The omnivorous biomass munchers of the Tyranid hive fleets come in many shapes and sizes, but they all share common traits. One of the key identifiers is the demarcation between heavily armoured carapaces, and the softer material of their bodies.
As the faction in Warhammer 40,000 that uses no technology and has no uniform, there are a lot of variation the colour schemes, especially between the thinner armour plates of smaller Termagants and Neurogaunts and the thicker carapaces of hulking beasts like the Screamer-Killer and the Norn Emissary.
In this week’s Citadel Colour Masterclass, Ed decided to investigate the official box art recipes for these different types of chitinous armoured shells, and how you can apply them to your own miniatures.
Warhammer Community: What made you return to Hive Fleet Leviathan for the latest episode of Citadel Colour Masterclass?
Ed: The new edition brought an update to both the Tyranids range as well as the way the ‘Eavy Metal team approached painting Hive Fleet Leviathan. I love that the refresh introduces the idea of different weights or thicknesses of chitinous carapace, and different hatchings can cause slight differences in colour or markings.
Max has previously provided the ‘Eavy Metal recipe and I wanted to show viewers how to put something like this into practice.
WarCom: Do you have any advice and tips for Tyranids fans who want to create their own colour scheme?
Ed: Approaching a new colour scheme for the first time can be really intimidating, even if it’s one you have seen someone else paint and know exactly what you want to do. I find the most important thing is to write everything down first, whether it is in a painting journal or a digital document, so that you know exactly what you are going to do. It helps me collect my thoughts as well as giving me a goal to work towards. As I begin painting, if anything changes I update the recipe list as I go and it means I have a nice living document that is there in case I take a break from the models and want to come back to them later.
The next most important thing is research. Tyranids are entirely organic creatures without clothing or metallurgy, so we can draw inspiration from real-life animals. Why not paint an orange-and-black scheme on a jungle base to pay homage to tigers, and even include stripes on our larger models to show variety? We can use the internet to see what complex patterns exist on our own planet and then push those ideas tenfold for the bizarre physiology of an extra-galactic menace.
If I’m not picking colours from a real life reference, then I like to use a colour wheel to help with balance. If we know we want to use a particular colour we can easily pick either a complimentary colour (directly opposite on the wheel), or a triadic colour scheme (three colours that are equidistant around the wheel). While it’s easy to get bogged down in theory, this is a simple way to check whether what you want to use will look good before you even start painting.
Finally, I like to experiment by starting a new group for Kill Team which lets me take a few models to practise on and have a working force by the end before I expand to a whole army. Working methodically, one unit at a time, is a great way of refining the painting process as we go so that we make it more efficient and get the psychological boost of having proudly finished a full unit that will help carry us through the next unit.
Warcom: Is there anything you would like to try when you next paint some ravenous Tyranids?
Ed: Well I really enjoyed painting the lighter, fleshier tones of the light chitinous carapace in the Citadel Colour Masterclass video and I want to see how far I can push the concept of the smallest strains being paler compared to their darker, more heavily armoured kin.
That being said, while thinking of real-life examples for your last question, I think I’ve actually now convinced myself that I need to try out that hive fleet with tiger stripes!
Thanks for the advice Ed! Tune in to the Citadel Colour Masterclass on Warhammer TV this week to see how to apply the ’Eavy Metal recipes, and check out a Loremasters episode on King Brodd, the undisputed boss of the Mega-Gargants.