The Tau Sky Ray – what a bargain!

This month I shifted to working on my Tau. Originally, I didn’t plan on creating a Tau force, but a while back a good friend of mine left the game and gave me all his models. I had been helping him paint them (two models) and he decided to give them to me. So after a good start and some sweet deals, I have collected a decent size force.

Towards the end of June, I began stripping old paint jobs, and repairing broken parts. A few of my fire warriors are missing their antennas but they will work just fine. I have decided to go with a mobile force, consisting of a few stationary broadsides for support, which means I will need a few Devilfish.

On the subject of Devilfish I would to point out a bargain, the Tau Sky Ray. The Sky Ray kit has the sprues for all of the Tau vehicles (excluding the Piranha). The Sky Ray is only $6.25 more than the Devilfish which includes that nifty hammerhead weapons sprue which costs $15.00 on the GW website.

My present army list consists of 3 Devilfish, and 2 Hammerhead s for a total of 5 vehicles ($187.5). Fortunately I have most of all the vehicles. But if I was just starting out I would have bought 4 Sky Rays and a Devilfish ($200). Although the cost would have been $12.50 more, I would be able to build the following:

3- Devilfish
2- Hammerheads
2 - Smart missile system upgrades.
2 - Burst cannons options
2 -Ion Cannons with turrets
2 -Railguns with turrets
1 -Sky Ray Missile Turret or -Swordfish turret with twin-linked Rail Guns.

TAU Swordfish
White Dwarf # 271,
Tau Vehicle Design Rules
Page 60-61
Points: 260, BS-4, Armor Front-13, Side-12, Rear-10
Weapons: 1 twin-linked Railgun (with sub munitions), 1 twin-linked missile pod, and 1 burst Cannon

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Just some ramblings, Sherpa

Having the Blue, Blues...

Sometime ago I started painting my Crimson Fists force, but I was a loss at which blue to use as the base color. I read the White Dwarf article where Neil Hodgson used a mixture of chaos black and regal blue. Although I liked the results, I was looking for something a little more blue. After a few searches on the internet, I found a blog where the author used GW's Midnight Blue as the base color. I tried it and liked it, so I began painting.

Then life got more involved,I stopped painting and GW discontinued Midnight Blue.

Later when I started painting my Devastator Squad, I was unable to get Midnight Blue. I tried Vallejo's Night Blue, the color was close, but still a little off. So rather than try to mix a custom color (not a good thing), I have switched to using Necron Abyss as the base color. I really like the results, but now my army has two different base colors. ... Aarrgh