Hive Fleet Mantis

[judcottrell]

I've been thinking of building a Tyranid army for years, but have never got round to it.
As I'm fully invested in my Death Korps of Krieg I thought it might never happen.
Then my group started playing Shadow Wars. My brother thought Nids looked cool so bought the
Start Collecting box (fantastic value by the way!)
I saw my chance and offered to paint them for him, so now Hive Fleet Mantis can finally be started!
I kept the scheme simple (as I always do) with a limit on the amount of colours. I used the yellow
because I saw some Locusts at Cotswold Wildlife Park (a great day out if you live close!)
The green was a mix of colours I had mixed up for a Sons of Horus project that never got off the ground.
For the bases I added some smaller critters, I wanted to drive the point home that this is a swarm!
As always I started with the models I thought were cool here are the results:

Tyranid Warrior

Tyranid Warrior

Tyranid Warrior

Tyranid Warrior

Tyranid Warrior

Tyranid Warrior

Swarmlord

Swarmlord

Swarmlord

Swarmlord

Tyrannofex

Tyrannofex

Tyrannofex

Tyrannofex

Hope you liked them!

[cheminhaler]

That's really special - very detailed painting on the chitin plates and the limbs. Interesting that locusts inspired you - did you look at them up close? Were they behind a glass wall or something?

[judcottrell]

Thanks Cheminhaler!
Yeah, they were in a giant fish tank sort of thing.
The yellow on these models is a bit brighter but the idea is there.
Got another 6 Gargoyles and 12 Termagaunts to go for now.
Once I've done those I shall work on the Deathriders I have sat on the shelf! (I'll need a treat after wading through all the xenos filth!!)

[mccaptain]

Love them! I too have always wanted to paint up a bids army. The idea of doing a whole swarm.... Maybe with 8th

[judcottrell]

Thanks mccaptain! They're fantastic models to work on.
The only downside I think I'll have is painting all the little critters needed for a true swarm!

[mccaptain]

I would just try to simplify the scheme a little with the swarm models. Maybe instead of doing true edging, reference the very light yellow and the green, you could just do a quick and light drybrush over top of the respective under colors. On the smaller models, it may not even be a discernible difference on the table top. Though I love for every model to look perfect, I have recently started taking serious the calculus of, what will ACTUALLY get my project done... If you look on my IF thread, you'll notice my infinity models are well below what I can do, but I'm getting them done as fast as I buy them

[judcottrell]

Thanks for the advice Mccaptain! You're right, I have dropped 2 stages of the green on the Gargoyles below.
I don't think it takes too much away from the effect.
Tyranids
This is pretty much what they'll look like on the table top.

[mccaptain]

I see no noticeable difference. What is your time output for the gargoyle squad? They look great!

[nutty]

Those are some great looking bugs, I never would've thought yellow would work on nids.. but it does.

[judcottrell]

Thanks Mccaptain! I don't know how long they took, I painted them in pairs!

Cheers nutty! It's a scheme I've had in my head for ages, glad you like them.

Next up I have 12 Termagaunts to do.

[judcottrell]

My brother has got the bug again! (Boom boom!)
He's added the new get started collecting Tyranids box which is great value.
I saw the Trygon and just had to paint it.
It's not the easiest of kits to build but is very imposing!
Here's the xenos abomination:
Tyranid Trygon

Tyranid Trygon

Tyranid Trygon

Tyranid Trygon

[nutty]

It's alive!

The new beastie looks great

[judcottrell]

Thanks nutty!
I don’t know when I will add more I have a few Primaris and potentially some more Krieg or Tau to work on.

[treadiculous]

holy cow those things are stunning!

[emptyhat]

The edge work on the chitin is really good. Especially the colour choices.

[judcottrell]

Thanks treadiculous! My brother is well chuffed with them.

Cheers emptyhat, I’ve had this colour scheme in my head for years, it’s great to be able to put it into practice!