A quick and easy way to achieve a grimdark look on tau miniatures. Scalable from foot troops to large vehicles.

Uses an airbrush, but airbrush is not required.

Base coating

1. Base coat the entire miniature with a black spray such as Chaos Black
2. Apply a heavy airbrush of Mechanicus Standard Grey all over the miniature
3. Apply an airbrush of Administratum Grey coming down to about 90o angle of the mini - you want to keep some of the mechanics visible on the undersides.
4. Apply a final airbrush of White Scar or better yet something like Titanium White from a zenithal position, coming down to about a 45o angle to the miniature.

Blocking in details

1. Apply a coat of Mechanicus Standard Grey to the mechanical parts and the cloth elements of the miniatures. The armour panels should be left alone, keeping the administratum and white highlights visible
2. Paint an ad hoc amount of panels in Mephiston Red to break up the white/grey armour panels.
3. Stipple Rhinox Hide over any areas of damage you want to show on the mini. This should be panels and mechanical parts. If you get any on cloth parts, then go back and tidy up after.
4. Pick out any visors, glass and a handful of mechanical parts in Balthasar Gold

Griming it up

This next process is very fluid and will vary from mini to mini. The beautiful thing about the oils is that you can reapply and keep working with them after they've dried.

1. Give a good coat of matt varnish to the miniature. Whatever you choose. I use a spray can from an car/auto-parts shop.
2. Apply a panel liner to the miniature along any and all panels you want to have that added depth! E.g. AK or Tamiya panel liners
3. Here the best bit. Slosh the entire miniature in a spirits diluted amount of Sepia I tend to mix as I go, tweaking the amount but go with 2:1 spirits:oil to start
4. After giving the oil a time to dry, crack out the spirits and cotton buds (or your chosen method of removing oils) and get to work. You're mostly looking to remove the oil from the flatter panels and areas less likely to get grimed up.

Final steps

1. Reapply Balthasar Gold to any areas that you applied it to previously
2. Apply White Scar or other white to the armour panels. Don't worry about there being any oil on there it'll help with the look. Put it on in a mix of stippling and brushing.
3. Apply Mephiston Red to the red panels. Again don't worry about it being free of oil and do it in a mix of stippling and brush.
4. Apply Mechanicus Standard Grey to the mechanical and cloth parts of the miniature. Final reminder, to not worry about oil on the mini!

Enjoy your grimdark mini