Painting Tyranid Warriors

This is a step by step guide to how I painted my Tyranid Warriors.

I primed them with red spray primer that is a little darker than Blood Red. Then I painted over them with Blood Red, leaving the recesses the darker color.

Then I highlighted the skin areas with Blazing Orange. Some of the deeper recesses could be painted with Scab Red, but that's probably not neccessary.

Next, I gave the skin areas a wash of Leviathan Purple.

I then painted all the armor plate areas as well as the teeth, hooves, and talons with Chaos Black. I did this in two or three thin coats.

The next step was highlighting all the black parts with Shadow Grey. I also painted the base in Goblin Green.

I then painted the extreme edges of the black areas with a second highlight of Fortress Grey. I also painted the Rending Claws, Bonesword blades, teeth, and eyes with Desert Yellow. With the teeth, I made sure to leave some black visible in the recesses.

The tongue I painted with Elf Flesh. The Rending Claws and Bonesword Blades were painted with Bleached Bone, leaving a section of yellow at the bottoms. If I were a better painter these would be blended together better, but when you see them on the table it looks fine.

Next, I added a layer of Skull White to the Rending Claws and Bonesword blades. I also painted the teeth and eyes with Skull White, leaving a little of the yellow in the recesses. I also painted a vertical line for a pupil in the eyes with Chaos Black. The bases were finished by adding some green flock, small ballast, and little wood flecks.

The weapons were painted a little differently, because I wanted them to be a much lighter color than the Tyranid Warriors. In my hive fleet, the older creatures are darker in color, and younger ones lighter. That's why these Tyranid Warriors are darker than my Hormagaunts, which are darker than my Rippers. So since the weapon symbiotes are smaller and would take less time to grow, and probably not live as long and be replaced more frequently, I wanted them to be lighter in color. So I went with a color close to the Rippers.

I magnetized all my Tyranid Warrior weapons, so that I could switch out all the options available without having to buy and paint tons of them. It was kind of difficult to paint the weapons separately like that, but definitely worth the effort.

They were all basecoated with the same red spray paint as the bodies. Then I painted them with a mix of Skull White and a little bit of Warlock Purple to get a pink color. All of the fleshy parts of the weapons were painted pink, as well as the tubes connecting them into the arms. I then highlighted the pink areas with Skull White.

Then I gave them a simple wash with Magenta Ink.

The armor plates and claws were painted Chaos Black, highlighted with Shadow Grey. The eyes on the Deathspitters were painted Dessert Yellow.

The black areas were given a second highlight of Fortress Grey. The eyes painted Skull White with a black pupil.

To finish them off, I did a spray gloss varnish over everything. When that was dried, I did a coat of matte varnish to make them less shiny. I then went pack and brushed on some gloss varnish on the armor plates and eyes, since I wanted them to be glossy.