Introduction
Seems that more and more players are picking up models to fight for the Greater Good, with this in mind I took to painting my own first choice for Troops: the Fire Warrior. Many artists, myself included, took their newly primed Fire Warriors and slapped some paint right out of the bottle onto their troops to make them look as close as they could to the models in the Codex. Recently I have been taught a great deal from fellow TheDropPod.net Staffer Sha'doe Kai, who has been training me in just what it takes to slow down your brush strokes, water down your paints, and just paint a better model. This stands as my first of hopefully many Painting Tutorials here on TheDropPod.net.
Let's start off by priming our model nice and clean, and giving it at least twenty minutes to dry.
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The Base Coat
Whether you intend to use the "default" Tau colors or not [Vomit Brown over a Vermin Brown Undercoat], the first thing you want to do once you've primed your model is water down your base coat 8 parts paint to every 1 part water. An easy way to get this is simply take a bit of paint on your pallete about the size of a dime, and drip one drop of water into the center. Stir it softly and then drag your brush through one of the edges, this keeps watered down paint on your brush but doesn't leave you with too much paint. Lightly go over your model, give that a few minutes to settle in, then go over it again lightly. These two light coats go on smoother than one thick coat, it takes a few extra seconds, but you'll be happy with the end result.
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The Top Coat
Now that your model has a nice coat of Vermin Brown over the suit, you will want to give it a chance to dry. A minute under a lamp, or a few minutes sitting in open air should be enough. You don't want your undercoat to blend into your top coat.
Now take your Vomit Brown and mix it into water about 4 parts paint to every 1 part water. This is a bit wet, but not too wet. Go over your model same as before, softly filling in each area. Try not to fill the view box, and do what you can not to fill the detail lines with paint. This is difficult and requires you to slow down, but patience is its own reward in this case. Let this step dry, but do not recoat your model if its a little uneven around the corners, the next step and the highlights will make up for those flaws.
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The Armor Lines
Tau Design is very sleak, many of us were attracted to Tau simply by the armor they wear. This being said we want to take our time with it, and make sure it represents the Tau we know and love. For this step I took Dark Flesh [Scorched Brown or Flesh Wash work as well] and watered it down 3 parts water to 1 part paint. You want this to be wet, very wet. Take your brush, and dip it about 2 mm into the paint, you don't want a puddle forming on your model, just a controlled stream where you decide to put it. Run your watered down Dark Flesh across the fine lines of the model, allowing the water and the laws of physics to pull the paint particles deep within the grooves. Will it be messy? Yes. Just look at the photo, its not a tiddy thing, but as with the last step, the next step will help make up for it. |
The Touch Up
So now your model is a mess, looks like it just came out of a Mud Bath and forgot to take off its armor. This step is the clean up. Take your Vomit Brown watered down to 4 parts paint to every 1 part water. Very carefully paint the edges where the Dark Flesh spread outside the fine lines. Be sure to let your Dark Flesh dry otherwise the Vomit Brown will just get pulled into those beautiful fine lines you just did. Touch up the Rifle the chest plate, the helmet, everywhere you put your Dark Flesh. Once this has had a chance to dry, go ahead and retouch any of the black areas with Chaos Black. No ones perfect, and we all get a little paint where it didn't belong. A nice 8:1 ratio of Chaos Black will quickly make those mistakes disapear, leaving you with a clean tiddy model that looks like its almost ready to fight for the Greater Good. |
Highlighting
Whatever color you used as your Top Coat, you will want to select a highlight color that compliments this as nicely as possible. Using the example here, we used Bronzed Flesh as it compliments the Vomit Brown very well. Highlighting can be intimidating, you have to make perfectly straight lines across something smaller than your finger nail. My secret? Breathing. When I was a boy my Great Grandfather used to let me fire his .22 Rifle in the woods of West Enfield, Maine. I would aim, take a deep breath, and then fire. He taught me that holding your breath and trying to remain perfectly still is just an invitation for your hands to start to shake and your pulse to rise. The same can be said while trying to "aim" your brush onto the model. Breath normally, and carefully run your brush along the various lines you made with the Dark Flesh. The two side by side make for a great combination, and really add a lot to your model. |
The Details
Your model is now ready for its finishing touches, whether you decide to give it rank bars as shown in the Codex, or simply detail what is already on the model, you will be very quickly rewarded with an individual Fire Warrior that adds his unique traits to his Uniformed Brothers.For the Symbol on the Left Shoulder, I used the tip of my Brush to Trace the lines with Skull White. Don't water down your paint at all, you want it to stick up a bit. Now quickly run your thumb across the shoulder pad. This grabs every bit of paint that was tarnishing the black piece of the Shoulder Pad. Leaving you with what you see in the image above.
I used Mythril Silver and Goblin Green for the top and bottom light on the face. Be careful not to fill the top circle with paint, painting the edges will add a nice depth to the face. I then used Scab Red for the nobs on the Gun and my Fire Warriors gloves, and used Goblin Green on the front and back sights of the Rifle. In the Fire Warrior video game we're shown a Green View Screen on the back of the gun, and I wanted to reproduce that here on our Fire Warrior.
For the
White Circle on the Rifle, I took Space Wolves Grey and traced each half circle on each side of the rifle. After giving this a chance to dry I took Skull White and highlighted the bottom line and one half of each half circle. Think of it as making an "S" on your little Rifle Emblem. Many people believe in Gold in these places, but I went with the Design we're shown on the front of the Codex.
Now you're done! Base the model as you see fit, I went with a coat of Bestial Brown dipped into Sand, then a drop of Goblin Green with Static Grass sprinkled onto the drops. Then a edge coat of Bestial Brown to finish off the open field look. Base however you see fit, soon we'll have a Basing Guide with details on making Snow, City Fight, Forest, and Dead World bases to add a new level of detail to your model.
Well, thats it! Touch up your model from here however you'd like, paint half of the helmet a different color to differentiate between Squads, or paint the Helmet white for your Shas'ui. The possibilities are endless. I hope you enjoyed reading this guide as much as I enjoyed writing it and painting this little
Fire Warrior here.
Cheers!
- Hindsight |
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