june_tau_paintingPainting! So much painting! I'm normally a slow painter, but I had one month to paint up my new Tau acquisitions and army list adjustments to get them ready for the Gateway Grand Tournament this weekend at DieCon 13. Some old, some new, all purchased, and a little bit of blue. There's not as many details painted as I would normally like, but I can always go through and touch them up a bit after the event (and I have been already since arriving at my hotel room).

june_tau_painting_skyrayI've had the Sky Ray since the days of the Apocalypse bundles, but I just sat on it for the longest time. It's been primed for years, but never painted. However, now that they're good again and there's one in my list, I finally got around to painting it up. If the missile pods look a bit off-color, that's just because they're from a different batch of paints, back when I had Knarloc Green and Vallejo Game Color Goblin Green. Using newer Citadel paints now, and they're a bit cooler color-wise.

june_tau_painting_riptide_01

june_tau_painting_riptide_02Not one, but two Riptides. They painted up surprisingly fast; they're basically huge Crisis Suits, and painting them is the same process, more or less.

june_tau_painting_broadsidesA trio of Missile Broadsides. I tried to mimic the color scheme on my old Railgun Broadsides, although again, the colors won't match exactly. Same general pattern, though, with one painted with more red in case I want to make it a team leader.

june_tau_painting_hqsMy Ethereal and Fireblade. Nothing much to report here, other than having to reteach myself how to paint Tau skintones. :)

june_tau_painting_fire_warriors9 Rifle and 6 Carbine Fire Warriors. The basing on them is different so that the Rifle warriors will match the other 27 older models I have. I do prefer how the texture paint/shade/drybrush basing looks, though.

june_tau_painting_pathfindersFinally, 8 more Pathfinders. Half of these are the older metal models that I'd had sitting around for years, and half are the new plastic models. I much prefer the plastics. They're lighter, generally more dynamic (although the metal Pathfinders always had decently dynamic poses), and have sharper, cleaner details. I absolutely love that kit. Love it, love it, love it.

Next week, I'm taking a break from painting anything, and then I'll hit July running by starting on a pair of Black Templar Land Speeders. I got to field what I had so far at a tournament last week, and I love how the entire army comes together.