T’au Empire Pathfinder Team – Perfect Miniatures for Beginners

The T’au Empire Pathfinder team is a set of 13 miniature figures by Games Workshop for the sci-fi miniature wargame Warhammer 40,000, in which players control an army of their own making and battle against an opposing player to complete objectives and gather the most victory points to win the game.

If only the background were as interesting as the models themselves.

Miniatures are a type of scale model that you must glue together and then paint from scratch all by yourself. A box of miniatures is only a kit of several plastic sprues, from which you must cut off the pieces yourself with a pair of pliers. After that you can begin gluing the parts together in any way you like, and finally paint them yourself.

This squad of Pathfinders is one of the core units of an army of T’au, one of the playable and collectable factions in 40K. The T’au are a race of aliens that rely on their superior technology to win their battles against the more physically capable races, and this focus is present perfectly in this small group. The kit comes with enough parts to create ten soldiers on foot and three AI controlled drones, as well as a bunch of spare parts like arms and helmets. The soldiers can be built in quite a few different poses thanks to the combination of varying pairs of legs and arms, and the drones can be customized for a few different purposes, like generating shields or just plain old shooting.

An as-of-yet unpainted gun drone

Some of the older miniature kits from Games Workshop don’t have nearly as much variety in the different possible poses available, so for a beginner like me, this is good practice both in terms of assembly and painting. The soldiers can be equipped with scanners, binoculars, and grenades, all of which offer different painting possibilities and make the whole process more interesting with their variety.

He’s a bit of a mess, but he’s my mess.

Buying this kit will cost you a hefty 30 euros, which sounds like a hell of a price for 13 plastic toys, but as someone who has been window shopping quite a bit in terms of this hobby, 30 euros doesn’t sound like much anymore. If you’re unsure whether the hobby is for you, Games Workshop sells three-model starter sets that come with paints and a brush for the same price, which is arguably a better starting point for your first steps. Miniature painting is not a cheap hobby by any means, and that’s a rough reality you have to face when starting from the ground up. Though to call them “toys” is a misleading, for I can assure you that you won’t find any toys as detailed as this from any toy section of your local shopping centres.

Personally, I’ve loved painting these bad boys up, and they’ve only made me excited to start building up a full-sized army someday. I can hear my wallet screaming in horror already.

Production company: Games Workshop Group PLC

Bought from: Puolenkuun Pelit Tampere

Price: 30€

Pictures taken by author.

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#miniatures #warhammer #T'au #Pathfinders #GamesWorkshop