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Um...yeah. Is it wrong to have certain models in a 'nid army painted differently. I'm starting to get -really- bored with just one color scheme, and wanted to try some things out on different types of units.

Or would that be considered bad?

Some people would say army composition will suffer should you change up your scheme dramatically. And they (in my mind) are right to an extent.

But there are lots of things you can do to change up your color scheme from unit to unit. I've found that you can really go wild on some units in an army, and as long as they're based the exact same and have a good tie in color used in their scheme, the different looking unit gives you a cohesive look while still giving you something different to look at.

you could have a gaunt paint sheme, and a synapse paint scheme, and then nids that come in between get a mix of the two.

And then the leader colours tend to be focused around the heads and the gaunt colours are focused on the weapons. Warriors have quite a bit of leader colour on them, while Lictors and Genestealers have leader heads and maybe a bit on their back.

Having everyone painted the same color scheme down to the brass bolts works for some armies.

You can still be cohesive and not be so regular in your look.

Best armies are those that have different units, they stand out as different, but fit into the army as a whole.

Good luck getting that done.

grey_death wrote:Some people would say army composition will suffer should you change up your scheme dramatically. And they (in my mind) are right to an extent.

But there are lots of things you can do to change up your color scheme from unit to unit. I've found that you can really go wild on some units in an army, and as long as they're based the exact same and have a good tie in color used in their scheme, the different looking unit gives you a cohesive look while still giving you something different to look at.

i definitely agree with this, however i would say with nids you are an army that has arguably more leeway on this issue. With the different broods available and things like a lichtor thats has a specific genetic purpose to blend in i would say you have some creative room. Just be prepared to explain yourself with a clever or well though out story and you'll be fine.

You could always go the route of having the "skin part" be one singular color and the back plates another, but you could "go nuts," and paint cool designs on those back paints. Kind of like Phil Kelly's nids. Each unit could have a different back pattern to help break up the monotony of painting tons of nids.

Thanks,
Chappy P!

What if I went with the same colour for the bodies/carapace, but switched them around for the synapse creatures? Would that work?

Paint a few, show us. Use macro feature on your camera for those close ups. Watch the lighting.

Oh and the reverse color thing...it just hurts peoples eyes.

Tyranids should be able to have differing color schemes in their army. Because the Hive Fleet is supposed to be able to churn out new species pretty quickly to fit their needs it makes sense they'd make creatures with differing color schemes and send them to the parts of the planet where that coloring would be most helpful (i.e. green nids in the jungle, brown nids in the desert, etc).


However, the perception from gamers is generally that all Tyranids in an army should look roughly the same with a few exceptions (Lictors, mainly).

That said, I think it would be possible to build some differences into your units provided that there was a unifying theme that ran throughout the army.

For example, if all the flesh was the same color throughout the army but the Carapace between units was varying shades I think it could work if you were careful with your choice of shades.

It would be tough to pull off well, but I think it is possible.

One problem you face is that if you've already painted a bunch of models in your army now its going to be kind of weird with just a few units/models painted differently.

If you wanted to do different colors per unit from the start it would be one thing but if you've already built up an army painted one way to this point, you probably will need to stick with it unfortunately or suffer from a perception of a "bad" theme.

It's hard to give good tips without a picture of your current theme (hint: post some pictures) but I think it could look good with say same colour on the carapace and different colours on the skin. Íf you compare that with us humans, we all have (roughly) the same colour on our teeth and nails, but we can have different colour on our skin. The skin can even change colour if we get exposed to a lot of sunlight.

With the 'nids, you could go a little more wild with different colours, but it would probably look good if you tried to have somewhat similar colours. For example, you could go with all cold colours (green, blue, purple etc.) or all warm colours (red, yellow, orange etc.).

If you did warrying colours like this on the skin on and then kept the carapace and bases the same I think it would look very coherent yet still not be so boring to paint.
I think you can get away with bor mixing skin colour in one unit or having different colours on each unit type.

One example could be yellow gaunts, orange genstealers, red monstrous creatures and perhaps mix some red with brown on the lictors to give it a more muted look while still fit with the rest of the army. A bone-coloured carapace would match the skin well imho.

You could allso paint an equal ammount of red, orange and yellow gaunts and mix them in the same unit to give it a "fire-y tidal wave" apperance.

These are my random thoughts on the subject, but of course there can be alot more different ways to do it. All in all, I know the how you feel, it do get boring painting the same colour over and over, and I think if done correctly this will make the army look very cool (and different from many others) while still making it more fun to paint! If you do try this, again, pictures please!

Another way to add a little interest might be "brood insignia" in the manner of different colored patterns on the carapace of the different brood, much like numbering designations on human troops. So maybe one brood of gaunts has red flecks, while another has yell edging, etc. I think if you kept it subtle and not super obvious it would help add a little pleasing variation, as well as tie the individual broods together a little closer.

I also second the larger patterns based on status in the hive idea ss well. Bigger, bolder patterns on the larger, presumably higher status bugs will really go a long way to make them stand out and look important.

Well...the scheme I have on my spine gaunts is elf-flesh/bleached bone for the skin, with green back plates (meant to blend in somewhat with a forest)

Would post pics if I had a camera.

All good ideas though, thanks

My nidsare bae two colour, dark angel greenand lich purpe, these two arequite darkand blocky butallow for omecool thigns otbeade if I wsh, with about 100 guants to paint 50 stealers 5 monstrous creatures and 12 warriors all left todo it gets VEEERY tedious, you can easily changepaint scheme, anyone asks why you can say they were ro a different hivefleet oran experiment with genes gone wrong, they arenids, they change.. they adapt.. they evolve.. one ofthe best thignsaboutthem.. your nid odel looses it's head.. it'sa tyranid.. maybethey can survive a tie without their heads... nids aregreat for modelling and layig with, hence the old third ed mutablegenus stuffand second edition whaky bright paint schmes.

sorry using a crappy keyboard!11