Tyranid paint schemes
Normally you design a scheme for the whole army because they are all creatures from one mother ship.
However it can be good to distinguish special units with some different scheme or markings.
Tyranids are easily painted by picking out the body in one colour and the carapace in a contrasting colours. You then do some detail on the weapons and so on.
Most
GW Tyranids are painted that way -- assuming you have the Codex, go to page 66 and look at the Termagants from Hive Fleets Leviathan, Kraken and Behemoth.
I have done an alternative idea on my Hive Fleet Kielbasa. I used three colours of spray paints to do them in an organic kind of scheme like you might find on a fish -- pale underneath, medium sides and darker top. Then I did the mouths and vents in red-brown and the spikes and teeth in pink.
Your Tyrant
In my view silver is not a good colour for your Tyrant’s spikes because it is normally used for metal items. Organic weapons like claws and teeth are not made of metal. Colours like ivory or brown work better. Think of the colours of teeth, hair, claws and hooves.
The Blue can be good for the carapace -- it is used on several
GW colour schemes though they do it darker and kind of dirtier -- more organic. Your blue is bright and clean and looks like Space Marine’s armour rather than a living creature’s hide.
If you want to use Blue I would make it either darker, or paler but dirtier, not a pure colour blue. If you go for a paler blue you could try out a dark colour on the body.
Here are some tips for designing colour schemes.
1. Look at what other people are doing.
2. Sketch out your idea on paper. You can also paint your choices onto card or something to get a quick idea if the colours go together.
3. Once you’ve got a good scheme, do a test piece using a small, cheap model like a Termagant. If you don’t like the end result it isn’t a lot of time wasted. This is a great way to test an unusual idea. For instance, people usually do Tyranids with a dark carapace and pale body. How would it look the opposite way round?
4. A bit of attention to the details, and some dry-brushing, works really well on Tyranids.
5. Finally, a light neutral wash can bring everything together and unify the whole colour scheme.
If you decide to repaint your Tyrant, you can either prime over the current colours or strip the paint with Dettol or Simple Green.
Special Units
As an
HQ you may want to paint the Tyrant a bit differently to the rest of the horde. Iwould keep the same basic colour scheme but do some extra details to make him stand out. For instance, how about painting the head armour and back vents (the sticky out things on the back) a different colour to the rest of the carapace?
Another idea would be to paint some kind of organic camouflage on the carapace. Think of a leopard’s spots or the stripes on fish like trout. Just something that gives the Tyrant’s body more detail and interest than the other models.
I hope this helps...
