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All those little bits and shading...holy moly.

It looks terrible until you start doing multiple layers. I was discourages. 3 hours later...not done, but much happier with how it looks.

I'll post pics when it's all done.

Sheesh!!

I find the organic nature really forgiving. Granted, I've only been painting large bugs

Worst part is how many you need to paint.

methebest wrote:
Worst part is how many you need to paint.

Indeed, my Tyranids are a compromise between what I thought looked good and what I could paint fast enough to actually put together an army. If it was taking me 3 hours to paint a model I can safely say I'd never have finished my Tyranid army.

If I had to paint Tyranids troops, I would certainly do this in 4 rapid steps (excluding initial spray paint).

1 Base paint (possibly 2 colors) = 2 minutes per model
1 Layer (again 2 colors) = 5 minute per models
1 Generous wash =15 seconds per models
1 Highlight phase (2 colors). = 5 minutes per models

For larger models than gaunts, I would take more time though.

 paqman wrote:
If I had to paint Tyranids troops, I would certainly do this in 4 rapid steps (excluding initial spray paint).

1 Base paint (possibly 2 colors) = 2 minutes per model
1 Layer (again 2 colors) = 5 minute per models
1 Generous wash =15 seconds per models
1 Highlight phase (2 colors). = 5 minutes per models

For larger models than gaunts, I would take more time though.

The fastest I can physically build and paint a termagant (pictured below) is about 25-30 minutes, that's one of the snap fit ones so the build time is significantly less. I guess if you don't care about anything contrasting (carapace, fleshy bits, claws) you could do it quicker, but you need to add a couple of minutes to deal with those bits as well. Hormagaunts take me a bit longer, maybe about 40 minutes to paint + assembly time (which is longer than the snap fit Termies). I might be able to do it faster, but at a large reduction in quality.

I do about the same amount of steps with similar results but it takes me several hours per models. I just can't paint fast.

Try painting Cadians 5 different paints just to do the basecoating.

CragHack wrote:
Try painting Cadians 5 different paints just to do the basecoating.

My Cadians are about 30 minutes per model, similar to the Termagants, maybe a couple of minutes slower. But then I guess my Cadians aren't very distinctive.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/core/gallery-viewimage.jsp?i=457894&m=2&w=800

CragHack wrote:
Try painting Cadians 5 different paints just to do the basecoating.

Youch!!

I did 2 layers of base coat, 2 layers of layer paint, 2 layers of wash, then three layers of layer coat. Not including about 4 layers for the Carapace. Two base coats and then two clean up coats.

I also learned that doing the layering after the wash with a very fine detail brush really helped make things look better.

I also am learning how to fix my mistakes and how to use wash in small areas to fill things in.


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AllSeeingSkink wrote:

I really like that color scheme! What colors are you using?

Very nice!

Looking forward to seeing some pics!

if things were easy they wouldnt be fun. thats why we do them. strange species humans eh.

Mdlbuildr wrote:
I really like that color scheme! What colors are you using?

Very nice!

Nothing special. The "skin" is just a thin layer of Rakarth Flesh over a white base (almost wash-like consistency) then Devlan Mud (Army Painter Strong Tone) wash over that (on big stuff I take more time to pick out highlights but on the little stuff I just leave it there). The fleshy bits I pick out using GW's old "Brown Ink", it's a glossy acrylic ink, the same as a gloss artist's acrylic ink. The carapace is just dark blue, a mid blue and then a light blue highlight, the colours I've used over the years has changed, it started off being enchanted blue for the mid, enchanted blue + black for the dark areas and the light parts are about 5 parts ice blue + 1 part enchanted. But GW don't make those colours any more so I swapped out the enchanted blue for Caledor Sky, which is a bit duller. The red claws are just dark red (blood red mixed with black) with a mid red highlight (blood red) and for special units I do another highlight with a bit of a flesh tone mixed with blood red (though I don't bother for the little guys). Teeth are white, eyes are Blazing Orange.

*Eye of the tiger playing in background

It can be tedious to be sure but your results are great! Those are going to look amazing as a large force, keep it up!

Assembly line.

A work in progress...

Still need to feather the carapace and some other small details.

Single color or strong color base coats and dry brushing does wonders. especially with a dip.

but it depends on how you want them to look.

 Desubot wrote:
...especially with a dip.

Please forgive my ignorance as I am very new, but what is "a dip"?

Mdlbuildr wrote:

 Desubot wrote:
...especially with a dip.

Please forgive my ignorance as I am very new, but what is "a dip"?

It functions much like a wash, just instead of brushing it on you dip the model into the liquid. It tends to be heavier but provide more extreme highlights, go a googling and find out about them - I think they're great.

Army painter makes some 'dips' called quickshades.

They have a brief description in there as well


http://shop.thearmypainter.com/products.php?ProductGroupId=1

I still haven't worked out what colour I'm going to paint mine.
I'm thinking of trying out some things with transparent paints as well.
I have like 85 gaunts to test things out on. >.>

I think Tyranids are one of the more time-consuming factions to really paint nicely, for sure.

You have a lot of little models to paint, and for both the big and little models, there's quite a lot of separately colored areas to detail.

Plus, you can't cheat with an airbrush, unless you want it to look terrible

Mdlbuildr wrote:

 Desubot wrote:
...especially with a dip.

Please forgive my ignorance as I am very new, but what is "a dip"?

A dip is basically a wash using a coloured floor varnish (polyurethane from memory), because you can buy it in large tins you can dip the entire model in to it.

I personally think dips are a bit over rated and you're best off just using a large flat brush to apply a wash rather than trying to dip it, dipping doesn't actually save that much time in the long run because the application of a wash with a large brush only takes a few seconds anyway.

Talys wrote:Plus, you can't cheat with an airbrush, unless you want it to look terrible

I don't really think that's true, I've seen a bunch of well painted Tyranid armies that were airbrushed for speed. I've seen ones where they didn't bother with sharp demarcation lines between skin/carapace/claws, allowing them to airbrush most of the model. I've seen a couple where they painted the shading and highlighting in brown and bone, then went over the carapace and claws with semi transparent colours to tint them different colours. I didn't own an airbrush when I started my nid army, if I did I most certainly would have come up with a faster way to airbrush paint them.

 Iechine wrote:

HOLY MOLY! These are faaantastic!

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

Mdlbuildr wrote:

 Desubot wrote:
...especially with a dip.

Please forgive my ignorance as I am very new, but what is "a dip"?

A dip is basically a wash using a coloured floor varnish (polyurethane from memory), because you can buy it in large tins you can dip the entire model in to it.

I personally think dips are a bit over rated and you're best off just using a large flat brush to apply a wash rather than trying to dip it, dipping doesn't actually save that much time in the long run because the application of a wash with a large brush only takes a few seconds anyway.

Talys wrote:Plus, you can't cheat with an airbrush, unless you want it to look terrible

I don't really think that's true, I've seen a bunch of well painted Tyranid armies that were airbrushed for speed. I've seen ones where they didn't bother with sharp demarcation lines between skin/carapace/claws, allowing them to airbrush most of the model. I've seen a couple where they painted the shading and highlighting in brown and bone, then went over the carapace and claws with semi transparent colours to tint them different colours. I didn't own an airbrush when I started my nid army, if I did I most certainly would have come up with a faster way to airbrush paint them.

Like i said i think it works for a certain look.
Also iv seen some really good airbrushed nids. used silly putty to get the contours for airbrushing the carapaces

I like the toxin sac on the back. Just different enough from the flesh and the carapace.

Doing Nids right now with a buddy, they're actually a lot easier than I first believed. There's just a lot of them is all.

What I've learned is probably what a lot of people will also suggest: Pick two primary colours - Carapace and exoskeleton. Paint these on fully, then use lighter shades of the same colour groups to drybrush. Then pick out little details and other bits (eyes, teeth, sacs, scything talons, etc). Don't worry about exposed muscle tissue except on larger models. If this is a table army, then you don't need to spend lots of time painting fine detail on swarm units. Just crank em out to a nice play standard and save your effort for your larger creatures.

When it's all said and done, give em a quick wash to emphasize the recessed areas, and you're good. If it helps, I've put pics on my own P&M of the Tyranids we're working on.

I feel your pain, currently painting 225 tempustus. Can feel my psyche breaking. Horus Heresy audio books are a blessing.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

Talys wrote:Plus, you can't cheat with an airbrush, unless you want it to look terrible

I don't really think that's true, I've seen a bunch of well painted Tyranid armies that were airbrushed for speed. I've seen ones where they didn't bother with sharp demarcation lines between skin/carapace/claws, allowing them to airbrush most of the model. I've seen a couple where they painted the shading and highlighting in brown and bone, then went over the carapace and claws with semi transparent colours to tint them different colours. I didn't own an airbrush when I started my nid army, if I did I most certainly would have come up with a faster way to airbrush paint them.

I think that's basically what i was thinking of doing.