Tau Units: HQ Choice 2

While technically this is the second HQ choice, it's the first one to get painted as it's a relatively easy model to put together and paint.

This the first model that I've tried a blending technique on, and although it's not exactly 'Eavy Metal standard for my first attempt I'm quite please with it. The majority of the blending work is on the cloth folds on the front and back and on the skin of the hand and face. I left the metal silver and washed it with blue to get a nice clean feel but I'm not sure if I'm 100% happy with it yet.

I intend to place him in among the front lines as any Tau units with line of sight to him can re-roll failed LD checks. I'l probably play around with joining him to one of the Fire Warrior Teams for now. Should he be assaulted he not too shabby in close combat, with three Strength 5 attacks. He's accompanied by a shield drone because he has no Armour Save at all, and a Gun Drone which provides his only shooting ability, and provides another ablative wound. Neither of the drones are pictured, as I was too lazy to get the out of the case for the photo, sorry.

Tau Units: Elite Choice 1

Here's the first of the two XV8 Crisis Suit teams in my Tau Hunter Cadre at the moment.

Consisting of two Suits; a Team Leader with twin-linked Missile Pods a Plasma Rifle and a Shield Drone (not pictured), and a second suit with a Missile Pod and Plasma Rifle with Shield Generator.

Capable of deploying via Deepstrike, moving 6" in the Movement Phase, shooting all weapons (at different target units), then moving another 6" in the Assault Phase, they are a highly mobile team which I envision using for anti-heavy infantry and light vehicle hunting.

The Plasma Rifles can always Rapid Fire or be fired at full range regardless of whether or not the Suits moved as they both have the Relentless rule thanks to being Jet Pack Jump Infantry. At Strength 6 and AP 2 they are good against such heavy infantry targets as Space Marine Terminators as they negate the normal 2+ Armour Save.

The Missile Pods have a range of up to 36" and are Assault 2 weapons; allowing 2 shots per Shooting Phase with Strength 7 and AP 4, allowing some additional fire-power to be landed on hard targets and giving them some bite against lighter vehicles.

They have a 3+ Armour Save and a 4+ Invulnerable Save from the Shield Generator (and Shield Drone), but although they have 2 Wounds each, they will die instantly if they fail a Save against a Strength 8 or higher weapon.

Random Update - More Painting

Just finished painting the following units:

• The first Tau Crisis Suit Team, albeit without their Shield Drone.

• The two test Tyranid Termagaunts by painting the bases up - they now match the Zoanthrope.

• The Tau Etheral (HQ unit), also without Drones. This features my first real attempt at blending as the folds of the cloth were too tempting not to try it. I think it looks fine for my first attempt.

Pictures and unit descriptions will follow in due course.

Tau Units: Heavy Support Choice 1

Here's the photos of the first usable heavy support unit for my Tau army.

A 298 point, XV88 Broadside Battlesuit Team, with Shield Drones.

With all 3 suits sporting twin-linked sets of the longest-ranged, most powerful weapon in the game, the 72", S10 AP1 Rail Cannon which is ideal for tanks and large creatures, together with 2 Smart Missile systems which allow for a total of 8 shots that ignore line-of-sight and can take down light vehicles and infantry with ease and the Team Leaders' twin-linked Plasma Rifles for some shorter ranged defensive power they can, on paper, at least "bring the rain".

They are able to move slowly and still bring the guns to bear on targets, and have the ability to split fire between 2 enemy units and the Team Leader can target a different enemy unit to the rest of the squad.

With a heavy 2+ armour save, backed up by 2 Shield Drones with 2+/4+ Invulnerable saves, and 2 Wounds each they should be able to weather a decent amount of fire-power before going down.

These guys should bring some heavy hitting which has been sorely missing in my last few games with the Tau.

More pics when they're fully painted, however for now here they are in all their glory:

Whole team

Team Leader and Drones

Random Update - Follow-up from Christmas and minor progress

So, it's been a few weeks since Christmas and in that time I have managed to finish the last Space Marine Tactical Squad that was actually assembled and waiting for painting, and another Terminator Marine.

That means I have so far painted the following:

1 Chaplain
40 Tactical Squad Marines
10 Devastator Marines
10 Scouts
6 Terminators

All I have to do now is finish another 4 Terminators, 5 Assault Terminators, 1 Dreadnought, 5 Command Squad Marines, 1 Commander and 5 Assault Marines and I can finally start on the vehicles!

On the Tau front, I've finished the last 6 man Fire Warrior Squad, so that's all the basic Troops done (other than repainting squad markings). Just waiting for my new Gorilla Super Glue to arrive so I can start on the 5 metal Vespid Stingwing troops, the 2 Broadsides, and the Sniper Drone team then I can start on the second wave of Tau painting which also includes a repaint of 1 previously finished Broadside, four built Crisis Suits, an Ethereal and the Commander (Forgeworld model) and Bodyguard.

I'm painting up a second test piece for the Tyranids to refine the speed technique before I embark on painting 53 basic Troops. When the weather gets a bit drier I can use the new Citadel Spray Gun I bought myself at Christmas and batch spray entire squads with the base coat - that should speed the job up!

For a Summer project I have a nice new Citadel Realm of Battle modular game board to paint and decorate. This definitely has to wait for summer though as it's a big job; 6 2x2 foot panels that need undercoating, base coating, drybrushing and flocking as fast as possible.

When the new glue arrives (see above), I can also build and paint my Griff Oberward Collectors Range mini from Christmas, so I can field him as my No 1 Team Captain Blitzer in my Human Bloodbowl team; the Altdorf Imperialists.