"Any tips on painting Tyranids" Topic

Ive finaly got around today to painting the 6 genestealers i had assembled about 6months ago. (I decided to wait for storage to stop beign an issue so i had somewhere safe to put the painted minis).

Anyway, i have never painted soemthing so awkward in my life, teh jabby bits sticking everywhere, trying to get the paint on all the model as it has too msny nooks and crevices.

Now i have been told by a good friend that at the end of the day, you are stood four foot ish away from them at the gaming table so it dosnt matter too much. However i would still like to do the best job i can.

If any of you have any tips in technique i would appreciate it.

Thanks a lot
Zero

If you are looking for a good nooks and cranies technique then consider the dip link

Basically it is a thin clear coat that you apply a small amount of tint. This is washed over the base coated miniature giving deep shadows in those cracks and crevices.

Also check out the Warpshadow forum forum.warpshadow.com all things tyranid, they will be able to help. And I am sure their are most likely some of the members near you.

Best of luck.

Below is a picture of a couple of my Tyranid warriors.

link

I prime with cheap white spray paint, then used thinned craft paints to build up the colors, in this case a thinned black then drybrushing lighter grays until it looked the way I wanted. I also used a thinned ink wash.

Jake

I saw one guy that sprayed the top of his nid's black and the bottom white and then just did details on them like the teeth, tongue nails and eyes. It didn't look great by any stretch of the imagination but it was servicable and very, very quick.

What im doing is a black spray. Then i have gone over than in dark chocolate. Its this bit that is annoying mme, im trying to make sure its everywhere.

Then ill be drybrushing lighetr and lighter browns to give a woody effect, then drybrush a few green shade over the top. et voila my woodland nids are ready.

Well its taken my 90 mins to do the choclate on 5 of them (one is allready done).

Ill have a read of the dip idea, its not something ive ever looked at so ill see if i like the idea.

Thanks for the tips so far, keep them rolling in.

Thanks
Zero

Any tips on painting Tyranids

Yes. Don't.

horrible sculpts and a boring alien concept doen to death.

But thats just my opinion.

Focusing on the how to paint them query – I'd do them with an airbrush for the base coat. That's the best method for getting an even penetrating coat. I'd choose a base colour a couple of shades lighter than you want and spray them fully in that. Then choose a suitable wash colour and apply liberally. Inks would do but the GW washes would be best with a little future/klear added to help it into the crevises. Allow to dry thoroughly and then just dry brush the edges of the plates…

but seriously don't buy tyranids…

…note to self…Brandlin gets a limp of coal in his stocking…while he is wearing it…

As we are talking about GW product there is no point in going beyond over the top, over done, and recycled ideas.

Dancing hippy space elves…:(

8' genetic mutations jammed into space armor that would not allow even the slightest of movement due to overlapping joints…:(

machine men with half the character of a skele-bot…:(

chaos has had all the flavor stolen from it…:(

green grinning monkey men made from space fungus…:(

etc. etc. etc.

Not much of an original idea in the GW bag of tricks.

Currently the Tau and the Tyranids are the most interesting things GW has going for it, IMO….buy more Tyranids, just use them for another game system :)

PS
Try the dip, it works well. But I would agree that starting with black you are asking to do more work. Air-brush your base color, say chocolate brown, and then highlight, finish with tinted dip.

Black primer, a '2' brush you won't care about tomorrow, and the two basic colors you want to use, and a bout of frantic drybrushing can provide a good tabletop base. Pick out the claws, teeth, and eyes with color #3, and you are tournament legal in a short period of time.

28mm man… at least my post was mostly (by word count) about how to paint them :)

and i like the tau.

I was talking to a friend about airbrushing and he said "unless you are going to spend 200/300 pounds dont bother".

I did use a big brush i dont care about (GW base coat brush) for the choclate. I'll do the dry brushing today. should have them all done by this evening (its 10am here and some mins).

Whats the best way to post pics on here, as im a newb member.

Get a photobucket account, you can then post the link to the pictures here.

photobucket.com

then post the URL labled 'Direct Link' under the picture you have uploaded:

picture

Jake

I painted one up as an experiment.
I painted a genesteeler all over with a Vallejo Light Brown. The claws and teeth were painted bone white. The tongue and eyes were painted red.
After all of that I gave it a heavy wash of GW Flesh Wash.
The model came out looking like old worn leather or stained wood. Looks great to me and was easy.

Spray paint (I use an airbrush) and dips work best for 'nids.

If you really want to make things easy, undercoat the Nids white and just use washes for colour. For stronger colours, apply extra washes after the first has dried.

Pick out eyes and teeth with normal paint.