Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Painting Question: Nids

by SandWyrm


Chambers Asked:
For my bug army I am doing Hive mind peter built, thus the main colors are Red and white.
I thought that I would follow an inverse of Hive fleet Kraken with a body of blood red and a carapace/ teeth/ etc of bleached bone.  This leaves me to the question of the accent color(s), from your articles I am thinking that a shadow grey would be the correct color.  However GW uses a dark purple, am I missing something?  Or is there a better set of colors that you could recommend using the red/white base?

SandWyrm's Reply:

If it were me I'd do a body of silver (Washed/Dipped Chainmail with silver highlights) with the Carapace left red. Throw in some flames on the leading edge of the carapace and you'll be the very essence of "Piterbuilt".

Don't forget the mudflaps on your larger MCs. :)

As for the accent color, GW's artists paint minis very well, but they're not perfect or infallible. So don't worry about what they do or don't do. The question you have to ask yourself is: "How noticeable do I want my accents to be?".

If you want to grab someone's attention and hold it, then go for an opposite hue to the red such as Ice Blue or Shadow Grey (or mix it yourself). But that will make you look like a comic book super hero. If you want to be a bit more subtle, follow the hue wheel back around towards the Red. Snot Green or Warlock Purple will only attract half as much attention, while a yellow or Warlock/Red mix will add interest without overpowering things.

It just depends on what you're after.

Anybody else have a color or painting question? Ask away! We've kicked around the idea of having people send in pics of their minis for an art critique. Any takers?

10 comments:

  1. If you did want to still do the Bleached bone carapace (I have a bleached bone base on mine) a good highlighting and shading option would be browns.. but it really depends on how it will show up against the models skintones

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brings a tear to my eye. The red and silver might look good if done right.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Actually I do have a question. I've been painting my marines, and I want my veterans/leaders to stand out, and I'm not sure how to do it.

    I'm using enchanted blue and chain mail silver mostly, which black in between. I really like the way it looks, but I need some detail to them more than just the silver. I've tried some yellow/orange fade on the eyes, and it doesn't look bad, but it isn't what is needed in my opinion.

    I've been thinking about testing out some subtle teals and vivid oranges, and maybe some small white rank indicators, but I'm not sure.

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  4. Does the painting critique have to be a 40K fig? I'd love some opinions on my WM jacks.

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  5. As to the Tyranid question, I think it would be an interesting scheme, my main concern would be the fading of the bleached bone, so it complimented the red properly. For the accenting color, I agree a purple fading to grey would look nice I think.

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  6. @TGM

    Send me some pics.

    @Loc

    Paint is paint. Send me pics.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks SandWyrm, as I stated before your color series has been a great help, especially after coming back from the Reclictors debacle.

    I would have suggested Truck Nutz as well, however GW has already beat me to the punch with their poisonous carni head. But silver and flames...

    ReplyDelete
  8. German Grey on Chaos Black, washed with Babbad (sp?) Black then highlighted with cold grey. Toss in blood red, snot green and bone white as needed. They look great close up under my painting light, however from three feet away they look like a primer army.

    ReplyDelete

out dang bot!

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