Cockroach Coloured Tyranids, a Blackadder Work in Progress

    Tyranid Cockroaches, Ewhhhhhh!


    Well here I am laid up with a immobile shoulder and my right arm in a sling and I tell you I am getting stir crazy. Books, TV, Internet surfing, No porn; right arm remember.............


    Anyway visiting my 40K forums I stumble across this fantastic rendering of a Tyranid army by a certain 'DeadMuppet' his sobriquet. He has produced the most realistic Tyranids I have ever seen.


    Basing his colouration on cockroaches he has produced the most intriguingly disgusting arthropods I have yet seen so I have set out to duplicate his technique.


    From what I have seen on his thread he starts out with a light gray primer, I have gray primer, followed by a khaki base coat. I still can press a spray can button so here goes..............


    http://i.imgur.com/9IiFe5m.jpg


    I'm starting with the only Tyranid in my possession; a Hive Tyrant recently purchased.


    I have very limited experience with painting so this thread will be basically a trial and error excursion into the do's and don'ts of colourization.


    It should prove fun..............

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

    Tyranid Basic Paint:


    I know I am circumventing conventional wisdom with my painting and am taking too many steps to accomplish that which pro-painters can do with ease. Never let it be said that the Blackadder takes the easy path when the harder is available.


    After a coat of gray primer and a coat of cardboard box cover coat (The only tan paint I had) I masked off the areas not needing further base painting and sprayed the chitin carapace areas with a coat of rust brown primer.


    http://i.imgur.com/kbwY47Q.jpg


    After drying removing the tape reveals I missed a bit of leg chitin. Never mind I can touch that up with a brush.


    http://i.imgur.com/6ZwE9Jc.jpg


    Well that came out disappointing;the flash kind of washed out the dark brown primer. The actual colour is more the cheesy simulated leather wood grain table pad in the photo.


    I've gone about as far as I can go with spray cans, time to break out the airbrush.

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

    Tyranid Base Coat Part Two:


    Removing the masking revealed an acceptable contrast.


    http://i.imgur.com/ZKmX73Y.jpg


    The flash show the paint as more red than it is but hey the entire base coat will be covered anyway, this will just give a depth to the final coat.


    http://i.imgur.com/4ZDiQRm.jpg


    The rust undercoat will (I hope) supply a subliminal ruddy glow to the burnt umber carapace surface pigment.


    http://i.imgur.com/FUNmWNF.jpg


    Now for the airbrushing:

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

    This is a good start.
    My next Step would be a wash. In my opinion the tyranids models are ideal to be treated with washes.
    But I'm exited to see what you will do with the airbrush...


    I think this thread should be moved into "Painted Minis". There are also "work in progress" threads and you maybe get more response.

    Theres a lot more painting to be done before considering a wash but it is on the agenda; thanks for the reply.


    Blackadder Straddling Two Concepts


    Originally there was only the one master plan for organic appearing cockroach coloured Tyranids.


    Since posting this thread I have be made aware of more. They seem to be multiplying like..........well like cockroaches.


    I have narrowed the field to two and will attempt to fashion mine somewhere between them as the first was too light and the last seems a bit too dark.


    I am listing the colours I have just ordered for a delivery later this week. I chose Vallejo paints instead of Citadel for no particular reason as I do have a conversion chart from one manufacturer to another which may prove useful to those with a goodly supply of alternative manufacturers paints:


    http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki…Range_Compatibility_Chart


    The colours I shall be using are as follows:


    71024 Khaki Brown
    71027 Light Brown
    71040 Burnt Umber
    71042 Camo Black Brown
    71083 Orange
    71109 UK Pru Blue
    72014 Warlord Purple
    72034 Bone White
    72050 Cold Gray
    72066 Tan
    73200 Sepia Wash


    And Citadel 21-27 Rakarth Flesh


    I bought these paints on Amazon from a third party distributor 'SIFI Comics and Games' who seemed to have the best price and one price shipping regardless of the number of small items ordered which seemed a bargain. This information for any of you that may wish at your peril to follow along on this painting odyssey. I should be receiving my stuff with in the week....


    Back to the competing variations on the cockroach theme, Deadmuppet's beautiful work is slightly spoiled by the use of a brush to paint the highlights on the edge of the chitin armour; I intend to use an airbrush throughout even for the highlights using glue tac for the masking.


    Another contender used gloss varnish for the carapace which gave a too shiny appearance. I shall be using a satin varnish.


    Of course these projects are done and mine are just a figment of my imagination with little hard evidence of my imagined abilities so before I get too deeply into critical analysis perhaps I should actually do something. Ha!


    Oh BTW if you intend to follow along you may want to have at least a medium sized Tyranid and an airbrush with a fine tip. Ha!

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

    Tyranid Spoiler Alert:


    Okay well we've seen my pitiful opening attempt at a cockroach colours army basecoat and the requisite colours are ordered. I have stated my goals regarding plans for a 'Nid army and a Pollyanna speculation on a future Bio Titan so now let's see the immediate painting goals I have set for myself. The way I look at it the small muscle controls needed for airbrushing will help retrain my fine motor skills lost during the current incapacity.


    I have state on a few forums I eschew the party coloured 'carousel pony' painted Tyranids for something realistic looking and have set my sights rather high regarding the painting quality of the pieces so pictured below is a sample of what I hope to achieve. How close I come to that goal is what this thread is all about.









    Good luck on that one Blackadder, yer gonna need it! Ha!

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

    Great looking Tyranid! That's a good guiding star. I think one of the secrets of thos painting is in the colors. They all fit very good together. If you figure out what colors he used, you're at least half way to your goal.

    Zitat von Butch

    Great looking Tyranid! That's a good guiding star. I think one of the secrets of thos painting is in the colors. They all fit very good together. If you figure out what colors he used, you're at least half way to your goal.


    The colours I listed are the colours used so stated the Pro Painter Artist. The technique Ah! therein lies the rub, can I duplicate the technique?


    This is why this thread I hope will be a fascinating tour de force.

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

    Einmal editiert, zuletzt von Blackadderz ()

    Of course you could do it,blackadderz! You duplicated a titan... It's just a paintjob ;-)

    Bastelherausforderung III September :thumbsup:
    Bastelherausforderung IV Oktober :thumbdown:

    For anybody interested here is the link for this tutorial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJha39IUztU and the link for this (in my view) amazing artist's website: http://www.wargamingzone.com i highly recommend his tutorials for every painter (not only Tyranids) as he has many tutorials for almost every 40k army on his chanel and also very good tutorials regarding painting techniques ;)


    Enjoy


    Cris

    Thanks, coincidentally I just found this very same series myself this morning. It includes the Tyranid set I am attempting to paint as well.

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

    obviously, buypainted uses the airbrush extensively, however you should still be able to get good results without it. also, what really makes this model pop, is the wet look of the chitin. a shhiny overcoat on the armor is necessary imho.

    I watched the Buypainted video and he uses satin varnish for the chitin armour much as I have already decided. I have an air brush but I don't know if the needle valve orifice is fine enough.

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

    Today I received my paint and tried out my new dual action air brush. My old cheap 'Badger' I felt wasn't up to the current challenge.


    Damnme if I can get any paint through the dimned thing so I played around with the settings and the air pressure and disassembled the needle valve assembly to no avail finally in desperation I took the needle out of the thing and huge amounts of paint sprayed through. I had the needle set for paint with a mineral spirit base instead of water Ha!


    Blackadder, do you really think you are qualified to pursue a project of this caliber if you can't even adjust the spray nozzle?

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

    Zitat von Blackadderz


    Blackadder, do you really think you are qualified to pursue a project of this caliber if you can't even adjust the spray nozzle?


    According to the pictures above: Yes you are :D Your Trygon is absolutely stunning. A whole swarm of Tyranids painted like this is surely an amazing sight. I hope that you'll finish this project! :up:

    Er sorry to disillusion you but I didn't paint that Trygon. That was the effort of a fabulous Pro Painter 'Buypainted.com'. My abilities are somewhat less but I hope to hone my skills with practice and post the results on this thread.

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

    Okay so now my acquiring of Tyranid 'Heavy Metal' armour components is relatively complete (albeit still in the kit boxes) With the last night acquisition of a 'Trygon' NIB model I now have that and a Carnifex NIB both of which are in transit; an in house Tyrannafex/Tervigon in the process of being primed and having the arms/armament being magnetically attached (not glued) by installing rare earth magnets (1/8 X 1/16 inch dia. still in transit), a very heavy Hive Tyrant (metal) I won't make that mistake again and a 10 piece Gargoyle set NIB.


    That should be enough for the time being seeing as how I have yet to paint a single piece.


    So well you may ask that given I have 3 Lucius Titans, More IG Super-heavy Resin tanks than I can count without taking my shoes off and an odd assortment of IG scout bipeds what is my current fascination with a Xeno/Bio army?


    In truth I do not know, the spirit just moved me in that direction. I do know this; I have a hankering to do a scratch bipedal Bio-Titan on the order of size analogous to my Warlord. To do that I need good hands on representatives of the Tyranids genera. What better way to acquaint myself with the literally in's and out's of the anatomy than to study some actual Tyranids.


    And there you have it, a method and a rational to my personal form of dementia.

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."

    Trannofex/Tervigon Painting


    Since I haven't received my Trygon as yet I'll practice my dubious skills on the Trannofex. Yesterday I primed the model with generic spray paint and a bit later applied a thin coat of flat white also generic (Walmart if you must know) but at $0.99 cents a can who's complaining.


    After allowing to dry overnight it should be ready for acrylic airbrushing but first a few pictures of my initial foray into dual action airbrushing.


    http://i.imgur.com/e5DkdLA.jpg


    'BuyPainted' (I wish I knew this guy's name) says in his video he uses light gray prime but in the video it looks almost white.


    http://i.imgur.com/jCZNpVC.jpg


    I personally think the belly colours will be more vivid if applied to a flat white sub-coat. We'll see..............

    "It is easier to deceive people than it is to convince them that they have been deceived."