options available! If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |
