# Acticors Tyranids (oh look THATS creative)



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

Around a month ago, I was given a bunch of tyranids from my brother, as he quit playing warhammer. I thought this would be the perfect time to start a log, as i need to strip and re paint everything.

The models i have are:
1 Hive Tyrant
1 Carnifex
1 Zoanthrope
16 Hormagaunts
8 Termigaunts w/ Spinefists
17 Termigaunts w/ Fleshboreres
3 Genestealers
3 Ripper Swarm Bases
3 Warriors
1 Ravener
1 Biovore
8 Spore Mines


















These are the only 2 i have done so far, the warriors are soaking in paint stripper, and im currently painting the ravener.

Comments welcome.


----------



## Unforgiven302 (Oct 20, 2008)

Awesome to see another nids log going on here. I will be keeping an eye out for updates on this thread too! +rep for the new project!


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

Thanks for the rep man. One thing i have a question about is what color should i paint the talons and claws? i dont want to keep it black because then the color scheme is too bland, but i dont want it too flashy or colorful. any ideas? 

ill be trying to post pics as often as i can.


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

Not sure if this comes out too well on the image, but i painted the claws Hormagaunt Purple. does this help the model? as always, comments welcome. the warriors are still soaking in paint stripper. Coming up next is either a biovore, or 10 termigaunts.


----------



## Tinkerbell (Feb 19, 2008)

Nice to see another nid army, will look forward to seeing more

Tinks


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

The warriors are taking forever to strip. do you guys use anything that strips paint fast on plastic models? cause theyve been soaking for like a week now.


----------



## Tinkerbell (Feb 19, 2008)

I have just asked Vash and he said the best thing is Simple green if your from the US or break fluid if your UK based


----------



## Boc (Mar 19, 2010)

Aye, you should be good to get a toothbrush and get the paint off after only a couple of hours in Simple Green.


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

ok thanks guys, ill have to try that out. Will that get rid of glue too? cause i really want to re position the warriors (and the weapon loadout is illegal with the new codex i think). I did finish the biovore, what do you guys think?

















I really do need to get around to painting my troops and HQ... ah well.
As always, comments welcome!


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

I finished 10 termigaunts! thats a troop choice! Postponing the warriors until i can convince my parents to get simple green. Ill have pictures of the gaunts up soon, i promise. To complete a legal army, I'm now working on stripping the hive tyrant.


----------



## Boc (Mar 19, 2010)

Simple Green will remove super glue, not plastic glue though. Plastic glue actually melts/rebonds the plastic parts, making them in theory one continuous piece. Hopefully, for your sake, they were attached with super glue, as it's much easier to break 

Biovore's looking pretty solid, some nice blending on the carapace.

As far as the photos themselves, it may help to get a white background (I just use pieces of paper on a table set against a wall) and the micro/close up setting on your camera. There are a bunch of good photo-editing software programs available as well. Here is a good tutorial for Photoscape by LTP, once I started using it I've never looked back haha. It really helps to make the pictures show the true quality of the models.


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

Ok, i dont really have time to download the software (im in school ) But i did take these pictures, ill go back and edit once I get home. 








I think this guy is missing a foot. While I'm at it, I should probably clean up the gaunts, the pictures really show my sloppiness. 








Oh gosh. Any tips for painting teeth?


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

No comments? ouch. Anyway, I don't have anything else painted, but I might as well share what I'm up to. I stripped the hive tyrant, and the warriors guns came off! . here is a pic of the tyrant as of now. nothing amazing, but pics are pics. Oh, also, ive gone back and painted the claws/talons on stuff bleached bone. 










plastic doesnt really strip well. hence the super colorful scything tallons.


----------



## Chaosftw (Oct 20, 2008)

I think the hormagaunts need a little more attention. The red/orange appears to be very transparent in some places and thicker in others. I also think that leaving the rest of the model as primer really makes models unappealing. Lastly I think you should consider basing them.

On the plus side nothing is wrong with the teeth. If you give them a nice wash it will bring them out a little more. As far as the Hive Tyrant's stripping of what appears to be its Neon blue, Purple and Yellow(lol) looks like you got most of quite nicely so re-priming him once assembled wont be an issue.

Keep up the good work!
Chaosftw


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

Thanks for your input. I have been considering going back to the termigaunts and painting their rib cage a different color, probably bleached bone. Ill test this out on one of my models and see if it looks OK. I agree that I need to re visit the termigaunts, i just got sick of painting them so Ill do that once I'm done with the tyrant.


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

Hey guys, another update. 
I have to thank Unforgiven for the pose on the hive tyrant, it (in my opinion) looks really cool. I also experimented with a gaunt on editing my color scheme. Dont have any pics quite yet, and my computer is dying. But i promise ill have them up in a day or 2.


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

Alright here are the pics. 

















Also, ive decided to wait on the Tyrant, due to an issue with the color scheme. I painted the ribcage of the gaunt below bleached bone, im considering extending this to the entire skin. What do you guys think about that? would it work? 








Please excuse my sloppy painting, im just messing with colors to see what looks nice. For the skin, ill either do a dry brush or wash effect. which one would look better? 
As always, comments welcome.


----------



## TheReverend (Dec 2, 2007)

Looking good so far matey!


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

Alrighty, when i was painting the below termigaunt, i was focusing not on the actual quality of the painting (terrible bleached bone) but whether or not the colors work together, and so forth. If this works, ill go back and clean up the models. Lastly, kinda random, but any suggestions on a name for my hive fleet would be highly appreciated. 
















As always, comments welcome.


----------



## Tinkerbell (Feb 19, 2008)

What colour are you going to blend the carapices up to? Also what colour wash are you gonna use for the fleshy bits?

Tink


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

Probably going to have the carapaces blend up to an orange-y color. the rest is (supposed to be) bleached bone wash. i'm having trouble keeping it even thou.


----------



## Tinkerbell (Feb 19, 2008)

On my b.bone I use devlan mud then dry brush with bone then another was of g.sepia then dry brush again. if you want you tones to be lighter I would mix some white in the bone on your final dry brush but depends on what you want. Then just highlight the hard edges to make it ping.

Not sure about the carapices have you thought about black with red/orange feathering.


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

Yes, I have thought about that. I'm now kind of basing my scheme off hive fleet kraken. My friend is letting me use his spray gun and paints, so im thinking spray with a dark tan (he doesnt use GW paints) and then go over that with bleached bone. And ill try ur suggestion of red/orange feathering tink.


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

Kinda figured I should start this project log up again. This time however, i return with improved painting skills, and a definite color scheme. This hive fleet is based off kraken, hence the red/tan scheme. I just completed my test mini, tell me what you guys think of him. or her. or it. not sure tyranids have genders. 

































Please criticize this mini. I do want to improve on my painting. One thing i want to work on is highlighting, the white is kinda iffy. Questions, Comments, Criticism, Critiques, and Compliments welcome. hopefully some1 will see this amongst the other project logs.


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

I have been thinking about a fleet name. Since my nids are a splinter fleet of kraken, i wanted some sort of giant sea monster type thing. On Wikipedia i came across the Lusca - a very large and mysterious giant octopus. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lusca) Hive Fleet Lusca. how does it sound?


----------



## CattleBruiser (Sep 3, 2011)

ok, I'm commenting! happy?


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

Very funny steven -__- now gimme feedback or something.


----------



## MidnightKid333 (Feb 2, 2011)

You should decide on a final paint scheme before you go any further. You still need highlights on the carapace. I recommend a dark yellow or brown colour to compliment the orange, then give it a heavy wash of devlan mud to dirty them up a bit (they're tyranids, they don't exactly take a shower on a daily basis).

For the bone (talons, claws, etc) Maybe use bleached bone or some other shade of white. 

nevertheless, it's your army. You have final say, of course. You must have the coolest brother in the whole world if he just handed over his tyranids to you.

also, tyranids do not have genders, they are materialized by the norn queen from bio-matter collected from rippers and malanthropes to make new tyranids. the malanthropes and rippers feast on dead matter (friend and foe) and when they are full, they decompose in digestion pools, which are then harvested of their bio-matter, sent to the norn queen of the hive fleet and re-materialized once again, so if someone such as the swarmlord dies, it is simply collected and re-born again. this form of reproduction proves male and female genders to be moot among tyranids, although there are some people that say all tyranids are female (which is ridiculous!)

^nerd rage

[edit] as i was brought to the current posts, I realized you changed you colour scheme. I preferred the original colour you had before. it just needs a colour to replace the black skin, like bleached bone, Gryphonne Sepia or something along those lines. basing your colours off of one of the stock hive fleets isn't very unique, so this thread may lose its unique individuality if it is lacking in creativity among a colour scheme


----------



## CattleBruiser (Sep 3, 2011)

His brother actually is pretty cool, and i already gave you feedback, if you really want more.... i guess you could do something with the base so it's not the same color as the skin, i mean the gaunts aren't going to be running over stretched out gaunt skin, they're going to be running on ground


----------



## MidnightKid333 (Feb 2, 2011)

CattleBruiser said:


> His brother actually is pretty cool, and i already gave you feedback, if you really want more.... i guess you could do something with the base so it's not the same color as the skin, i mean the gaunts aren't going to be running over stretched out gaunt skin, they're going to be running on ground


that is true. I just paint my bases black after the grey primer, so I recommend he does the same, if he even cares about the base. 

and maybe it's not gaunt skin, it could always be interpreted as sand or something like that. At least, that's what I'd tell myself if they were my models. :biggrin:


----------



## CattleBruiser (Sep 3, 2011)

if it's sand then I'd suggest gluing on sand, i actually don't like black bases very much either cause little plastic space bugs arn't really gonna be running on coal, but they're his models so whatever he wants


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

> You should decide on a final paint scheme before you go any further. Agreed. You still need highlights on the carapace. I recommend a dark yellow or brown colour to compliment the orange, then give it a heavy wash of devlan mud to dirty them up a bit (they're tyranids, they don't exactly take a shower on a daily basis). Sadly, i dont have devlan mud (My palette is fairly limited.)
> 
> For the bone (talons, claws, etc) Maybe use bleached bone or some other shade of white.
> 
> ...


One other option i have been considering has been to ditch the red carapace and go with a scorched brown color. This would bring my color scheme away from Kraken, and the two new colors should look OK together. I'll give this some thought, and depending on what i think i will put together a test mini, to see how it looks. Based off feedback, proceed from there. 



> if it's sand then I'd suggest gluing on sand, i actually don't like black bases very much either cause little plastic space bugs arn't really gonna be running on coal, but they're his models so whatever he wants


You never know steven, I could be over running a coal factory. I'll avoid basing my minis for now, just because the process eats up so much glue. and with 8 dollars for the tiny bottle, and a horde army, not something im willing to spend all that money on.


----------



## CattleBruiser (Sep 3, 2011)

normal elmers white glue works wonders for basing


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

Let me focus on the models for now. Once I'm done with them, ill go back and base.


----------



## CattleBruiser (Sep 3, 2011)

I'm still saying you should wash the hormagaunt with a brown


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

My second test mini. With this I switched the red to scorched brown. When base coating this hormagaunt my can of spray paint decided to turn against me and spray the mini with hundreds of little chunks of paint. Fluff wise, some sort of organic growth on the gaunt. How did I do on the toxin sacks? 





































I still have not done highlights on the carapace yet. The problem I'm facing is that I do not have a lighter brown color that would be used for a standard highlight. So I can either go and buy another paint for highlighting (based on viewers suggestions), OR I can use a color that would really make the miniature 'pop'.

As always, questions, comments etc are welcome. (Wanted, really.)


----------



## CattleBruiser (Sep 3, 2011)

Ok, I like the first test mini a lot better than this one, but if you really want this scheme go for it. For the highlights you could always just mix brown with some white. For the toxin sacs i like the green, but i don't like how the rest of the sacs are the same color as the skin.


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

CattleBruiser said:


> Ok, I like the first test mini a lot better than this one, but if you really want this scheme go for it. The scheme isnt done yet. The spray paint created a huge number of bumps all over the skin. Doing this caused the badab black to cling to those, and dry in places in normally wouldnt, making the mini so much darker.For the highlights you could always just mix brown with some white. I try to avoid mixing paints, as you never get the same shade twice.For the toxin sacs i like the green, but i don't like how the rest of the sacs are the same color as the skin.What would you suggest for the rest of the sacks?


I'll will probably go back and edit the first 2 test minis. Go with your idea of washing the red one with a heavy brown to see what happens. How else could i improve test mini 2?


----------



## CattleBruiser (Sep 3, 2011)

maybe a different shade of green for the rest of the sac, and in general i find that if you mix paints you can still get the same shade over and over again, so long as you remember that you mixed 1 drop of white for every 3 drops of brown (or whatever you really do)


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

More work on the mini! Ive washed the scorched brown with chaos black, then once that was dry highlighted with scorched brown. My camera cant exactly focus on small objects, so i cant show you in a ton of detail what i have done. I have also gone over the toxin sacks with washes of camo green. the exposed parts of the 'toxin' that arnt part of the flesh web thingy (idk if that makes sense) i went over with scorpion green, then an extreme highlight of skull white. 









Here is the closest I got to zooming in and focusing on the carapace for the highlights. 

















Top view. really insults the model, in my opinion it doesnt show any of the good qualities of it. 









Front view. I might go and highlight the teeth to make them move obvious against the spray paint bumps. 










As always, comments welcome.
-Arcticor


----------



## CattleBruiser (Sep 3, 2011)

I like the sacs better now, still liked the armour better for the first test mini, but for this one i'd suggest dry brushing with something other than the basecoat color, like maybe a lighter brown? wow, just realized that that was all one sentence, ms. Hamzawala would be so proud


----------



## Prometheus41k (Oct 6, 2011)

Name for the hive...how about Bellerophon(actually a hero not a monster), Chimera, Hydra, Scylla and Charybdis. Probably all been used by some person or another...but still.


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

Prometheus41k said:


> Name for the hive...how about Bellerophon(actually a hero not a monster), Chimera, Hydra, Scylla and Charybdis. Probably all been used by some person or another...but still.


Thanks for the hive names Prometheus. I do have a fleet name however. Hive Fleet Lusca. I chose this because fluff wise my hive fleet is a splinter of Kraken, and Kraken and Lusca are both mythological sea dwelling octopus like creatures. 

Yesterday I took a stab at highlighting the carapace of my brown test mini. Tell me what you think 



























Carapace detail. 









ho boy. Toxin sack detail. Really blurry though, but if you can get anything out of it I figured I might as well post it.

Secondly, I am going to stick a poll at the top of the plog, to see what you guys think is the better test mini, etc. Or you can just post in the comments which one you like better. If you do vote, please also explain WHY you think what you think. (ie, didnt like the carapace on one of the models, or too bland, etc)

As always, compliments and criticism welcomed.
-Arcticor


----------



## CattleBruiser (Sep 3, 2011)

As you can see (at the time of this post) 100% of people prefer your red test mini


----------



## Prometheus41k (Oct 6, 2011)

I like the red one, but it your choice mate.


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

Why?


----------



## CattleBruiser (Sep 3, 2011)

cause it's your models....


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

I meant why do you guys like the red one better.


----------



## CattleBruiser (Sep 3, 2011)

it just looks cooler (I like red more than brown)


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

I have added highlights to the mini, and finished another. for a grand total of three (I am keeping the brown one as it is). 





































Tell me what you think! Highlights are feathered blood red.
-Arcticor


----------



## CattleBruiser (Sep 3, 2011)

I like it, now have fun painting the other like 30 gaunts


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

I figured it would be due time for an update, small or not. Sadly, I have not made very much progress of painting the miniatures, because I realized that they would look better if the old paint was taken off first. So. the vast majority of the miniatures are now soaking in paint stripper. Sorry to say that there is nothing to show, but hopefully when I do post something of relative interest people will like it more. 

-Arcticor.


----------



## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

I personally like your Brown test miniture far more as the colours that you have used are far more similar to Octopi(pus?) in the wild.

If you want your mini's to pop a little more then I would invest in some bright spot colours such as Ice Blue(Eyes?) or Snot Green (Vemon Glands) again basing this off of nature.

I think that this would also work well on larger minitures in the collection as you would have a far more natural appearing uniformed force with your base colours and things like Hive Tyrant and Warriors that have more detail on the model due to the fact they are larger can be picked out with this bright colour.

These colours also come from googling pictures of Octopus.

As far as basing I think that it will depend on your final colour scheme and what tables you tend to play on.

+ rep for the thread


----------



## troybuckle (Nov 24, 2010)

The thing you want to do with nid is develop a scheme that is quick to do, because you have a ton of minis to paint to make a proper army. If I had my time back I would have simplified my process more.


----------



## Arcticor (Mar 19, 2011)

troybuckle said:


> The thing you want to do with nid is develop a scheme that is quick to do, because you have a ton of minis to paint to make a proper army. If I had my time back I would have simplified my process more.


True. The reason I have only painted 3 miniatures so far is because I am so picky as to getting the color scheme I want. I am sure once I get the scheme right, my painting will speed up. 



ratvan said:


> If you want your mini's to pop a little more then I would invest in some bright spot colours such as Ice Blue(Eyes?) or Snot Green (Vemon Glands) again basing this off of nature.


Ice blue eyes! I tried to make them as glowing/popping as possible. Thanks for the tip, I think it really improved the model. Oh, and thank you for the reputation. 

Alright, now to the pictures. Besides drying time, the painting time only took maybe 10 seconds. 




























What do you guys think of these? I know one of them is blurry  Questions, comments, criticism wanted.

-Arcticor


----------



## troybuckle (Nov 24, 2010)

I like it man, I think it add character to the mini.


----------

