[dreamhacker]

I have now painted 12 Tau Fire Warriors...I started with spraying them black, then using vermin brown then vomit brown on the armor, while I kept the cloth/leather parts black. What I now wanna do is add some shadows and highlightning to them, but I don't know how. As for the shadows in folds on the cloth, should I use black ink or what?
I'm pretty new to painting miniatures

 

[Da Mighty Camel]

Will be pretty hard to add shadows on black
This guide might help, as I guess you are painting them the 'classic' way.
http://uk.games-workshop.com/tau/getting-started/4/

For the cloth, you could mix chaos black and Scorched brown and paint it on (I think they did it in the guide) and then highlight it with regular scorched brown and keep the dark in the folds.
For the highlights on the armour, you could mix vomit brown with bleached brown and use on the extreme edges, or you could simply use burbonic brown for a similar result.
EDIT: Welcomme to the forums btw! I like your name, might you be swedish?

 

[dreamhacker]

Thanks, and I'm norwegian acctually

 

[Da Mighty Camel]

Meh, almost the same (ok, not really. But you get the deal ).
If you need any more help let us know.

 

[dreamhacker]

But, when I highlight, do I only paint the edges and such on the armor...? Never done it before, so not sure exactly how highlightning works

And what is to drybrush?

 

[Da Mighty Camel]

Highlighting: You basicly paint the raised edges on a model, the places where light hits and it looks brighter. I would do as GW did in that guide and keep the highights on the edges of the armour and highlight the raised folds in the cloth as well.
Drybrushing: This is a easy method for quickly painting highlights and such. You take your brush (which is dry) and load the top with rather much paint (not to much!) and then wipes most of the paint of on a paper or towel or something. You will now have a brush with very little paint on and then gently brush it on the are you want to paint. It is also a great method do paint metalic areas.

 

[dreamhacker]

Will highlightning make it look more metallic, then?

 

[Da Mighty Camel]

If you highlight with metallic paint on a standard paint (vomit brown in your case) it will look strange. Not sure what you meant there. I suggest a lighter paint than vomit brown for the highlights on the armour.

 

[dreamhacker]

Then I can just lighten the Vomit Brown by mixing in some white...And should I drybrush it, or what?

 

[Da Mighty Camel]

Yes, that could work (only a little white then, and then try diffrent amounts of white). Drybrushing is up to you. I prefer standard highlightning, but some people do well enough with drybrush as well.

 

[Zentradi]

Drybrush is a speed painting technique. I almost newer like the result from drybrush, still some models or part can look good using drybrush (chain mail, tubes and stuffs like that). I shod not use drybrush on Tau models, because they have large flat areas (the armor plates) its hard to get a nice result on those kind of areas using drybrush.

Try some layering. Mix some white in your Vomit Brown as you sad. Then paint it on the edges.

If you what to put more time then you can paint multiple layers and ad more and more white to the Vomit Brown. Let a part of every layer show so it looks like a smooth shading from darker to brighter.

 

[dreamhacker]

I now tried a use a mix of Bleached Bone and Vomit Brown (easier to mix than Skull White and Vomit Brown as they are more similar, so I could use a 50/50 mix)...The color is the right, but often I get like too much paint there and the edges become like "higher" someplaces. Also, I should paint as little as possible outside the edge (the highlighted lines being as thin as possible), right?

EDIT: I find it hard to paint really thin lines even with the fine details brush

EDIT: And I feel that my miniatures gets this dull/matt look on their armor...Not as cool as the ones I see on webpages and such =\

 

[Da Mighty Camel]

I can say that the minis on the site are painted by 'eavy metal-staff, so don't get to suprised
And nobody paints perfect the first time, most beginners doesn't even do highlights.
A tip is to only use the very tip of the brush and be really careful when painting (this also includes lots of patience).
If you could get some pics of those warriors we could help you a lot better.

 

[dreamhacker]

I'll try to get a picture of them...

But, can I mix a metal color and vomit brown to make it look more metallic?

And often, I tend to see some of the color which is under the base color (black, or the darker brown) through the paint...If you get what I mean

 

[Da Mighty Camel]

I think mixing brown with metal would look strange, leave mixing with metal on small things like symnols and such and then use colors like green or purple, not brown.
You should have no problem covering the basecoat (in your case, black) with brown. But if you still get trouble wiht then I suggest to use more coats of paint, just be sure that they are wet so the color don't get all thick.

 

[dreamhacker]

You should have no problem covering the basecoat (in your case, black) with brown. But if you still get trouble wiht then I suggest to use more coats of paint, just be sure that they are wet so the color don't get all thick.

What you mean with the color getting all thick? :S

 

[Da Mighty Camel]

If you use to much color when you paint, it will get thick.
All the minis you see over the internet that are well-painted are painted by using several wet layers of paint, it is one of the basics for miniature painting.