Plodding right along on my Tau force, I have completed my first stealthsuit. This is an older XV15 model that Games Workshop has discontinued. I got it from my friend's brother-in-law, along with a bunch of other Tau models. This particular model is a Shas'vre, equipped with a bonding knife and markerlight.


Stealthsuits are equipped with stealth field generators that distort their image and make them more difficult to see (and thus shoot at). I wanted some way to mark that the models are cloaked, rather than just painting them like the rest of my infantry. One way that I had seen was to dry brush the model the same way you dry brush the base, so that it blends in with the terrain that your army is mounted on. Some of the better ones had the stealthsuits phasing in and out, with half the model painted normally, and the other half cloaked.

However, I wasn't really sold on the idea, and I didn't want something that was only half stealthed. So I decided to give my stealth units a camouflage scheme. I painted the model the army's blue, rather than the standard white of my infantry, then painted a mottled pattern over top. It came out a lot better than I thought it would.

This past weekend I found a mirror for my foyer. It's an interesting looking piece. Still going with the oriental flavor, this actually reminds me of some of the decoration I saw when I was in Thailand. Particularly the gold leaves on the red background.


And now that I have the mirror up, I can hang up one of the pictures I got at the art show. I needed the table and mirror as a reference to see where the painting should go.


I have three things left to do to my foyer. I need something to go on the table. I'm thinking either a Thai dragon or a Chinese lion. I also need a shoe rack to go along that low wall you can see in the bottom of the picture. I have a bunch of shoes lining the base of the wall, but I'd like an actual place to put them. I haven't really been looking yet, but the only ones I've seen so far are those metal or plastic wire frames. Suitable for the closet, but not for the front entrance. The last thing I want to do is replace the light with something more oriental looking. The shoe rack should be the only thing that poses any difficulty.

The other week I decided to liven up my front walk a bit by adding some flowers. It was pretty bare before, especially the strip of mulch between the garage and the sidewalk. So I went to Lowe's and picked out some flowers at random. Just whatever looked pretty. I got a couple long windowsill pots to put them in. I potted them instead of planting them since I wasn't sure what the home owner's association would say about it. So far, nothing.


This is the front walk with the new flowers. The poinsettia there by the door was a gift from the neighbors this Christmas. And the little American flag is from the Tea Party.


The first set of flowers. Three of them are the same kind, just different colors. The bright red ones there on the center right have since stopped blooming. The others look like they'll keep going for a while.


All but the red ones here have stopped blooming. The plants are still green, but no more flowers. The tags on the flowers for these first two pots say they need a lot of sun, and here between the buildings they probably only get 3 hours of sunlight a day. We'll see if the start blooming again once the dead buds fall off.


This last pot has flowers that like the shade. The two in the middle need a lot of water. They start wilting if I don't water them for a couple days. The pink one has stopped blooming, but the plant is still a bright green.

And no, I don't know what any of these flowers are. I didn't save the tags, and I forgot to look. Also, my neighbors decided to copy me after I put my flowers out. But she outdid me, putting more pots out and taller flowers. If any of mine die, I'll have to get something bigger to match.