color ideahs for tyranids

[Rayneau]

(retyped aparently i can post links till i post 10 replys for some dumb reason)

Anyway i wanted to make up my tyranid units based off some of our animals like beatles and such with a brilliant shine i could muster up with that i beliave the eavy metal or whatever that will give it a nice colorful sheen

Got the ideah from a scarab beatle on the animal planet

anyone have any ideahs

[Sybrite]

if you know any airbrush artists or even automotive painters, they can mix you up a batch of iridescent paint to use on your nid carapaces

[Rayneau]

Thats actualy a great ideah
i dont realy have alot of knowledge on that type of stuff is there a chemical that is added to paint or is it a special chemical paint itself

Rainbow_boa_peruvian
mawlock lol

[scythes]

I don't personally like metallic painted nids becuase they're all organic, but GW makes some pretty good bright metallics. Mythril Silver and Shining Gold aren't bad. Can layer them up over the slightly darker silvers to make them shine a bit more. That is unless you want even brighter, then you'll have to go elsewhere.

[SuperADJ]

It's a nice idea, I'd like to see how it would look on a model. I agree that metallics would look a little odd considering the nids are purely organic creations (which is, for me, a massive part of their appeal) but there's no reason why you couldn't use something like an iridescent or flip paint if you're careful about the colours. A quick google search turned up a purple/green iridescent paint by Tamiya that looked interesting.

Watching your nids change colour as they go about devouring everything on the table certainly sounds great!

[Rayneau]

Im gonna see aboutgeting my army started up before i get heavaly into the ideah but today or tomorow im gonna go make my rounds around lowes and some craft stores i got around here.
Ya metalic paints just look pretty crappy to begin with i want the whole sheen factor on it so it will change colors im thinking a good combo will be a black base with a plain shine on it but the armor plates and such have the nice iridecent blue or purple wil look awesome

[scythes]

With Nids I would definitely paint as you go, if not you'll get overwhelmed because there will be so many unpainted models. It took me forever to paint mine up, and I'ms till not done, but at least all I have left are the newer models I've gotten.

[Rayneau]

Ya thats what i thought to ima gonna paint up most of my army regularly save for a few units like my tyrant im gonna go overboard on
go back and maybe repaint a few if not all later on when i have time

[Shining Finger]

I actually got my ideas from TV shows. My Tyranids are painted to look like Cell from Dragonball Z. I also considered painting them to look like Freeza from the same show, but if I did they will look just like team eavy metal's hive fleet Leviathan!

You'll notice that the models are old. I got them when 3rd edition Tyranids came out.

[SuperADJ]

Wow. They look great. I'm still trying to decide on a colour scheme. I like the contrast of the Hive Fleet Leviathan scheme, but white is a bit strong for my tastes and the pinks don't sit well with me. I was thinking about using more of a bone colour for the flesh, and a stronger red for the pink areas. That just leaves the carapace colour, which is the hardest part!

Also, a lot of my models have been base-coated black, would that make it hard for me to apply a light colour scheme?

[Shining Finger]

Wow. They look great. I'm still trying to decide on a colour scheme. I like the contrast of the Hive Fleet Leviathan scheme, but white is a bit strong for my tastes and the pinks don't sit well with me. I was thinking about using more of a bone colour for the flesh, and a stronger red for the pink areas. That just leaves the carapace colour, which is the hardest part!

Also, a lot of my models have been base-coated black, would that make it hard for me to apply a light colour scheme?

Thanks for the compliment
Hmmm, I saw a nice bone coloured nids army once. They had pink veins and joints, and black carapace with brown highlights. Another idea would be to think of the carapace as human fingernails. I think it will look awesome if you can make them look as if they are translucent, giving the illusion of blood vessels going under the carapace.

For light colour scheme, I normally undercoat white but you can lightly spray your black undercoated models with white, so that the raised parts become lighter and the deep grooves remain dark.

I am usually against black undercoat unless you're doing metallics or some near-black colours. I tried painting a squad of Blood Ravens with black undercoat. The reds I applied ended up looking brown. I had to do 3 layers of red. I think it's much faster just to white undercoat and black wash at the end.

[scythes]

Foundation paints are great for using light colors to go over dark colors I've heard, they coat really well. Also, if you start with a space wolf grey base over the black it coats well and makes the lighter colors you want to show through look a lot better.

[wookieplus]

It's a nice idea, I'd like to see how it would look on a model. I agree that metallics would look a little odd considering the nids are purely organic creations

I think iridescents are a fabulous idea - there are beetles on this planet with iridescent carapaces, so nature has already done it (like most things) - sets a good precedent. If you do iridescent carapaces but the rest more 'normal' organic colours (eg bone for the exoskeleton) I think it would look really cool

[Rayneau]

BACK FROM VACATION
im still working trying to find some good florescent paint that wont cost me a fortune.
i was thinking of going With a black base with a blue purple shine if i can do it with that nice flourecent glow on it
Maybe get some nice dark blue accents and i know all the non flourescent parts are going to have a gloss varnish coat on them im experamenting with rite now.
(this is all only for my tyrant guards btw)

Im in the middle of painting up a ravener brood and i stumbled across how well they actualy look with a black white color scheme
I found theres alot of boney plates and ribs going up the torso and tail sections im gonna try making a two color nid with a nice gloss varnish coat see how it looks
The one im working on now has a chaos black base coat and scab red armor plates
its half painted with skull white bone ribs going up the front it looks pretty good and honestly i dident realy do much if any detail work on it sence i honestly dont think it needs it.
Gonna maybe badab black the red and varnish the bones and the black see how it looks.

Actualy im thinking now maybe a Carnifex will look pretty awesome in flourescent plates sence hes a big beetle to begin with .
Maybe ill do some more experamenting

[SuperADJ]

Thanks for the tips, much appreciated! Father Christmas brought me a Carnifex but I think I'll start with a Termagant or something in case I make a complete hash of it!

Black, white and red sounds good - even I could attempt that. More food for thought. But I'm really looking forward to an iridescent Carnifex. This thread needs more pictures!

[wookieplus]

BACK FROM VACATION
im still working trying to find some good florescent paint that wont cost me a fortune.

In the UK at least, you can get flourescent paints to go around lightswitches etc from hardware stores like B&Q. you'd need to check whether they're water based or not, and no guarantee they'd work on plastics or mix with acrylics, but could be a good starting point.


On the idea of iridescents: This idea might work really well on necrons - living metal that looks alive

[dankdrummer]

honestly for me i'm in the same boat trying to find a scheme for my nids ,thinking of doing something like the zerg (i know ill get hate for that) but they would look really good with brown tones, and bleached bone highlights. its just the carpace i'm sure what to do, maybe like a dark blue or purple with the rown skin tones, and the GW washes look really good with their paints because they arent inks like the old ones so when you highlight the wash wont come loose like the old inks would....... still on the fence my self. those green nids are way cool and done very well.

[wookieplus]

I found black shading through blues to ice blue tips, and black shading through purple to violet tips both worked well. I used both colour schemes in my nid horde, to help distinguish groups apart, as I had a lot of gaunts running around.

Also, another nice tip for gaunts is - mount a nid warriour head on a gaunt, it then looks like a leader gaunt - ok no stat differences of course, but it did give a little focus for the group. By putting the leader mid front, the rest of the gaunts were angled slightly toward the leader when deploying/moving. This helped define the groups. Furthermore, the number of 'leaders' indicated the number of gaunt groups, which is something that may be quite important if you are using tervigons as gaunt generators as its very easy to lose count.

Finally, if you want to make your gaunt units look really good; its worth watching Jurassic Park to see the small dinos in action. Position their heads and if you have time, shape the gaunt tails (using heat) so they arent so straight, more in the way that those dinos move their heads and tails in JP. Painting ring patterns on the tails, they start looking really lifelike!

[Rayneau]

My comp got hit with a virus And ima be off for a few weeks
Ill pop back on when i get it all fixed up
Ill bring some pictures

Oh i thought i should post i got an ideah from my buddy he said to go look up some poison dart frogs for my genestealers or gaunts
gonna give it a try it will fit in well with the army at first glance

And go look up a picture of a halloween crab.
im thinking tyrannofex or tervigon

going to buy a hive tyrant and another tyrant guard
i know the guard im gonna give the nice irridescent look
any ideahs for the tyrant

[Telion66]

I base my tyranids around a type of insect or reptile since they are the closest things now that look like tyranids to me ( apart from the guns).
Mine have been based around the blue poison dart frog , caparace blue with blotchy black uneven marks, and a crocodile, white under belly.
My design makes them look like Hive Fleet Leviathan to others.

If you use this method you could use to make gargoyles look like giant mosquitos or blow flies........
THE IMAGINATION IS ENDLESS!!