Painting Guide - Tau Warriors Fire Caste

Fire Caste

Advanced Assembly A few conversions in each Fire Warrior squad can help personalise your army. Cutting and bending limbs to create running (1) and (4) or crawling poses (2). 1

Using Green Stuff to fill gaps created by posing (6), or to remodel hands (4), (5) and (6). Mixing parts from kits, such as (3), which incorporates pieces from the Tau Tank Accessory sprue.

FIREWARRIORS

Warriors of the

Fire Warriors are the Tau Empire’s front line troops, expanding its frontiers with each battle they fight. Whether fielded as solid walls of infantry, or mounted in Devilfish transports as air cavalry, no Tau army can do without its Fire Warriors.

Adding extra detail, (6) for example, has a pin for an aerial.

Basic Assembly 2

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When assembling your models, consider the angle at which the warrior’s weapon is held and which way his head is looking. The weapon held up high, with the head posed at an angle looking along the gun, so the firer is aiming (1) and (3).

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It might be lowered or raised, with the warrior looking away, holding fire whilst he observes an enemy’s movements (2) and (5).

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Held to the side, while the warrior is walking (6), or held in one hand whilst the other prepares a grenade or activates a scanning device (4).

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Using Green Stuff

To get an effect like this (i), cut the top off the the arm to create a flat surface. Varying the angle of the cut changes which direction it will point. Pin the joint for strength, then fill in the gap with Green Stuff. Leave it to dry for 20 minutes, then press lines into it with a sculpting tool to mimic the cloth of the undersuit. His hand (ii) has also been resculpted. The model at the bottom has had his wrist (iii) and knee joint (iv) similarly repositioned. He is carrying his helmet, which was made by removing the neck with a modelling knife from a Tau helmeted head.

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Details For more on layering and extreme highlighting, check out pages 38 and 40 of How to Paint Citadel Miniatures.

T’au is an arid, desert world, the favoured climate of the Tau race. The colour scheme is quite easy to paint using the Layering and Extreme Highlighting techniques, the latter being applied to the armour, over a black undercoat. Tau equipment is very hi-tech and clean, so take your time and try to be neat with your lines.

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Tau Symbol Chaos Black

Stage Four

Armour highlight (Layer) Bronzed Flesh

Sept Markings Skull White Gun Stabiliser highlight (Layer) Burnished Gold Black highlight Codex Grey

The highlighting on the armour is a mix of Layering and Extreme Highlighting. The final highlight should only be applied to the very edge of the armour.

Undersuit highlight Bleached Bone (layer) Scorched Brown

Eyepiece highlight (dot) Skull White

Armour Highlight (Extreme Highlight) Bleached Bone Bronzed Flesh

Lenses on models look great when painted like this – just paint a crescent of a lighter colour to the underside of the basecoat, opposite this, apply a dot of Skull White paint.

The Tau utilise a great many markings and insignia, many of which determine such things as the wearer’s rank and unit. These are derived from the ancient warpaint worn by the Fire caste in the earliest history of the race. Although the exact form these markings take can be varied according to your own tastes, their colour is tied to the sept from which the wearer originates. The Tau use a wide variety of stripes and circles to indicate rank, role etc. Although you don’t need to ‘translate’ them exactly, they come in handy as a simple squad numbering system. Simply count a single stripe as team one, two stripes as team two and so on. Team leaders wear the same identity stripes, but these fill larger areas of their armour.

Squad Leader Variants

Squad Leader

Lining requires a steady hand. Either apply the paint as a thin line, or water it down before painting it into recessed detail like this and wiping off the excess.

Sept Markings

Squad Numbers

Squad 3

Gun Stabiliser highlight (Layer) Shining Gold

Black highlight (Extreme) Codex Grey/ Chaos Black

Example Sept Colours

D’yanoi Sept

Black highlight (Layer) Codex Grey/ Chaos Black

2:3 mix Bleached Bone/ Shadow Grey

Squad Leader

Undersuit Scorched Brown

Undersuit highlight (Layer) Bleached Bone Scorched Brown

1:3 mix Bleached Bone/ Shadow Grey

Squad 2

Gun Stabiliser Tin Bitz

Shadow Grey (the eyes are left black).

Ke’lshan Sept

Armour Vomit Brown

Eyepiece highlight Blood Red

Squad Leader

Armour lining Tin Bitz

Stage Three

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Squad 1

Tau Symbol Skull White

The circular device at the end of the pulse rifle is the gun stabiliser.

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Stage Two

Eyepiece Scab Red

Undersuit highlight (Layer) Bleached Bone/ Scorched Brown

Base co at

Au’taal Sept

Stage One

Painting Tau Skin

FIREWARRIORS

The T’au Sept

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1:1 mix Bleached Bone/ Shadow Grey

All models in an army will usually have the same colour sept markings, and the squad markings are applied to drones and transport vehicles associated with the unit.

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Many of the principles discussed in relation to the Fire Warriors apply here. Red Bas Deep eco at

Deep red basecoat mix 4 parts Scab Red 2 parts Chaos Black 3 parts Scorched Brown

Commander Shadowsun.

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Deep red highlight mix 4 parts Scab Red 2 parts Chaos Black 3 parts Scorched Brown 1 part Bleached bone Black highlight (Layer) Codex Grey

Black highlight 2 (Extreme Highlight) Fortress Grey This Sniper Drone and Spotter have been painted by Neil Hodgson in the same colours as the ‘Eavy Metal Stealth teams, as both are equipped with stealth generators.

Stealth Team

T’au Sept Fire Warriors.

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Cadians are ambushed by Tau of the Sa’cea sept.

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FIREWARRIORS

Sniper Drone Team

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