For The Love of a Bug

[SanJefe]

After spending several years working on Ultramarines on and off, I'd been hankering after painting something other than power armour for a change. I'd wanted to have a go at Tyranids for a long while, but struggled to come up with a colour scheme I liked. I wanted something that looked at least marginally natural rather than the cartoon style of painting that Games Workshop seem to be going for.
I came up with the attached as a starter and was amazed, after years of power armour painting, how quickly I was able to rattle these out with a few washes doing the bulk of the work. I think this unit of 8 took about 6 hours all told, including building, so something I could realistically do over the course of a couple of evenings.
Can't wait to get tucked into a few more units and see them expand now! :)

[Darren Richardson]

I like them, I prefer my Bugs more Au-natural then technicolour!

[Haineko]

Oh wow, I like it! They look really "scary" compared to what I usually see from GW.
Would it be too much to ask for a description of what paints were used, and how you applied them? I'm getting my half of a Deathstorm pack soon, and I still haven't come up with a good wy of painting the nids, and was looking for a few pointers x)

[SanJefe]

Thanks for the feedback guys!

Haineko, it was a really simple colour scheme, mainly using standard Citadel paints.

I used an undercoat of Vallejo Grey Surface Primer, which I've only just started using but seems really good. It's a very light grey, almost white, so I imagine a standard white spray undercoat would still achieve the same effect.

After the undercoat, I used a little Carroburg Crimson shade in the joints, in the cracks in the skin, in the eyes and in and around the mouths, including the skin just behind the jaw. Then I used Agrax Earthshade to paint the skin spots on. Following that, the skin was finished off with a good wash of Seraphim Sepia, including over the bits that had already had some shading, to help blend the whole together.

That was it for the skin. No highlights used.

For the carapace, it was a black base coat and then a small edge highlight with Dark Reaper. After that I spotted on Dryad Bark, then XV-89, Balor Brown and Zamesi Desert in increasingly narrower areas to create the stripes.

The claws were done with an Usbati Bone base, with Agrax Earthshade around the edges then built up with Scraeaming Skull, Rakarth Flesh and finally Palid Wych Flesh.

That was it. All really quick stuff, but effective I think. Annoyingly simple after spending so long on power armour! :)

[SanJefe]

Tried the same scheme on some Termagants. I wanted the weapons to blend into the body, so have done them in exactly the same colours. Not sure it looks right now though. Maybe I'd be better doing some of the weapon in a more claw / hoof like colour, to suggest it is made of more bone than flesh? What do people think?

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[Darren Richardson]

Yeah I would do that, the weapons need to look slightly different to the rest of the Nid's body.

[SanJefe]

Ok...think I've found a balance I'm happy with between the weapon being too similar to the body while at the same time looking distinct but "natural". The difference is possibly subtle but it's just enough for me. Think I'm happy with this although the real test will be when I scale it up to larger weapons on the tyranid warriors, for example.

Thoughts?

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[Darren Richardson]

That looks somewhat better, perhaps try using a different wash for the guns for shading, make it stand out even more, but still keeps that natural feel.

Any blades on the figures I feel need to be as bone like as possible, but that's just my take.

And yeah scaling up colour schemes is the real test indeedy....

[helline9]

i really think that Nids work best with a natural colour scheme too!
Your colour scheme makes them look like locusts! Which is cool because they are basically an intergalactic locust swarm.

I did up a Nid army for a friend but i went a slightly different direction; i based the colour scheme on cockroaches, a mix of glossy dark muddy browns of layered inks. When people make disgusting faces at the cockroach coloured bug army you know you've got close to the mark.

One of the other things i found works well for Tyranids (and you might want to do it with yours too given your colour scheme) is swapping the 'bat wings' for gossamer (insect) wings. For most flying Tyranids i made the wings easily by cutting teardrop shapes out of the clear plastic from blisterpacks then painting veins of them. Simple conversion that looks good and appropriate.

[SanJefe]

I like the idea of the cockroach colour scheme and gossamer wings! Have you got any pictures? How did you handle the weapons?

[SanJefe]

After a quick start, things slowed down somewhat over February and March, however, I've now got the first phase of my Tyranid army complete! Only about a quarter of the total I still have to make up, but might take a quick break back to Ultramarines before I tackle the next batch.

Still not sure about the guns. It's hard making something unnatural look natural! Also struggling a little with the large scythe like claws and bone swords but getting better at them as I go!

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