Originally I was looking at something like this:
I wanted to do a primarily black / white scheme with a touch of blue to liven things up. At the time I was putting this scheme together, you didn't really see a lot of white armor tau - it was mostly shades of grey, red, or ochre. Now, of course, with the recent drop of the new 2015 Tau Codex with Kauyon and Mont'ka campaign books, white armor is in vogue and we'll probably see a lot of it on the table. I don't like following the pack (otherwise I'd have just gone with the straightforward ochre color scheme), so I've decided to set aside the white armor.
What to paint, though? I've decided that I'm going to have some fun and paint my Tau Hokie colors after my alma mater Virginia Tech. That's maroon (#660000) and burnt orange (#FF6600). The closest citadel colors to that are Doombull Brown (#630808) and Fire Dragon Bright Orange (#FF7B00).
The question is what to use for the armor plates and what to use for the body suit. I can go with a bold look and make the orange the armor plate color:
Or, I can go for a more subdued look with the armor plates being maroon:
I think I'm going to go with the maroon armor, since by convention the vehicles and suits are the same color as the firewarrior armor plates, and I don't want to blind my opponent (or myself) with a bright orange army.
I wish I was a good enough painter that I could free-hand the VT shield:
I think that would look pretty bad-ass on the chest piece decoration (instead of a sept symbol) and would be a more subtle nod to the university than a glaring stylized "VT" everywhere.
I still want to go with the winter basing theme, so snow either way. The last couple of years in Blacksburg have been relatively heavy in snow (for the area, anyway), and I think it'll look better than the standard boring green base.
