Cadre of Mesme Ukos Refresh

Here is Squad 2. I finally found some Toms to get these done, thanks to a day case foot op where I could enjoy my time waiting painting up some Tau…

Wow, that went by so fast!

So, in May I went from being a full time Mum to being a working Mum, so time has been even shorter than usual. Despite not updating for far too long I have managed to squish in some pairing time.

Updates to follow!

I finally finished undercoating the bottom half of my Tiger Shark Bomber.

I have the drone bomber version. The drones have had paint on for years, although I only recently decided on their final colour-way and refreshed them as part of my spring clean challenge.

I would have loved a Manta, but never quite had the several thousand quid spare to drop on it. I bought my Tiger Shark back when I was at Uni, and decided my student loan payments were clearly there for crazy purchases rather than food….

The Tiger Shark has been my ‘maybe one day I’ll be good enough to paint it’ model. Too scared to try in case I ruined it. Getting involved in the spring clean challenge made me realise, I’ll never believe I’m skilful enough to paint it, so I should just get stuck in and enjoy painting it!

The cockpit is made so it can slide off and open up.

I really want to leave it so it can be opened but I don’t know how to protect the paint so sliding it on and off will do the least amount of damage? Any handy tips?

Also should I leave the pilots so they can come out of the seats or glue them in?

So an in an unexpected twist I won a little prize!

I decided what better way to use my voucher than on basing supplies for these lot.

Of course I had to drag out the basing supplies I already have and pull together my ideas.

Inspired by the original trees and basing colours I used on my diorama & original pathfinders I found all the bits I still have from way back when.

Next I searched up some inspiration for what their planet might look like.

Then I had some fun shopping for extra bits & I’m now ready for my final step of basing the army!

….. Well, almost. I have to finish painting everyone first…..

These guys have been creeping along. From pure black to full colour, they took me ages but I love them!
These are my forgeworld battlesuits XV84, XV81 & two XV89’s and Shas’O R’myr (the purple guy) is the squad leader.

Looking at everything that made it back to the cabinet painting gives me a real glow. It’s so nice to have the kick and drive to be finishing off without getting distracted.

I know the spring clean challenge is officially over but I don’t think I can stop now….

so this is now my ‘countdown to new year’ challenge. Let’s see if I can finish them all off before December ends!

Besides, I really need to know just how many bottles of paint it takes to finish the army & just how many more than I needed I ended up panic buying when the paint range changed….

So, back in the aeons and deluge of time I decided I needed to buy as much paint of my army colours when  they announced they would be switching to a new paint range.

I figured I’d need plenty so I could finish everyone and be all set when the time came.

I have made it to the end of the challenge using up a grand total of………………………………………………………………………………………….

2 paints. One vomit brown and one red gore!

Last but not least. The aircraft!
I really want to do a good job on these and have been anxious about my lack of painting skill. They are likely to be one of the last things I paint in a vague hope I’ll suddenly and miraculously become an amazing painter overnight.

Given the near 20 years wait I doubt it’s happening anytime soon so I may as well paint them 🙂

So many suits, so little time…

There’s still a few left to paint but I can’t wait to see how they look when I finally finish them!

Undercoated and ready to go, the tanks have been patiently waiting alongside as I painted my way through other items. Receiving a coat here and a coat there in between the smaller fry.

While they take awhile to paint they look lovely once done, so I’ll keep on keeping on 🙂

So, here we are at the end of the Spring Clean Challenge and it’s been so much fun!

I have decided that I’m going to continue on with the Tau and keep updated this blog for fun 🙂 as it has helped me to keep my motivation.

Here is my round up of where I’ve got to at the challenge deadline.

Battlesuit progress at the end of the line….

My battlesuits are shaping up nicely. Still work to be done but I am pleased that I managed to get as far as I have.

It seems I showed you all the stealth suits going into the cabinet but completely forgot to add their update entry. Most of the team were painted years ago, but I had three suits, a drone & a marker still black.

I checked & dusted the painted guys, I must say I love the Shadowsun model with these guys.

The three black ones were treated to their paint jobs. A base layer of vomit brown. Various panels picked out in the red gore & blood red. Weaponry has silver in the mix. My favourite part of the stealth suits is my camo pattern of all the veins. In my head the pattern is actually a fancy tech display that fuzzes and makes the Tau invisible. I’m thinking electromagnetic meets green screen type tech.

I also updated all the drones to have the veins on the lids.

Shadowsun gets added purple as she’s a commander.