Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Dudes, I am starting Tyranids currently, and I've hit a small block in the road. If anyone has any ideas here I'd be glad to hear it.

Basically they're almost entirely black. I was inspired by the "Alienid" models that people sometimes do. They aren't completely in that style, I didn't convert them really, but I want something similar. I prefer that sleek look over Skittles nids.

So my question is how to make models that are nearly 100% black not boring as heck? I've done a few test Gaunts, and attempted giving the skin area purple highlights, but then that area just ended up looking purple to me. I also figure I could focus on giving them interesting bases, but I'm not quite sure what.

As a secondary question, I was wondering what you guys thought of varying skin tones. It seems like almost every army I see has the same exact color for each model's skin, which never made sense to me. Nearly every species of creature varies in color a little.

If I weren't technologically slowed maybe I could take a few photos and show you what they're looking like so far, but I am yet to figure out how to work something called a "camera." Maybe some other time. Thanks in advance anyway.

There was a good example of a mostly black tyranid force in the 4th ed rulebook. He put most of the detail on the claws, teeth and tongues, and let the gloss varnish see to the rest.

The best way to do the black 'Alien' paint job is actually to give the models a very light drybrush of Kommando Khaki (sounds wierd but it works), paint up the teeth/claws grey then white and then gloss varnish the lot.

Really quick to do and looks pretty good.

The other way you can do it is patterns over black (I think Phil Kelly did this with his 'nids for the 4th ed 40k book) It breaks up the surface and gives a nice but simple to achieve effect.

I do mine with just black spray, then very lightly drybrush space wolf gray to get all the highlights and then I'll do the same with mithril silver and do that a bit heavier on the talons and stuff, then spray gloss varnish all over. They paint up really quickly and the silvery edges really help the details pop on the table .. but I think in the end it's the gloss that really pulls it all together

When I was running Nids I did different colors for the different unit types. Troops were Yellow, Fast were Red, Elites were Blue, HQ was Purple and Heavy were Green. All had Black with Blue highlights for their base coats and the carapaces and growths were colors.

You could pick an area of the model like their head, tails, etc and put a splash of color there but keep the overall black. Pale blue makes a great Black Highlight color btw as does Grey.

I would do about the same as Necros, with codex gray instead of space wolf... thin, light highlights on edges of exposed areas as per the painting guide for black templars at the GW. You could also do washes or inks of various colors after highlighting to give the black a different glossy tone and tint the highlights to distinguish individual "broods".

Yoy said..."As a secondary question, I was wondering what you guys thought of varying skin tones. It seems like almost every army I see has the same exact color for each model's skin, which never made sense to me. Nearly every species of creature varies in color a little."

They arn't really different species , they all come from the same "mom" the Norn queen. She makes whatever is needed to overcome a planets defences , to allow the taking of the planets biomass ( which is then used to make more nids to take over more biomass to make more....) Most of them don't have digestive systems , or sex organs. When they have done there job they jump in a digestion pool and become part of the biomass again. As for colour, the norn queen could make them whatever colour is needed to do the job, I don't think a mass attack of gaunts really need to blend into the surroundings they could all have no pigmentation at all ( albino?). Yes I should get out more.

Just wanted to say go for it and see what you like Maybe try a few test models with various shades of highlights like was mentioned, or even a wash. If you take them into a GW store they'll probably talk you through some good options or even let you try them out on a few models (this is what I did to pick the scheme I'm starting... one of your so-called "skittles" nids . Drybrushing the skin will probably give you a different color altogether, so if you didn't like the look of that, I'd say stick to highlighting or maybe a wash, followed by the varnish when you're done.

Post pics when you've tried it if you can figure it out!

Go for a very dark olive brown with deep black shadows.

Some pictures would be useful, so people can see which areas you're doing which colours. Basically I'd say you want whatever your other colour is to contrast the black greatly, and do a really nice job of highlighting and blending on the black, so it looks good. DD's idea sounds good for the actual colours. I'd also recommend some sort of Gloss varnish, so it looks kind shiny, like Alien.

There's a lot of good ideas here, and I'll probably be trying many of them out with further test models to see which works best.

RiTide, your guys aren't that Skittlesy per se. I'm referring to some of the ones I've seen where bizarre and bright colors get put together. There's a few in the codex. It can be done well, but for some reason doesn't usually look right to me.

I know they aren't really different species. What I meant to say was that within a species there can be a great deal of variety. For example, breeds of dog can look very different. So I might end up going with that and basically having 90% of each model being black, and the other 10% being constant variety, depending on troop type or whatever else. I'm big on this with my Orks. No two are the exact same shade of green.

Thanks guys and keep the ideas coming if you have them.