The Tyranid Force

I completed assembly of my Tyranids…

 

It’s the core of the army, I’ll of course add to it as I see fit.  Maybe some more Carnifex’s and/or Zoanthrope’s.  Perhaps a Trygon or nine.  The army will lay dormant until I get my hands on the new codex, but afterwards it’s straight to paint and then the tabletop.

Righty the Ravener from my last post is making another appearance.  I gave him just the tiniest bit of a face lift with the addition of extended carapace bitz on his shoulders.  I think it adds a lot to the model for being such a simple addition.

That’s all I have for now.  I’m off to assemble the new Fortress of Redemption, which by the way is absolutely massive and gorgeous.  It’s definitely a must-see model.  Cheers!

The Great Ravener Dilemma of 2009

So in my massive box set of Tyranids that I purchased there were three Ravener’s.  One of which had no right arms.  GW was very gracious in replacing my model, but that still left me with a Ravener with no right arms.  Poor guy was almost discarded, but I dug through the accumulated Tyranid bitz and found a solution…

I came across the left over rending claw arms from the warrior sprue as well as the scything talons not used on the Genestealers.  Problem solved…

Normally Ravener’s have six arms and if they have rending claws, they are the middle pair of arms.  I had to improvise here.  The Genestealer scything talons are far too small to be the primary set of arms and the warrior rending claws are slightly bigger than the normal Ravener ones.  By flipping them I feel I maintained cohesiveness.  As for the third set of arms… I don’t have anything else that really works so I’ll just fill the holes with some green stuff.

Slightly Revamped Tyranid Color Schemes I & II

I made some minor adjustments to each of the color schemes.  Archetype I (brown shell) got some Bubonic Brown highlights to accent its other wise bland look and feel.  Archetype II (green shell) got some Skull White dry brushing on the fleshy bitz and some more Devlan Mud shading on the shell.  I believe the addition of more Devlan Mud wash to the green shell would resolve any issues of it being too bright on larger models.  All hail the Devlan Mud.

Once the new codex hits I’m going to start my personal Iron Painter challenge so I think this is as far as I’ll take either scheme.  Now all I have to do is make a decision which one I like best.

Tyranid Color Scheme Archetype II

Here is my second choice of color schemes to use for my Tyranid army.  I like scheme one because it uses very natural, contrasting colors.  I like scheme two because it’s brighter, still has a strong contrast, but is less natural.  I’m conflicted which to go with.  Perhaps I need to devise a 3rd scheme.

Archetype II

GW Skull White primer > Painted the shell Snot Green > Gryphonne Sepia wash the entire model > Paint Devlan Mud into the recess of the shell and the deepest recess of the body > Chaos Black with a Codex Grey highlight on the fangs > Finally a little Graveyard Earth on the base.

It’s another simple scheme that’s very easy to achieve.  Let me know what you think of this scheme and which you like best; scheme one (dark brown shell) or scheme two (green shell).

Thanks for reading.  Cheers!

Tyranid Color Scheme Archetype I

I chose to test my color scheme on a single ripper.  It didn’t come out exactly as planned, but none the less I like the results.  The shell was supposed to be brown with a yellowish hue, not brown with a red hue.  I’ll need to do another test with a different base color and see how that goes.

Archetype I

GW Skull White primer > Painted the shell Scorched Brown > Gryphonne Sepia wash over the whole model > Devlan Mud was into the recesses of the shell > Chaos Black on the claws followed by a high light of Codex Grey > Lastly the little base was done with Graveyard Earth

The scheme is meant to be as easy as possible while yielding good table top results as I plan on doing a sort of Iron Painter chalange.  Next I think I’ll try a green shell with a whiter body.

Comments, criticisms and suggestions are more than welcome.