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Hi all

First time post here, and I wanted to show off what I've been working on - my Tyranid army. I've been working on super-fast ways to get great results, largely using airbrushing. Here's my latest Carnifex, with Heavy Venom Cannon and Scything Talons.

I'm really happy with this guy. I really don't like the highly colourful, highly distinctly coloured Tyranid schemes that are very common. Also not a fan of bone coloured exoskeletons - looking at (particularly the Forge World) models, I think the intention is that the ribcage parts and whatnot are skin covered, not exposed bone... I see them as being insecty/reptily/animaly things, so did some research on how these sort of things look, and came up with a few things:
- Mostly one colour
- Dark, or otherwise environmentally appropriate palette
- Changes of colour are subtle, and rarely if ever based on physicality (differently coloured armour plates for example)

I also figured, going by the fluff and the general look of the models, that:
- Tyranids are very likely to incorporate metal into their bodies. Partly, there are plenty of insects on Earth that already do that, and partly, the Tyranid swarm is meant to be absorbing the biomass and everything else for planets and cultures that they conquer - conflicts with the Imperium and everyone else would give them access to masses of refined metals. If they're trying to punch through armoured tanks, they're going to need more than just bone. So I've opted for a subtle metal effect on blades, spikes, teeth etc. which I'm quite happy with
- They would be muddy, dirty, bloody things. Why would they keep themselves clean? Most of them are pretty mindless killing machines; not taking the Carnifex through a car-wash any time soon...

So I came up with a ruddy brown/red colour scheme with metal highlights, with liberal use of gloss to reference insect/reptile like hard armour and sliminess. To get the effect I wanted, I used pre-shading with greyscale tones using azimuthal airbrushing, followed by some stippling and colour splashing to get the variegated Rorschach effect on the back armour plates (difficult to make out in the photos but gives a really nice colour variance), red glaze and wash, then airbrushing the gloss varnish across, then drybrushing light metal highlights, reddish/pinkish bits like the tongue, then some light cleanup. Super quick!

I finished painting this model completely in just over an hour, including undercoating, airbrushing, subtle detailing and finishing up. It's obviously blu-tacked to a temporary base for now; I'm still deciding exactly what the bases for my Tyranids will look like - I'm thinking muddy battlefield style at the moment...

Included in that hour, I also got the colour onto 48 Hormagaunts and a Lictor, which then took another few minutes each to tidy up and finish. Tyranids are all about masses (at least, that's what I like about them) so I wanted to develop an easily repeatable, very very fast method of getting great results. I don't exactly have a lot of time for painting these days, and want to field huge, great looking armies!

Front -


Back -


And then the Lictor, which I'm very happy with, just don't like the model as much as the Carnifex!


Big shout out to my brother the photographer for the studio-quality shots

Thanks in advance for the great feedback I'm sure will be there!

- Maj

I think it's pretty solid but it lacks some sort of contrasting highlights to break up the scheme.
Are you planning to do anything like that?

I must say though that for the tabletop it's more than sufficient. Your bases are great too.

I spent a lot of time thinking about whether I wanted a strong contrast or not - ordinarily, like for my Eldar, I would say definitely yes. It makes a lot of sense for a constructed army like that to have that sort of thing. The Tyranids, however, being completely organic, I think there's a good argument not to. There is a lot of variation in the colour when looking at the models physically, and the metal highlights give a surprising amount of contrast, particularly in direct light. I think I prefer the subtlety of the simple scheme.

They make a really strong contrast on the tabletop to other armies, as well - a big dark swarm of creatures, rather than a strongly coloured and easily identifiable collection.

I find it interesting that while almost every Tyranid army is painted in strong contrasting colours (especially the "official" GW armies), a lot of the artwork features very dark, very simple animalistic colour schemes.

Wow, this is great! How long did it take you to paint these?
(I'd probably take at least 2 hours each to get them looking good enough for Tabletop)

Awesome paint job. Simple and clean.

 Decio wrote:
Wow, this is great! How long did it take you to paint these?
(I'd probably take at least 2 hours each to get them looking good enough for Tabletop)

Very little time. Just about an hour from undercoat to finished for the Carnifex, and a bit less for the Lictor. Airbrushing is almost insanely fast

Your painting method seems to have produced some excellent results!
However at the moment they look very much like chocolate Nids
I would suggest doing some slight highlighting. Not too bright so as not to throw off the effect you have going on.
Also consider a secondary colour to your Tyranid scheme so as to break away from the solid chocolate look.
Hope this helps

 Xendarc wrote:
Your painting method seems to have produced some excellent results!
However at the moment they look very much like chocolate Nids

Chocolate nids! If ya can't beat 'em, eat 'em!

They could really use some depth/highlights or a second colour, as far as i can see from the pic the're just 1 colour brown

Hmmm they do look a bit chocolatey in these pics, now that you guys mention it...

Here's some that haven't been quite as desaturated, and are closer to how they appear in daylight/indoor lighting I think...







Shows off that they're quite red, not so much brown.

The secondary highlight/contrast colour *is* still a bit of a sticking point with me. Traditionally, yes, it's a standard thing that everything should have some contrast, buuuut it goes against my animal/insect-like philosophy... Under lighting there is quite a lot of variation in colour, and the metal areas do stand out quite a lot... Will have to think about it...

Any colour suggestions for a highlight/contrast?

majendie wrote:
Any colour suggestions for a highlight/contrast?

 Xendarc wrote:

majendie wrote:
Any colour suggestions for a highlight/contrast?

Spoiler:

How about a bright yellow?

No contrast. That is PERFECT. A+ to you good sir.