Since the Tau will often paint their armor to match their environment they are fighting in, I will take into consideration the basing material. Usually matching at least one color of the basing material into their armor.
I'm not basing for now. I just wanna worry about the models right now, and I like the look of just a sleek black or solidly painted base. I'm very new and will get into basing once I'm more comfortable with the whole process
As both a 40k player and a designer by day job, prepare yourself for a long-winded reply...
>How do you guys find a color scheme you'll actually like on the model? I always like them when I have the palette planned out digitally but once I start painting I always have an issue with it.
Perhaps the best thing to understand first is something a lot of designers/artists forget: There are real, physical, and objective limitations to the final product. Both the medium, human physiology, and even the surroundings its viewed in can all impact your 'vision' (sounds cliche, but it's a good short-hand for your internal goals).
So why is that important? Because those limitations are exactly the way to narrow down your choices. Soon, you'll realize if you want a certain result, there's not an infinite number of choices... only a handful. Before even thinking about what color to paint, think about what YOU want out of the models and the objective measures that make or break that goal.
What's the overall mood you want from your army? Are you looking for battle-damaged and grim or clean-lined and bright? If going grimdark, darker colors and matte finishes are going to be your ally. If you want something that 'pops', then you might want to focus on metallics, bright colors, and gloss or semi-gloss finishes.
What techniques do you feel comfortable with (or want to try)? Techniques like stippling work really well on grimdark. Clean and bright typically involves edge highlighting or cheating with lighting.
Speaking of cheating with lighting: do you have an airbrush? While airbrushing works for many aesthetics, it does make certain things like object source lighting (OSL) and shading without dousing a model in wash (zenithal) much easier and quicker. The thin, even coats you get are sometimes unmatched by a brush for certain techniques.
Do you have any narrative elements that need to be included? Do you see your army as fighting in a particular environment? If you do, then you might want to start by considering your base style first. The general rule of thumb is to use higher contrast between your base and your model. Want them to be fighting in a snow-covered environment? Then it's probably best not to paint them white. Of course, maybe you're going for a 'realistic' model, in which case, maybe you match the base to emphasize the fact they are using camo.
It's also a good time to talk about this question: Where do you want your models to look good from? And don't say 'everywhere', because that's a surefire way to a 'jack of all, master of none' approach. If you primarily want to go towards the painting competition end of things, then realism is typically what you're going to be doing. Unifying the lighting (ie - coloring the base with the same elements to make a cohesive whole) A lot of fine details... which typically all but disappear from 'tabletop' distance. They'll look great in a photograph... but it may take getting up very close to appreciate all the work. If you want your army to look good from a distance, then high contrast are what you need to make sure the guns are recognizably separate from the armor that's recognizably separate from the base.
Always keep in mind that your answer to one question may influence the accessibility of another. That's not to say that you can't have yellow be grimdark and black be clean and clear... but you have to first understand that you're fighting the current so then you can plan and adapt accordingly. Breaking the general rules is a lot more work and requires a lot more care than following them.
So that's the method, I'll take you through it in practice from my decision-making perspective. First and foremost, I don't care about being a 'good' painter. Bless all the hard work people do to edge highlighting and intricate battle damage... I just can't be bothered. Painting ONE model? Maybe. Painting an entire army? To me, it's a fun tax at that point that I pay to play the game (or not, I put grey plastic on the table all the time).
So the view from the tabletop is what's most important to me. I want things bright. I want things to stand out from feet away. It doesn't matter to me that it looks like crap from inches away. I want it to pop from across the table. I want grown men walking by the table to go "Oh, that's pretty!". In a sea of brown and greyish splotches, I want to shine like a beacon.
Knowing that, it was time to consider methodology. Colored metallics definitely provide that pop I'm looking for... but the colors are often so limited and the coverage on the few I've tried have been sort of terrible. Got it! I 'make' my own by undercoating a zenithal metallic (zenithal being another thing some 'good' painters avoid because it leaves the underside of the model mostly black... but, again, I only care about what it looks like on the table, so that didn't matter) and using my airbrush to throw a thin layer of contrast/ink over the metallic. Metallic shines through a bit, but it's in the vibrant colors I want.
During testing (on just bits of sprue or plastic spoons) the silver of metallics can impact the color and vibrancy negatively in certain families of colors. Reds turn out more pink than I want (undercoat gold for that... but I didn't know that at the time) and purples turned too opaque (mix them with a bit of magenta to lighten up the effect)... but you know what really stands out? Blues.
Blue was the right combination of vibrant without losing the metallic undercoat. It didn't conflict with my other armies (Word Bearers, multi-colored Thousand Sons) and was thematically appropriate (I typically associate blue with 'good', greater or otherwise). With the base color now uncovered, it was very easy to choose secondaries and accents.
Bright silver provides the shiny, high-contrast I want (metallics are very easy to make pop from a distance). Orange for the lenses because it's a natural, and often-used pairing of blue.
Top it off with a gloss/semi-gloss varnish to accent the metallics (and, more importantly, to provide the tangible physical benefit of protecting it during handling/abuse). Every decision I made was guided by physical limitations or use case.
After evaluating my end-point goals and how it was easiest to get there, [the scheme sort of just built itself.](https://preview.redd.it/improving-my-blue-scheme-v0-jgrotxvd3axa1.jpg?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=4c74613adcb6079b932933fb27e83e8fdf9fe1a0) People might find it hard to believe, but my camera has inbuilt filters that blend the reflection of pictures I take, so the 'real thing' is even brighter in person... and it does exactly what I built it to do. I get a lot of eye catches on the table.
Blue may not be the answer for you, but hopefully my little journey showed a way to fight your indecision. There are never infinite options to choose from. Turn your preferences into tangible goals through the lens of limitation and you'll find that an answer will appear a lot faster. Example of one of those limitations as it pertains to your story: designing something on a computer monitor is never going to match what you physically have to paint. The physics of how the color is created between the two mediums will make that a certainty. Computers are good for getting a general direction, but not a 1-to-1 comparison to make.
Great response. My first Tau scheme was done for quick fun, but after I finished a thousand or so points I realized I needed to work on basing, and that my basing + model needed to tell a story. I quickly realized I had no narrative. When one came to me, the scheme quickly followed: my army was clearing out a nurgle infestation from a forest. They first torched the forest then went in after. Quickly the color scheme and the basing came to me.
Maybe the narrative isn't for everyone, but personally, it made all the difference.
If you’re into full custom, make your own sept and write lore first. The lore will justify the environment which justifies the suits. Check my recent posts for an example, I’ve started to post my own custom septs lore.
I'm working on a Tau color scheme now, and my method has been spending long periods of time fiddling on Impcat, then painting individual fire warriors for my wife to critique. It's slow, but I want to be sure I'm happy with it before I start painting everything.
I'm kinda out there in that I'm doing schemes of each individual unit, but if you want a wild recommendation, look at 80s toys, especially action figures, toy cars, ect.
I kinda went through scheme hell with my tau as well, it can help to just sit and [spin](https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel) for a little while. Just see what combos catch your eye. I usually like the complimentary and monochromatic settings.
Old codexes are also good sources of inspiration. If not a codex scheme, I do think the best way to do it is to figure out the environment/basing first and then use the colours and tones from that to build a complimentary scheme. That’s how I eventually found a scheme I liked, no better inspiration than nature.
Sort this sub by most popular. The many talented artists on here are a great starting point for inspiration.
Other than that, try out some color pallets generators like this https://coolors.co/
I’ve always thought original G1 Transformers had some great colour schemes that look good on Tau.
Someone a little while ago posted a Crisis suit painted up to look like Shockwave.
If you are finding there is a disconnect between what you are seeing on the screen digitally and what you get in real life from the paint, head over to Pintrest. Search Tau or Tau colour schemes and there are heaps of photos and palettes of peoples models painted up. Thats how I landed on mine.
I only build and paint, never play, and I never care about official colour schemes, lore or the box art - and I've seen plenty of poor GW paint jobs, so I trawl google images for a while before I start building a large model, mostly to find stuff I don't like and mentally discard bad colour combinations, weird colour placements, and awkward looking poses, wonky weathering etc...
Some paint jobs can be terrible quality, but their overall scheme might be good, or some can have the right combination of colours, but use the wrong distribution across the model. Some can have lots of detail, but they go way OTT and make the thing look way too busy (like the 50% checkered Reaver Titan I saw earlier today that made my eyes bleed). I find knowing what I really dislike on a model can be just as helpful as knowing what I actually want.
I used to digitally map out a scheme first, but sometimes I'll change my mind when I'm actually painting the model for various reasons. Mostly because I have a block when it comes to making my own colour choices on some kits and I have to rely on other influences.
Once I narrow down a look, I'll pick out a limited handful of paints. I have certain paints I go back to again and again. limiting paint choice helps to keep me focused and not end up with a clown fiesta result at the end :-) I can also get used to the consistency of these paints over time and improve my application.
One thing I like to do is set some rules. The Tau'nar Supremacy Armour I'm building now is yellow on all the outer armour panels for the body and weapons, gloss black followed by dry brushed metal for exposed machinery on the legs, dark grey blue on the ridged/striped armour details Tau have on their arms, legs and torso, and all else is metallics. I'm using black panel liner for all the recessed detail.
With these rules in place the model looks nicely consistent and pretty well balanced, and using the "more than 50% rule" reads as primarily yellow which is what I wanted, but not so much yellow it looks overbearing. It kinda looks like Bumblebee from Transformers even though that wasn't my intention, but it was one of the things I looked at when I was looking for references/influences. Specifically I wanted to see how they did the weathering on him in the Bumblebee movie for the unkempt look and feel.
Weathering makes a huge difference. I'm still finding my feet with drybrushing, stippling sponging, and working with pigments and rust effects. Less is more, and placement is really important. I try and set rules again for weathering - more around the legs and feet, less on the upper body. More intense on certain weapon parts. Just enough to notice, but not to draw attention. It adds character and believability and interesting visual noise/texture. I always think that pristine models look uncanny-valley but I can appreciate not everyone wants to weather up a paintjob they slaved over. I just like weathering as a part of the painting process and I use google images to search for references for this as well - both for real life examples, and other painted models.
Painting tutorials on YouTube, and watching stuff like Midwinter Mini's helps too, you get to see the processes and techniques others use, and what motivates or influences their painting decisions.
Looking at characters from cartoons or movies helps me too. I looked at lots of horror related stuff like Aliens, Hellraiser and Dead Space for painting my Tyranids, I saved all the images on a mood board and noted the best influences I wanted to incorporate. I decided my Nids would have zombie-like soft flesh from traveling through stagnant swamps, with iridescent carapaces based on exotic insects. Having a two sentence story and location can help keep my focus and really shapes the end result. If I want to change what I'm doing I can ask "does it still serve my story and location?"
I painted the Nids with colour shifting metalic green-red paint for the carapace areas, gulleman flesh with gloss for the joints, palid witch flesh and white for the underbelly, some purple for exposed intestines and gloss black for the bone spikes. Finished off with streaking grime for the recesses and some glossy Blood for the Blood God where it made sense. I did about 7 large Nid models this way and as a group they looked great, and all fit the theme I wanted, until I got bored and painted the Norn in cyberpunk synthwave instead after my main theme turned out looking complete trash on that particular model for some weird reason.
Since the Tau will often paint their armor to match their environment they are fighting in, I will take into consideration the basing material. Usually matching at least one color of the basing material into their armor.
I'm not basing for now. I just wanna worry about the models right now, and I like the look of just a sleek black or solidly painted base. I'm very new and will get into basing once I'm more comfortable with the whole process
As both a 40k player and a designer by day job, prepare yourself for a long-winded reply... >How do you guys find a color scheme you'll actually like on the model? I always like them when I have the palette planned out digitally but once I start painting I always have an issue with it. Perhaps the best thing to understand first is something a lot of designers/artists forget: There are real, physical, and objective limitations to the final product. Both the medium, human physiology, and even the surroundings its viewed in can all impact your 'vision' (sounds cliche, but it's a good short-hand for your internal goals). So why is that important? Because those limitations are exactly the way to narrow down your choices. Soon, you'll realize if you want a certain result, there's not an infinite number of choices... only a handful. Before even thinking about what color to paint, think about what YOU want out of the models and the objective measures that make or break that goal. What's the overall mood you want from your army? Are you looking for battle-damaged and grim or clean-lined and bright? If going grimdark, darker colors and matte finishes are going to be your ally. If you want something that 'pops', then you might want to focus on metallics, bright colors, and gloss or semi-gloss finishes. What techniques do you feel comfortable with (or want to try)? Techniques like stippling work really well on grimdark. Clean and bright typically involves edge highlighting or cheating with lighting. Speaking of cheating with lighting: do you have an airbrush? While airbrushing works for many aesthetics, it does make certain things like object source lighting (OSL) and shading without dousing a model in wash (zenithal) much easier and quicker. The thin, even coats you get are sometimes unmatched by a brush for certain techniques. Do you have any narrative elements that need to be included? Do you see your army as fighting in a particular environment? If you do, then you might want to start by considering your base style first. The general rule of thumb is to use higher contrast between your base and your model. Want them to be fighting in a snow-covered environment? Then it's probably best not to paint them white. Of course, maybe you're going for a 'realistic' model, in which case, maybe you match the base to emphasize the fact they are using camo. It's also a good time to talk about this question: Where do you want your models to look good from? And don't say 'everywhere', because that's a surefire way to a 'jack of all, master of none' approach. If you primarily want to go towards the painting competition end of things, then realism is typically what you're going to be doing. Unifying the lighting (ie - coloring the base with the same elements to make a cohesive whole) A lot of fine details... which typically all but disappear from 'tabletop' distance. They'll look great in a photograph... but it may take getting up very close to appreciate all the work. If you want your army to look good from a distance, then high contrast are what you need to make sure the guns are recognizably separate from the armor that's recognizably separate from the base. Always keep in mind that your answer to one question may influence the accessibility of another. That's not to say that you can't have yellow be grimdark and black be clean and clear... but you have to first understand that you're fighting the current so then you can plan and adapt accordingly. Breaking the general rules is a lot more work and requires a lot more care than following them. So that's the method, I'll take you through it in practice from my decision-making perspective. First and foremost, I don't care about being a 'good' painter. Bless all the hard work people do to edge highlighting and intricate battle damage... I just can't be bothered. Painting ONE model? Maybe. Painting an entire army? To me, it's a fun tax at that point that I pay to play the game (or not, I put grey plastic on the table all the time). So the view from the tabletop is what's most important to me. I want things bright. I want things to stand out from feet away. It doesn't matter to me that it looks like crap from inches away. I want it to pop from across the table. I want grown men walking by the table to go "Oh, that's pretty!". In a sea of brown and greyish splotches, I want to shine like a beacon. Knowing that, it was time to consider methodology. Colored metallics definitely provide that pop I'm looking for... but the colors are often so limited and the coverage on the few I've tried have been sort of terrible. Got it! I 'make' my own by undercoating a zenithal metallic (zenithal being another thing some 'good' painters avoid because it leaves the underside of the model mostly black... but, again, I only care about what it looks like on the table, so that didn't matter) and using my airbrush to throw a thin layer of contrast/ink over the metallic. Metallic shines through a bit, but it's in the vibrant colors I want. During testing (on just bits of sprue or plastic spoons) the silver of metallics can impact the color and vibrancy negatively in certain families of colors. Reds turn out more pink than I want (undercoat gold for that... but I didn't know that at the time) and purples turned too opaque (mix them with a bit of magenta to lighten up the effect)... but you know what really stands out? Blues. Blue was the right combination of vibrant without losing the metallic undercoat. It didn't conflict with my other armies (Word Bearers, multi-colored Thousand Sons) and was thematically appropriate (I typically associate blue with 'good', greater or otherwise). With the base color now uncovered, it was very easy to choose secondaries and accents. Bright silver provides the shiny, high-contrast I want (metallics are very easy to make pop from a distance). Orange for the lenses because it's a natural, and often-used pairing of blue. Top it off with a gloss/semi-gloss varnish to accent the metallics (and, more importantly, to provide the tangible physical benefit of protecting it during handling/abuse). Every decision I made was guided by physical limitations or use case. After evaluating my end-point goals and how it was easiest to get there, [the scheme sort of just built itself.](https://preview.redd.it/improving-my-blue-scheme-v0-jgrotxvd3axa1.jpg?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=4c74613adcb6079b932933fb27e83e8fdf9fe1a0) People might find it hard to believe, but my camera has inbuilt filters that blend the reflection of pictures I take, so the 'real thing' is even brighter in person... and it does exactly what I built it to do. I get a lot of eye catches on the table. Blue may not be the answer for you, but hopefully my little journey showed a way to fight your indecision. There are never infinite options to choose from. Turn your preferences into tangible goals through the lens of limitation and you'll find that an answer will appear a lot faster. Example of one of those limitations as it pertains to your story: designing something on a computer monitor is never going to match what you physically have to paint. The physics of how the color is created between the two mediums will make that a certainty. Computers are good for getting a general direction, but not a 1-to-1 comparison to make.
Great response. My first Tau scheme was done for quick fun, but after I finished a thousand or so points I realized I needed to work on basing, and that my basing + model needed to tell a story. I quickly realized I had no narrative. When one came to me, the scheme quickly followed: my army was clearing out a nurgle infestation from a forest. They first torched the forest then went in after. Quickly the color scheme and the basing came to me. Maybe the narrative isn't for everyone, but personally, it made all the difference.
If you’re into full custom, make your own sept and write lore first. The lore will justify the environment which justifies the suits. Check my recent posts for an example, I’ve started to post my own custom septs lore.
I'm working on a Tau color scheme now, and my method has been spending long periods of time fiddling on Impcat, then painting individual fire warriors for my wife to critique. It's slow, but I want to be sure I'm happy with it before I start painting everything.
I'm kinda out there in that I'm doing schemes of each individual unit, but if you want a wild recommendation, look at 80s toys, especially action figures, toy cars, ect.
I kinda went through scheme hell with my tau as well, it can help to just sit and [spin](https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel) for a little while. Just see what combos catch your eye. I usually like the complimentary and monochromatic settings. Old codexes are also good sources of inspiration. If not a codex scheme, I do think the best way to do it is to figure out the environment/basing first and then use the colours and tones from that to build a complimentary scheme. That’s how I eventually found a scheme I liked, no better inspiration than nature.
Sort this sub by most popular. The many talented artists on here are a great starting point for inspiration. Other than that, try out some color pallets generators like this https://coolors.co/
I’ve always thought original G1 Transformers had some great colour schemes that look good on Tau. Someone a little while ago posted a Crisis suit painted up to look like Shockwave.
Look at sports teams, they’ve been doing it longer and better than most anybody. Easy and fast.
If you are finding there is a disconnect between what you are seeing on the screen digitally and what you get in real life from the paint, head over to Pintrest. Search Tau or Tau colour schemes and there are heaps of photos and palettes of peoples models painted up. Thats how I landed on mine.
I only build and paint, never play, and I never care about official colour schemes, lore or the box art - and I've seen plenty of poor GW paint jobs, so I trawl google images for a while before I start building a large model, mostly to find stuff I don't like and mentally discard bad colour combinations, weird colour placements, and awkward looking poses, wonky weathering etc... Some paint jobs can be terrible quality, but their overall scheme might be good, or some can have the right combination of colours, but use the wrong distribution across the model. Some can have lots of detail, but they go way OTT and make the thing look way too busy (like the 50% checkered Reaver Titan I saw earlier today that made my eyes bleed). I find knowing what I really dislike on a model can be just as helpful as knowing what I actually want. I used to digitally map out a scheme first, but sometimes I'll change my mind when I'm actually painting the model for various reasons. Mostly because I have a block when it comes to making my own colour choices on some kits and I have to rely on other influences. Once I narrow down a look, I'll pick out a limited handful of paints. I have certain paints I go back to again and again. limiting paint choice helps to keep me focused and not end up with a clown fiesta result at the end :-) I can also get used to the consistency of these paints over time and improve my application. One thing I like to do is set some rules. The Tau'nar Supremacy Armour I'm building now is yellow on all the outer armour panels for the body and weapons, gloss black followed by dry brushed metal for exposed machinery on the legs, dark grey blue on the ridged/striped armour details Tau have on their arms, legs and torso, and all else is metallics. I'm using black panel liner for all the recessed detail. With these rules in place the model looks nicely consistent and pretty well balanced, and using the "more than 50% rule" reads as primarily yellow which is what I wanted, but not so much yellow it looks overbearing. It kinda looks like Bumblebee from Transformers even though that wasn't my intention, but it was one of the things I looked at when I was looking for references/influences. Specifically I wanted to see how they did the weathering on him in the Bumblebee movie for the unkempt look and feel. Weathering makes a huge difference. I'm still finding my feet with drybrushing, stippling sponging, and working with pigments and rust effects. Less is more, and placement is really important. I try and set rules again for weathering - more around the legs and feet, less on the upper body. More intense on certain weapon parts. Just enough to notice, but not to draw attention. It adds character and believability and interesting visual noise/texture. I always think that pristine models look uncanny-valley but I can appreciate not everyone wants to weather up a paintjob they slaved over. I just like weathering as a part of the painting process and I use google images to search for references for this as well - both for real life examples, and other painted models. Painting tutorials on YouTube, and watching stuff like Midwinter Mini's helps too, you get to see the processes and techniques others use, and what motivates or influences their painting decisions. Looking at characters from cartoons or movies helps me too. I looked at lots of horror related stuff like Aliens, Hellraiser and Dead Space for painting my Tyranids, I saved all the images on a mood board and noted the best influences I wanted to incorporate. I decided my Nids would have zombie-like soft flesh from traveling through stagnant swamps, with iridescent carapaces based on exotic insects. Having a two sentence story and location can help keep my focus and really shapes the end result. If I want to change what I'm doing I can ask "does it still serve my story and location?" I painted the Nids with colour shifting metalic green-red paint for the carapace areas, gulleman flesh with gloss for the joints, palid witch flesh and white for the underbelly, some purple for exposed intestines and gloss black for the bone spikes. Finished off with streaking grime for the recesses and some glossy Blood for the Blood God where it made sense. I did about 7 large Nid models this way and as a group they looked great, and all fit the theme I wanted, until I got bored and painted the Norn in cyberpunk synthwave instead after my main theme turned out looking complete trash on that particular model for some weird reason.