Tyranid color scheme help!

[White Tiger88]

Would help if i owned an Airbrush....lol

[daboarder]

Would help if i owned an Airbrush....lol

I linked those guys because they also do spray cans with that paint in it (aerosol cans) so the airbrush is not so required

[DWest]

There's also a "quick and dirty" method to getting the iridescent/pearlescent look, although it won't truly change colors, and it goes like this:
-Step 1: choose your colors; this system works best if you're shooting for a green, purple, or orange-ish hue, although it could work for others, but I haven't tried those as of yet. For your colors, you need your top color, a pot of metallic paint (gold for yellow, copper for red, etc) that is 1 step to the left or the right of your final color on the color wheel (gold for green or orange, copper for orange or purple), and a basecoat that's opposite the metallic on the color wheel (purple under gold, green under copper).

-Step 2: basecoat the parts to be pearlized with the chosen base color. Nothing fancy, just a smooth, even coat.

-Step 3: here's where the magic should happen: mix 1-2 parts top color to 1 part metallic color. When evenly blended, it should give the look of the top color, but also be recognizable that you have a metallic in there as well. Now drybrush this mixture over the surface, and make sure to always brush in the same direction over the whole area; the reason for this is while it will eventually coat the whole surface, depending on the texture, some of the undercoat will remain untouched, which gives a slight color-changing effect as you view the piece from different angles.

-Step 4: if the final look is a bit too metallic, apply a thin wash of the desired top color to help bring it out.

It's not perfect by any means, and the technique definitely bears testing on a piece of scrap first until you get the right color mix, but I've used this in the past and it has worked well for me.

[White Tiger88]

I linked those guys because they also do spray cans with that paint in it (aerosol cans) so the airbrush is not so required

Oh cool thanks! I do like the pearl carapace idea.......Mixed with the evily dark skin they will be the new "Oh crap" the guard watch out for

[daboarder]

yeah I've seen it done on another nid army (different paint, same idea) and it looks wonderfully, freakishly alien

- - - Updated - - -

There's also a "quick and dirty" method to getting the iridescent/pearlescent look, although it won't truly change colors, and it goes like this:
-Step 1: choose your colors; this system works best if you're shooting for a green, purple, or orange-ish hue, although it could work for others, but I haven't tried those as of yet. For your colors, you need your top color, a pot of metallic paint (gold for yellow, copper for red, etc) that is 1 step to the left or the right of your final color on the color wheel (gold for green or orange, copper for orange or purple), and a basecoat that's opposite the metallic on the color wheel (purple under gold, green under copper).

-Step 2: basecoat the parts to be pearlized with the chosen base color. Nothing fancy, just a smooth, even coat.

-Step 3: here's where the magic should happen: mix 1-2 parts top color to 1 part metallic color. When evenly blended, it should give the look of the top color, but also be recognizable that you have a metallic in there as well. Now drybrush this mixture over the surface, and make sure to always brush in the same direction over the whole area; the reason for this is while it will eventually coat the whole surface, depending on the texture, some of the undercoat will remain untouched, which gives a slight color-changing effect as you view the piece from different angles.

-Step 4: if the final look is a bit too metallic, apply a thin wash of the desired top color to help bring it out.

It's not perfect by any means, and the technique definitely bears testing on a piece of scrap first until you get the right color mix, but I've used this in the past and it has worked well for me.

Sounds cool, any chance of sharing some pitcures?

Another way to get a flatter metallic is to paint the carapace silver and then do 3 or 4 washes of the chosen colour over the top. they've got some marines done that way over on BnC

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/155396-viva-metallica/

Very Cool.

[White Tiger88]

yeah I've seen it done on another nid army (different paint, same idea) and it looks wonderfully, freakishly alien

- - - Updated - - -



Sounds cool, any chance of sharing some pitcures?

Another way to get a flatter metallic is to paint the carapace silver and then do 3 or 4 washes of the chosen colour over the top. they've got some marines done that way over on BnC

[url]http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/155396-viva-metallica/[/url]

Very Cool.

Hmmm that would make a pretty cool Carapace.......I wonder if it would work for non-metallic.......

[daboarder]

non metallic undercoat? its called staining and you do it with a white undercoat, can be pretty dark if you do enough layers, just make sure they aren't too thick so they dont pool

[Mystery.Shadow]

More Tyranid goodness than you could ever want!

[url]http://album.warpshadow.com/main.php[/url]

[DWest]

Sounds cool, any chance of sharing some pitcures?

[URL=http://s899.photobucket.com/user/disposableobject/media/20141104_194420_zps49849573.jpg.html][/URL]
Here's an example of the effect on a Plague Drone carapace; purple base with green/gold drybrush, green wash.

I would have had an example on an actual Tyranid, but all I had on hand were Finecast models, and while I don't hate the material like some, the drybrushed metallic doesn't pop nearly as well as it does on plastic.

[daboarder]

Thats really cool man