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Farsight Enclaves

 In October 2001 White Dwarf 262 burst into Games workshop stores heralding the release of a brand new army, Tau. 

I was instantly hooked with their aesthetic and playstyle, and I've kept up to date with all the army books that have been released

I’ve started and stopped painting them several times, and I’m now on my third attempt to get an army finished. 

Painted in 2002

Quite fortuitously I’ve taken up the warlords challenge started by a friend of mine Cerantis, He's a twitch streamer and we have a couple of weeks to paint a single unit, with the intention being for all those involved to get an army painted by the end of the year. I was going to start painting the army anyway, mainly as a break from all the blue I've been painting. I’m quite certain I can get them done sooner than the end of the year, but its great to see the progress other people make at the same time and painting as a group can really help you maintain painting momentum. You can follow my progress and that of others at #towarlords on Instagram.


The 2015 Scheme

There are lots of different schemes you can paint Tau (or is it T’au now?), and while they generally have specific ones for specific septs (the Tau equivalent of marine chapters) they are pragmatic enough to change their armour depending on the environment they are fighting in, so a forest planet will have lots of greens, a water planet will have blues and so forth. This means however the army is painted, you can play it using any of the various sept rules and not have to have ‘that’ discussion with your opponent. 

Despite that, I decided to paint my army in the Farsight Enclaves colour scheme (red) and match them to their bases (also red).


I have a general idea of how I want the army to look overall. The most numerous troops are of course the fire warriors, and I wanted their armour to look a little weathered. When I come to the big guys, the battlesuits which are the real reason you will probably fall in love with the army, I’m going to go with a much cleaner look, but this may change when I get to them.


The Scheme

Painting Beaten up armour is quick and simple to do. I started off with a black undercoat and used Vallejo Black Primer for this, but I may try a red brown on a few minis to see if I prefer it.

Step 1

The armour was basecoated in Mephiston red. You don’t need to be that careful at this stage. The next few steps can get quite messy.

Step 2

Next Apply a wash, I used a thinned down mix of 1:1 Nuln oil & Carrouburg Crimson. The nuln oil really helps to add more depth to the wash.

Step 3

Next, I went back to the mephiston red, and using a sponge I dabbed the red from above. There will be spots that aren’t hit, but those will be areas that are generally obscured by weapons or arms, and this helps simulate areas in shadow.

Step 4

Next, I repeated the step using Evil Sunz Scarlet, making sure to cover less of the armour and really create the impression of wear and tear.


At this stage you could call the armour done and leave it at that. I finished off with a few edge highlights in Troll slayer orange. The cloth you can paint however you like, I went for black to make the red stand out more, and cleaned up the extra details such as the Tau symbols on the shoulder pads, the trim and sept colours, and the lenses on the helmets. the final step was of course the bases, and I used the martian technical paints from games workshop.

Ready to die for the Greater Good

Painting in batches really helps to speed up the process. I’m happy with the overall effect, and while I could take a lot more time and effort with them, I prefer to reserve maximum effort for characters and other significant units as it really helps them to stand out.

Next up will be some more Tau Infantry, this time pathfinders, a devilfish and a Pirhana, and I will use the same technique for these as well. I may add in some more significant wear and tear to them





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