Thursday 8 November 2012

Tyranid Colour Schemes - Airbrushing time this weekend!!

My current Nid colour scheme is dour, dull, boring etc.
I toyed with the idea of continuing The Voice's pink nid colour scheme from the Hive Tyrant he has sold me..
But I have always wanted something that looks close to nature.
Hence my current green/bone scheme.

But nature does not have to be boring nor dull.

Nature can be bright.

I "researched" - read: Googled 'colourful lizards/snakes/toads/frogs' to see what I could come up with.

I am airbrushing the base coats onto the Nids this weekend and though to myself.. "What if I were to use the airbrush to put on a detailed/graded colour scheme as the base?"

I can always add detail at a later stage, but this would get the army looking striking, quickly.




These are very striking and cool looking lizards.

Very simple to airbrush, blend etc.

Chitin is the big issue..

But there is no reason why the chitin cannot develop the same colour as the rest of the animal..

Or is there? Back to Google..

Hmm... more searching..


Well, no.. it seems there is no issue in nature that defines the density of a shell or any of that nonsense with the colour or patterning that it can develop..

This funky ass crab for example rocks a nice purple/orange combo on its shell and claws..

Think my Nids can manage the same..

In fact, now that I have seen this crabby chappy..

Doesn't the FW paint job for the Crusher Claw Carnifex thingy have something kinda similar..

OK, so can't find that.. Anyone know what I mean? Think I have seen it in a FW book? Any clues peeps? 
Is this a good idea? Natural but Funky? Nature Funk Nids. NFN's. lol. 

9 comments:

  1. Have you seen these dark eldar?

    http://synaps3.blogspot.com/2012/11/gt-week-home-stretch.html

    I know they are not nids, but they are really brightly colored (just like the first lizard) and done with an air brush. They definitely pop against a dark colored base.

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    1. Hey up dude,
      Yeah, these were partially inspiration..watched the progress of them..gave me confidence that airbrushed gradient stuff could work on models that would normally give way to detailed brush work..

      The basing is the next question.. dark dead grass? Oozing bio mass pools?

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    2. Dark dead grass. You need darker bases in order to make the colors pop off of the model.

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  2. Think the Crab colour will work very nice...
    Do it :D

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, I'm leaning towards the Purple and Orange..big fan of both colours and think it'll look really cool..

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  3. Big fan of the purple orange.

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    1. So was readin up on it.. it is used as a signalling function as crabs can differentiate colours..
      So I think I'd need to slightly vary the tone/colours/gradients for each of the Nid sub-species.
      This is perfect as I'll probably do them in batches and slightly tweak the colour palette I use for Hive Guard, Termagants, Tyrants etc.. Think on the big guys I'll make sure their carapace goes to quite a dark purple to express density..

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  4. Lol, isnt the hive tyrant i gave you pink and orange (and pink) :P

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  5. Yeah it is.. picked it up from postie this morning.. looks quite nice mate..but takes time to paint up the horde of gaunts and a simple gradient airbrush can get them 3 colours for Blog Wars and then ready to develop and paint up details after that..

    THe pink is nice .. I might leave your man alone to distinguish him as the Warlord..

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