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Working on a new scheme for my Tyranids. I'm not a professional modeller or painter, but I'm improving Although it seems to be general wisdom that Tyranids and gloss varnish go together like mudbugs and beer, I'm not convinced quite yet. C and C welcome and appreciated.

Now presenting (in order of appearance) Mr. Gribblesworth and his friend Tickles

tone down the gloss on the licor a bit. other than that good paint scheme.

Onnotangu wrote:tone down the gloss on the licor a bit. other than that good paint scheme.

I kinda like it, gives it a very alien-esque slimy feel.

I dig the gloss, extra slimy. Color wise I like your old one better. Nice black/white contrast. I my mind reds are over done.

Great idea! I really like the tropical foliage Lictor. "Hey the trees are rustling...AAAH!"

The gloss adds a welcome "alien monster" feel. However, I'm not sold on the new color scheme. (I do like the Lictor's colors better than the Fex's colors.)

Your original black & blue & bone color scheme is very good, and it lays in a natural way that the new one does not. Honestly, I'm not sure exactly what I'd suggest, so here are a few opinions:

1) I really like the idea of the Lictor's blending with the environment, but I think you should take it farther. If he's glossy, the trees and foliage around him should be glossy.
2) Add some moss on the ground/tree trunk and on the legs / back of the Lictor. (I use black texture glue, coat in black paint, and drybrush up from dark green to light yellow-green). This could go a huge way to showing his camouflage capabilities.
3) Highlight the GS vines on the Fex's back.
4) Fex color scheme Idea 1: Remove the blues and keep it red and green. Use many different shades of the colors, from bright to dark. This could make him more earthy.
5) Fex color scheme Idea 2: You're going for something like a deadly tropical creature color scheme, right? Go crazy with the bright colors, just like those tropical poison frogs. Drop the blacks and dark reds and go for super-bright reds and blues and greens all over the thing.

Again, great work and good luck!

Good colour scheme.

Although it seems to be general wisdom that Tyranids and gloss varnish go together like mudbugs and beer,[...]

QFT

The extra eyes on the carnifex are just creepy, well done.

Thanks for the C+C. The reason I wanted to change schemes in the first place is simply because the old scheme was achieved with multiple drybrushings and blue washes. It looked great on the smaller guys, but as soon as I tried to get the same results on Carnifexes and such, it looked terrible. I wanted a newer scheme I could "actively" paint. The gloss effect is from 'Ardcoat. Is there a way to thin it down so that the effect isn't so drastic?

Railguns wrote:Thanks for the C+C. The reason I wanted to change schemes in the first place is simply because the old scheme was achieved with multiple drybrushings and blue washes. It looked great on the smaller guys, but as soon as I tried to get the same results on Carnifexes and such, it looked terrible. I wanted a newer scheme I could "actively" paint. The gloss effect is from 'Ardcoat. Is there a way to thin it down so that the effect isn't so drastic?

Yep, just put a matte varnish on (the now dry) gloss varnish and it will kill the gloss effect.

You can use a brush on matte varnish and selectively leave certain areas 'glossy' to make it look like parts of the Lictor are slimy.

Basically, matte all the carapace and you'll make it look like the Lictor's skin is slimy (which is cool) as opposed to the whole model being slimy, which is slightly less cool.