Merry Christmas!

...Or based on the minis should that be Merry Fishmas? It's been hellacious in Real Life(tm) of late, but I have been puttering away at the rest of the Tau Hunter Cadre for the Inq28/Rogue Trader RPG minis when I could steal a little time behind a brush, and after a couple hours this afternoon I got 'em more or less finished up!

When all is said and done it ended up being a nice 10-strong unit, that breaks down into essentially 2 mirrored teams. The miniatures all came from Wargame Exclusive and they all really have a ton of character. albeit a little on the cheesecake side.

 

For leaders there's the cigar-chomping Big Shas, and a jet-pack equipped fusion gun-toting Little Shas.

 

A pair of techs/trackers - the more cheesecake-y of the two got the 'buns out' treatment, while I went with a bodysuit for the other.

 

Similarly on the snipers, one is quite risque while the other is a bit more modest.

 

The pair of gunsliners were quite dynamic, went with the red cloak on the male to tie him in with the red hair on the rest of the unit.

 

Lastly are a pair of swordmistresses, went with the jade green swords to tie the spot colors back to the other models here and there. Was pretty fun working with the muted/limited palette!

Definitely a fun little artistic palate cleanser, now it's time to dive back into painting more of the Geno Five-Two. Hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season, and a wonderful new year in 2016!

Inq28 - Tau Mercenaries (all sorts of heresy!)

I'll admit right up front that I've never been a particular fan of the Tau - mostly that came down to the model range however, I quite like the fluff. I rather enjoy the Surprisingly Sinister Space Pope and his Ethereals, the whole caste system is interesting, and the fact that they embrace all the species they come across rather than just automatically exterminating them makes for a breath of fresh air in the grim darkness. (Heresy!) Ran across these alternate models on ebay a while back and thought they'd be fun to paint up, and subsequently thought "Hey, these'd be perfect mercenaries for a radical Ordo Xenos warband". I wasn't super happy with the initial skin tones so spent a little time touching them up and got some new pics taken:

"Big Shas O'Mal'y" along with an air caste tech and fire caste sniper joined forces with Inquisitor Travinski during an investigative mission into the incursion of Hive Fleet Kraken. The Tau were rescued from almost certain death at the claws of a Genestealer cult (side note, also thinking about doing up some villain warbands), and subsequently pledged their service to the Inquisitor, further cementing her status as a radical in the eyes of her peers. (Double heresy!)

A bit more cheesecake with these models, especially the sniper - Let's just say I had to take a few pics before I got one that's SFW. (Triple heresy!) Was fun to paint up some xenos filth though - had fun with the skintones and tried a number of different washes to try to approximate the 'typical' ochre Tau armor color. I have another few female Tau mercs coming to add to the group - they may end up spinning off into their own warband when all is said and done!