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So, I'm not a particularly good painter. I lack patience and skill.

But I'm thinking about getting into Tyranids, and kinda want to do a rainbow scheme. The first picture in the above spoiler looks cool as all heck, but is probably something I don't have the skill or patience for. The second isn't as impressive, but looks much simpler to do.

To the forum, then, I ask these questions:

1) How would I do the first scheme? If anyone knows how.
2) What are some cheap paints that still get good results? I'm not really inclined to buy GW paints right now, due to price.
3) Brushes too-should I just grab craft store brushes, and will they get okay results? Or should I pony up for better ones? Keep in mind, not a good painter.
4) Any other general tips or advice?

So first of all, I think that top picture should be what you should aim for and while it looks like a pain in the backside, I reckon you could achieve that with oil paints.

1) To answer this, I reckon your best bet is to achieve your aim with oil paints. You can get a set of Winton oils for a good price and as entry level oils, they're perfect for nearly all applications of mini painting. Ninjon has a great tutorial-esque video on blending large models with a big brush and to be honest you can do the same.



2) I think oils would be your best bet. These Winton colours will get you there if you don't mind mixing and the long work time will help you get those blends in and let you take your time.

3) If you go down the oils route, some cheap synthetic brushes would be easy to pick up and abuse to your heart's content.

4) Have a plan. Rainbow schemes look fantastic on big minis, but have a plan on what you'll do with your smaller nids. Are they going to be as varied in colour or as vibrant? After that, do some tests and see how you feel about oils. They're not everyone's cup of tea but for a fairly low entry cost, they're a good bet.

The topp one is my hive fleet leviathan but with different colors.

Just begin on the inside and feather your way out.

I would advice you to choose a different scheme though. Preferably one that can be performed REALLY fast. By the time I was painting the 60th termagaunt and was looking over to the unpainted gargoyles I and you really regret it.

 JNAProductions wrote:
So, I'm not a particularly good painter. I lack patience and skill.

I'd suggest if you're not patient, you don't want to be painting an entire Tyranid army with a rainbow scheme. Maybe a one off model for the display shelf, but for a whole army it'll drive you insane. I have a pretty basic Tyranid scheme and by the end of painting an army I wanted to shoot myself.

The 2nd image just looks block painted, to my eye it's a pretty poor paint job with no shading or highlights (maybe the painter isn't done with it yet?). Not terribly difficult, just prime the model white, use a wash or fleshy brown contrast paint for the "skin", then come back and block paint the "armour" with your rainbow colours. Even though it's not a hard scheme to paint and IMO doesn't look all that good, it's still going to be time consuming going between all those colours and picking out the individual armour plates.


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 JNAProductions wrote:

1) How would I do the first scheme? If anyone knows how.

It's hard to say what they did without some better pictures. I'm not seeing a lot of blending, rather the transitions are done with fine detail that was likely just painted with a steady hand and a lot of patience

2) What are some cheap paints that still get good results? I'm not really inclined to buy GW paints right now, due to price.

Most hobby acrylics designed for miniatures are fine. Vallejo and GW are my go tos, but I also have some P3, Reaper Master Series, Army Painter and probably others. They all have their pros and cons, but I like it when companies group their paints by opacity (e.g. GW's "Base" range).

3) Brushes too-should I just grab craft store brushes, and will they get okay results? Or should I pony up for better ones? Keep in mind, not a good painter.

Get a Kolinsky sable brush and some brush cleaner to take care of it (I just use a bar of Imperial Leather hand soap myself). Even a cheap kolinsky brush is better than synthetic, and kolinsky is a nice soft sable compared to some of the heavier natural hair brushes.

Try and avoid getting paint up around the base of the bristles and ferrule as it will kill brushes a lot quicker, and wash with the brush soap after use or as soon as paint starts getting up near the base of the bristles.

4) Any other general tips or advice?

YouTube has become a great resource, and there's lots of tutorials out there whether it be on YouTube, blogs, etc.


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 Tyranid Horde wrote:
So first of all, I think that top picture should be what you should aim for and while it looks like a pain in the backside, I reckon you could achieve that with oil paints.

While you certainly can achieve great results with oils and I have a few models I've painted primarily with oils, for a new painter I'd describe that as diving in the deep end. But hey, do whatever you want.

I could perhaps point you to Turbo Forks color shift paint. There you have rainbows in small boxes.

Any scheme you can do with contrast paints will also help you a lot. Perhaps take flesh like that and shell with something else.