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Hi guys!

I've been checking out paint schemes and reading up on color theory preparing to paint my 'nids now for a long while. (the poll is based on minis in general, not tyranids specifically)
I'd be interested to know how you like your minis and what you think looks the best.

Feel free to post your opinion on this subject in the comments.

I tend to go for sharp tones for skin and some clothes, and more subtle tones for metals and wood. I use a good deal of GW washes and tend to prefer very saturated colors.

Here you can see an example of my painting. To be honest this was done a year or so ago, and in the meantime I have improved. I should really start posting images again...

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/712988.page

If I had an airbrush and hte skills available, I'd love to paint like ThirdEyeNuke --- her colour choices and the way she paints is my favourite.

I always want a theme before I paint something. For my Tau I chose a snow planet and so used white, black, and pale blue (this was before the new sets came out and the standard colours were white and black :/ ), for my nids currently i'm doing a bright, vibrant pink and turquoise to fit in with a brightly coloured alien planet. Theme then scheme

BabyRipper

Realism 100%.

Depends what I'm painting. Eldar, more cartoonish, Orks, more gritty, Imperial Guard more realistic but not excessively so, historic models as realistic as I possibly can.

GW models for the most part are so unrealistic that trying to paint them realistically seems like a bit of a waste of effort. I'd much rather have a realistic looking Tiger, Sherman, Spitfire, etc sitting on my display shelf than a realistic looking Leman Russ or Rhino.... which look so disgustingly unrealistic regardless of how you paint them.

The only thing I go realisitic for is generally vehciles and go heavey weathering. Everything is is probably a mix of real and cartoony. By cartoony, I really just mean higher contrast that makes things pop on the table. Bright things brighter, dark areas darker.

For my nids I do a edge highlight along all the carapace, claws, talons etc... Washes for the dark areas.

Generally I'd come down on the side of realism but if the fluff suggests otherwise, say 40k Harlequins a degree of cartoony is fine (except ninja sneak stealth type models have to bright neon colours just cos)