Tyranids Compendium

I picked up two large lots of Tyranids off E-bay, totalling over 150 stands. All were assembled and attached to their bases, most were primed and partially painted. Most were in various stages of being cleaned. I painted the majority of them over the course of 3 months. Fortuitously, one of my local game stores, Endgame in Oakland was running a Finish-an-Army-Challenge, which would result in 2,250 points of painted figures at the end of 3-months. I had just started working on my Tyranids, so the timing really dovetailed nicely. The 3 blocks of figures completed for the challenge in addition to some extra figures I'm squeezing in should get me close to 3,000 points plus some themed objective markers.

Here's the army in its full glory. 138 figures totalling 3,100 points.

The army is very much a Hive Fleet Kraken scheme, but I kind of got there on my own. It wasn't a deliberate decision to mirror the Kraken palette. Given the quantity of figures and the time constraint, I looked for as many shortcuts as possible. After some experimentation, I found the Rustleum High Heat (Almond) spray, which would be my primer color. Combined with the raw umber wash, that gets me out of actually have to brush basecoat my figures. I was originally thinking about using purple for the carapace, but decided to go with the red because I could wash red with the same raw umber that I used on the body. That would not only cut out a separate wash step to shade a purple carapace, but I also didn't have to be as careful about washes colors bleeded onto other parts. The rest of the colors kind of fell into place. The majority of the work was done with a #4 or #2 flat brush. I wanted to achieve a good tabletop level of quality. If you look closely, you'll see many imperfections, but I just wanted them to look good when you see them, en-masse, on the table.

Overall, I've very happy with the results. The almond is a nice color that helps make the reds warmer. You can also paint washes over them and the high points don't look pastel. It also works well with the full figure stain, something I wouldn't have been able to get away with had I primed black. Here's a snapshot of the colors and paints I used. My color palette was pretty minimalist but effective, I though. From right to left, in the order I used them:

  • Rustoleum High Heat Spray (almond) - Primer.
  • Citadel Mechrite Red (Foundation) - used to basecoat carapaces.
  • Citadel Scab Red - used to line where the carapaces meet the body. Flows better than a Foundation paint, so it's easier to get detailed coverage. It's also used at the end to lightly edge the very tips of the talons.
  • Liquitex Raw Umber - used to wash the entire figure.
  • Vallejo Glaze Medium - thins the wash for better flow.
  • Citadel Bleached Bone and Skull White - Mixed and drybrushed over the non-carapace portions of the figure. The white is also used to pick out teeth.
  • VMC Black - Mixed with the Vallejo Glaze Medium for the hooves, talons, and claws. I also used this to rim all of the bases.
  • Citadel Badab Black (Wash) - used to give some definition to eye sockets and mouths
  • Citadel Leviathan Purple (Wash) - used to tint all of the fleshy parts such as joints and adrenal glands.
  • Citadel Thrakka Green (Wash) - used to tint pieces like hoses and toxin sacs.
  • Citadel Devlan Mud (Wash) - used to spot correct areas that I might have missed with the Raw Umber stain.
  • Citadel Blazing Orange - used to edge carapace plates
  • Citadel Scorpion Green - used to pick out the eyes
  • VMC Rose - used to paint the tongues

Anyways, here's a full compilation of all my Tyranid-related guides in case there are useful for someone.

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