Help with new paint scheme

[shachza]

New player, don't eat me I'm a nid too!

I'm looking for help with how exactly to paint what I'm looking for. I want a pretty much black color scheme with the low areas highlighted so it looks like my nids are glowing from within. I've been experimenting with painting my gaunts Chaos Black and trying to wash Ice Blue then Skull White. Looks more like I painted all the low areas with one color, there's not much gradation. To accentuate the armor but keep the scheme I was considering highlighting in gray and then putting a gloss finish to create a noticeable difference against the black of the body.

Any tips from more experienced painters on things I should try/keep in mind to do/not do?

[waЯu]

I'm not positive this is what you're after but you might find a technique for your inner flame here:

uk.games-workshop.com/heraldsofdarkness/painting-balrog/1/

And as far as personal taste goes I'm not a subscriber to the glossed carapace school of thought. But that is, and I want to emphasise this, personal taste.

Lastly;



Velcome! Ha ha ha ha ha!

[shachza]

Thanks! That IS helpful.

Now about washes and inks and things. Am I gonna need to find something labeled "ink" or can I make them myself using the citadel colors? On my latest one I tried 50:50 water:Ice Blue and it worked decently. Then I tried the same with Skull White and just got an combination of the two colors, no gradation. Am I approaching this the right way?

Oh yeah, here's my inspiration:
www.wowhead.com/?screenshot=view&1.18096#16038

[waЯu]

You'll have to buy the inks. Have no fear though, they are part of the Citadel range so you should be able to pick them up anywhere that sells Citadel paints.

How inks work is, they're watered down with a small spot of varnish to break the water tension and painted over light colours either to strengthen the colour or to add shading as the thinner consistancy of the ink causes it to slough into the cracks of the model creating colour depth- which is the reason you're not having much joy using them over Chaos Black.

Remember that inks and washes have little to no coverage of their own, their translucency plays off the layer below them so, as shown in the link, you will get the most dramatic results by using them over lighter colours.

As for the ink/wash difference... Inks have a much stronger pigmentation than paints so where you could use thinned paints in place of inks, inks lend themselves better to speed: which is something you'll be thankful for painting Tyranids. I find paint washes take much longer to build up but give me more control and a subtler colour transistion. A gaming standard model that's never going to be seen at closer than arm's length, use inks.

[shachza]

So... Any tips to get it dark on top and light in the lower areas? Or am I on my own trying this out?

[hivefleetsiafu]

try painting white in the lower area's then using the inks ;D