Darker Tau

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Thanks to waargh for this.

My scheme is that of the darker Tau - Because my army is themed as a Chaos Tau army. I wanted to convey a 'lovecraftian' sort of feel so I started with a base colour of grey, a neutral colour that goes well with anything. Here's an example of the scheme; I'll outline how to achieve it below:

This squad took me roughly 3 hours to convert, prime, and paint, basing not included. So it is fairly quick, and has a nice end result.

I started with a flat black primer, and then a basecoat of 3/4 black to 1/4 white was applied to all the armoured sections, and dry brushed onto the cloth. Next I used the same mix as before, but simply added more white to make a mid-tone colour, similar to codex grey (All of this could be done with Games Workshop's range of grey paints, I just didn't have any.). This was then dry brushed carefully onto the armour, picking out the raised parts. Next I used the same mix, again with more white mixed in, this was used to highlight the rims of the armour plates, and the upper parts of the helmets/hoods and shoulder pads. Then I used a watered-down black ink wash over everything.

The red was done by first applying snakebite leather to all the 'to-be' red parts. Once dry I carefully applied red ink generously to all the brown areas. The red highlights were done with an even mix of sunburst yellow/blood red/skull white, with increased amounts of skull white added for each highlight.

The green parts were done in this order; snot green, snotgreen/scorpion green mix, scorpion green/skull white mix, with the final highlight being skull white with a tiny bit of scorpion green added in.

With the addition of snow bases this makes for a nice fire warrior! The dull grey goes well with both colours, and the red and green complement each other.

Good luck to any going for this scheme, although I'm sure many a player will not attempt Chaos Tau as I have; it's still suitable for any tau army.

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Comment made by Dan the... Tau? on 12:57:55, 15 March 2008
Well, even though the Tau would theoretically never submit to Chaos, that's no reason to trash the paint job. Nice conversions and color scheme, but it seems kind of uneven in a few places.

Comment made by dooley on 02:03:07, 2 March 2008
nice, but i dont understand why tau would turn towards worshipping the chaos gods, the only thing i could think of them goin bit "rogue", like with commander farsight going of and killing all the orcs

Comment made by taugundrone on 19:11:56, 25 February 2008
good,but stlightly gunky. for beginner to intermedate level pianters.

Comment made by kor,vesa on 05:01:25, 25 February 2008
ok this really has to be resolved. 1. the tau have little to no presence in the warp, this means NO possesion from warp dweling entities. however the tau are also rather blind in there sheep like followings of the ethereal cast and because of this the tau can be "tainted" but not in the normal sence of sell there souls. they must be tricked and this is shown in the GW article on Daemon hunters adversaires, this also means that the only possible chaos gods to taint the tau are slaanesh as he/she is free to traverse the material realm due to the idiocy of the eldar and tzeentch because of its physical presence due to many sorcerers to use as portals. 2 the tau can also be "tainted" by the energy given off by the necrons but this is also a game of trickery as it is thought that farsight became a tool of the C,tan the deciver. in conclusion yes the tau can become VERY corrupt as they are sheep and sheep question not there shepard, so if the taint starts in the etheareal caste it will easily manipulate the tau. hope you all enjoy trying some darker conversoins as i LOVED converting my necro-tau (the wraith body plates just fit into the XV8,s soo well) but be warned physical mutation of the tau is nigh impossible because of daemons inability to enter them...of course GW cant remember half of this and had mutations occour in the medussa campaingn. peace :P

Comment made by kor,vesa on 05:01:25, 25 February 2008

ok this really has to be resolved. 1. the tau have little to no presence in the warp, this means NO possesion from warp dweling entities. however the tau are also rather blind in there sheep like followings of the ethereal cast and because of this the tau can be "tainted" but not in the normal sence of sell there souls. they must be tricked and this is shown in the GW article on Daemon hunters adversaires, this also means that the only possible chaos gods to taint the tau are slaanesh as he/she is free to traverse the material realm due to the idiocy of the eldar and tzeentch because of its physical presence due to many sorcerers to use as portals. 2 the tau can also be "tainted" by the energy given off by the necrons but this is also a game of trickery as it is thought that farsight became a tool of the C,tan the deciver. in conclusion yes the tau can become VERY corrupt as they are sheep and sheep question not there shepard, so if the taint starts in the etheareal caste it will easily manipulate the tau. hope you all enjoy trying some darker conversoins as i LOVED converting my necro-tau (the wraith body plates just fit into the XV8,s soo well) but be warned physical mutation of the tau is nigh impossible because of daemons inability to enter them...of course GW cant remember half of this and had mutations occour in the medussa campaingn. peace :P

Comment made by insanetau on 12:55:49, 23 February 2008
the tau would sooner die than go over to chaos

Comment made by taugundrone on 10:29:48, 18 February 2008
the tau cannot be dark

Comment made by Daempera on 21:32:15, 24 November 2007
cool idea, try adding chaos bits to it

Comment made by Monolith on 08:44:30, 16 November 2007
ever heard about the "Monolith of Woe" dear Garenas?

Comment made by mabbz on 09:58:29, 15 November 2007
pretty good paint, great corversion work, 7/10 btw. i think tau can be used, mutated and corrupted by chaos as in medusa v they had a monthly report that said once that some of the scientists researching the warp started getting disfigurments and in a few cases turning into small portals of chaos (abut one lesser demon would come through. the portal would close when it died). however due to their lack of psychic power they would probably be harder to corrupt. this would be a great forum topic hinthint.

Comment made by mabbz on 09:58:29, 15 November 2007

pretty good paint, great corversion work, 7/10

btw. i think tau can be used, mutated and corrupted by chaos as in medusa v they had a monthly report that said once that some of the scientists researching the warp started getting disfigurments and in a few cases turning into small portals of chaos (abut one lesser demon would come through. the portal would close when it died). however due to their lack of psychic power they would probably be harder to corrupt.

this would be a great forum topic hinthint.

Comment made by Garenas on 10:29:51, 28 October 2007
...monolith sept? Wouldn\'t that be more along the lines of necron?

Comment made by Monolith on 10:23:20, 18 October 2007
hmm... i made a similiar thing. but the y are Tau Chaos worshippers =D just a little black , warp red instead of pulse blue and voila! a Monolith Sept

Comment made by Shadow Soldier on 03:02:13, 13 October 2007
i personally like the idea of chaos tau :) i was going to go out and buy some fire warriors and start tweaking them so they look evil and what not (it was origonally for a giant showcase i was doing of a 2k sisters army vs 2k tau...) i loved the hoods most... it added that extra sinister look to them... now to try and make my own black and acid green evil tau :) ooc: any ideas on how to make a devil fish fit into this theme with out slapping on a bunch of random chaos bits?

Comment made by Shadow Soldier on 03:02:13, 13 October 2007

i personally like the idea of chaos tau :)

i was going to go out and buy some fire warriors and start tweaking them so they look evil and what not (it was origonally for a giant showcase i was doing of a 2k sisters army vs 2k tau...) i loved the hoods most... it added that extra sinister look to them... now to try and make my own black and acid green evil tau :)

ooc: any ideas on how to make a devil fish fit into this theme with out slapping on a bunch of random chaos bits?

Comment made by Garenas on 19:13:54, 3 October 2007
The fact that a tau can or cannot be a denizen of Chaos is not important. This is not \"comment on my armie\'s fluff,\" it\'s \"comment on my armie\'s paint.\" I personally am not a fan of Chaos as an army or theory, and I don\'t like their fluff, but honestly this paint job and conversion is awesome. Great job!

Comment made by dooley on 01:39:39, 17 September 2007
i always thought tau were "good" not chaos , but they look SWEET , im not too big a fan of chaos creeps me out to much lol

Comment made by KauyonKor on 16:17:44, 16 September 2007
The conversion work is top-notch, I think, and the armor--particularly that on the left figure--looks great. The rifles, however, and the elbow and shoulder pads, are a bit sloppy. And bugger what anybody says about your fluff.

Comment made by fuzzyfirewarrior619 on 03:17:45, 2 September 2007
i thaught they were orks the first time i saw them

Comment made by Shasonan on 15:40:05, 20 July 2007
Tau Cannot be chaos and the reason for the Etherals changing them was because of their pheromones

Comment made by Ophil on 22:12:54, 12 July 2007
ok yes there the chaose gods could make tau think that they were the greater good, but A. the tau are not that dumb, the etherials would not let them be followed coz then they would lose there power as leaders of the tau. and B how will nurgle of khorn talk to them, they are in the warp so for the gods to start wispering in the taus ears the tau would need to have the powers of the warp, or a khorn bezerka might sit down and have a cup of tea with a fire warriors and explane to him his views on the matter of how khorn is better then the greater good.

Comment made by Ophil on 22:12:54, 12 July 2007

ok yes there the chaose gods could make tau think that they were the greater good, but A. the tau are not that dumb, the etherials would not let them be followed coz then they would lose there power as leaders of the tau. and B how will nurgle of khorn talk to them, they are in the warp so for the gods to start wispering in the taus ears the tau would need to have the powers of the warp, or a khorn bezerka might sit down and have a cup of tea with a fire warriors and explane to him his views on the matter of how khorn is better then the greater good.

Comment made by comander kais on 10:09:57, 10 July 2007
Nice models. oh, thanks .::cmd.Farsight::. for the link. some good stuff on that.

Comment made by .::cmd.Farsight::. on 15:16:50, 2 July 2007
o ya the link for sum of the fluff on that is on the GW website when they have the tutorials for the farsight friend or foe thingy, check it out! http://us.games-workshop.com/games/40k/tau/painting/farsight/foe.htm

Comment made by .::cmd.Farsight::. on 15:14:59, 2 July 2007
well at the most tau can be corrupted by necrons as was demonstrated at the possible taint of commander farsight when he exiled himself...okay paint job practice practice =]

Comment made by Shiavar on 03:18:14, 2 July 2007
To stop ranting over Tau being chaos or not. I think it looks very blotchy. The paintscheme looks pretty good, but the models looks a bit like they've been dipped in some hard eroding solvent before being painted. :S I know it's probably exactly the result you want but it feels a bit "sloppy".

Comment made by boda on 13:33:21, 6 May 2007
they are horrible!!!

Comment made by Teh_Frm4terer on 04:38:16, 5 May 2007
Your all IDIOTS!!! of course Tau can be chaos... just because they have no essense in the warp, doesnt mean they cant be tricked into thinking that Nurgle of Slaanesh is the Greater Good in manifest... Stop bitching, comment on the painting and/or converting...

Comment made by Sven-Kaiser of Krieg on 06:40:54, 29 April 2007
+++TAU CAN`T BE CHAOS! THEY DON`T HAVE ENOUGH PHYCHOLOGICAL POWER!+++

Comment made by <<Majonga>> on 06:57:07, 28 March 2007
the painting isn't so good, i can't really make out any of your conversions, i suggest using a smaller brush it really really helps to paint things more detailed

Comment made by Metalstorm on 23:26:10, 11 February 2007
the colour scheme was very blotchy but would people stop talking about chaos tau i mean every other race is either too evil or has its own traitors, why not tau?

Comment made by Tony on 22:56:34, 9 December 2006
Stop arguing about wether Tau can become possessed or not. I think it's good how you used your imagination to think of possessed Tau

Comment made by big tau mech guy on 15:00:51, 8 December 2006
actually, there is an offial chapter approved chaos tau army. the ethereals have DISHONOUR blades

Comment made by big tau mech guy on 21:02:09, 4 December 2006
who cares if tau can be ****ing corrupted by the warp i mean, thhis is a paint scheme not a history lesson! on a happier note good job on the paint scheme its really good!

Comment made by Vayne on 03:59:34, 3 December 2006
some great ideas, althoguh Tau aren't generally evil looking it gives the impression they are possessed or something, please show more models they look pretty cool

Comment made by stsonic on 12:13:23, 18 November 2006
does it matter if they have no psycic ability.. chaos corrupts all. I mean if the ethreals could change the tau why can't chaos change them

Comment made by Sting on 16:31:57, 13 November 2006
To chaos like.

Comment made by max256 on 00:25:09, 12 November 2006
The Tau are not able to perceive the warp, do not have psykers and are not able to travel through the warp. How can someone be corrupted by something that one cannot detect? In that matter, can the chaos gods detect the Tau?

Comment made by Commander Arthurein on 07:23:03, 11 November 2006
It's a good job but the Tau never, I repeat, never, can be corrupted by the Chaos. It's impossible!!

Comment made by KingofKlubs on 16:02:20, 23 October 2006
I think it's at least possible that the Tau can be corrupted by Chaos. If the Space Marines can be corrupted with their devout fanaticism, why not the Tau? Their devotion to the Ethereals is just as solid as the Marines' to the Emporer. I like the rough almost soiled feel to the scheme. Good job.

Comment made by RealMenUseCarbines is back in the house on 22:09:19, 15 October 2006
Man...everybody's yapping about how Tau can't be Chaos blahblahblah...it's a paint scheme for f**k's sake, I think he did a fine job with the dark color scheme. Not very clean, but I'm almost sick of seeing cleanly painted Fire Warriors. Good job.

Comment made by Karashi Lissera on 16:48:26, 28 September 2006
hehe funny looking but you seem to make me keep looking at it every time i put a word down. ummm because of the faith and deication to the Ethereal they cant go choas

Comment made by Korill on 04:42:51, 17 September 2006
an army lead by o shovah would be the closest tau can come to chaos

Comment made by Protovangelion on 18:30:18, 9 September 2006
Tau can't be corrupted by chaos because they have no pychic ability

Comment made by Tet'chel \| Thienen on 15:10:13, 27 August 2006
the Tau are uncorruptable, they cant be taken by the chaos taint, that is why there is no chaos tau army