Cadre of Mesme Ukos Refresh

1. Squad 3 needed more tlc. I gave them a good dust off but wasn’t as gentle as I thought…. So after a quick touch up on the paint, and removing the old basing material on the flying suit the making the base black I then reattached the antennae and foot that is managed to dust off the poor suit. I think flying guy might be quite cross with me!

Dusted, minor imperfections touched up on the paintwork and ready for a photo shoot. Battlesuit squad 2 are done and dusted & back away in the cabinet.

Battlesuit squad 1 just needed a dust off and a photo shoot. Off they go back into the cabinet.

The Tiger Shark bomber came with 14 drones. I originally painted the drones with a blue centre but staring at them on the table with everything else made me regret this choice.

So I decided to change them up.

First I tried vomit brown directly over the blue but it didn’t look right. So I went ahead and took them back to black instead.

Next I touched up the red gore and added red gore to the rim of the drone as they were all just black. I prefer the coloured edging.

Next I did the first layer of vomit brown on each drone. Then layered up until it was a nice even smooth colour.

Next I added vines to the top in Hoeth Blue.

I briefly toyed with the idea of blazing orange vines too, inspired by the pilots jumpsuits but I didn’t like how it looked on the drone, so went with just blue.

The drones are complete and back in the cabinet for now.

Two Hammerheads completed & Looking lovely together 🙂

The first of my Hammerhead Tank Squadron is complete. Four more and a Sky Ray to go!

Completed paint Job:

The Squad is finished at last!
I am so chuffed as they came out better than I hoped. I added extra details to the Ethereals such as an attempt at purple gems and fancy metallics.

with the colour scheme all decided I’m  working through the squad of 12.

1. Black Undercoat.
2. Tau flesh – my own blend of shadow grey & elf flesh.
3. Eyes – Mechrite Red.
4. Cloak, base coat Vomit Brown.
5. Cloaks – build up layers until its a smooth colour.
6. Touch up any smudges with Black.
7. Cloth – Red Gore, Layer up until smooth.
8. Touch up smudges with black or correct colour.
9. Armour – Liche Purple. Layer up till nice and even.
10. Touch up with Black.
11. Hair – Drybrush Dark Flesh.
12. Helmet sights – Mechrite red.
13. Weapons, Accessories, etc – use a mixture of silver & all the colours to give these a pop.
14. Cloaks – veins – create a sinuous pattern with Liche Purple, Golden Yellow, Red Gore & Blood Red. Pattern the outer side & hoods only as the inside of cloaks turned out to be really hard to reach.
15. Units Drones – change centre circle to Vomit Brown and add the Veins to match squad & vehicle.

I am currently halfway through Squad and will post a photo once I’m finished.

So I had several ideas.

Standard fire warrior colours with Purple cloaks.

Drybrushed purple with a stand out cloak in yellow/brown with veins.

Veined cloaks with red & purple underneath.

I want to make these guys stand out, I’m particularly fond of them as it’s my first attempt at sculpting anything. The cloaks are green stuff & while it’s not the best in the world I’m still chuffed with my efforts.

Out of all the ideas I like the red cloth, purple armour and veined cloaks best.

The drybrushed ones looked rushed & even bringing in the outlines again made them look scruffy and like I haven’t spent enough time on them.

While I love the purple cloak, the regular colours just weren’t special enough.

The inverted colours and veined cloaks are the winning combo is toon for me. It has a Star Wars praetorian guard vibe and I’m liking it.

Time to re-Undercoat the failed tests and get stuck into the squad.

So, this popped up in my memories today. 12 whole years since my Tau got taken anywhere nice!

It’s the other half’s birthday again today which got me thinking, maybe by next time it rolls around I’ll have a fully painted force to try to decimate some guardsmen with…

My three Riptides are finally getting an undercoat after 10 years of waiting. Turns out they released 10 years ago this month and I bought them fairly soon after release,  so happy 10th birthday to my battlesuits!

My new boarding patrol are also under the nozzle tonight, with less than a months wait! Lucky devils.

Photos to follow when they’re dry…

I’m the beginning. I started out with two squads of 6 firewarriors. I lovingly constructed my colour scheme of red gore and vomit brown. Decided I would alternate the cloth and armour per six, so one 6 would have red cloth & brown armour and the next brown cloth and red armour. Which was great. Until…. I got a huge box set of Tau with lots of new squads, meaning they now would be in squads of 12.

I ditched my alternating scheme for my own sanity and decided brown for the cloth and red for the armour. Squad marks on helmets & shoulder pads and team leaders to have blood red and Tau language on the shoulder pad.

Here are the Squads already finished from my last attempt at painting everyone, dusted and ready for the shelves.