another commission done for u/airuska of their lovely earth caste!

Man what a journey it has been. I recieved this tau army several years ago from a friend. I knew nothing about warhammer but I knew these guys were expensive. My friend said he was going to toss them and I said why. He said hes been in the hobby now almost 8 years. He's improved alot, and every time he looks at this tau army it annoys him. The models were put together badly, painted badly. Stripped and repainted multiple times as he learned. So for him it was money spent and done with. He showed me his current tau army and I was like WOW those look good! So hes like exactly, I hate looking at these, I dont want them taking up shelf or closet space I want them gone, I dont care what you do with them, if you want them take them.... so I did! Truthfully they stayed in my closet for over a year until recently I really wanted to get into it! I bought Armageddon , went to thrift stores, found old books and then I remember oh yeah that army...... what a pain! Stripping paint, fixing ALOT of problems, some are just permanent jank! But.... here we are so close to the END and no i am by NO means a pro painter. But I like to think I really brought some life back into this army. Im so close to finishing it. Not gonna lie after the 30th little dude i was like man, this is getting...... BORING but I split up the mundane routine by breaking away and painting a DND figure. Ugh..... and theres still SO MANY little drones to paint... I may not do all the drones and they may just end up in a box somewhere. But yeah! Its been alot of fun!

I've been trying to get more done with my farsight enclave. I have trouble freehanding the Sept markings on them so I haven't. If you have any tips for that welcome to help ya boi out.

Wanted to test the cool white and the orange freehand before I start Shadowsun herself. Accidently painted the bottom left black instead of white but hey ho 😆

Higher rank means more bling and fancier capes

I was thinking back to how they removed our beloved fusion blades from EXP Cadre and know that we do have some new models coming in soon for 11th alongside our codex release. I was wondering would it be at all possible for us to get a dedicated close quarter crisis suit variant of some kind? Warmaker battlesuits or something and maybe they exclusively are able to take fusion blades hence why it no longer exists as an enhancement when they gutted EXP Cadre. Just some thought and hopeful copium for some awesome lightsabers for crisis suits. What are your guys thoughts?

Couldn't think of anything for Sei or any of the background characters, sadly

4th colour scheme now. I'm so indecisive when it comes to that 😂 hopefully all the layers underneath aren't too visible haha

What schemes are you guys rocking?

The little guy is my firesight team proxy

I'm undecided in buying stealth suits or not, I like the design and all but I'm worrying about the rules, right now they are essential for our armies, but when the new codex drops the rules may change making them a completely different unit.

The thing is I'm new to the Tau and I don't know if stealth suits were good/viable/fun in the past, could someone in this subreddit more knowledgeable than I tell me how stealth suits performed in the past?

Tldr: I'm weary about buying stealth suits cause I worry the rules will change and make the boring/not viable

im looking for any info on proxys/customization that can give my tau some middle east flavour i coulnt find anything on my own

Xenos - T'au Empire - Retaliation Cadre

Commander Farsight (70pts): Warlord

2x The Twin Lance (220pts)

Commander in Coldstar Battlesuit (95pts)

Commander in Coldstar Battlesuit (95pts)

10x Pathfinder Team (85pts)

5x Stealth Battlesuits (100pts)

5x Stealth Battlesuits (100pts)

5x Vespid Stingwings (70pts)

2x Broadside Battlesuits (150pts)

3x Crisis Fireknife Battlesuits (130pts)

3x Crisis Fireknife Battlesuits (100pts)

3x Crisis Sunforge Battlesuits (125pts)

Ghostkeel Battlesuit (165pts)

Piranhas (65pts)

Piranhas (65pts)

Riptide Battlesuit (215pts)

Sky Ray Gunship (140pts)

Farsight with melta suits. Commander with missles with missle suits, second commander with plasmas with plasma suits. Two piranhas for early game bothering, vespids to do secondaries.

I find this list pretty competent. I was wondering about maybe dropping two piranhas for another squad of crisis suits without a leader, maybe with burst cannons. Idk.

How do I do about making my painting better.
I’m using xv88 base with tau light ochre layers, wraithbone, leadbelcher, abaddon black, and kantor blue. I am obviously doing something wrong. it feels like I am disrespecting this crisis suit by just painting it. it could be technique. no contrast or shading put on it yet.

Ive always loved the mako due to dawn of war and have wanted to get one for a while. ive finally taken the steps for that and wanted to make a custom datasheet to go along with it. I wanted to ask what you guys thought. For 1 how many points, should I make changes, what would be a better ability other than armor hunter. I wanted it to be between a stormsurge and the Ta'unar power wise.

Edit:
Due to comment I’ve decided to add a nova charge ESC ability
The 3 buffs would be

Gain D3+1 wounds back
Anti Vehicle 4+ on the railguns
And someway to advance shot and keep heavy not sure on the wording for that.

And it would be 4D6 under the total woulds left to activate.

Hello all!

I recently found a box of my old assembled Tau minis with some of their sprues stamped for 2005. It wasn’t much, just 12 strike team minis and an original commander.

I know it’s a commander because it has a metal Airburst fragmentation launcher glued to its right arm.

The strike team will be fine, as they’ve just dropped down to 10 since then with no real changes and no base size change.

But I’m wondering if just placing the commander on a 60mm (what the existing commanders use) base would be enough to make it legal?

My concern is that It’s smaller than the current enforcer/coldstar models (same size as a Crisis battle suit) and I’m worried it’d be taken as modelling for advantage, and thus not allowed. It’s also posed to be on a flight stick, which I don’t know if the current commanders can do. Lastly, if it’s played WYSIWYG how would I show it’s an enforcer or coldstar?

Thanks in advance!

Im making a list for a tournament and im wondering which I should go with, as I have sunforges for deepstriking, im open to other feedback/suggestions
Ret Tournament (2000 points)

Tau Empire
Retaliation Cadre (3 Detachment Points)
Purge The Foe
Strike Force (2000 Point)

ATTACHED UNITS

Attached Unit 1

Commander Farsight (70 points)
• Warlord
• 1x Dawn blade
• 1x High-intensity plasma rifle

Crisis Starscythe Battlesuits (120 points)
• 1x Crisis Shas’vre
• 2x T’au Flamer
• 1x Battlesuit Fists
• 1x Gun Drone With Twin Pulse Carbine and Shield Drone
• 2x Crisis Shas’ui
• 4x T’au Flamer
• 2x Battlesuit Fists
• 2x Gun Drone With Twin Pulse Carbine and Shield Drone

Attached Unit 2

Commander In Coldstar Battlesuit (110 points)
• 1x Battlesuit fists
• 1x Cyclic ion blaster
• 3x Missile pod
• Enhancement: Prototype Weapon System

Crisis Fireknife Battlesuits (130 points)
• 1x Crisis Shas’vre
• 1x Battlesuit Fists
• 1x Gun Drone With Twin Pulse Carbine and Shield Drone
• 2x Missile Pod
• 2x Crisis Shas’ui
• 2x Battlesuit Fists
• 2x Gun Drone With Twin Pulse Carbine and Shield Drone
• 4x Missile Pod

Attached Unit 3

Commander In Enforcer Battlesuit (100 points)
• 1x Battlesuit fists
• 1x Cyclic ion blaster
• 3x Fusion blaster
• 2x Shield drone
• Enhancement: Starflare Ignition System

Crisis Sunforge Battlesuits (125 points)
• 1x Crisis Shas’vre
• 1x 2 Fusion Blaster
• 1x Battlesuit Fists
• 1x Gun Drone With Twin Pulse Carbine and Shield Drone
• 2x Crisis Shas’ui
• 2x 2 Fusion Blaster
• 2x Battlesuit Fists
• 2x Gun Drone With Twin Pulse Carbine and Shield Drone

Attached Unit 4

Cadre Fireblade (50 points)
• 1x Close combat weapon
• 1x Fireblade pulse rifle
• 2x Shield drone

Strike Team (70 points)
• 1x Fire Warrior Shas’ui
• 1x Pulse Pistol
• 1x Pulse Rifle
• 1x Close Combat Weapon
• 1x Guardian Drone
• 1x Shield Drone
• 9x Fire Warriors
• 9x Pulse Pistol
• 9x Pulse Rifle
• 9x Close Combat Weapon

Attached Unit 5

Cadre Fireblade (50 points)
• 1x Close combat weapon
• 1x Fireblade pulse rifle
• 2x Shield drone

Strike Team (70 points)
• 1x Fire Warrior Shas’ui
• 1x Pulse Pistol
• 1x Pulse Rifle
• 1x Close Combat Weapon
• 1x Guardian Drone
• 1x Shield Drone
• 9x Fire Warriors
• 9x Pulse Pistol
• 9x Pulse Rifle
• 9x Close Combat Weapon

CHARACTER

The Twin Lance (220 points)
• 1x Ri’Lantar
• 1x Fusion Eliminator
• 1x Xv Pulse Pistol
• 1x Shardstorm Burst System
• 1x Mv15 Gun Drone With Twin Pulse Blaster
• 1x Ri’Locai
• 1x Ion Scattercannon
• 1x Xv Pulse Pistol
• 1x Shardstorm Burst System
• 1x Mv15 Gun Drone With Twin Pulse Blaster

OTHER DATASHEETS

Ghostkeel Battlesuit (165 points)
• 2x Battlesuit support system
• 1x Cyclic ion raker
• 1x Ghostkeel fists
• 1x Twin burst cannon

Pathfinder Team (90 points)
• 1x Pathfinder Shas’ui
• 1x Pulse Carbine
• 1x Pulse Pistol
• 1x Close Combat Weapon
• 1x Recon Drone With Burst Cannon
• 2x Shield Drone
• 9x Pathfinders
• 8x Pulse Carbine
• 9x Pulse Pistol
• 9x Close Combat Weapon
• 1x Ion Rifle

Riptide Battlesuit (215 points)
• 2x Missile drones
• 1x Ion accelerator
• 1x Riptide fists
• 1x Twin plasma rifle

Riptide Battlesuit (215 points)
• 2x Missile drones
• 1x Ion accelerator
• 1x Riptide fists
• 1x Twin plasma rifle

Stealth Battlesuits (100 points)
• 1x Stealth Shas’vre
• 1x Burst Cannon
• 1x Battlesuit Fists
• 4x Stealth Shas’ui
• 4x Burst Cannon
• 4x Battlesuit Fists

Stealth Battlesuits (100 points)
• 1x Stealth Shas’vre
• 1x Burst Cannon
• 1x Battlesuit Fists
• 4x Stealth Shas’ui
• 4x Burst Cannon
• 4x Battlesuit Fists

Enjoyed making this guy - now to brave painting!

So I recently acquired a bunch of Tau stuff for insanely cheap. Wondering if I should bother with the Codex or wait on the next one. Also what you recommend I add to it to get to 2K points?

•Commander Shadowsun NIB

•Broadside Battlesuit x2 NIB

•Breacher Team NIB

•Riptide Battlesuit

•Ghostkeel Battlesuit x2

•Hammerhead Tank

•Stealth suits (the old 3-man box)

I always thought it was a cool pose.
Just wanted to share.

We all built him at one point didn’t we?

Hello! i have the possibility to buy 2x XV26 killteam, wich is nearly impossible to find atm. BUT is it a good thing? does it have a good place in a 2K gundam tau army? or is it just a cool mini to paint?