I couldn't find a decent tutorial for Sa'Cea Tau, in my opinion, the coolest colour scheme since the warm brown of the T'au sept (the white guys GW currently are rocking as the posterchild can go do one... imho)

2 paints are not included in PP's library, these are the Molotow range, they're great, in this scheme I use their colour, petrol as a base, and Liquitex Acrylic inks, I use their Magenta ink for effects. Feel free to sub these for something similar.

Lots of the listed paints are to provide alternatives to out-of-production colours I used, so if anyone wants to follow along, feel free to use those instead (main one being the Electric Blue I use as my drybrush pass on the armour. Any bright, saturated sky blue will do.

The same with whites, greys, blacks and metalics, just use what you have.

I wrote this while painting my test model for the scheme. I will update with pictures and effects as I get to them on different models

Paints I used

Armour

1. Prime black any old one will do I used Black
2. zenithal with 027petrol
3. lightly dry brush with Electric Blue (or similar bright blue, as the range is discontinued Frost Blue or Baron Blue should be good alternatives) very lightly just to catch edges and brighten volumes.
4. Cover armour panels with Runic Grey or Runic Grey whichever you have, either should work. On flat areas, like the little shoulder pads, encourage the paint to pool towards the lower edge of each face.
5. Go back in and highlight prominent edges with Electric Blue , you could do this with another dry brush pass if you're looking for speed, but I prefer to manually place them.

Sept Markings

1. Basecoat all areas that are going to be sept colour (i.e. orange) with Off White
2. Cover all your off white with a bright orange, i used Orange Fire but you could use something like Fuegan Orange . My coverage was awful as always with orange so 2-3 thin coats were applied. You might get away with skipping this step, but I've not tested it... let me know!
3. Shade it all with an orange speedpaint like Fire Giant Orange
4. Highlight back up with your orange colour, then adding a touch of Off White (mainly because it's already on my pallet) add some fine edge higlights.

Cloth & Black armour/gun bits

1. Paint all with black speedpaint, I used Black Legion also paint any areas that will be metal with this.
2. Highlight with a neutral grey, I used Mechanicus Standard Grey
3. Add extreme highlights with Dawnstone or similar, or by adding an off white like Off White to the Mechanicus Grey.
4. I left highlights on solid bits like the gun stark, and on any black cloth, I used a thinned coat of Black Legion you coul use liquid skill ( Nuln Oil ) but why bother when a speed paint and water is already available?

Skin

1. Basecoat with Dark Sea Blue
2. splodge on the eyes with Off White
3. add a pupil if you're confident enough, i just re-used the Dark Sea Blue as it's pretty dark
4. Finally paint around the eyes with your Dark Sea Blue to define the shape, much easier than painting tiny neat eyes. Paint the big easy negative space, not the hard fiddly bits!
5. Mix in Off White for highlights for the skin. Go as close to pure off-white as you like. I feel that older tau should look dustier and paler, younger ones shold be more blue. I'll use the dark sea blue for blood effects when weathering.

Metalics

1. Base all metallic areas with a base silver like Gunmetal
2. Add gold accents with Bronze
3. Wash all with diluted Black Legion
4. Highlight back up with Gunmetal : and Bronze respectively if needed

Lenses/effects

1. Base Off White
2. wash with Magenta Acrylic Ink , some of the lenses I paint with Fluorescent Green