How I paint Aeronautica Imperialis - Tau

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I have collected and played Tau ever since they were release back in 2001. I have a Tau army for Warhammer 40,000 (although it is badly outdated now). I have a Tau fleet for Battlefleet Gothic (all of the Forge World ships) and with the release of Aeronautica Imperialis, I have taken them to the skies. Recently, I put together a review of the Tau faction for Aeronautica Imperialis. This little guide leads you through how I painted my Tau Empire aircraft. I also have a guide for my Imperial Navy aircraft.

More of my Aeronautica articles can be found here.

Paints Required:
  • Chaos Black spray
  • Mechanicum Standard Grey spray
  • The Fang
  • Russ Grey
  • Fenrisian Grey
  • Nuln Oil
  • Celestra Grey
  • Blue Horror
  • Ulthuan Grey
  • Abaddon Black
  • Black templar
  • Dawnstone
  • Administratum Grey
  • Grey Seer
  • Eshin Grey
  • Iron Hands Steel
  • Corax White
  • Gryph-charger Grey
  • Aethermatic Blue
  • Jokaero Orange
  • Trollslayer Orange

Undercoat the aircraft with Chaos Black spray. When this is dry give the aircraft a VERY LIGHT dusting with Mechanicum Standard Grey spray. This second spray serves to lighten up the miniature prior to applying the base colours in the next steps, which makes the coverage easier to achieve. 

Take a medium size basecoat brush and apply a few thin coats of The Fang to the upper surface of the plane. If you can avoid the recesses between the panels (do not worry if you cannot this will be tidied up later).


Take a medium size basecoat brush and apply a few thin coats of Celestra Grey to the underside of the plane. If you can avoid the recesses between the panels (do not worry if you cannot this will be tidied up later). This will take a few coats to get nice and smooth. The first coat will look terrible but do not try to put too much paint on at once. Celestra Grey covers better than Fenrisian Grey because it is a base paint. When you have a reasonable covering of Celestra Grey apply a coat of Fenrisian Grey.

After you have completed this you will want to look at the edges of the plane and neaten them up using either The Fang or Fenrisian Grey.


Once you have nice solid base coats on both the upper and lower surfaces of your plane you need to paint Nuln Oil into the recesses between the panels using a small detail brush. Be warned, this step can get a little tedious. Do not apply the wash over the whole plane.



The grills on the underside of the plane were then painted with Black Templar.


Most of the monotonous work is now done on these planes. Starting with the underside, as the colours are lighter, begin dry brushing Fenrisian Grey on to the miniature with a reasonably large round ended brush. The purpose of this step is to cover up tiny mistakes made with the Nuln Oil. Ideally, you should keep the drybrush strokes moving from the front of the aircraft towards the back. Once this step is complete repeat with Blue Horror (there is no need to clean the brush). Again, make sure you drybrush in one direction from the front of the plane towards the back. This causes the lighter colours to build up on the leading edge of your miniature. Finally finish off with a light drybrush of Ulthuan Grey, again front to back.


Begin by dry brushing The Fang on the upper side of the miniature with a reasonably large round ended brush. The purpose of this step is again to cover up tiny mistakes made with the Nuln Oil. Ideally, you should keep the drybrush strokes moving from the front of the aircraft towards the back. Once this step is complete repeat with Russ Grey (there is no need to clean the brush). Again, make sure you drybrush in one direction from the front of the plane towards the back. This causes the lighter colours to build up on the leading edge of your miniature and gives you your highlights. Finally finish off with a drybrush of a 1:1 mix of Russ Grey and Fenrisian Grey, again front to back.


The base colours of the plane are now complete and we are moving onto the details. The weapons, engine outlets, engine intake grills and the drone engine covers were all painted with Abaddon Black. The grills on the underside were again painted with Black Templar. The Black Templar will darken the drybrushed highlights from the previous step.


The weapons, engine outlets, engine intake grills and the drone engine covers were all highlighted with Eshin Grey. In most cases this involved, removing most of the Eshin Grey from the medium layer brush on some tissue and then wiping the brush across the surface I was highlighting.  Following this, some panels on the upper surface of the plane were painted with Dawnstone, then with Administratum Grey and then with Grey Seer. With each colour, I tried to leave a little of the darker colour towards the back edge of the panel, so that there was a nice transition. When the panels were dry, they were lightly drybrushed with Ulthuan Grey.


We are finally onto the small details of the plane. The domes near the Drone turrets were painted with Iron Hands Steel. When these had dried a wash of Nuln Oil was applied. The cockpit window, any lights and the Air Caste symbol were all painted with Corax White. You will need a small detail brush, with a good point for this step.


The cockpit window was then painted with Gryph-Charger Grey. The aircraft was then turned upside down so that this contrast paint could dry. In this way, the Gryph-Charger Grey dries with a dark colour at the top of the window. The lights were painted with Aethermatic Blue.  Finally, I applied orange Sept markings (my Tau are from Sa'cea) with Jokaero Orange, which I then went over with Trollslayer Orange to brighten up.


These miniatures were really nice to paint, once I had worked out a scheme that I liked. If you have any questions, please put them in the comments below. Otherwise, Happy Hobbying.

 

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