The Hunter Cadre

Photo Blog

2010-04-10T23:43:00.000-07:00

Just started a new blog on Photography
http://urbandesignvincent.blogspot.com/
comments welcome! Cheers

Mega Battle Pictures

2009-06-14T11:26:00.000-07:00

Here are some random pics from a mega battle non-apocalypse game on a 3000pts game, 1750 on each army, so I've teamed up my eldar with tau against my 2 buddy's combined army of ultramarines and grey knights. Though I've lost in this game, I've gained valuable lessons on my first game of my Tau army, understanding its potential and weakness and most important of all, it was great fun! Playing a big game like this allows me to test almost all my units in every possible scenario.

I can't remember the details of the game, as this was played last week and I didn't have the chance to put it on paper when my mind was fresh (or rather mush, from a gruelling 5 hrs game). The mass fire power of a full stealth suit team of burst cannon can be very effective, especially when deep strike behind enemy armor, just love them. I've enjoyed the firepower of the pulse rifle, punishing those pesky stearnguards vets dare enough to come near. That hammerhead tank can really wreck havoc and caused much fear, it'll be nice to have another one :D (gonna paint my second turret). Markerlights, something we tau can't live without! Drones are good in slowing progress of enemy, and I used them rather effectively, I guess giving up those kill points is an exchange here.

Tau Army Completed

2009-05-16T22:56:00.000-07:00

After a year of painting the blueskins, I can safely say that I've completed the army to a very acceptable level of quality and looks good on the tabletop. Some of you following this would proabably know how each of the individual units are done. After finishing my last devilfish I was just tempted to lay them all on the table and see how this 2500-3000 pts army may look like together. I can't take a decent picture of the whole army due to the limitation of my camera and the flash from a distance just don't do it justice, so here's a video instead to illustrate the size of the army and the details. Along here are some photos as well...

Tau Piranha Squad

2009-05-12T22:32:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favourite models in the game, the Tau Piranha. the shape and the design kinda like has a WW2 fighter silhouette. After the first one, I just thought that it might look pretty cool at least to have a wing man and indeed they do look better in a squad.

There was a huge gap of time between completing the first and the second model shown here, and I noticed there were a bit of difference in the way i handle some details and the mixing tone of the Camo pattern. That's kinda interesting as some inconsistency would suggest perhaps 2 different piranha come together from 2 different squads or batch has lots of similarities with subtle difference.

The assembly of this model is rather tricky though, with lots of green stuff filling at the corners of the main hull (I just can't get them to fit nicely). The camo pattern helps to obscure the marks.

Again, like with most tau vehicle, i minimize on the highlights and just let the pattern go all over. I'm not that confident with weathering effects yet so I'll just leave it clean cut looking for now. Can't wait to place them on the tabletop soon.

CC welcome, thanks

Completed Ethereal and Honor Guards

2009-05-04T12:20:00.000-07:00

Here's the freshly painted Ethereal with the symbols of office along with some painted firewarriors as honor guards. I've yet to devised a strategy or an army list for these guys but hopefully will do so soon, just to test them out on the field. They are one of the fluffiest character in the army, though not one of the most powerful or effective ones there. Nonethless, it'll be great to see an nicely themed list with the Ethereal leading the charge of fire warriors.

More Completed Suits

2009-04-07T22:43:00.001-07:00

Here’s my last crisis and stealth suits all painted up. Actually, not really my last as I still have 2 more in the sprues and not too sure what to do with them, as I already have more than 2000pts painted up. So until I get some funky ideas, I’ll leave them untouched.

Here are additional 3 more stealth suits to the 3 previous ones which I’ve done months ago. The color scheme seems to work for me without highlights as the urban camo already makes them look ‘busy’.

Some may argue that the fusion blaster aka melta weapon should be illuminated in blue rather then the green which I used for the stealth suits here as the green looks too ‘plasma’. However, I think for the sake of variety of colors to the model, I’d keep to green as otherwise it looks too monochrome.

The crisis suit work as my second Shas’El commander, with a converted Positional Relay from a Target-Lock (I just add minimal parts on it). As usual, all the weapons are detachable.

I’m gonna stay away from suits for a while and soon hopefully to complete all the Tau in my collection. Next up will be an ethereal with perhaps some honor guards (hopefully some conversions) along with a devilfish and another piranha.

CC are welcomed, thanks for viewing

Kroot Carnivores Squad Completed

2009-04-06T12:36:00.000-07:00

Here are my completed Kroot Carnivores, using some speed painting, dry brush and washes. The whole unit was done in less than a day.

Kroot Carnivores WIP

2009-04-01T21:49:00.000-07:00

Here's some pic of my first kroot, still not too sure about the colors though and still trying to get a proper highlights for the skin. Any comments will be helpful!

I'm rather pleased with the plastic kit of kroot. Its one of the most well thought of and assembles rather nicely compared to a firewarrior sprue. and there's minimal flash lines on it too, makes assembly easy. Very well manufactured.

Thanks for viewing and CC are welcomed!

Tau Commander

2009-03-02T21:31:00.000-08:00

Completed just before I did my test on the space marine, this Tau Commander is fully converted from bitz and parts from leftovers of all the wargear of a battlesuit. I finished paiting this just after I've painted up my 3rd Firewarrior squads (which btw is one of the hardest units ones to paint, if you wanna get them right!)

Here, the chopped up and reassembled flamers and burst cannon resembles a Cyclonic Ion Blaster and a shield was stuck on a plasma rifle to give it a more 'armored' look. The top bit represent the Command and Control node but that is not relevant in the new edition anymore so I'd probably proxy it as a Positional Relay or perhaps just a shield generator. The head has a bit of modification from a Target Lock unit. Overall, its pretty much a 'no-frill' conversion, not too much to stand out but enough to make a difference.... currently working on my second commander now and will post up as soon as he is ready!

http://sidestreaker.multiply.com/photos/album/89/Tau_Commander

Tau Skyray Completed

2009-02-10T21:41:00.001-08:00

More Heavy Support for the Cadre... Completed this in a span of 2 weeks, with holidays, weekend and chores in between! :P Hope to see this in action soon!

Comments are welcomed! Thanks...

New Cadre Army List-2000 pts

2009-01-31T22:52:00.001-08:00

TAU EMPIRE 2000 pts
HQ
1 Shas'O
Command & Control node, Cyclonic Ion Blaster, Fusion blaster
Hard Wire Multi Tracker,Target Lock,Blacksun filter,
1 Body Guard - Shas'vre
Plasma rifle, fusion blaster, Missile pod
Hard Wire Multi Tracker,Blacksun filter
217

1 Shas'El
Position Relay, Fusion Blaster, Plasma rifle
Hard Wire Multi Tracker,Target Lock,Blacksun filter,
1 Body Guard - Shas'vre
Plasma rifle, fusion blaster, Missile pod
Hard Wire Multi Tracker,Blacksun filter
191

ELITES
2 Shas'Ui
Crisis Suit, Burst Cannon, Flamer, Multi Tracker
84

2 Shas'Ui
Crisis Suit, Missile Pod, Flamer, Multi Tracker
92

3 Shas'Ui
Stealth Suits, Team Leader, Fusion Blaster
102

TROOPS
12 Fire Warriors
Bondingknife,
135

8 Fire Warriors
Bondingknife,
95

8 Fire Warriors
Bondingknife,
95

12 Fire Warriors
Bondingknife,
Devilfish
Disruption Pod
220

FAST ATTACK
8 Pathfinders
Shas'Ui, blacksun filter, 3 railrifles, bonding
Devilfish
Disruption Pod
229

1 Pirahna
Disruption Pod, targetting array, fusion blaster,
75

HEAVY ATTACK
1 Rail Head
Multi Tracker, Target lock, blacksun filter burst cannon
160

2
Broadside
Target lock
150

1 Skyray
Disruppod Targetting array, missle pod
155

Total - 2000

Here's my Cadre, Almost ready to roll out. I'm 80% done on the coloring for all the models and hope to see some action soon... so far, I've not been in battle with my tau yet.

HQ and Elites -
These guys are the hard hitting team, targetting specific key targets in the case of the HQ and abit of crowd control assigned for the 2 Elite entries.

FAST ATTACK
Pathfinders naturally will infiltrate into cover and provide markerlights, while rail rifle attempt to soften some MEQ on the approach. Their Devilfish will be left behind to be used by one of the FireWarrior Team. Let’s hope they’ll hold on until turn 3…
Piranha is really just for distraction but can’t really be ignored. With the fusion blaster, they’ll be in good melta range within turn 2. Guaranteed to take some shots away from the rest of the
Cadre.

TROOPS
Two 12 Fire Warrior team on Devilfish and two 8 man team on foot, assuming half the objectives are near my deployment zone. I’m still gonna try out the fish of fury here…

HEAVY
Okie, Hammerhead is a no brainer here. I’m really leaving it at the rear along with the Sky Ray. In fact Sky Ray can even be totally out of sight until its missile runs out, perhaps will be so for the first 2/3 turns. If needed the sky ray will pop out to clean up some mess left by the others.
2 Broadsides with target lock will be sniping away. They will be positioned near the skyray for defensive weapon coverage.
I’ve not played Tau yet so any comments are much appreciated from cadre members and foes alike! Cheers

Pathfinders and Army so far

2009-01-17T03:03:00.000-08:00

Here's my completed pathfinders, assembled from bits and leftovers from firewarriors, Tau tank commander and eldar jetbike riders...

Tutorial: Speed Paint Battlesuit

2009-01-08T08:02:00.000-08:00

Here's an easy way to paint the Tau Crisis suits in a rather quick and effective manner as based on the T'au Sept color scheme.

At this time, I'm preparing a 3000pts apocalypse army. Meaning I would need to have a sizable army painted up and in decent painting quality that is above avarage tabletop quality. Bear in mind that at the end of this tutorial, the objective is to prepare a decent looking battlesuit in the shortest time and still subject to further refinements.

Firstly, the colors which are used are as follows:Tausept Ochre; Vomit brown, bestial brown and scorched brown(for base), bleached bone and devlan mud. These colors are the base colors which I will show how to be applied on the suits. Here I will demonstate how to color the model without chaos black primer.

Before the model should be painted, I believe it is good practice to do the base first properly before painting the model. This is important, as to make sure the finishing touch-up on the base does not affect the model in the final stages. I would not dwell too much into the base and will move straight on to the main coloring.

Firstly, apply an even coat of tausept ochre to the model after assembly. Leave out the arms, as it would make it easier to go through to the hidden corners. Add a bit of water to have it spread easier. It should be thick enough to have an even coverage in one layer. should the coating is too thin or the plastic color still shows, apply another layer after the first one dries.

Next, apply a thin layer of the Citadel wash, Devlan Mud, onto the recess and armor lines. The first layer may not be sufficient, again, wait till it dries before applying the next wash. Now, you will have a model with a good foundation paint and washes that brings out the contrast line on the overall looks.

Now, after the last layer dried up, apply chaos black to the relevant parts, as shown below. Make sure the lines are crisp and clear to reduce overlapping and rectifying works later.

The following step is the most important. Apply vomit brown to the model and majority of the surface. Avoid the armor lines as best as you can and always prepare cotton buds should the color accidently fills into the recess. It is best to keep the color thin to allow easy rectification. At least 2 layer of this is required to have an even layer throughout. Once done, mix 50/50 vomit brown with bleached bone and apply this as highlight to the edge of the armor line and recess to bring out the darker color washes. go back and touch up the black areas if needed. You're almost done.

While all the above is going on, it is advisable that the arms are done in the same time, with the same technique. Assemble them and complete the model. Add bone white for lines and markers on the model and apply decals where desired.

The rest of the weapons should be done in the same manner to achieve a similar effect and fast coloring solution.

I'm keeping my weapons interchangable for most of my battlesuits, so I went all out to paint all the weapon choice.

Overall, this technique allows quick and quality speed coloring and easy rectification at any point of the process. Good luck!

Tau Hammerhead

2008-11-26T21:06:00.000-08:00

My recently completed Heavy Support for my cadre... next, I'll be completing a skyray with some additiona turrets for optional weapon choice...

Completed Pirahna

2008-11-23T04:39:00.000-08:00

A new pirahna for my Cadre...

XV-88 Broadside Suits

2008-10-15T23:00:00.000-07:00

Some additional fire power to my cadre...

XV-8 Crisis Battlesuit Completed

2008-08-15T16:05:00.000-07:00

Here's an update on my current works on my Tau Army...

Stealth Team Gamma

2008-07-25T14:50:00.000-07:00

More Completed Devilfish Pictures

2008-07-15T05:58:00.000-07:00

Devilfish Completed

2008-07-13T00:10:00.000-07:00

Devilfish WIP

2008-06-25T00:02:00.001-07:00

Tau Fire Warriors Completed

2008-05-28T21:40:00.000-07:00

My newly completed Fire Warrior squad! This is my first completed Tau unit.....

More to come!

Fire Warrior WIP - coloring

2008-05-20T23:15:00.000-07:00

Fire Warriors WIP

2008-05-06T04:32:00.000-07:00

I guess taking the first step for any new Tau players is to color their mainstay force of fire warriors. Well here's mine!

The tau sprue is not exactly the most efficiently design and IMO, they could have included more parts and accesories to give a bit more diversity to the models. Nevertheless, the assembled models still looks great and I look forward to painting the first model with my own personalized GW variation scheme on it.

Stay tune for more!