Model Swap Month - Tyranid Madness!

Hey, it looks like my first post over here at Fresh Coast 40K. Most of the time I'm writing about nonsense over at Ruinous Powers and us Chaos types tend to stick to themselves. However, I was asked to partake in the model swap mania this month, so I spent a lot of time building an elaborate terrain set-up to photograph my attempt at painting a Tyranid Lictor....

"It just came out of the jungle man....those eyes...gonna have me some fun...gonna have me some fun...."

What, you don't see it? If so, then mission accomplished. I've painted the perfect chameleonic Tyranid Lictor.

In all seriousness, I did try to replicate the painting scheme that Mike's Hive Fleet Muggins from photos, and I got to cheat when he showed me his base coated....Tervigons? Tyrannofexes? I should probably pick up the codex one of these days. Also, I double cheated and looked at the article he did on how he "dips" his Nids. Now I've never tried Nid dipping, but from what I've heard, it sounds like a pretty groovy trip. In this case though, I went with the tried and true methods of base paint, wash, layer, layer, layer, until I had something I though looked reasonably good and would probably not look too far off from the paint scheme I was shooting for.

At first, I tried a paint I had called Terracotta, part of the Vallejo Game Color line. It sucked, so I painted over the armor plates with Chaos Black. The...other part was done with a base of Tallarn Flesh, which is a little less 'pinkish" than the base color I saw on the primed nids, but should work none the less.

The Tallarn Flesh parts got a wash of watery Chaos Black, which is a poor man's way to wash models now that the Citadel Washes can do it way better, and you don't get blotches. I went back over and touched up with the flesh color, and moved on to the chitinous plates. These were painted with Scab Red, leaving some black in the recesses. I was a little sloppier here than I would be painting something inorganic like power armor, and I think it worked alright.

I then did another spot wash of Ogryn Flesh and some Devlan Mud in spots on the flesh parts. I touched up again with some slightly lightened and thinned Tallarn Flesh (I added some white, essentially.) The plates got the Blood Red edge and overbrush treatment. The mouth-acles (mouth tentacles) got a coat or Reaper Entrail Pink, which seems appropriate somehow. The eyes were dotted with some Snot Green and a little Goblin Green.

I deviated from my basing scheme a bit, mostly because I am out of Bestial Brown, and I haven't picked up the new Mournfang brown or whatever it is in the new paint line. I'm not sure they'll match up anyways. I do have plenty of Graveyard Earth, so I used that, overbrushed with Desert Yellow, and drybrushed some Bleached Bone. Dip in the Woodland Scenics "turf tub" and I was done.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. It does look a little Kraken-ey, but that's always been my favorite hive fleet, so maybe a little artistic license happened. All in all, it was a fun project, and made me want to be completely impulsive and go out and buy a Tyranids battleforce or two, and go completely insane painting gaunts until my fingers bleed. Bottom line, Tyranids are cool. More people should paint and play Tyranids.