After last week’s sterling efforts, which saw the Warhammer Community team paint up the Space Marines of the Leviathan boxed set, we’re back at it again with some Tyranids. We’ve raided the deepest depths of our paint racks to find the weirdest and least-used colours to bring you some lurid and worrisome colour schemes to suit this most monstrous of threats to the galaxy.
Eddie: Classic Screamer-Killer and Leviathan contents
The Screamer-Killer
I always wanted the old metal Screamer-Killer kit as a kid and never got a chance to pick one up, so I naturally painted the new incarnation in homage to the classic colour scheme I remember so fondly from 90s White Dwarfs – right down to the vivid green base. The colours are all applied with Contrast paints and then darker red and orange shades, before being worked up through various highlights. I wanted a purposefully vibrant retro scheme, so went lighter and yellower than I usually would with the highlights, but I love the end result.
The Rest of the Box
The remaining miniatures from the box were painted up to match my existing Tyranid force. I have quite a large army of these guys already, as well as a subservient Genestealer Cult, so I'll be dropping these straight into that collection – which actually featured in the Crusade section of the previous Tyranids codex.
The last time I painted a Tyranid model for my custom hive fleet was pre-Contrast paint, so it was nice to try out the new colours and find some much faster ways to get to a good result (shout-out to Striking Scorpion Green for that vivid tropical emerald). Contrast paints and Tyranids are such a perfect match.
Darcy: Termagant Experiments
I have had a great deal of fun experimenting with using various real-world colour schemes that can be found in nature for my Tyranids. I’ve so far attempted schemes based on the following:
Splash-backed Poison Frog: Achieved using Black Legion Contrast with a Longbeard Grey drybrush for the body and a Magmadroth Flame Contrast with a Dorn Yellow drybrush for the scales.
Blue Malayan Coral Snake: The effect on the body was achieved by using thinned Frostheart Contrast with a White Scar drybrush, wet blending with Blood Angels Red Contrast for the head and tail. Scales are Leviadon Blue with a Blue Horror drybrush.
Eastern Coral Snake: The scales were painted by alternating between Black Legion with an Uthuan Grey drybrush and Flesh Tearers Red Contrast with a Wild Rider Red drybrush, then finished with an Averland Sunset edge highlight. The body was painted using Skeleton Horde followed by a Pallid Wych Flesh drybrush.
Spotted Flower Beetle: Blending between the Aeldari Emerald green and the Blood Angels Red Contrast paints was really fun, although a bit tricky. The green was finished with a drybrush of Warpstone Glow, while the red was drybrushed with Troll Slayer Orange. The body got a layer of Nazdreg Yellow Contrast with a very light Warpstone Glow drybrush to tie it closer to the scales.
Blue Poison Dart Frog: Easily the most complicated so far, the body was relatively simple just using Stormfiend Contrast with a Longbeard Grey drybrush. The scales, however, were initially washed with a 2:1 ratio of Pylar Glacier and Frostheart Contrast paints. While this was still wet I drew rough circles using Black Templar to try and achieve that partially blended, mottled look.
Luke: Custom Splinter Fleet
For my Tyranids, I was inspired by the variety of tones on the carapaces of the new models that the ’Eavy Metal team had painted. I wanted a slightly redder tone than the one used on Leviathan, so started by basecoating with Barak-nar Burgundy. I shaded this with thinned Abaddon Black – the bigger the beast, the more shading – before adding striations and highlights with successively thinner applications of Screamer Pink, Wild Rider Red, and Ungor Flesh.
Because I had painted a burgundy carapace, I wanted the skin to contrast with it, and pull from colours that matched the pelagic influences on some of the new miniatures. I started with Celestra Grey, and glazed down with colours like Fenrisian Grey and The Fang, and shaded the darkest areas with Druchii Violet, to keep everything suitably menacing.
Will: Custom Splinter Fleet
I decided to attempt a throwback to the bright, flamboyant colours of the Second Edition of Warhammer 40,000. I also wanted to challenge myself to use a style and palette I don’t normally use and, along with this, to limit myself to four colours (zenithal highlighting not included). To this end, I drybrushed up from Abaddon Black to White Scar and then used Contrast paints.
For their carapaces I used Karandras Green and applied Doomfire Magenta to their fleshier parts, while claws were painted with Blood Angels Red and the visible brain-like parts had Frostheart applied to them. I went old school on the basing and used a layer of Armageddon Dust which was then painted over with Warboss Green, washed in Biel-Tan Green and drybrushed with Niblet Green.
Charlie: Custom Splinter Fleet
Tyranids are a purely organic faction, which means that even within a fixed colour scheme there's room for individual variation and mutation. This is great news if, like me, you have trouble figuring out the right recipe for the colour you want – you can experiment on different models and units until you're happy, and the results won't look odd at all!
I painted the off-yellow skin in slightly different ways on my Barbgaunts, Psychophage, and Von Ryan's Leapers – employing various combos of Plaguebearer Flesh and thinned-down Nazdreg Yellow over a Wraithbone base, with highlights ranging from Dorn Yellow to Flayed One Flesh – but they all still look like closely-related beasties. I've got yet another approach in mind for my Termagants…
The other parts of the models are more consistent – the shiny insectoid carapace uses Gryph-Charger Grey over a Leadbelcher basecoat, with added highlights of thin striped Stormhost Silver, all followed up with a wash of Terradon Turquoise thinned with Contrast Medium. The meat and bone bits are Flesh Tearers Red over Wraithbone, with Pallid Wych Flesh highlights. The meaty parts then got a thinned Volupus Pink wash, while the talons and hooves were finished with a wash of Gryph-Charger Grey.
Gav: Termagants and Neurogaunts
The new miniatures in the Warhammer 40,000: Leviathan boxed set are amazing, and I wanted to make sure I could give sufficient attention to the big Tyranid monsters such as the Psychophage and Screamer-Killer. That meant that I was looking for a quick way to get the smaller creatures onto the tabletop. Thankfully, the new miniatures are almost custom-made for Contrast paints.
I wanted to come up with a scheme that would fit in with my ‘Innocent Men’ Genestealer Cult, and when my girlfriend went into our local Warhammer store to paint her first miniature, I decided to steal the awesome pink and purple scheme she came up with. Hence, I primed with Wraithbone, and went with a basecoat of Doomfire Magenta and Luxion Purple, topped off with a drybrush of Emperor’s Children and Lucius Lilac. It ended up being so quick to do that I’m now tempted to do an entire carpet of scuttling critters – I just hope I don’t run into any of those Infernus Marines.
Gadge: Von Ryan’s Leapers
I envision the forces from my Tyranid splinter fleet absorbing bio-mass, adapting themselves to the warzone and changing their colours to match the environment. To this end I opted for a very ‘naturalistic’ scheme reminiscent of many insects and arachnids in our world – namely earthy tones with a lighter underbody and darker areas on any hard plates and carapaces.
The unit was undercoated with White Scar Spray before being given an all over wash with Skeleton Horde which was highlighted with Flayed One Flesh. Softer, fleshier, bits between joints and the tentacles were then painted in Fireslayer Flesh Contrast paint and highlighted with Jokaero Orange. Bony carapaces, spikey bits, teeth and blades were first painted with Garaghak’s Sewer and then raised up with Catachan Flesh before a final highlight of Mournfang Brown. Lastly the compound eyes were painted with Baal Red Contrast paint, washed with Agrax Earthshade and then given a subtle dash of ‘Ardcoat gloss varnish to make them glisten.
The great thing about this scheme is that if I need to paint a lot of models fast, as you often do with Tyranids, then they look great and ‘Battle Ready’ at just the Contrast paint stage and I can add the highlights later.
That’s all from the Warhammer Community team for now, but if you’re looking for help painting your own Leviathan box set when it arrives, check out this great tutorial on batch painting your forces. Don't forget to keep coming back for all the latest news on #New40k or sign up to the newsletter and get the latest dispatches sent directly to your inbox.