Showcase: T’au Darkstrider (incl. painting guides)

In December, I was lucky enough to be sent a T’au Darkstrider miniature from Games Workshop’s Warhammer Community Team, I’ve finally got round to blogging about it.

I use to have a T’au Empire army back in the late 2000s and I sold it because I was never really happy with how it looked (pic at the end of this post). For some reason, I thought a really flat, drab brown was a good idea. The thing is, sometimes you just can’t beat a classic. The original T’au Empire colour scheme, in my humble opinion, is the superior colour scheme for Tau. It’s just perfection, so with that in mind, I decided that’s how I’d paint the new Dark Strider miniature that Warhammer Community sent me.

Luckily, I already had my paints and recipes for Darkstrider sorted as I’d produced a tutorial for the Tau Sept scheme years ago. I copied it exactly. the only things I had to had was the burgundy brown for the drones and the white shoulder pad.

Drone Deep Red Recipe:

• Basecoat the Drone with Word Bearers Red
• Make a glaze with Barak Nar Burgundy and Contrast Medium and apply several thin coats building up a darker colour away from the edges of the drone. 
• Edge highlight the drone with Wazdakka Red
• Ultra fine highlight the edges with Bugmans Glow

White Shoulder Pad Recipe:

• Corax White basecoat
• Apothecary White Contrast shading
• Edge highlight with White Scar.

I also updated my Tau skin Recipe.

Tau Skin Recipe:

• Base coat the skin with Russ Grey
• Mix equal parts Space Wolves Grey with Contrast Medium and wash the skin
• Reapply Russ Grey to the skin leaving some shading in the creases
• Highlight the skin with Fenrisian Grey

I really like the how warm the colours are on this model, it contrasts his cold skin brilliantly make his face pop.

I’m really tempted to paint some more T’au. It might happen too, because Games Workshop sent me the Vanguard boxed set to paint too.