Cant decide of carapace colors for my hive fleet

[dusty]

Hi Ive finally begun painting my swarm in full but I just cant decide on how I want the carapace to look. The skin looks similar to hive fleet behemoth I am trying to find a unique carapace design, and found a couple Id like to try out but being a newish painter I have no idea the steps they took to achieve these affects. Obviously I understand Im not going to achieve the same level of painting as these examples but some suggestions on colors would be nice. I understand their is a lot of images here I apologize but I'm struggling on finding a color scheme I like.



Thank you for any paint suggestions.

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Neat beetles

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Neat sealife

[terminatoruk]

Ok, so you are looking for something to go with red skin essentially?

Whilst the choice comes down to personal preference I will give the following advice.

The mistake I made early on that I'll warn against is that there are 2 main colours, a secondary colour and a tertiary colour to need to consider in your scheme.

The first two main colours are obvious - the carapace and the skin, however the secondary colour is the claws, hooves, talons and bio weapons. The tertiary colour you need to consider is your joint / vent colour (usually produced with using a shade/wash) as well as pipes (around arms and ranged bio weapons), exposed brains (Neurothrope) etc....

Generally, the simplest schemes with just carry the skin colour through to the the ranged weapons (e.g. fleshborers, deathspitters etc...), however, this can then cause problems when applied to (or not applied) to talons / claws etc... and needs to be considered on a base-by-base basis.

Look at GW's Leviathan scheme for example...

Skin - White
Carapace - Dark Purple
Bio Weapons/Claws/Hooves/Talons - Deep Red
Joints/Vents - Pink/Purple

Each colour contrasts each other and produces a very consistent effect over the entire army.

Putting this is your context (and considering a black carapace with your red skin) - have a look at this armies on parade example:

armiesonparade.com/2019/09/17/tyranid-swarm-by-gabriele-del-prete/

Skin - Red
Carapace - Black
Claws/Hooves/Talons - Bone Tan
Joints/Vents - Green

...when looking at the first zoomed out shot, the look is consistent; your eye is drawn to the black at the top, red at the bottom and the bone tan at the extremities. The only thing that breaks the mould in this example is that the red skin colour is taken through to the ranged bio weapons rather than re-using the bone tan colour. However, as I have found in my own scheme, that can be the better choice to go for.

Don't get too hung up on advanced carapace patterns - usually it is just a case of layering dark through to lighter colours and progressively making each layer smaller than the last (and closer to the edge).

Taking black for example, on each plate you might have:

- Basecoat the entire plate black (e.g. Abaddon Black)
- 2/3rds of the plate - leave just plain black
- 1/3rd of the plate - layer on a dark grey (e.g. Eshin Grey)
- Approx half of the dark grey above - layer on a mid-grey (e.g. Dawnstone)
- Edge highlight / tiny part of the above - layer on a light-grey (e.g. Administratum Grey)

Lookup a technique called 'feathering' - it basically pertains to creating small parallel stripes with little 'flick' motions towards the edge of the plate to create a pattern / texture.

Hope this helps!

[dusty]

Dec 31, 2019 9:41:15 GMT terminatoruk said:

Ok, so you are looking for something to go with red skin essentially?

Whilst the choice comes down to personal preference I will give the following advice.

The mistake I made early on that I'll warn against is that there are 2 main colours, a secondary colour and a tertiary colour to need to consider in your scheme.

The first two main colours are obvious - the carapace and the skin, however the secondary colour is the claws, hooves, talons and bio weapons. The tertiary colour you need to consider is your joint / vent colour (usually produced with using a shade/wash) as well as pipes (around arms and ranged bio weapons), exposed brains (Neurothrope) etc....

Generally, the simplest schemes with just carry the skin colour through to the the ranged weapons (e.g. fleshborers, deathspitters etc...), however, this can then cause problems when applied to (or not applied) to talons / claws etc... and needs to be considered on a base-by-base basis.

Look at GW's Leviathan scheme for example...

Skin - White
Carapace - Dark Purple
Bio Weapons/Claws/Hooves/Talons - Deep Red
Joints/Vents - Pink/Purple

Each colour contrasts each other and produces a very consistent effect over the entire army.

Putting this is your context (and considering a black carapace with your red skin) - have a look at this armies on parade example:

armiesonparade.com/2019/09/17/tyranid-swarm-by-gabriele-del-prete/

Skin - Red
Carapace - Black
Claws/Hooves/Talons - Bone Tan
Joints/Vents - Green

...when looking at the first zoomed out shot, the look is consistent; your eye is drawn to the black at the top, red at the bottom and the bone tan at the extremities. The only thing that breaks the mould in this example is that the red skin colour is taken through to the ranged bio weapons rather than re-using the bone tan colour. However, as I have found in my own scheme, that can be the better choice to go for.

Don't get too hung up on advanced carapace patterns - usually it is just a case of layering dark through to lighter colours and progressively making each layer smaller than the last (and closer to the edge).

Taking black for example, on each plate you might have:

- Basecoat the entire plate black (e.g. Abaddon Black)
- 2/3rds of the plate - leave just plain black
- 1/3rd of the plate - layer on a dark grey (e.g. Eshin Grey)
- Approx half of the dark grey above - layer on a mid-grey (e.g. Dawnstone)
- Edge highlight / tiny part of the above - layer on a light-grey (e.g. Administratum Grey)

Lookup a technique called 'feathering' - it basically pertains to creating small parallel stripes with little 'flick' motions towards the edge of the plate to create a pattern / texture.

Hope this helps!

Wow really detailed reply I really appreciate all the information. Thank you so much. I am going to try the paint scheme in the pictures except instead of using green for venting I am going to use a similar pink that they are using on the tongues. Or at least I am going to try. For the carapace I found a odd looking beetle that uses red greens and blacks I am going to try and match.

[terminatoruk]

No problem at all - happy to help!!

Make sure you post your pictures of your progress here so we can have a look - good luck!