Zerg Tyranids?

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**diesel7270**

Hey guys, I've been working on a prototype gaunt for a "zerg" look and I was hoping you could give me some pointers. Here's what I've got so far: A vermin brown base with a devlan mud wash, a hormagaunt purple accent and burnished gold eyes. I plan on scorpion green on the toxin sacs but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Blow are pictures of what I have so far. Any comments on how I should be painting this better would be awesome, because I really have no idea where to go from here.

**JSK-Fox**

That looks awesome. Just remember, you need an HQ 'Overmind' and make termagaunts into hydralisks.

**diesel7270**

The closes unit to an overmind that I could think of would be a spore pod.

...though the overmind itself is much, much larger than any rendition shown of it before.

Also, I always kindof figured Zoanthropes to be Overlord-type units.

**Matt Varnish**

Id say hydralisks are your termagaunts, Ultras your carnifexes or trygons, mutas your gargs, the list goes on. Rippers are drones

or broodlings

**JSK-Fox**

In my above post, I meant Overlords

Anyways, trygons should be your queens, and you should use spore mines as banelings. Also, make lictors into lurkers.

**LeBaron**

I hope everything goes well for you. I love Starcraft and love to see conversions/themed armies of different things. This is gonna be one of those great armies I have the feeling.

**diesel7270**

Anyway, anyone else have any idea if I should improve this gaunt in any way? It's my prototype so I want to make sure it's right.

Edit: Heh heh. Thanks. I really do want to emulate zerg, though. Maybe I'll have to make a Kerrigan model.

**LeBaron**

Think of the epic of seeing the puny space marines try to take on the might of the Queen of Blades as she leads her mighty Zerg swarm! Love the idea.

**Brother SRM**

I would paint the eyes yellow instead of gold - metallics are cheesy looking on organic models. I like the look of this though. It's very low contrast, but that's the Zerg for ya!

**diesel7270**

I just redeployed from Iraq. they wouldn't let me ship my paint, so I had to toss all of my vallejo and GW paints and my tubs of finish. So I'm gonna have to pick up some yellow. The only vaguely yellow thing I had was the burnished gold. You're right though. Or is there another eye color that suits better?

EDIT: Hahahah! I'm listening to the Zerg Soundtrack on youtube as I read this. And drinking copious amounts of beer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrDd66egnMQ <----listening to....

**JSK-Fox**

Make your hive tyrant Kerrigan.
And I hope it all turns out well.

**poipo32**

To me that color scheme doesn't cut it, it screams TYRANID, not zerg. It should look more organic and more brown. Take it with a grain of salt, that's only my opinion.

**physcosamatic**

While I was searching the great inter-webs. I FOUND THIS FOR YOU!

and here is the thread

http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=17564&hl=

hope this stuff gives helps

**diesel7270**

That's really cool, man. I'm definitely not high enough in my experience with model building to attempt that kind of customization, but I'm glad to see someone did it sucsessfully.

Yeah... while the dark fleshtone seems to match a bit better in good lighting... which is for some reason very tough to find around here... I could probably have used a lighter shade. Maybe snakebite leather? The purple was I guess from my recollection of the gameplay where a colored shade was on all of your units for team recognition or something. I dunno. Perhaps a bleached bone accent instead of the hormagaunt purple?

**poipo32**

Most of them are simply part swaps, using arms from another tyranid model on a gaunt for example. It's really easy and requires no more equipment/skill than assembling models as on the box.

**LeBaron**

That is a very impressive Zerg force though.

**diesel7270**

Yeah. But GW is expensive enough. Buying two battleforces to make parts for one "zerg" battleforce, or something similar, would get old, quick.

I took up the advice on the "organic" look and repainted the old one. It's still a bit rough but that's what I get for super-zoomed pics....

Any advice? Any colors I should go for besides these? Perhaps a slight purple accent on the bony parts? I know it's a bit sloppy, but I wanted to get this pic up before I go to bed.

**l33tninj4**

Just stay away from my Friend who plays Nids; he's the master of the Zerg rush gaunt army lists.

**Morgrim**

Not sure what a zerg looks like, but your model looks really flat. I don't think the single devlin mud wash is cutting it. Might want to try a second wash, or even going to badab black.

**Mightmagic**

Try modeling gargolyes into mutalisks !

**diesel7270**

Mrgrim wrote:

...your model looks really flat. I don't think the single devlin mud wash is cutting it. Might want to try a second wash, or even going to badab black.

I'm not sure how applying two washes would do anything but cover up the first wash. How would I do that in a way that looked right? Should I use some brighter colors, like edging on the scales that you see in GW's pics of tyranids?

EDIT: Ohhhh... I get it. Two coats of the wash to make it darker and fill in the cracks more.

EDIT 2: by the way... I'm getting conflicting advice over wether the "organic" look I just painted on was too "blah". Should I keep the color scheme the way it is? I need to know if it looks too boring. I know GW's 'eavy Metal artists tend to encourage slightly cartoonish colors, but I am way too indecisive to settle on what makes me feel good. Well, frankly I like it a lot the way it is now. I just don't know if maybe I'm crazy and it looks like a sun-baked poo-brick.

**diesel7270**

Nothing? I do plan on getting in a darker wash. I just would like some advice on if those colors look good