Looking for painting advice

[barizac]

Ok so I'm new to forum and such so heres what I need help with, I have been working on my tyranids both in collecting and slowly painting them and I have hit a snag in the works I am unsure how to proceed and would like some tips or general opinions. 
My army is a kind of mottled grey with black carapace and brownish claws, my problem is that I am unsure if I should leave the carapace as is or do something else to it.
Thats a rough picture of one of my warriors. (also haven't decided on base yet)

[yoritomo]

And what are you going to do to the carapace? You can't shade it, it's black. You could highlight it, but that would make it grey.

You've really boxed yourself in with you color pallet.

[barizac]

yea I know that's the problem i'm not sure if it looks good enough on its own but i also don't know what i could do to make it better or how, only ideas i have had are to try my hand at dark purple edging on it or 'ardcoat it

[yoritomo]

There's a reason you don't use black as your base coat or white as your base coat. If you didn't use grey for your skin you may have been able to pull off a good highlight and make a great looking carapace. Heck, it has to be hard to shade the skin because any wash you use would pool up black next to the carapace.

I guess what I'm saying is that the easiest way to fix your problem would be to pick a different color and repaint you army. But that's an awful lot of work depending on how many models you have painted.


Another thing you can do, and you're going to kick yourself for this later, is to incorporate some kind of carapace design. If you google poison dart frog you'll see what I'm talking about. I think Hive Fleet Vespa is painted this way, you could try looking that up too. But before you start think about this; that design will have to be on every plate in every carapace on every gaunt, warrior and MC you ever paint.

You could also try some kind of metallic coloring on your carapace like you see in beetles. Though in my many years here I don't think I've ever seen that pulled off well. But if you could make it work it would be an option.

[barizac]

I have seen pictures of vespa so i know what you mean there and i don't really want to change the skin colour i chose to do it for a reason (and its a pain to achieve sometimes) i know the metallic thing your talking about it doesn't always work your right. Also there are no washes in the skin of my tyranids.
Thanks for the advice thou I will see if any will work

[BattleMetalChris]

How about going over just the carapace in gloss varnish. This will differentiate it from the rest of the body, accentuate the jet-black colour and also provide automatic highlights in the reflections from the gloss.

[barizac]

That was along the lines of one of the few ideas i could come up with myself, but i was thinking of the 'ardcoat citadel paint, But thanks for your input i might have to look up what the differences would be between the two.

[BattleMetalChris]

As far as I know, 'ardcoat and gloss varnish are one and the same.

[barizac]

Oh ok thanks

[BattleMetalChris]

Did you get anywhere with this? I'd love to see the results.

[liberame]

For designs. Look at the the court of the nephilim king for inspiration. Its simple and effective. I too suggest that after you add a design, to hit your carapace with a gloss varnish. It really helps with black carapace. As for colors for designs. Yellow, red, white, or blue would really mix well with what you have. You could do orange or even green for a really striking contrast. I would also recommnd a bright basing to contrast with the dark skin and carapace

[almostmercury]

While a bright basing would contrast with your model, our attention is drawn to brighter parts so the attention will be drawn to the base. I wouldn't recommend this unless you're trying draw attention there.

Personally, I'd have a more subtle base. Just my two cents.

[bolk]

Maybe you should try feathering on the carapace in bright red or green. I for one think feathering with Warpstone Glow and giving it a coat of 'ardcoat would look really cool :-)

[detharmonic]

I tend to agree with the others - feathering the carapace with pretty much any colour. You have a neutral colour pallet so you can actually go in any direction you want and it will contrast well. A Beige, highlighted up to white would certainly fit the scheme, but so would a brown highlighted up to red or dark green highlighted up to bright green.. and so on. you get the idea.

[barizac]

i don't have any new pics yet i'm still experimenting thanks for all the tips