It Stirs In The Void... (Or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the speedpaint!)

[Evil Eye]

Tyranids have always been my 40K first love. As a mere 12-year-old in 2009 I got into the hobby and immediately went for Tyranids. Over a decade later this holds true, but I haven't managed to get many models actually finished due to my rather complex scheme, which is fine for monsters but extremely time consuming for anything else...

So...Much...Highlighting...Everything...Going...Blank...

 

Anyway, as of a few days ago I realized it was no good; the scheme was just too complex to get an army done with. As such I'm going to complete any minis part-done in the scheme, but do my actual army in a different, quicker to paint scheme.

 

My initial plan had been to do the classic Tyranid thing of everything being painted identically, but then I remembered that back in the halcyon days of 2nd edition, Tyranids were painted in a variety of colours within the same army. Coupled with the fact a good friend of mine does just that with his 'nids and I decided I was going to do the same!

 

And so Hive Fleet Goliath splintered into a new swarm- Hive Fleet Aswang was born!

 

Testing began on some spare gaunts...

The purple scheme, cool though it is, takes a bit too long for the rank and file critters, and will probably be reserved for monsters. The other two schemes pictured however I'm very fond of, and so I've decided the paler of the schemes (inspired by a nautilus) will be used for termagants, whilst the darker, roachier scheme will be for hormagaunts.

 

Speaking of termagants, I've started to paint them...

They aren't quite finished, and need some cleanup and final details (and basing!) but I managed to get them to this stage in under an hour, not counting drying time for the all-over wash. I'm going to give the guns a slight "fade" of sepia towards the tips but that aside the most basic colourwork is done.

 

For rank and file critters, each species will have its own scheme (all termagants will be painted this way for instance), and this will largely prove true for medium-sized creatures such as Warriors, albeit with a bit more variation and more complex schemes. Monsters will be more varied...

 

Well, for the first time in ages I'm actually looking forward to painting Tyranids again! Any suggestions on colour schemes are welcome.

[Xenith]

On 11/25/2022 at 6:43 PM, Evil Eye said:

 

Big fan of that scheme! I agree that getting a quick scheme down for nids is key - My army stalled before contrasts came out. I think the teeth could use some definition in the above though, maybe a basilicanum or black templar contrast in the mouth rather than that solid black? 

[Evil Eye]

Thanks! It's actually Cygor Brown on the teeth, but it doesn't show up very well on camera. Going to give them some very quick highlights to make them a bit more defined.

[Evil Eye]

Did a bit more painting, and managed to get 95% of the work done on a warrior!

He's loosely inspired in colour by the Eastern Hercules Beetle, or Dynastes Tityus, with a bit of purple added for fun.

[Xenith]

That shiny brown looks really good, very insectoid! Do you know what you'll do for the bases?

[Evil Eye]

Thank you! I'm going to keep the same base scheme I was going with before as it's easy to do and looks good (IMO anyway).

[Evil Eye]

I'm sculpting termagants! Something tells me my "nautilus" scheme will look rather good on them too!

[Evil Eye]

The prints were successful! Now I just need to make some weapons and biomorphs for them. You can check the blog entry for the full details, but here's one next to an almost-finished plastic gaunt for size comparison.

[Evil Eye]

Whoops! Been a bit of a while!

 

So in preparation for the Tyranid revamp, complete with shiny new plastic gaunts, I've been pre-emptively bolstering my own ranks, both by printing more of my own homegrown bugs and also ordering up plenty of previous-generation plastics from eBay (people are practically giving the little fellas away new on sprue, and they still work just fine for cannon fodder IMO!). Unfortunately I ran into a bit of a roadblock.

 

You see, the "nautilus" scheme I use for my termagants is reliant on a white primer. By airbrush this isn't a problem, and I tested it out on this Devourer-armed printgaunt as a test, and it looks great!

However, a slight disaster with White Scar spray (as airbrush priming is a bit inefficient for legions of tiny gribblers) gave me cause for concern. Now, as it happens I have since discovered that simply storing the cans in my boiler cupboard warms them up enough to drastically reduce the chances of failure, so for my plastic gaunts they will likely still be getting the nautilus scheme. However, for the printed gaunts (which are a bit of a sod to prime and paint anyway due to me rather...overcomplicating the design of the models) I figured that it would be best to do a scheme that used a black primer.

 

As it happens, this was a pretty good idea, as I have happened upon a scheme that looks pretty nice, is incredibly easy and fast to paint, and most importantly of all uses black primer as a base! I took inspiration from the bullet ant and came up with this!

They still need basing, but these took minutes to paint; it's essentially just successive drybrushed highlights over black for the exoskeletons (topsides are Gal Vorbak Red followed my mixing in some Pink Horror and finally a touch of Ushabti Bone, the undersides being a very light drybrush of Mournfang Brown) with Deathclaw Brown and then Lugganath Orange for the vents, eyes and tongues. I'm toying with the idea of a gloss coat but I quite like them as is...

 

Also, I've been playing with my airbrush a bit and started work on a Carnifex. I built him with 4th edition in mind but depending on the rules for 10th he may very well see service on "modern" battlefields too. Still a lot of work to do but I'm quite pleased with what I have so far!

[frankendoodle65]

I know I'm a bit late to the party here but I LOVE that Hercules beetle inspired warrior, absolutely beautiful! 

 

By the way I didn't mean to rip off your thread title, complete accident!

Edited April 14, 2023 by frankendoodle65

[Evil Eye]

3 hours ago, frankendoodle65 said:

I know I'm a bit late to the party here but I LOVE that Hercules beetle inspired warrior, absolutely beautiful! 

 

By the way I didn't mean to rip off your thread title, complete accident!

You're alright, we're brood brothers now! And thanks, I'm very fond of that fellow. Beetles are an excellent source of inspiration for Tyranid schemes IMO.

[Evil Eye]

Managed to get 9 Termagants painted! 41 to go...

[Evil Eye]

Been a bit of a while! I have been slowly working on getting more stuff painted. I'm continuing with the "differing but complementary colours" approach. Here's a Genestealer!

And here's a 3rd edition Zoanthrope!

Here's one of each finished model so far, to show how the army is shaping up colour-wise.

I've also been doing more conversion work. Whilst 10th is not looking particularly enjoyable as a game I am having a lot of fun modifying the new models, and I liked the Screamer-Killer enough that I bought a second one on eBay for cheap. The first is going to be a Screamer-Killer, albeit modified with a reworked head and back-mounted "plasma coil" organ...

The second is going to be a "regular" Carnifex, albeit one sporting twinned venom cannons as was permitted in 4th. If I do by some miracle play 10th it'll just count as having talons and a single cannon, but anyway. Just don't ask me where I got the cannons from...

Finally, I am working on trying to get a Combat Patrol force painted, as Combat Patrol honestly looks like it might be alright. As such I've slightly converted the winged Prime and Psychophage to better suit my sensibilities.

I need to decide how to paint these critters. Not certain on the Prime, but the Psychophage I'm thinking might work with a scheme loosely based on this little guy...

Edited August 1, 2023 by Evil Eye
Formatting blunder.

[Brother Nathan]

If going with the pokemon scheme  on the psychopage... why not on the prime consider... scyther/scissor... 

 

Good work elsewise. Units in differing colours certainly differantiats them

[Urauloth]

Really like how those termagants came out. That's a great scheme!

[Xenith]

Those termagants look amazing. Are you going with different schemes on each unit?

[Evil Eye]

5 hours ago, Xenith said:

Those termagants look amazing. Are you going with different schemes on each unit?

Thank you! And sort of! All the Fleshborer-armed Termagants will be painted in that scheme; I'm also printing a bunch of my homegrown Termagant designs to use up the extra weapons from the sprues, which will be painted in different schemes depending on equipment.

 

The idea is that each strain will be painted in its own scheme; all the ranged Warriors will get that "Hercules Beetle" scheme, the Genestealers will all be painted like that, etc. The monsters will each get their own unique scheme; I'm hoping when it's all done that the army will be visually diverse but still cohesive.

 

I got the idea for the different unit schemes from the 2E Codex (which followed a similar logic) and also a friend of mine who goes by @thestoryboardguy on Instagram, whose Tyranids follow a similar approach.

[Evil Eye]

Managed to get some paint on the Psychophage! Went with a different scheme than originally planned but I'm really liking how he's looking.

I was worried he was going to turn out not how I'd wanted, but an oil wash really transformed him. A mix of violet-grey and cerulean, if you're interested! Hopefully he'll be done soon.

[Brother Nathan]

Thats came out class! Good work!

[Nexus17]

I really like the scheme on the Psychophage!  I particularly like the carapace spots.

[Evil Eye]

Whoops...been a few minutes, hasn't it?

 

Apologies for silence here; real life has been an absolute rollercoaster and between that, my disappointment with the current direction of 40K and monstrous levels of hobby ADHD making it hard to focus on one project, I've been struggling to get much done.

 

Enough of that, though. I'm trying to focus a bit more, and have devoted my energies to getting a playable force of 'nids for both formats I expect I'll actually be playing- Combat Patrol (no need to worry about the removal of granular points with fixed lists after all) and 4th Edition (my personal favourite edition, also the 4E Codex is fantastic).

 

Anyway, models!

 

I'm pleased to report the scheme I picked works miraculously on the new Gaunt sculpt! This one still needs some finishing touches and basing, but you get the general idea.

Nearly finished the Prime, with a colour scheme loosely inspired by an orchid mantis. Loosely. Very happy with how the wings are looking.

For the 4E endeavour, I've managed to convert some incomplete metal Tyrant Guard to look a bit more unique. Very happy with these guys, just need to paint them now.

And last but by no means least, the almost ready for paint tyrant! If he gets use in 10E his gun will be a Stranglethorn Cannon counts-as; it's a piece from Hydracast and in 4E will be run as TL Deathspitters.

 

Also, for those who play/are familiar with 4E, here's my 1000 point list...

Spoiler

HQ:

Hive Tyrant with lash whip and bonesword, twin-linked deathspitters, adrenal gland (WS), toxin sacs, extended carapace, Shadow in the Warp: 151 points.

2 Tyrant Guard: 90 points.

3 Tyranid Warriors with enhanced senses, scything talons, 2 deathspitters and 1 venom cannon: 91 points.

Troops:

25 Termagants with fleshborers, without number: 225 points.

25 Termagants with fleshborers, without number: 225 points.

Heavy Support:

Carnifex with venom cannon, twin-linked devourers, enhanced senses, bonded exoskeleton: 163 points.

Biovore with bio-acid spore mines: 55 points.

 

[Xenith]

Ahh, the good old days when a carnifex was actually scary! Let us know how the game goes. 

[Evil Eye]

Honestly, looking at the smorgasbord of options for the 4E Carnifex makes me a little sad over what we've lost. Some options were definitely better than others, of course, but the way it could be anything from a cheap and cheerful but incredibly effective linebreaker to a borderline-unstoppable murderbeast was great.

[Xenith]

Yea, I do miss that ability to make your units as elite as you like, something really missing from the current edition.