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Soooo I just bought the Deathstorm box!

I'm looking for help to pick the color scheme for my nids. Any suggestions? Pictures would be awesome! =)

You can never go wrong by looking at nature for inspiration

Rainbow frogs!



Or even crabs

 SilverMK2 wrote:
You can never go wrong by looking at nature for inspiration

Rainbow frogs!



Or even crabs

Hahaha I'll probably pass on those

Adrian Smith's Hive Fleet Behemoth scheme always seems like it'd be awesome translated to the table top.

 SilverMK2 wrote:
You can never go wrong by looking at nature for inspiration

Rainbow frogs!



Or even crabs

Oooooh, that crab looks sexy!

Paint them like bees

 Medium of Death wrote:


Adrian Smith's Hive Fleet Behemoth scheme always seems like it'd be awesome translated to the table top.

That's my color scheme, go away.

Actually, it's not a bad one but very dark and not very eye popping on the table.

Id say go with almost a lime green flesh and anything that comes off of them (carapace, talon etc...) should be a bone variation. If you dont want as bright as lime green, dull it down and use a more earthy tone like a brightened olive darab. OH, OH! Or instead of green ( as eeeeverybody does green bahah) use a fun colour, like blue or yellow!

Or, you could always use neon orange and pink and lime green. It gets me girlies when snowboarding....maybe itll get you the hobby girlies?
I personally love clashing colours as I think they catch more attention, and I can be an attention whore bahaha.

Hey, i have sort of a colection inspirational tyranid photos if youre interesed. Not all are relevant but maybe you can find inspiration from them

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/osman_naskali/tyranids/water_colossus_by_brotherostavia-d3hxcni.jpg

romulus wrote:
Hey, i have sort of a colection inspirational tyranid photos if youre interesed. Not all are relevant but maybe you can find inspiration from them

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/osman_naskali/tyranids/water_colossus_by_brotherostavia-d3hxcni.jpg

That's cool! Thanks man!

I think I decided to go for purple skin and bone colored carapace =)

So this is my test model. What do you think of the colors? And suggestions?

I like StrikingScorpion82's nids, red fleshy bits and bone carapace.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvQWWGqux2U&src_vid=-MszVw1emvQ&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_1541274007

Any suggestions?

Its hard to tell for sure, but it seems like there are no hilights. You might want to work on putting some on. Its also seems to me that the spine of the carapace is not coloured properly (should be the same colour as the rest of the carapace i believe, im a marine player not a nid player though, so I could be wrong.). You also may want to darken the bone, it seems to be rather bright, id say try to darken it (glazes, washes) to make it look more organic, while building up the beightness of the purple flesh tones. Im not too sure about this, but it seems as if there is an exoskeleton on the arms? Maybe make this bone?
Other than that, good painting! Solidly blocked and controled brushwork goes a long way.

The purple seems very dark, unless you plan on highlighting it. I agree with Dienekes about the spinal protrusions, I always paint them the same color as the rest of the carapace.

Here's what I would do to achieve a similar scheme that's fast, and gives a better sense of depth:
-paint the carapace white, wash with Seraphim Sepia, then wash with Aggrax Earthshade, highlight with ushabti bone
-paint the flesh areas Dawnstone Grey, then wash with Druchi Violet

 Dienekes016 wrote:
Its hard to tell for sure, but it seems like there are no hilights. You might want to work on putting some on. Its also seems to me that the spine of the carapace is not coloured properly (should be the same colour as the rest of the carapace i believe, im a marine player not a nid player though, so I could be wrong.). You also may want to darken the bone, it seems to be rather bright, id say try to darken it (glazes, washes) to make it look more organic, while building up the beightness of the purple flesh tones. Im not too sure about this, but it seems as if there is an exoskeleton on the arms? Maybe make this bone?
Other than that, good painting! Solidly blocked and controled brushwork goes a long way.

Thank you!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

BaronVonSnakPak wrote:
The purple seems very dark, unless you plan on highlighting it. I agree with Dienekes about the spinal protrusions, I always paint them the same color as the rest of the carapace.

Here's what I would do to achieve a similar scheme that's fast, and gives a better sense of depth:
-paint the carapace white, wash with Seraphim Sepia, then wash with Aggrax Earthshade, highlight with ushabti bone
-paint the flesh areas Dawnstone Grey, then wash with Druchi Violet

Thank you!

 Dienekes016 wrote:
Its hard to tell for sure, but it seems like there are no hilights. You might want to work on putting some on. Its also seems to me that the spine of the carapace is not coloured properly (should be the same colour as the rest of the carapace i believe, im a marine player not a nid player though, so I could be wrong.). You also may want to darken the bone, it seems to be rather bright, id say try to darken it (glazes, washes) to make it look more organic, while building up the beightness of the purple flesh tones. Im not too sure about this, but it seems as if there is an exoskeleton on the arms? Maybe make this bone?
Other than that, good painting! Solidly blocked and controled brushwork goes a long way.

The reason I don't do highlights is because I have really poor color-sight =( So I'm afraid I would not be able to tell the difference with small changes in the colors to achieve the highlights..

I also tried to use Agrax Earthshade on the bone but it felt like the model became so dark.. I feel that perhaps the bone needs to be as light as it is to make the model pop.. =(

I was looking at allot of pictures before I started painting the nids and I just wasn't sure what was supposed to be colored what, so I kinda made a judgement call to make all that purple, saved me time and I saw that ALLOT of other painters had done the same..

 Reality-Torrent wrote:

 Dienekes016 wrote:
Its hard to tell for sure, but it seems like there are no hilights. You might want to work on putting some on. Its also seems to me that the spine of the carapace is not coloured properly (should be the same colour as the rest of the carapace i believe, im a marine player not a nid player though, so I could be wrong.). You also may want to darken the bone, it seems to be rather bright, id say try to darken it (glazes, washes) to make it look more organic, while building up the beightness of the purple flesh tones. Im not too sure about this, but it seems as if there is an exoskeleton on the arms? Maybe make this bone?
Other than that, good painting! Solidly blocked and controled brushwork goes a long way.

The reason I don't do highlights is because I have really poor color-sight =( So I'm afraid I would not be able to tell the difference with small changes in the colors to achieve the highlights..

I also tried to use Agrax Earthshade on the bone but it felt like the model became so dark.. I feel that perhaps the bone needs to be as light as it is to make the model pop.. =(

I was looking at allot of pictures before I started painting the nids and I just wasn't sure what was supposed to be colored what, so I kinda made a judgement call to make all that purple, saved me time and I saw that ALLOT of other painters had done the same..

After applying shading use a layer paint of a slightly brighter color on the raised areas and leave the recesses dark, it looks a lot better.

IE: If your base is Naggaroth Night then after washing with Agrax apply a layer of Xereus Purple on top of it and leave the recesses shaded Naggaroth, or you could just go back over with Naggaroth again and leave the recesses.

You also might want to try drybrushing if you don't like highlighting for one reason or another. Its a pretty basic way for easy highlights if done right.

 Shadowclaimer wrote:

 Reality-Torrent wrote:

 Dienekes016 wrote:
Its hard to tell for sure, but it seems like there are no hilights. You might want to work on putting some on. Its also seems to me that the spine of the carapace is not coloured properly (should be the same colour as the rest of the carapace i believe, im a marine player not a nid player though, so I could be wrong.). You also may want to darken the bone, it seems to be rather bright, id say try to darken it (glazes, washes) to make it look more organic, while building up the beightness of the purple flesh tones. Im not too sure about this, but it seems as if there is an exoskeleton on the arms? Maybe make this bone?
Other than that, good painting! Solidly blocked and controled brushwork goes a long way.

The reason I don't do highlights is because I have really poor color-sight =( So I'm afraid I would not be able to tell the difference with small changes in the colors to achieve the highlights..

I also tried to use Agrax Earthshade on the bone but it felt like the model became so dark.. I feel that perhaps the bone needs to be as light as it is to make the model pop.. =(

I was looking at allot of pictures before I started painting the nids and I just wasn't sure what was supposed to be colored what, so I kinda made a judgement call to make all that purple, saved me time and I saw that ALLOT of other painters had done the same..

After applying shading use a layer paint of a slightly brighter color on the raised areas and leave the recesses dark, it looks a lot better.

IE: If your base is Naggaroth Night then after washing with Agrax apply a layer of Xereus Purple on top of it and leave the recesses shaded Naggaroth, or you could just go back over with Naggaroth again and leave the recesses.

You also might want to try drybrushing if you don't like highlighting for one reason or another. Its a pretty basic way for easy highlights if done right.

I used Ushbati Bone for the bone parts and Xereus Purple for the rest, I then applied a layer of Drakenhof Nightshade to the purple parts.

I still feel like I would struggle actually seeing the colors which ever technique I would choose for highlights =(

But thank you for your suggestions!

Your test model looks great, but I would say do some more - close your eyes and grab 3 paint pots at random and paint a small gribbly - once you've done 5 or so, you'll have a much better idea of the paint scheme you like - heres what I did first when trying to choose -



I actually went with a green and yellow scheme in the end, but having tried lots of other colours I was pretty sure what I liked. Hope this helps

If I was in your shoes, I would just highlight one or two anyway. I understand that it might be hard to see the changes but you wont know for sure unless you try. Just go slow and do your best to see the changes. Maybe a magnifying glass would help?

After you post them to dakka for review, take the criticisms and if it worked, keep doing what youre doing. If people dont like it/ or give "constructive criticism" drop them in some simple green and BOOM. No more dirty models.

 Darkjim wrote:
Your test model looks great, but I would say do some more - close your eyes and grab 3 paint pots at random and paint a small gribbly - once you've done 5 or so, you'll have a much better idea of the paint scheme you like - heres what I did first when trying to choose -



I actually went with a green and yellow scheme in the end, but having tried lots of other colours I was pretty sure what I liked. Hope this helps

What an awesome idea! I loved all of those, except the teal(I think)/red guy at the front I guess.. You seem like a great painter, good work =) I'm gonna go back and start comparing those you painted with the one I did, and spend some time thinking about which colors I liked the most =)

Thank you very much!

 Dienekes016 wrote:
If I was in your shoes, I would just highlight one or two anyway. I understand that it might be hard to see the changes but you wont know for sure unless you try. Just go slow and do your best to see the changes. Maybe a magnifying glass would help?

After you post them to dakka for review, take the criticisms and if it worked, keep doing what youre doing. If people dont like it/ or give "constructive criticism" drop them in some simple green and BOOM. No more dirty models.

Hahaha =)

More than happy to help, and whatever you do don't tell yourself you can't paint.

I wouldn't have believed I could paint Nids to that thoroughly table-top standard until I did, the great thing about Nids is the little guys are virtually disposable compared to the cost of most models, so drybrush, wash, layer, feather, watch 1000 tutorials and try everything, and practice practice practice

 Darkjim wrote:
More than happy to help, and whatever you do don't tell yourself you can't paint.

I wouldn't have believed I could paint Nids to that thoroughly table-top standard until I did, the great thing about Nids is the little guys are virtually disposable compared to the cost of most models, so drybrush, wash, layer, feather, watch 1000 tutorials and try everything, and practice practice practice

Thank you again sir!

 Dienekes016 wrote:
Id say go with almost a lime green flesh and anything that comes off of them (carapace, talon etc...) should be a bone variation. If you dont want as bright as lime green, dull it down and use a more earthy tone like a brightened olive darab. OH, OH! Or instead of green ( as eeeeverybody does green bahah) use a fun colour, like blue or yellow!

Like this? (using green)

rigeld2 wrote:

 Dienekes016 wrote:
Id say go with almost a lime green flesh and anything that comes off of them (carapace, talon etc...) should be a bone variation. If you dont want as bright as lime green, dull it down and use a more earthy tone like a brightened olive darab. OH, OH! Or instead of green ( as eeeeverybody does green bahah) use a fun colour, like blue or yellow!

Like this? (using green)

Wow. Those are sharp looking! Well done.

Thanks. They pass the 3ft test but that's about it.

Simple as heck too - prime white, spray with the green (it's a high-vis marking paint), paint orange carapace, blue, white and red details, wood stain "dip" (I paint it on).