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I am putting together a special genestealer cult model that I customised by adding a load of green stuff vines / tentacles to go with the weird tyranid 'flowers' that come on the genestealers' sprue. However, I am at a bit of a loss on how to paint them. I don't have much painting experience and so far I have mostly stuck with shading the recessed areas and highlighting the raised areas. However, since these things are essentially cylindrical they don't have either. The only thing I can think to do is decide on a 'front' and 'back' and shade accordingly, but then it won't match with how I am painting the rest of the model. Are there any other options?

A good option for beginners is to gradually lighten your base colour as you get to the end of the vine.

That sounds like it will require some subtle blending, which I will probably mess up. I can give it a try though. Thanks for the tip

The last time I tried that, I went with a pretty simple contrasting color for to the rest of the base decoration.



I decided not to overdo it and keep it a simple, single bright color because the way I made tentacles I figured less is more and a plain paintjob would complement the plain sculpt. Generally I agree with queen_annes_revenge, trying for a simple dark to like transition is not a bad idea.

Previously I got my pink tentacles by throwing black and red wash on a white base. It's messy, but has more texture:



This might be a valid approach depending on which colors you use and whether you're careful with the application of the wash (unlike me ).

Disclaimer - I am lazy and uninterested in pushing myself.

I would get the 'colour blend' look by painting them white and then dragging a paintbrush loaded with a heavily-watered down paint/wash along their length. The colour will be most saturated where you start and least saturated where you finish.

 Geifer wrote:
Previously I got my pink tentacles by throwing black and red wash on a white base. It's messy, but has more texture

Oh, I like that idea. It makes them look slimier

Those pictures are really helpful, they give me a much better idea of what I am doing. Thank you!

I think most of the tentacles are too long for the 'lazy' method but that sounds like a useful technique