WIP - State of the (Tau) Nation

Every once in a while it's a good idea to take stock of where you are.  This post to is to bring you (and me) up to date on where I'm at regarding the Tau army I'm working on...

















The idea of this is to give me a kind of progress report and to prove to myself that I am actually getting somewhere!  For each component of my army I have 9 criteria to which I answer yes or no, followed by a rough completion percentage.  The criteria are:

Assembled:
Primed:
Primary Colour:
Secondary colour:
Tertiary Colour:
Shadow:
Highlight:
Detail/Weathering:
Based:

So I'm going to take a deep breath and make a frank and realistic assessment of where I am in this project (and try not to cry when I see how much there is left to do).

Fire Warriors

The infantry component of my force is 3 squads of Fire Warriors.  These were the first part of the army to be assembled and painted.

Where's the fire?

Assembled: Yes - although some are still waiting for shoulder pads to be glued on

Primed: Yes

Primary Colour: Yes

Secondary colour: Yes

Tertiary Colour: No - Ice Blue will be used to pick out the 'eyes' + any lights/buttons etc

Shadow: Yes

Highlight: No - still testing for an appropriate colour and style of application

Detail/Weathering: No

Based: No

Approximate progress: 55-60%

Some way to go and there's loads of them! Having said that once I've nailed how I'm going to highlight them, which is easily the biggest job, I'll be able to focus on getting them finished. 

Devilfish

The transports for my Infantry, I Have 3 of these and I resolved to paint the interiors and magnetise the hatches of each, as a kind of battlefield feature. That'll teach me...

Wayne found a great parking spot

Assembled: Mostly - Interiors, magnetisation, main bodies and engines are complete. I still need to finish the drones, the chin turrets and fix one of the hatches that broke.

Primed: Yes

Primary Colour: Yes

Secondary colour: No

Tertiary Colour: No

Shadow: Yes

Highlight: No

Detail/Weathering: No

Based: N/A

Approximate progress: 60-70%

The most complex part, the interior and magnetisation, is done.  The next big job, after getting the very small areas secondary colour on, is the highlighting and weathering.  After that I'll be home free (ish).  I'm  really looking forward to the weathering stage, these babies are going to look amazing!

Hammerheads

The main battle tanks of my army, these guys will give the army some serious punch. They have magnetised weapons so you'll be able to inter-change between the Ion Cannon and Railgun really easily.

Dave hated in when Kevin decide to work on his tank in the evenings.

Assembled: Yes(ish): Let's see... chin turrets, drones and a couple of magnets for one of the Ion Cannons left to do.

Primed: Yes

Primary Colour: Yes

Secondary colour: No

Tertiary Colour: No

Shadow: Yes

Highlight: No

Detail/Weathering: No

Based: N/A

Approximate progress: 60-70%

We're in a similar place to the Devilfish here, with weathering the main job left.  Cool. I can do that.

Battlesuits

You guys won't have seen all of these yet, but they started to come together this week and they're starting to take shape.  They will form the Elite core of the army and because I like my life to be 'challenging' I've taken it upon myself to magnetise all of them so you'll be able to change the weapon loadouts at your leisure.  I'm nice like that.

Everyone enjoyed the annual battle suit disco

Assembled: Ok, no - I still have to build the commander and (weeps into coffee) magnetise all the weapons.  On the plus side, all of the suits in the picture already have their shoulders and arms magnetised.

Primed: Yes

Primary Colour: Yes

Secondary colour: No

Tertiary Colour: No

Shadow: No

Highlight: No

Detail/Weathering: No

Based: No

Approximate progress: 25-30%

Eek! (Rocks backwards and forwards head in hands) The big job is magnetising all of the individual weapons.  I won't bore you 'too' much with the details but some of the weapons have 3 tabs depending on whether they're mounted on the right arm/left arm/shoulder and yes, I'm magnetising all 3 tabs! Ok, so there's still some way to go here but it'll be worth it in the end!

Stealth Team

The final part of the elite section of the army, there will be 6 stealth suits.

Assembled: No

Primed: No

Primary Colour: No

Secondary colour: No

Tertiary Colour: No

Shadow: No

Highlight: No

Detail/Weathering: No

Based: No

Approximate progress: 0%

They're still in the box.

Overall

About 50-55%? The main thing is, this exercise has made me think about what I have to do next and how I'm going to tackle it.  Doing this kind of exercise shifts the weight of "look how much I have left to do" to "this is what I have to do, to get finished" which is helpful to me.

What do you do to measure your progress on large projects? Do you have other tactics, like a spreadsheet or a list on the back of a beer mat? Let me know and I'll look forward to any comments you have.

See you next time.

Paul