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Just recently started collecting/working on my Tyranid Army, and so far I only have a handful of models fully painted, and only one fully based as well. So, I submit to you for your viewing pleasure, and for you to provide any feedback/comments as you see fit, the one model that I've fully painted and based. Side Note - all of the arms are magnetic, allowing the model to be easily reconfigurable. (I tend to be a bit overzealous about magnetizing; my Trygon is fully magnetized as well, including the top of the head/jaws/mandibles, allowing me to change it from Trygon to Trygon Prime to Mawloc and back relatively easily.)

Hive Fleet Urulókë - Draugluin, Tyranid Prime

love the red scales

That's a really cool color scheme. Although the bases kind of blend in with the model a bit, I might try making them a different shade or red or an orange or something. Also, a different color or two would be nice to see, along with some detail on the models face and whereever else you see fit.

imark789 wrote:That's a really cool color scheme. Although the bases kind of blend in with the model a bit, I might try making them a different shade or red or an orange or something. Also, a different color or two would be nice to see, along with some detail on the models face and whereever else you see fit.

Yeah. I agree with you on the base, which despite appearances a different red was used for that. (Just not different enough.) What is likely to happen is I'll pull the model off of it and completely redo the base, or at the very least repaint. I'm thinking of fewer cracks in the earth, and sinking the lava into the bottom of the base instead of how it's being done. I'm also planning to change the lava paint scheme to be more choppy with oranges and yellows.

As for the model's face, and the body altogether, I don't particularly want him to be bright. I want the body to have a smokey, dark color scheme. That said, it can probably stand to have a bit more highlighting on the face to bring the details out. But I don't know if I would add another color, or if it I did what color it would be. The "skin" of my hive fleet is that dark grey color, with purple for its vents/mouth/flesh/gun/etc, with flame armor plating.

I am, however, open to any suggestions on how to improve it. Unfortunately, I won't be able to seriously begin changing it until after I've finished my Tervigon conversion.

looks cool, the grey skin actually goes well with the red carapace, but I agree on the base, I think it would work better if you just left the rim of the base black instead of painting the lava on it

CiaranAnnrach wrote:

imark789 wrote:That's a really cool color scheme. Although the bases kind of blend in with the model a bit, I might try making them a different shade or red or an orange or something. Also, a different color or two would be nice to see, along with some detail on the models face and whereever else you see fit.

Yeah. I agree with you on the base, which despite appearances a different red was used for that. (Just not different enough.) What is likely to happen is I'll pull the model off of it and completely redo the base, or at the very least repaint. I'm thinking of fewer cracks in the earth, and sinking the lava into the bottom of the base instead of how it's being done. I'm also planning to change the lava paint scheme to be more choppy with oranges and yellows.

As for the model's face, and the body altogether, I don't particularly want him to be bright. I want the body to have a smokey, dark color scheme. That said, it can probably stand to have a bit more highlighting on the face to bring the details out. But I don't know if I would add another color, or if it I did what color it would be. The "skin" of my hive fleet is that dark grey color, with purple for its vents/mouth/flesh/gun/etc, with flame armor plating.

I am, however, open to any suggestions on how to improve it. Unfortunately, I won't be able to seriously begin changing it until after I've finished my Tervigon conversion.

I do like the grey skin, it's more just details like the face and claws etc seem to be sort of lost if you don't pick them out with a different color. Maybe a white or light grey might look cool for teeth/claws, and you could pick another color for the eyes.

imark789 wrote:
I do like the grey skin, it's more just details like the face and claws etc seem to be sort of lost if you don't pick them out with a different color. Maybe a white or light grey might look cool for teeth/claws, and you could pick another color for the eyes.

Yeah. I definitely get what you're saying, I'll have to see about doing a 3:1 mix of my light grey that I used for highlighting and white, and doing a fresh round of highlights, with possibly a 2:1 mix for the teeth. The face does have a decent bit of highlighting, which unfortunately is only visible in the pictures if you zoom in on the face. I guess the lighter grey I was using for highlighting wasn't light enough compared to the grey of the skin. Or I should take pictures with an actual camera instead of with my phone. Either way, the teeth can definitely be better done - I wasn't quite happy with them to begin with.

As for the actual eyes, they are black on purpose. On larger 'nids, I'll probably add a bit of white to the black eye give the eye a bit of sheen. Now, I can probably highlight the area around the eye to bring out the blackness, but I dunno. The main reason is, honestly, I couldn't come up with a different color for the eyes that would look right. Black fit thematically, but blends in too much with the current color scheme. I'm open to color suggestions for the eyes, if anyone knows of a color that'd work well.

CiaranAnnrach wrote:

imark789 wrote:
I do like the grey skin, it's more just details like the face and claws etc seem to be sort of lost if you don't pick them out with a different color. Maybe a white or light grey might look cool for teeth/claws, and you could pick another color for the eyes.

Yeah. I definitely get what you're saying, I'll have to see about doing a 3:1 mix of my light grey that I used for highlighting and white, and doing a fresh round of highlights, with possibly a 2:1 mix for the teeth. The face does have a decent bit of highlighting, which unfortunately is only visible in the pictures if you zoom in on the face. I guess the lighter grey I was using for highlighting wasn't light enough compared to the grey of the skin. Or I should take pictures with an actual camera instead of with my phone. Either way, the teeth can definitely be better done - I wasn't quite happy with them to begin with.

As for the actual eyes, they are black on purpose. On larger 'nids, I'll probably add a bit of white to the black eye give the eye a bit of sheen. Now, I can probably highlight the area around the eye to bring out the blackness, but I dunno. The main reason is, honestly, I couldn't come up with a different color for the eyes that would look right. Black fit thematically, but blends in too much with the current color scheme. I'm open to color suggestions for the eyes, if anyone knows of a color that'd work well.

You could try a red, yellow or orange. From my experience, painting with the right colors and techniques just comes from experimenting. You might want to take a look at how people have painted the balrog for the LOTR game

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1080185

just because it uses a very similar scheme and techniques. A bright yellow could make for some cool eyes, as seen in the picture...

Ahhhhhhhhh Magma -nids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPz3dRGeixk

imark789 wrote:

You could try a red, yellow or orange. From my experience, painting with the right colors and techniques just comes from experimenting. You might want to take a look at how people have painted the balrog for the LOTR game

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1080185

just because it uses a very similar scheme and techniques. A bright yellow could make for some cool eyes, as seen in the picture...

Good call on the Balrog. I think I'll try that and see how it looks. Though it looks more like bright yellow with white highlights.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Hugs-for-the-Hug-God wrote:Ahhhhhhhhh Magma -nids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPz3dRGeixk

Heh, his color scheme is the opposite of mine almost. Though, I was going more for smoke and flames with my 'nids.

Yeah, painting the whole eye yellow, and then highlighting the center of it white would probably do the trick, although it almost looks like there's still some orange to the corners of it.

imark789 wrote:Yeah, painting the whole eye yellow, and then highlighting the center of it white would probably do the trick, although it almost looks like there's still some orange to the corners of it.

Yeah. I'm thinking paint the eye yellow, then use a light orange wash on the eye so only the very edges are orange, then highlight white.

I'll get that done within the next day or two and post some pictures of how it turns out.