By request: A post about paints for my Tau

Questions were asked about what paints I used for my Tau I posted yesterday so I figured I would do a pictoral run through of my experience.  

First I used Valejo Model Air grey primer and my air brush. No need to post a pic of that.

Then I Sprayed the bottoms of the armor, and all of the infantry with Burnt Umber. I literally flipped them over, including the riptide and broadsides, and sprayed straight down with the Umber, allowing it to fade around the sides.

That is where I stopped with the infantry. I am hand painting the armor using Citadel Paints.

But for the armor:

I played around a bit trying different shades of Ochre in different angles and such on the fish.  The first color I used was Valejo Model Air Ochre which is not particularly easy to find nowadays since every one is painting Tau. I got mine from Amazon, which with my prime membership, arrived the next day. Sometimes it is super fast! 

But, I was not particularly pleased with the Ochre. Why? Well it appeared a bit too yellow, which in retrospect, was probably a lot closer to the Tau Light Ochre any way. It is hard to tell some times with lighting and without having the colors on hand to compare. I think if I were to do it over, I would just stick with this color as it was very simiilar to the TLO.

But no, I had to llighten it up, so I went with this Badger paint, Yellow Ochre which I ended up just spraying over most of the top of the armor.  

For those of you wanting to know what I use to base coat my bases, Krylon Ruddy Brown. I like it because first it is cheap and available at Home Depot, but also, I like the color since I am stuck on a reddish ground kick.  I guess it comes from my Baal Prime background.  Any way, get the ruddy brown, wash it with mud. Then drybrush with a couple lighter shades of brown finally with bleached bone.  

Valejo Burnt Umber. A great base coat for infantry.

I also tried these two colors as highlights. They were very light.  Perhaps would be good for a more skilled air brusher but for my sausage finger approach, just too light. You can see the array of browns in the background, all too light for a base coat. I tried them all before settling on Burnt Umber.

Badger Deck Tan was much too yellow.  

Here is the finished tank look. Much lighter than the TLO on the Riptide. 

You can see the riptide next to the lighter tank color. You can also see on the tank in the recessed area where I started layering in Tau Light Ochre to bring back the more yellow color. Behind the tank you can see a broadside, same color as tank only I started in with the ink pen in the grooves.

To see the original Ochre on the Broadside, vs the TLO layer, look at about the 2:40 mark of this video where I attach the arms which I have not layered yet with TLO:

Incedently, here is my Suit Commander, I used Army Painter Desert Yellow for his base.  But I started going over that as well with TLO.  This base was hand painted with Rinox Hide.

In short, if you are looking for advice on base painting your Tau, go for Valejo Model Air Burnt Umber for the infantry for sure. It is then easy to paint the armor with XV88 then Tau Light Ochre, Zamezi Desert and Ushabti Bone for Highs.

For the Ochre, especially with tanks, I suggest trying first simply the Valejo Model Air Ochre. Spray it on, let it dry and look at again the next day in good lighting. The color no doubt changes a bit as it dries.  I think it was closest to the finished color I have on my Riptide, if a bit more yellow. But if you are looking to get the job done with nice color it works. If you are a bit higher skilled with an airbrush, use the Badger Yellow Ochre as a highlight.  Or if you simply want a lighter ochre, use the Badger Yellow Ochre, it is nice. 

Hope that helps!

Jawaballs