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The start of my tyranids. Have these and a battleforce in the mail. I painted the first model, then based the others according to what I did with that. It was my first time ever painting a model, so I learned lots and took it slow, very slow. I think it came out reasonably well for my first time but there is room for improvement of course. I am by no means an expert, but I laid out approximately what I did.

How I painted them:

Cut away from plastic sprue
Cleaned up mold lines and sprue attachment
Glued together minus arms and guns (painted separately)
Primed with Krylon Grey Primer (spray can)
Painted wing flesh with watered down bleached bone
Dry brush arms and body with codex grey, then fortress grey
Put down a coat of sepia wash on the wings
Dry brush skull white
Another layer of sepia wash on wing flesh
Dry brush codex grey on wings flesh a little bit
Carapace and guns have a base coat of scab red
Then feather with blood red
Tongue is blood red
Feather again with blazing orange
Pick out details with blazing orange
Glue guns and bases

That is really good for your first effort.

Thanks. Someone recommended putting time into the bases and detailing out the faces. Any ideas how to do the faces?

Nice work for a new painter. Thanks for sharing.

Regarding the faces the main things are the eyes and the teeth. You could go for classic white/bone coloured teeth but that mightget a bit lost on the grey skin. What about a dark black/grey? It might work nicely for the big spikes, talons and clawson your larger beasites when the battleforce comes in. It also means you can avoid painting white, which is usually a really hard colour to get right

These are well done. I think the only thing that you need to do is focus on the mouth and eyes. Use an ink wash on these areas and then paint the eyes a lighter colour and pick out the teeth with white or bone. That will add alot to them.

The closeups of the model were of the first one I completed...the subsequent models had improved somewhat. I like your ideas and will have a look at the heads tonight. As far as the bodies go, would washing them give them more of finished look? I am concerned that drybrushing on larger models will not stand out in the quality I am hoping for. If you do suggest washing, what are the steps and paints you would go about using to get a similar colour?

My battleforce arrived and I cleaned up the models and mostly assembled them. Here they are after being primed this evening:



For the termagaunts, I'm still unsure which weapon I want to use. I was thinking of magnets because it takes me forever to clean and paint models, but putting magnets in would also take a long time. If I went the magnet route, I would buy magnets for ~$20 for my genestealers and termagaunts. With that money, I could buy another box of these troops and model them with the upgrades, but then I would have to paint those models and clean mold lines etc. I am undecided what I want to do.

Any suggestions?


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Also, just curious, but how long would it have taken you to clean these mold lines/assemble these models? Realistically speaking, I probably spent an entire afternoon and evening on it because I just kept finding little lines that I had missed and cleaning up other ones I found.


Also, this table was wiped off before putting these guys on it. It is a dust magnet.

Note the termagaunt on the bottom right. While rinsing under the tap, part of his head went down the drain. Thankfully genestealers have far more heads than they know what to do with. He has a bit of a birth defect, but hey, who doesn't?

I started painting my troops today. I did a bit of a sequence of how I am completing them:

In order from top to bottom:

1 - Primed grey with krylon primer
2 - Drybrushed with fortress grey
3 - Drybrush with skull white
4 - Base carapace with scab red
5 - Feather with blood red



Of course, I still need to throw the orange on there like the divots in the limbs, I missed the hind leg carapace, and to get facial details.

I finished one of the hormagaunts and have done everything except the orange on the rippers. I still feel like the bodies need a wash of something. Give me your thoughts.

I have the rest of the termagaunts/hormagaunts base coated and dry brushed...feathering and picking out details is next.

I would like to include a wash on the skin...I am thinking of the black wash (nuln oil?). I like my carapace, but I feel the body could use something. I am also thinking of painting the teeth and eyes black on the face to put some more detail there. Thoughts?









And this is another of my projects, just for fun:

These guys look really good and have a nice strong contrast between their colours. Looking forward to more.

And good luck finishing the battleforce before you go mad.

Any chance of a Tyrant soon?