Chest of Colors forum

Hello!

THis is my first post. The work on this site is very good! I would like some input from all of your skilled expertise.

I want to paint my tyranids to look like the aliens in the movie Aliens. I'm using green stuff to sculpt the long heads and cover the eyes.

I need input on how to paint the mini's to match those seen in the movies. There is a website https://www.timkline.net/alienids/index.html where a guy is doing this. He's doing a great job but his mini's are too silver looking to me.

I've tried just black with lots of gloss varnish but no detail is visible. I've tried highlighting with grey but it still looks a little off. I use games workshop's citadel paints.

Then I came across this site and thought you guys might help! Any help would be appretiated because I'm stuck and can't continue until I get it right!!!

Thanks

Welcome aboard Captsin!
I must admit that you have very good webiste and interesting minis also
You have chosen quite hard task to paint tyranid swarm in Alien type. I had a look into your gallery and one thing I`m trying to understand... Why you haven`t used blue-grey for highlighting? Just look at your banner. I think that a bit of blue (try mix black with shadow grey) can bring out a details.
And if you want to add more colour maybe you can give some blood stains or white foam around mouth.

There is also Ana`s gallery with alien-type tyranids, so take a look here:
https://www.chestofcolors.com/cofc-postn ... _album.php

You misunderstand. That website is not mine. I gave an example of how it can be done.

Maybe Blue/Grey highlighting would would work... But too much and it looks Blue, not black.

The aliens in the movies were jet black and shined because they were covered in goo. How do I get that effect? I guess it would be like trying to capture PVC leather.

How do I paint jet black with a type of NMM shine as a highlight? I tried using just gloss but no details show on a small mini.

I found a picture of what colour I want to capture.

https://www.answers.com/main/ntquery;jse ... sbid=lc05b

Notice how there is no blue. There are just white glossy highlights, a "shine".

It may be a bit difficult to achieve such an affect.
I would advice trying dipping method. All you need is some base colour (in case of aliens it should be some dark silver like boltgun metal or grey) and appropriate woodstain color. I don't know if black or other nearly black color is available in Toronto but you should find something useful for such scheme. You will probably need to try a few times to get the color you need but it's really glossy.

Here is an article that might be helpfull
Tutorial

And my bugs using dipping method(I used really bright woodstain, but you may see the glossy effect on them)
gallery

Good luck

grey up through white highlighting... mix your own grey or be very confidant that it doesn't have a blue or green undertone to it... it needs to be neutral grey or it won't work correctly... very thin layers of paint for the highlighting

The dipping method sounds like a good idea, if I get the formula right!

I was thinking of the very thin grey highlighting idea but that'll be tough... Too much grey and it doesn't look black, not enough and you can't see the detail. Still, thanks for the input.

After reading up on dipping on the net I'm leaning towards the woodstain approach. Especially considering my army will be hoarde army! Black stain is available not far from where I live. and I want my mini's to be shiny!

Still, I'll try both methods. Should I post my results here or in another forum?

Btw Zolwick, your nids look great. Thanks for the link too.

Post them in the WIP area as you try things, please.

And if the dipping method works, great. I just don't know much about it, sorry.

And for finished miniatures the Showcase is a good place so everyone can look at them.
I'm eager to see the photos, because the scheme you have chosen is very interesting.
I'm happy you like my bugs, thanks