Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Quick preface:
I am a pretty poorly skilled painter/modeler, but I enjoy what little I'm able to do and am trying to slowly improve what little skill I have.

I'm looking to add a little color to the body of my beloved Tyranids. My original concept was heavily based on the xenomorph and developed a little from there.





I think I'm losing detail on the body because they are too dark and monochrome. I've been considering picking up some waywatcher green glaze to try and add some color to the chaos black, maybe bring back a little detail, but I'm not sure if my plan will work. Has anyone had any experience with something like this?

I've never attempted to apply a glaze over black, but I would guess it wouldn't work too well.

Do you have close-ups of some of those so I can see what the level of detail already is?

It looks like you've only got base colors on there (pardon me if I am wrong). Your base layers look fine, so I would recommend some shading and highlighting or layering, that will really bring the details in the models out. If you're nervous to try this, just experiment on a few spare models or bits you have lying around.

 xXWeaponPrimeXx wrote:
I've never attempted to apply a glaze over black, but I would guess it wouldn't work too well.

Do you have close-ups of some of those so I can see what the level of detail already is?

Sadly this is as good as I have for the moment. Mobile, work, etc.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 AngularDeath wrote:
It looks like you've only got base colors on there (pardon me if I am wrong). Your base layers look fine, so I would recommend some shading and highlighting or layering, that will really bring the details in the models out. If you're nervous to try this, just experiment on a few spare models or bits you have lying around.

You are correct, it is just chaos black. I've been trying to find a good highlighting tutorial or video as my area is distinctly lacking in painters of any real caliber. I do have all the extra ravener torsos I could use for practice.

Well, if the skin is just solid black, there's a lot of little details your can pick out.

Just off the top of my head (what I remember from painting my own Tyranids). In the joints of the limbs (elbow, knee, wrist, etc.) you can add a lighter/fleshier color to represent the mushy bits. Tyranids are like insects, so those joints will be weak and fleshy, and probably a different color.

Along the same lines are the little... I dunno, veiny areas on the weapons and limbs (usually along the side) that have lines.



You can see it here because its red in the middle of blue carapace. Those are areas you can detail as well.

Then if you want to further add detail to the armored shell, you can give it striations or patterns like beetles. It would take away from the Aliens aesthetic but it will add a great amount of detail.



And if you want to use glazes, you can certainly apply some to that model's tongue to give it a nice wet look. Also you can add inks to the bone swords to sink into the recesses and add a little detail.

Was this helpful?

You could also add some weathering to the green carapace shells. Just grab some black paint, maybe a bit grayer than your body tone though, and randomly put that wherever you think there would be nicks or scratches on the shell, then get a lighter black, or add more gray to it, then do a patch inside the first black patch, so you have a dark blob with a slightly darker outline. Then take hmmm... I'm gonna say a bone colour, and do a tiny dot of that inside your patch. This will make it look like there are deep cuts and dings in the shell.

Also, layering. I don't know how many coats you put on the base, but I find that I can get a really great effect by starting my first layer off really thin, then going over it again and again with very thin paint, each coat taking up less and less space. What will happen is you will get a nice soft fade from a slightly lighter edge to a darker center, this will go a long way towards making them pop. Usually you want to go from a darker colour to a lighter one, but since you're working with black its best to go the other way.

Highlighting. Basically what you're going to do here is find a colour that works with your current scheme, and you're going to pick out details and high spots with your new colour. Over the black I would say use a really soft white or gray colour, and over the green use something similar in shade but with a bit more density. You're pretty much just gonna go over the model. When I say high spots I mean like the top of the thigh, where all the muscle bunches up on top, know what I mean? And you do the same thing with your highlights as you do with layers. Build em up slowly, either working from darker to lighter or vice versa. You can also get quick highlights with drybrushing, but it's not as smooth. Basically when drybrushing you want to use a short stiff brush, and not get a lot of paint of it. What you're looking for is to actually get a bit of paint to dry out on the brush, just a bit. Take your brush and very lightly drag it across your edges, what should happen is you get a nice fuzzy little line on whatever edge you hit.

Washing. This is the best part, or at least the part I like the best. Now washes will fall into recesses while glazes will sit on high spots and not go into the corners, so you will definitely not be needing a glaze. What I would do is wash the whole model in a white wash, not too harsh or bright and not too heavy. Once the whole thing is washed white then take like a really royal purple wash and do the black bits. Then find a green you like, I'd suggest a very similar tone to what you have, and do the green bits!

I hope that helps man!

 xXWeaponPrimeXx wrote:

...Awesome advice...

Was this helpful?

Absolutely, thanks, and +1 to you.

I've used a strong blue on the fleshy bus and the mouth to give them a little pop, (inspired by the SICK kaiju of Pacific Rim), but I hadn't thought of using a wash for the wet look.

I want to pick up an ink wash for the claws, bone, and teeth (I think it is something with sepia in the name) to give it a weathered look but my FLGS has been out of it the last few visits.

What I really feel I am losing in the black are the "ribs", most prominently on the torso. It's my fault for going straight to chaos black instead of maybe an eshin grey and darkening it down to my liking.

Some washing and dry brush the underside of the carapace could really make those models pop. You said you had limited skills these are the 2 easier beginner ideas that I think could help some. The glaze does look good from what I can see. I would suggest doing a bright base since you choose such a dark base color.

The problem isn't really the black it is needing more shades of black. I think you will need to pull some osl off to make dark black work.

Glad I could help.

Once you've got the tongue and wet bits the color you want, either give them a coating of 'Ardcoat or watered down PVA and they "should" keep the sheen.

I had a similar problem when painting my guardsmen which had black clothing.

The easiest way i could find was to paint all the black areas eshin grey, highlight them with a dark (almost grey) blue. I used shadow grey from the old GW range then bring it all back down with a wash of nuln oil.

The beauty I found with this, is you can be fairly clumsy with the highlights (which is good if you are pretty bad at painting like me) because the nuln oil brings it back down. If I had more skill i would try to highlight it afterwards with a grey but alas I am not that brave or skilled.

The effect is subtle but when you stand it next to a model with just a base coating of black, it really makes a difference.