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hi everyone, new user here! after about 11-13 years i decided to rejoin the hobby, back then i was mostly a 40k miniature painting/collector that couldnt stick to a single army and read a lot about the lore. so with everyone talking about the 8th edition i thought hey why not, but this time i would build an army instead of a bit of everything thats cool, so i rescued the old miniatures and bought some new paints (the shades are awesome) to get a handle before buying into something. i quickly learned that witht he limited amount of time that i have available i would need washes and drybrushing to do the heavylifting for me, that left me between tyranids or necrons and the decision was easy with the codex around the corner

some quick color tests i made with the tyranids models i already had from a decade ago, yes they dont have claws or even head, i think i used them for some kind of conversion or something but thats what i have



i didnt like base color + shade, it looked unfinished, but the grey primer + wash looked promising (the one at the front)

more tests:



i only had acces to coelia greenshade, agrax earthshade and nuln oil so the schemes may seem repetitive but i achieved for something different every time (gloss/matt finish, multiple coats, etc). the one in the front has a loangbeard grey drybrush before the coealia shade and had a very "rocky" or sand reptile feel

im sure all of you already know but at this point i learned that you can get a gloss finish by applying the shade directly from the pot, or get a matt finish with a more uniform coverage by shaking the pot and mixing the shade with water

more tests:



i painted this with just the 3 shades already mentioned over grey primer. those i started to like a bit more, specialy the one in the front, so i kept doing tests with just agrax and nuln oil



with this models i already had a more accurate idea of what i wanted, these are are not the colorfull tyranids from games workshop, these tyranids are the evil guy in the movie

while i realy liked the carapace form the one in the front i also wanted a bit more contrast between the skin and the carapace, so i did more tests:



a step forward for sure!

while i like how the black and brown interact in the recesses in the middle and right models i think the skin ends up to brown and i will settle with the skin tone from the one at the left that has 1 less brown coat

in regards to the carapace i think i will go with the right model one, its darker than the left one and the edges are less brown than the middle one

i think i still need a third color to paint the claws and weapons, maybe something involving seraphim sepia or athonian camoshade, but im not sure

for the basing i think i will go for a dark grey tone over rocky sand, i did a test and im quite happy with the results:



so thats it for the first entry! i will test the idea of the third color next

the mentioned tests with the third color





its a combination of lamenters yellow, athonian camoshade and the agrax earthshade and nuln oil i already have

the pictures are a bit off, in person its less green and a bit more yellowish. while i painted most of the model with the green/yellow tones i only intend to paint the claws/weapons with them

i think i will go with the head from the second pic color, or maybe the hand/weapon from the first pic one, will see

first box assembled and ready to be painted



i puted extra time removing mould lines because i will be painting them with shades and glazes

i also coated the rocky sand basing with watered down pva glue


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first mini done, 11 to go!