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And I'm not really sure how to proceed. I am painting up some tyranids, using rotting flesh for the skin and bestial brown for the carapace. would a dark varnish, like Minwax walnut, be doable for that?

yes and no.

I picked the darkest "still brown" minwax I could find, I'm pretty sure it was walnut, it works great.
since you are already in the brownish range, you aren't going to want to dip the mini, get a crappy, large brush and paint it on, you can let it pool a little in the crevices on the arms and it will look great, but with brownish skin and brown carapace with brown stain, you are going to want another step.

let it dry, depending on how thick you put it on it might take 2 days, after it drys, lightly drybrush the original color overtop to give it a little more depth, dont forget to do the little details like the weapon afterwards.
eample mini with paint-dip-drybrush method:

Dark Walnut might be a bit dark, unless that's what you're aiming for; maybe Special Walnut (which is lighter). My advice is to brush it on, rather than actually dip the miniature; you can control your results better that way.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/230249.page

This is what I used to dip mine, he used a walnut I believe. I used the ebony on mine because I primed white and used bright colors, the varnish darkened the colors but not too much and gave it a slime look. Here's the one pic I have of it. The colors used are warlock purple, scorpion green, and blood red.



On some of my other guys I went back over the claws and talons with bleached bone, if you decide to paint over the varnish you need a thick coat cause the varnish isn't the "stickiest" stuff to paint over.

Head over to Armypainter's website and look through their excellent galleries to find a comparable color and the results you want. They have several pages of Tyranids in different color schemes and with different shades of Armypainter. Then go to the hardware store.

If you liked the look of Soft tone then buy Pecan, if you liked the look of Strong tone (the most common army painter shade) then buy Antique Walnut, and if you liked the look of Dark tone then buy Tudor.

I've found that Antique Walnut works for most things, though I use pecan for more delicate finsihes and female models where you don't want it too dark in the recesses. I have a can of Tudor I haven't used yet, but I plan to use it for some dark green models. One note, Pecan and Antique Walnut are quite common, but you may have to do some searching to find Tudor. My friend bought me some at an ACE hardware store.

When applying it, do a couple of test figures first. Apply it with an old brush and then go back after a couple of minutes to dab at it with the brush or some tissue to keep it from pooling too much. It's a really easy process and nearly every figure I paint now get's dipped.