# Hive Fleet Skourge



## VanillaKoolaid (Feb 6, 2011)

Finally decided to start a Tyranid army to run alongside my Chaos one. I received my Finecast Tyrant and Tyrant Guard yesterday in the mail and did as much as I could.

I'm going to be using the Tyrant as a Swarmlord, and hopefully get my hands on some more Boneswords and Lash whips that I can convert into left hand Boneswords. The joints are already magnetized so I can bump him down to a regular Tyrant if needed. This is all I have done so far, more to come when I don't have to work...



















I'm going with a Brown/Black with green highlight color scheme, hopefully it comes out looking pretty decent...


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## Cold86 (Sep 24, 2010)

nice! i like the extended carapace pieces inside the neck of the tyrant.


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## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

I like the base color so far and the extended plates on the neck and back are really cool. I would however point out that the paint looks very thick. I would suggest watering your colors down more. It will make them easier to use and will diminish the appearance of brush strokes. Keep on trucking!


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## VanillaKoolaid (Feb 6, 2011)

I did water down the brown a little (Folk Art Teddy Bear Tan), and I just slop it all over the model. I use a white primer because once I wash it, the areas that just barely show white through make more of a natural highlight and makes less work for me later.

As for the black, I wanted it kind of thick and shiny to kind of represent a beetle like shell in its appearance. The only thing I'm worried about is when I get to the green for the highlights on the edges of the shell pieces. I've tested the technique but I have no idea what it's going to look like until I go ahead and do it on the model...


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## Kaiden (Apr 1, 2010)

Great start, how did you find the finecast on these guys?


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## VanillaKoolaid (Feb 6, 2011)

*I haven't forgot you 'Nids!*

Long overdue updates...Same lame excuses as everyone else why they're not done yet...blah blah...pictures:









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## Phenious (Jun 10, 2009)

I think the carapace could benefit from some highlighting too. A grey is what I have seen this set up go with. Also a bit more shadow wash would help out the skin greatly.

*after looking at it more I am feeling an ice blue/grey fade on the edges of the carapace. Just a thought.


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## Fallen (Oct 7, 2008)

liking the base colors a lot, some washes on the "flesh" would do nicely, id try it out on a termaguant first since there will a million of them.

on washes ive pretty much exclusively used delvan mud, badab black, and have seen griffin syphia(?) and i like those the best - since they are all more of a "natural" color/shade effect than others.


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## Disciple_of_Ezekiel (May 23, 2010)

The green on your hive guard really stands out and looks great mate. The rest of the models looks a little bland tho, maybe some highlighting on the carapace and such would help liven up the model a bit.

Regards,
DoE


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## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

I love the look of your nids so far. You mentioned that you want the armor plates to look like a beetle shell. From what I've seen on google images, any black beetles have a faint hint of deep purple, blue, or brown/red. I would recommend highlighting up to one of those colors. If I were you, I would go with a series of blue coats leading up to the edge of each armor plate, just to modify the black underneath a smidge. If you think you can pull it off that is. I will definitely be following this thread, and +rep for the nids. (I love nids).


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## VanillaKoolaid (Feb 6, 2011)

Thanks for the comments thus far!

The process I am using to paint the bugs is as follows:

Prime white
two coats of brown
paint shell and claw pieces black
paint eyes and other details
wash entire model in Gryphonne Sepia

I do want to highlight the carapace pieces a green color. However, at this point I have not quite mastered the feathering technique to do so, and don't want to mess up my models just yet.

For now I would prefer to get my army painted (and don't mind them being bland rather than grey plastic _for now_), then once I get the feathering technique down I will go back and apply it to my models in line and knock out the whole army at once.

Finished Tervigon and a Zoanthrope...minus bases being done...


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## VanillaKoolaid (Feb 6, 2011)

This is kind of what I'm thinking in terms of highlights for the carapace (The termagaunt near the bottom in case I linked this wrong).


http://thetyranidhive.proboards.com...opost&board=painting&thread=20779&post=368429


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## Disciple_of_Ezekiel (May 23, 2010)

Start with a dark angels green, followed up by a mix of 1:1 dark angels/snot green, followed by pure snot green, wash with thrakka green. Shouldnt be to hard accept for it being a little time consuming.

Regards,
DoE


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## VanillaKoolaid (Feb 6, 2011)

Well, last night I finally bucked up and tried out some highlighting on a Termagaunt. I'm pretty happy with the colors, just need to perfect the look of the strokes a bit. I was trying to go for thinner lines, but ended up with just blobs of the color.










Let me know what you think...


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## VanillaKoolaid (Feb 6, 2011)

More updates to the highlighting process...

Zoanthrope:









Genestealers:









Still in progress Tervigon:


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## VanillaKoolaid (Feb 6, 2011)

Long overdue update, same excuses as usual...

Completed Tervigon (For real this time!):









Venomthropes:









and a sampling of the Gargoyles:


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## VanillaKoolaid (Feb 6, 2011)

*Update*

Hive Guard:


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## Viscount Vash (Jan 3, 2007)

Very striking army.

I'm looking forward to seeing a shot of them all together, forces like this always look more impressive en mass.

Mmmm massed Nids.............


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## son of azurman (Sep 19, 2010)

Looking good,looking at the carapace makes me think of Jamaica for some odd reason.
Had to much REGGAI REGGAI sauce for tea


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## Moriouce (Oct 20, 2009)

I think the paint scheme is a great idea. I just think that the green is a little to broad at the moment. Try to thin the lines a bit and also bring some green to the ridges on the carapace.

I do not know if this would work but if you washed the black with a watered down light green. Would it make light that is reflected in it glow green? That would make a cool effect if you acctualy could recreate nature that way. 

Keep it up cause your on your way towards a very eyecatching swarm!


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## stalarious (Aug 25, 2011)

First off I love your nids man it gave me ideas for my own cause I suck at shading up to a color. I see some banding on the greens are you going to put a wash to hide the banding? its hard to see but thought I'd say something so I can see what advice pops out.


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## Lemmy1916 (Jan 22, 2012)

Nice Log. I really like the colorscheme on your bugs, and i love your painting style, very smooth and clean. I would never have thought that such a style would fit so nicely on an "organic" army. Perhaps you should just add some more detail on weapons and the small cracks in the carapace from whic you can see muscular fibre. I would personnaly choose a darker brown or red. And highlight a bit more the fangs and claws, but that's just me.

P.S.: Try to paint some space marines, they would come out lovely the way you paint


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