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.

Here is the begining of my Tyranid Hive Fleet Cancer.

The Whole Army to date.

I am going for a paint scheme that looks as much like the aliens from Aliens.

Shiney Prime lol.
Whats your color scheme? like glossy black with green accents?

I am base coating them in Boltgun Metal, then going back over the plates with Choas Black, and low lighting the inards with a devlan mud wash, and then drybrushing Chaos Black. I am also going to be using a blueing technique on the blades and teeth.

My friend plays Silvermarines. I saw your trygon and thought "Finally! A worthy competitor."
However, nice army. Sounds like fun, good luck!

Thank you,

So far I have had some excellent success. While the Trygon Prime and Mawloc are one trick ponies, they have yet to not perform thier trick. In my latest battle with the Imperial Guard I struck from below against two Leman Russ. I got a full mobility kill on one, and knocked the other out for a full turn with a crew stunned. The best part was that my Mawloc died that turn, it took 2 Marine Dreadnoughts, a 3rd Leman Russ, 3 Heavy Weapons squads, a Chimera, 3 Squads of IG infantry, one Terminator Squad, and a Land Raider to do it. Which means they were not shooting at my Warriors and Raveners while they closed the distance.

At first glance at the full army picture it just looks like alot of little bugs (genestealers, hormagaunts etc) running around but at a second glance most of it looks like warriors and raveners flanked by the big beastys!

How many points is that army atm?

Blind wrote:Shiney Prime lol.
Whats your color scheme? like glossy black with green accents?

Funny you mention that - I'm working mine up as black with grey/silver highlights and green/yellow fleshy bits.

I do dig how this Hive is looking though... be sure to update with more pics as you go!

Wow your a a-hole.Cancer is not funny.My grandfather died of it. Screw you.

The second glance is the correct one.

It is a pointy brood of nasty. About 4,500. I have 3 more warriors to build, 1 more carnifex, a Swarmlord conversion, and a Hierophant.

And a lot of paint.

Wow,you just ignore me,mods shut down this thread for making fun of thousands of peopel who have a disease that will eventualy kill them.

Ignore you? I just now saw your post.

Sorry to hear about your Grandfather.

I lost my Mother to esophageal carcinoma, she was 51. My Grandfather of lung cancer. My Mother's Father has Lymphoma. My Father had Prostate Cancer, but survived. My Father-In-Law survived non-hodgkins lymphoma.

Now that we have our histories out in the open, how have I made fun of a disease?

Because I named my Hive Fleet "Cancer", and you naturally assumed this was some kind of dig or jab at a disease, or those who have it, as opposed to an homage to the sign of the Zodiac or the constellation?

Brilliant Grambo, way to use critical thinking and your powers of reason to deduce the meaning behind a title, a title for an alien in a space based scifi game.

Not to drift too far off topic, but I've lost numerous VERY close family members to cancer as well and my initial assumption about the hive fleet's name was that it was a reference to the astrological sign/constellation...

Of course, it's also MY sign, so that might be why it came to mind so quickly.

Either way, cool paint job and hope to see more of it!

Thanks Rus,

Back to topic, I am going to do some close up shots of the stuff I have more throughly painted and post them in the next day or so.

I don't see him poking fun at the disease anywhere. Who knows. Maybe it's somewhere there in a font color the same as the background. Rofl.

Looks great so far. :3 Not a fan of shiny 'Nids since they're made of fleshy bits, but I'm sure you're pleased with your creation and that's all that matters.

When I was contemplating a metallic color scheme myself I justified it with 2 things:

1. Insects and fish often have a metallic sheen or effect to them while still being made of fleshy bits themselves.

2. My 'Nids ate a bunch of Necrons along the way. Maybe found some tomb worlds with heavy plant bio-mass and just chomped down on the Necrons when they cropped up lol

I'm really not sold on the metallic bit. I would probably paint the models black as normal, highlights and all, then use gloss varnish.

Sheeh! Next somebody's gonna complain about Papa Nurgle!
But seriously, nice army. Those 'one trick ponies' seem to have a second trick up their... umm... whatever ponies wear... as mobile fire-magnets to cover your whole force! I find the same thing happens with my Soul Grinders, which look so damn scary that everyone ignores the plaguebearers, bloodletters and sundry other agents of nasty doom. A well-presented huge hideous beast will often have that effect on the enemy... and I always try to cultivate the assumption that the 'big bad fing must die' by idly chatting about what it's gonna do to their puny troops when battle is joined...

I too never linked the name with the disease. I was wondering what he was going to do to make them crablike personally. I was wondering if he was going to have some sort of red/white scheme like the last crab I munched on had.

I do hope an apology is in order from him when he pulls the stick out of his you know what.

As far as the paint scheme goes...

I understand what you are trying to do, but personally, I try and keep metallics away from models except where they have actual metal. What I would love to see is someone use color shifting airbrush paints on the carapace of bugs. I have some that I used on other figures in the past (necrons) and it came out very interesting

I cant really say much on metallic nids cause i havent really seen any. If you can make it look good i dont think youll find many complaints about it.

If not, well then people would say so but thats really the same with whatever paint you use.

In saying all of that, shiny carapace and a more dull sorta uh 'flesh' wouldn't go down so bad in my mind.

Looking forward to seeing some complete models =D

lol what a nice hivefleet name

Nice idea, I would definately go down the blue route with the metallic body. Thinned blue ink followed by silk or gloss effect varnish would set it off nicely. You could also use blues on the black areas that you are having as highlights.

Anyway, enough of my ideas, I look forward to seeing some more finished pictures

Rus wrote:When I was contemplating a metallic color scheme myself I justified it with 2 things:

1. Insects and fish often have a metallic sheen or effect to them while still being made of fleshy bits themselves.

2. My 'Nids ate a bunch of Necrons along the way. Maybe found some tomb worlds with heavy plant bio-mass and just chomped down on the Necrons when they cropped up lol

1. Plausible.

2. 'Nids have no souls and Necrons have no biomass. In the fluff, they leave each other alone.

I think a metalic colour/sheen works well with 'nids. They somehow remind me of insect, say beatles with greens/blues/purples, nice one.

anooci wrote:
2. 'Nids have no souls and Necrons have no biomass. In the fluff, they leave each other alone.

Not exactly true. In think it is in the blood angels codex, there is a short blurb about a war going on between some necrons and blood angels, when some 'nids show up, and the blood angels and necrons fight them off and then go their separate ways after killing all the nids... so they don't exactly leave each other alone, but they are not hunting for each other like they both are hunting for humans and such

Soviet Yam wrote:

anooci wrote:
2. 'Nids have no souls and Necrons have no biomass. In the fluff, they leave each other alone.

Not exactly true. In think it is in the blood angels codex, there is a short blurb about a war going on between some necrons and blood angels, when some 'nids show up, and the blood angels and necrons fight them off and then go their separate ways after killing all the nids... so they don't exactly leave each other alone, but they are not hunting for each other like they both are hunting for humans and such

Well that kinda makes sense, also explains why necrons need to resurrect their armies. If nids cant eat necrons but can eat SM, why didn't the necrons capitalize on this and take out the marines whilst they were i guess 'distracted'? I mean jeez

Some of the biomass I turn out even the 'nids wouldn't touch

Gotta say I was never a fan of metallic tyranids.

Not so much metallic 'Nids, as trying to mimic the look of the Aliens from the Alien Movies.

I just thing the darker colors and semi-metallic feel makes them more nightmarish than pinks and purples. I've seen some other dark greens and blues that look good, but I am trying for something a little darker and more sinister than the raw GW fare. Plus, I think the black washing over a grayish color fits with my army motief better, genestealers and warrior species. But I will post some more pictures as I get further along.

I am really enjoying the input from you guys, thanks.

If I were going to imitate the carapace of the Aliens in the Alien series of movies, I would go with chaos black and then cover the models with several coats of gloss finish. The teeth from the images I'm seeing look like they are kind of a dark blue metallic, but the carapace would just be gloss black.

Grambo wrote:Wow your a a-hole.Cancer is not funny.My grandfather died of it. Screw you.

You actually made me go back a re read this thread, not once has the OP made fun of Cancer. You however have been blatantly rude and insulting and you should apologise.

Back on topic, like the look of the army can't wait to see some finished models and I hope that the camera does them justice. Hard to photograph decent blacks and metallics.