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I got a bunch of Tyranids for Christmas because I wanted to start a new army in 40k. As it turns out I'm stepping into a tournament next weekend, and I want to get a lot of my army painted. For the past two days I have painted a few guys with this basic scheme: Tin Bitz chitin, Liche Purple body, and Hawk Turquoise and Ice Blue details. Of the genestealers I have painted, my counts as broodlord is colored differently to distinguish him from the other stealers. The paint scheme looked really neat in my head, but on the model it doesn't seem to be that good. I'm not sure what to do, but I also don't want to look like an idiot with a patchy army when I go to my FLGS. What do you suggest dakka? I like blue colors.



A termagant, two genestealers, and my counts as Broodlord



A closer picture of a Genestealer. The lighting is rather crappy, but I'm no Michelangelo anyway.

Dip them in Devlan Mud.

Paint the "flesh" purple as you are now, and wash with the purple wash to give it some definition. Bone colours can look good with purple, so try painting the armoured sections bleached bone, and wash with flesh wash (or Devlan "miracle" Mud +/- Ogre Flesh).

Alternately, use the blue colour for the skin and wash with blue wash to create the depth. Blue and bone, in my estimation, looks pretty cool.

Maybe use the orange colour for the tubes/etc, with a wash of devlan mud or similar.


Edit: This guy has some pretty cool blue/bone 'Nids that you might want to look at

when i started to repaint my Nids i did 2 test models, one an updated version of my previous painting attempt and the second one was based off the one army from WD. (the dark grey with black chittin stippled with yellows. i had some SW grey that i started as a basecoat and then i lightly washed the model with a few coats of the blue wash.

Ill second SilverMK2 blue flesh with bone style carapace (id use a standard red gore base for the visible muscle )looks very cool, and can be as simple or complex as you want it to be.

Flesh:
Base - Enchanted blue
Highlight - Ice blue (maybe 50/50 mix with enchanted blue)
Wash - watered down Ogryn Flesh

Carapace:
Base - Bleached bone
Highlight - Bestial brown 50/50 Bleached bone
Wash - Gryphone Sepia

Fleshy muscly bits (technical language here lol)
Base - Red gore
Highlight - Blood red
Wash - Ogryn flesh

If your trying to get them painted up quickly you can always come back and detail the paint job too if you keep it to base colours
Just a suggestion lol

hope this helps

Dan

Just ink/wash the model with just about any color. Right now you have too much contrast, a wash will give all areas a similar color and bring out the details. Just make sure you thin down the wash before you use it. I have saved some of my own horrible paint jobs with a simple wash.

Do the dark Behemoth scheme: Change Tin Bitz to black, add a Badab Black wash, drybrush carapace with some lighter blue.
In the Codex Behemoth looks cool, personally I don't like metals on Tyranids.

I don't think metallics work on anything organic. Go for black with a dark brown highlight, and I think you'll have a better look.

Fifty said it right, don't use metallics on anything meant to be organic. It doesn't look right. Also, the bits of chitin shining through the armor should be darker than the actual plating. It looks really weird for them to be bright, and makes things look ugly. I would probably paint them the same purple, but then use Badab Black or something similar to dull them. I would also hit up the entire model with a Leviathan Purple wash, to give it all some shading. Hope that helps!

Okay so I'll definately pick up enchanted blue, I need it for my Thousand Sons Squad I'm buying anyway, love you Christmas money. I love the idea of an enchanted blue body, but I'm not sure how hot the bone colored chitin sounds... I like the aliens in space vibe, but I also do not want to look too cartoony. Maybe Chaos Black chitin? Or perhaps some kind of Rotting Flesh tone?