Noob looking for some Tyranid paint scheme advice

[Dreadnought]

I just started getting back into painting my slew of warhammer models and wanted to start off with finishing the tyranids I have but I'm having a slight debacle with the color scheme. Currently i'm using dark purple for the skin which I will highlight with a lighter color, and then possible wash with purple ink (or wash with purple ink and then highlight the raise areas - not entirely sure which way to go with it). The carapace is a very dark blue highlighted twice with I think its enchanted blue, followed by ice blue. The venom sacs will contain a bright orange toxin. I don't know how to approach the talons and feet (hooves?). I'm thinkin black and then painting the tips either a grey-light blue or possibly splashing them with the same orange used for the venom. The other aspect is the soft muscley parts of the model like the adrenal gland. Currently I have it painted green, highlighted a little, then I washed it with a green ink. My concern is the green and purple are going to clash too much when I go to paint the hoses on the weapons of the larger models.

They are very much a work in progress, but any feedback would be greatly appreciated on the color palette or overall look of the model! Thanks!

[url]http://s1185.photobucket.com/albums/z348/Dreadnought210/?action=view&current=IMG_20110606_212342.jpg[/url]

[fade_74]

I think those look pretty good.

I have a rule of thumb. No more than two main colors, discounting black, white, and metal. Spot colors don't count. You have purple, blue, and black as your mains. Keep it that way. You could make the fleshy spots a different tone of blue or purple. I would stay away from the orange though. Make your toxins green.

[The AKH]

The blue and purple is looking good, very nicely done. With regards to highlighting, if you highlight first then wash, the wash will help to tone down and 'blend' the highlights into the base colour - if you wash first then highlight, they will stand out more starkly.

I would suggest dropping the green in favour of the orange as a 'secondary' colour. The blue and purple you're using are close enough to each other that using orange as a spot colour will contrast nicely. The black talons/hooves look fine as is, but if you wanted to try something different, I would suggest a dark orange, more reddish than yellowish. This will go nicely with the blue/purple scheme, as it complements the blue - and red and blue are the component colours of purple. For toxins, adrenal glands, zoanthrope brains, tongues, eyes, etc. use a brighter, more yellowy orange. You get the same complementary dynamic when compared to the blue, and a dark/light contrast when compared to the rather dark purple.

[Dreadnought]

Thanks for the advice! I think I'm going to repaint the adrenal gland on one of them to orange and see how it looks. I'll do the same with the claws too and compare it with the green glands and black claws. Apparently my previous hiatus from this has caused my paints to dry up so it looks like I need to get new paints before I get to continue any of this =\ Once I get all of that done I'll have to update the photo. Again thanks for the help.