On the Painting Table ... Hivefleet Leviathan Tyranids
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Warhammer 40,000 – The never-ending horde of bugs continues to infest my painting station. What started out as a small force Shadow War: Armageddon force has grown into a full fledged army. now that the rules are out and Tyranids are pretty good on the table my client brought by several additions to his force.
This batch includes a Swarmlord, some Genestealers from Space Hulk (I need to track some of these down, they'd look amazing with my cult army), and a few Termagaunts. The second batch I'll need to assemble before I start painting them but this is just about enough models to fill my tray so I'll focus on these before starting the rest.
Hivefleet Leviathan has a very distinctive color scheme, it takes a little patience to do correctly so if you plan to paint your army in this scheme don't plan on speed painting beyond the base coat and purple shell.
To start I prime the models white, this makes the first coat go on smooth and it's easier to get even coverage. I then paint all the fleshy bits with Pallid Wych Flesh. Once that dries, the outer shells all get a coat of Nagaroth Night. The claws and other sharp parts get a coat of Khone Red I also paint the bases at this point. When you're working with a primarily white scheme its best to get all the sloppy stuff done first, that way when you do the detail work and touch up you only have to do it once.
The next phase is a bit more tedious. Carroburg Crimson does most of the work at this stage. Using a detail brush I fill in any recesses with the shade. The trick to getting this right is to only put it in the recesses. Unlike other color schemes covering the while model with the shade won't work with this scheme. If you "dip" the model in the Crimson wash everything turns pick and it takes forever to work back up to the Pallid Wych color, as it doesn't cover great being a layer. Take your time and work the color into each recess, once it's dried completely you'll clean up the edges and do a little blending. At this phase I also wash the Purple and Red areas with Nuln Oil. Typically I like to shade with the same colors blue with blue, purple with purple etc. however to get this effect right, you have to use the black wash. Carefully apply the wash to the shells and at the base of any of the blades and claws.
Now that the wash is dry I highlight the Purple with Xerxus Purple and Genestealer Purple the Blades were highlighted with Wildrider Red. Once that is done paint on highlights of Pallid Wych Flesh with the extreme edge highlights applied with White Scar.
It's not to difficult of a scheme to pull off it just takes patience to do it right.
