How to paint Tyranids ready for 10th edition

Painting a tyrranid army in the colours of nature’s harshest predator… the ladybug. A new army for a new edition of Warhammer 40k

Following along you will learn the steps I use to paint a colour scheme that is quick, easy and reads well on the table top. I will produce an update to this tutorial with further steps to get a higher quality finish on your characters and centrepiece models, but that will come late. These steps will allow you to paint quickly and to a table top standard/ Get more bugs on the table. All of the paints used will be Citadel paints by Games workshop.

Painting TYRANIDS. WHAT YOU’LL NEED.

This colour scheme is beginner friendly and in total uses 1 spray, 8 paints, 1 shade / wash and a gloss varnish.

painting step by step.

Prime the model using a black of your choice. Using a black will help do most of the work as it is one of the primary colours in this scheme. I used a can of chaos black.

Now it is time for the base colours. Add a layer of Corvis Black to the flesh, covering all but the deepest recesses. this give a nice blueish tone that helps show the texture detail of the model. this will only take one later and as you can see it shifts that tone a bit.

Next paint the carapace Mephiston Red. To achieve a nice even colour you may need two to three coats. At this stage I also painted white into the deep vents in the skin to help beak up the black with a lighter colour. I chose this brown tone and not a black because it feels more natural and dirty bot artificial and shadowy say if I had used Nuln oil

Cover the entire model in Agrax Earthshade. Be careful of pooling on the carapace. if you don’t notice pooling until its too late don’t worry we can fix it later by layering that red back up.

For a highlight on the black I used Eshin grey sparingly and placed this where it would have the most impact. This was on the head and upper limbs of the Leaper. I then mixed the Eshin grey in a 50/50 mix with Grey Seer to make an extreme highlight. This was used on the head and tendrils to draw attention to the facial features and get the most benefit from a table top viewing.

To add some detail and highlights to the carapace I used Evil Sunz Scarlet and applied lines at 90 degrees to the edges of the carapace. these were also painted on any raised areas I wanted highlighting regardless of if there was a physical edge. Some people love this and some hate it. I think it reads well on the table and can give some visual texture to parts of the model that can appear flat.

For the detail on the face I used Uriel Yellow to make sure they eyes stood out agains the ladybugs whit face markings. To so the facial marking I applied Corax white in blotches that complimented the facial structure. These two features looked too bright so I made a 50/50 mix of Agrax and water applying it thinly over the face.

Finally for the blades and spots. For these I applied a coat of Abaddon Block over the blades and in semi symmetrical circles on the back carapace. once dry a later of gloss varnish was applied to the blades and spots. This same method of black and then gloss was used on the hooves and other small blades.

now all that’s left to do is base the model in whatever way you want and place it on the table to devour your enemies. delicious delicious biomass.

I chose to base my mini on a blue alien world to compliment the red of the carapace.

Hope this helped for anyone wanting to do an easy red and black scheme. I know ladybugs aren’t for everyone but it is funny seeing Space Marines being swarmed and eaten alive by them.

UPDATE…

So a few weeks and models later I have decided to at some orange onto the Leapers unit. Originally i wanted them to be darker as they are stealthy units but I liked the brighter colour on my other units so much that they are getting an update.

Applying Trollslayer Orange in the same manner as the Evil Sunz Scarlet gives the final look.