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I was recently given the deathstorm nids (minus the broodlord), an have finally gotten around to building them (in a two week marathon of building all my 40k models). I'll get the new nid starter box to fill it out, and add the space hulk genestealers to fill it out to 1k. I had a look on at the studio mcvey site to have a peek at the state of the sedition wars range, and was reminded of this guy, and knew that that was how I want my nids to look;



So during drying time for a bigger project, I've painted one side of a carnifex to see if I can get it (apologies for the poor pic);



I need to widen the darker strip on the talons and back, but overall I'm happy with it. However, the spot colour needs more presence, but I don't want luminous claws, and am not sure where else to put it. I also don't have a clue how I'm going to base it. Any suggestions, comments or feedback would be very welcome.

Cheers.

I think that looks really nice. I've never seen a Tyranid painted like that, so it's fresh, too. Also, the spots make it look somehow more "alive", more natural, like a real animal might be, imperfect.

I like it!

Looks different than most Tyranid paint schemes, but still fitting. Can we get a better picture? I think the spots transferred pretty good without distracting. Desert base might be a good fit.

YES! This is great, a very crustacean look about it. Makes it more unnerving in my head too since theres a foothold in reality to get your imagination going.

I would love to see a full force painted up like this.

Really nice!

Awesome scheme, I wish I could have copied it before I started painting my sucky Tyranids

I think you do need a bit more contrast. The original model you're copying achieves the extra contrast by making the claws darker and the yellow bits more prominent.

Cheers everyone. I will paint a small (like 1-1.5k) army once I've established a finished result, so fair it has been very quick and easy, so doing it on dozens of models won't be an issue.

@allseeingskink yeah I'm going to add some black in for the claws and chimney tops to create a stronger contrast.

@Hanskrampf I've tried, but I've put my lightbox away to create working space for the zone mortalis stuff, so, given that it looks like summer today, this is the best I could do (I've done a little bit more on him since this morning).



Thanks again for all the positive comments

edit skink I've just quickly looked over your gallery, your nids are cracking!

God dayum that looks awesome. Keep that pattern, seriously. It's gonna be an awesome looking army.

Awesome! Much better pic!

Still thinking desert/sand base would provide a good contrast.

Looks really good!

I stumbled across this, and I had to login even though I am at work.
LOVE your scheme, really looking forward to seeing more of this army

Thanks for the kind words everyone, looks like I've found my scheme! I've started a couple of genestealers to see how it looks on an infantry sized model. If it looks good I'll definitely stick with it. It's a really easy paint job, I can do a step by step on the p&m blog when I start the army if people are interested.

As to the basing, I think a sand look would go well. I'm torn though as I'm currently working on a zone mortalis table, so basing them to go on that would make sense (especially as I'll be using space hulk terminators), but I think the light colours would look out of place in a dark ship.

 JamesY wrote:
Cheers everyone. I will paint a small (like 1-1.5k) army once I've established a finished result, so fair it has been very quick and easy, so doing it on dozens of models won't be an issue.

@allseeingskink yeah I'm going to add some black in for the claws and chimney tops to create a stronger contrast.

@Hanskrampf I've tried, but I've put my lightbox away to create working space for the zone mortalis stuff, so, given that it looks like summer today, this is the best I could do (I've done a little bit more on him since this morning).



Thanks again for all the positive comments

That looks good! I think once you get the dark claws on it, the yellow will pop more, especially if you leave those grooves in the claws yellow.

edit skink I've just quickly looked over your gallery, your nids are cracking!

Cheers, I don't hate my nid scheme, but it's a bit plain (basically Leviathan with blue carapace), not striking, don't look organic and still takes me ages to paint! I started the 'nids years before I had an airbrush, I'm always tempted to repaint them with a more organic scheme like yours.

I know what you mean, I've painted a nid army similar to yours before for the store, the feathering on the carapace drove me bonkers, it just slowed everything down to a crawl.

I've darkened the claws and chimneys, looks better straight away. I only used an airbrush for the undercoat, top coat and the green glaze. Everything after that has been done by hand.

Looks awesome.

Interestingly, I saw that pic of the original model you based the colour scheme on and wanted to transpose it to Tyranids as well.

I'm not good with colours, could you give a run down of the colours you used to obtain this scheme?

 Brutus_Apex wrote:
Looks awesome.

Interestingly, I saw that pic of the original model you based the colour scheme on and wanted to transpose it to Tyranids as well.

I'm not good with colours, could you give a run down of the colours you used to obtain this scheme?

No problem at all. Ulthuan grey on top of a grey base coat, washed with a 50.50 mix of Vallejo green black ink and water. Ceramite white, rhinox hide and doombull brown. Spot colour is flash gitz yellow and Vallejo green ink.

Great scheme, has a nice natural feel to it and the green(yellow? I'm a little colourblind) makes it pop!
Keep it up!

That looks awesome! You kept a lot of depth with the white underside which really makes it work. I'd love to see a full army in that scheme!

anyone who complains about GW poses needs to look at this model lol. why would it ever be that way. cool scheme

Very nice, it looks like a crab or lobster

that is amazing!!! sweeet!

I might suggest making the blades a little darker to contrast a bit more. That said...I'm loving that scheme. It is simply awesome.

Zodfrey wrote:
I think that looks really nice. I've never seen a Tyranid painted like that, so it's fresh, too. Also, the spots make it look somehow more "alive", more natural, like a real animal might be, imperfect.

^^ This exactly! The paint job looks very organic, which makes it much more intimidating. You would seriously not put your foot in the water if this floated by

That... makes me want to collect nids.

well executed , but i just keep thinking of crabs and lobster and wanting to crack one open with butter sauce .

nicely done , but not really threatening to me

That scheme is badass, well done!

Cheers all

Only managed to get half an hour on it today, but I've darkened the scythes , and added black to the claws and chimney tops. I think it's there now, so just need to finish the other side and figure out the basing.



I'll put a finished pic up in showcase when it's done, won't be for a while though as am going on holiday tomorrow

He's gorgeous! ...my question is: are you going to be able to paint an entire Nid army like this?

Will every gaunt have the spots?

Anyway, yes, I love it.

I have an idea for basing.

Why not coastal?

I can't recall ever seeing an army with that basing, it would complement the vibe of the scheme well, there's scope from just plain sand for the bog standards up to all sorts of things using water effects from standing pools to breaking waves, rocks, seaweed and other greenery and all sorts of little gribblies that would occur in the tidal zone of an alien planet being invaded by hyper evolving aliens.

@gunzhard it's not a time consuming scheme. A 1-1.5k list will be achievable without much trouble. . Everything will have the spots, they only take a few minutes but I think they make the scheme.

@Az I had thought that. I don't have any experience with water effects, but might be an opportunity to try something new.