Drones

A gun drone and two shield drones from my Tau army.

Tau Pathfinders

Here are my Tau Pathfinders.  They are simply Fire Warriors with the Pulse Carbine instead of the Pulse Rifle.  Then I painted them with a tiger stripe style camo to represent their ability to blend in and provide the long range spotting support.  They have not been highlighted, and some details still need to be picked out, but they are ready to hit the tabletop.

I also did something a little different that what I am accustomed to by painting up a couple without helmets.  I usually stick to helmeted guys, since I just think it makes more sense and looks better, but for these I decided to paint up two “squad leaders” without helmets.  I achieved the grey/blue skin by starting with a base of Astronomican Grey and covering it with a light wash of Asurmen Blue.

Finished Kroot Hounds

Here are the finished Hounds.

Kroot Hound

A nearly complete Kroot Hound from my Tau army.  It’s made from a Chaos Hound.  I was originally planning on making the entire mane red, but that was a bit too much.  I ended up doing the light brown with the crest of red that will match the Kroot themselves.  This hound still needs to be highlighted, and of course the basing.

Tau Piranhas WIP

The colors on the Piranhas have been blocked out and the base coat has been applied.  They need the detailing picked out and some highlighting and shading.  I’m really pleased with the overall colors and I plan on using a similar scheme now on the larger tanks.

Kroot!

The first full squad of Kroot is now finished for my Tau army.  I really like the way these guys turned out.  Very savage, but at the same time they will fit in well with my overall color theme.

Tau!

I’ve been meaning to post these pictures for a while now, but here they are.  These are the first few finished models from my Tau army.  The Crisis suits still need weapons, but in general they are complete and I think they turned out really well.  The pictures are a little weird because the red color plus the warm light from bulbs I was using cause them to be a bit overly red, so I tried to tone them down a bit with GIMP.

Crisis Suits:

Broadside:

Kroot Warriors:

Combat Patrol Games

Tonight I was able to play two 500 point Combat Patrol games, one against Ryan and the other against JJ.  The first game I was played Eldar against Ryan’s Space Marines.

Eldar:
2 squads of 3 Jetbikes with 1 Shuriken Cannon, 1 Warlock on Jetbike with Embolden
2 squads of 2 War Walkers with Scatter Lasers

Space Marines:
3 Land Speeders with Multi-melta and Flamers
2 Heavy Bolter Razorbacks with 5 Marines

The first turn I was able to wreck one Razorback and immobilize a Speeder with Scatter Laser fire, and it basically went downhill for Ryan from there.  He was able to take out one squad of Walkers and a squad of Jetbikes, but the other squads caused problems for Ryan all game.  At the end of the game all of the speeders and Razorbacks were wrecked and the remaining squad of bikes was tied up in combat with the Marines.

The second game was against JJ’s Space Wolves and I was playing Tau.

Tau:
4 Pathfinders
Devilfish with Disruption Pods
6 Fire Warriors
6 Stealth Suits
2 Crisis Suits with Plasma Rifles and Missile Pods

Space Wolves:
3 Thunderwolves
10 Grey Hunters in Rhino
6 Long Fangs with 5 Missile Launchers

This game did not go well for the Tau.  I was able to take out the Thunderwolves with the Crisis Suits after feeding them some Gun Drones and the Fire Warriors.  The Stealth Suits failed to do anything more than shake the Rhino and then died to Grey Hunters.  And the Crisis Suits died to missile fire.

Overall it was a fun night.  I learned quite a bit about how to work with a very limited point level.

1000pt Tau vs. Blood Angels

I played a short game against JJ’s Blood Angels tonight.  Sadly I didn’t get any pictures.

Blood Angels:
Sanguinor
5 Death Company with Jetpacks
7 Assault Marines
Sanguinary Priest
Death Company Dreadnaught
Stormraven

Tau:
10 Kroot
6 Fire Warriors
Devilfish with Disruption Pods
Commander Shas’el with Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle and Multi-tracker
2 squads of 3 Crisis Suits with Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle and Multi-tracker
Broadside with Targeting Array
Hammerhead with Dispuption Pods, SMS and Multi-tracker
Piranha with Targeting Array and Fusion Gun

We played Sieze Ground with 5 objectives and Pitched Battle.  JJ won the roll and passed me the first turn.  I placed my Kroot in some trees in the middle of my side with my suits and Piranha behind them.  The Hammerhead was on a hill to my right, while the Broadside was on the left.  My Devilfish with the Fire Warriors were in reserve.  JJ deployed the Stormraven behind a hill with the Dreadnaught and Death Company inside.  The Assault Squad and Priest were in reserve.

First turn I managed to immobilize the Stormraven, but that was it.  JJ moved the Death Company and Dread up towards my center.

On the second turn, I was able to wreck the Dreadnaught with the Piranha and kill off two of the Death Company.  They got close enough and took out my Kroot in assault.  The Stormraven killed the Piranha.

Turn three saw my Devilfish come onto the table in my right corner.  I fired more at the Death Company whittling them down to just 2 plus the Sanguinor, but that didn’t matter.

For the rest of the game, I couldn’t keep away from him and he managed to take out the Crisis Suits and my Devilfish before my Fire Warriors finally killed him.  My Broadside shot terribly, either missing completely, or hitting and then failing to wound him.  The game ended with JJ’s Assault Squad holding one objective, while my Fire Warriors were stranded too far away from their objective.

Tau Hammerhead Redo

I wasn’t really enthused about the way my Hammerhead was turning out.  It seemed just a little too plain, and I didn’t really know how to spice it up, so I took a look through the codex for some inspiration.  In there I found a sample camouflage pattern that I thought would go well.  The pattern in the book was the same red and gray scheme that I had been working with.  Well, started painting it last night and I think it is coming along quite nicely.  The lines could be a little cleaner, and I’m thinking of getting an airbrush to try and make things go a little easier.  Anyway, here’s the picture of the progress so far, sorry about the quality of the picture, I am in the Twin Cities for work and the only camera I have is my phone.