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hi there, im giving my second go at tyranids, an army which has been very difficult and confusing for me to paint, and wondering if someone could give me advice to help with how to get a good highlighted effect on tyranid skin besides just the traditional bone color with wash over it. color advice specifically on green, red, or purple skin would be hugely appreciated
i was going to base my army off of this tutorial:
however, for some reason my dry brushing did not result in the flesh looking how it should in the tutorial.
basically, here's an image of how i would like to get my 'nid skin to look:http://s235.photobucket.com/albums/ee303/Mithrarias/Zoantropo.jpg
or:
and also here, with the red skin: http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m730034a_99060106061_TyranidHiveGuard2_445x319.jpg
or:
http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2009/3/30/25109_sm-Hive%20Fleet%20Mantis%20-%20Hormagaunt.JPG

im absolutely clueless as to how you get tyranid skin to look like this but its bothered me as long as ive played 40k, so any help would be HUGELY appreciated, thank you

Les did this tutorial for painting a big nid i dunno if it would work without the air brush though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNA3fSqgGKg

Dysturbed wrote:Les did this tutorial for painting a big nid i dunno if it would work without the air brush though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNA3fSqgGKg

my biggest problem is actually the little nids, gaunts! haha
i dunno imo those carnifexes look pretty good in almost any scheme, but yeah i checked that tutorial and do not have an air brush, and i know that the skin painting has been done before the air brushes were available so hopefully its pretty simple,however thanks for the reply and very much appreciated

For future reference, you can direct-link the photo of your Zoanthrope by putting img and /img(with both inside of [] and img in front of the photo and /img after the photo).

As for how to get that kind of skin to pop...without really resorting to washes(if I'm understanding you correctly)?

Very very controlled drybrushing/fine lining of the raised areas and building up multiple layers of colors via mixing(that skin in particular looks like it started out as maybe something close to Hormagaunt Purple and then gradually got blended with a white shade until it got to the bright almost pinkish shade it finished with)
However, washes are designed to make surfaces like the Tyranid flesh really "pop".

Kanluwen wrote:

For future reference, you can direct-link the photo of your Zoanthrope by putting img and /img(with both inside of [] and img in front of the photo and /img after the photo).

As for how to get that kind of skin to pop...without really resorting to washes(if I'm understanding you correctly)?

Very very controlled drybrushing/fine lining of the raised areas and building up multiple layers of colors via mixing(that skin in particular looks like it started out as maybe something close to Hormagaunt Purple and then gradually got blended with a white shade until it got to the bright almost pinkish shade it finished with)
However, washes are designed to make surfaces like the Tyranid flesh really "pop".

awesome, thank you so much. also, if i wanted to resort to the common "bone with red armor" color scheme, would you have any advise on what wash to use over a bleached bone/ skull white which would be best? ive seen black, gryph. sep. and mud as options so if you could help me id greatly appreciate it. great feedback on the purple tho, thank you

Sepia or maybe even soft body black washes

For the bleached bone skin?

Just use the "Ogryn Flesh" wash. It gives it a more organic look.

And don't forget to water the wash down while it's on your brush before applying, to ensure the best coverage.

Sorry to ne a necro but im in the same boat, I have 2000pts of nids but there skin is a dark green with black carapace with blue drybrushing, in not shure how to go about highlighting the skin, im not shure how to put pics from the gallery to here but thrre is picks in another thread I started