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I’ve taken a couple of stabs at the White Whale that is Hive Fleet Tiamet’s scheme. Combination of Minty White skin and Seagreen carapace can prove a hassle, as both shades are pretty tempermental to work with.
This method should help achieve something close to the Eavy Metal studio scheme for Tiamet, though obviously their blends are insanely better by mine by magnitudes.
Prime Citadel Grey Seer. Any greyish off-white will do, but I like Grey Seer for this one as it’s a pretty cool starting shade and there’s good consistency in tone between the rattlecan and paintpot versions.
The Carapace
- Basecoat a medium grey. I used VMA Medium Sea Grey for this, but Citadel Mechanicum Standard Grey works pretty good as well.
- Basecoat a 1:1 mix of Citadel Lupercal Green and Incubi Darkness. Even with the grey base you’ll need a few coats of this to get a consistent layer. It does love to blob up so watch it as it dries.
- Layer Citadel Lupercal Green, leaving the previous layer in the recesses.
- Highlight 1:3 mix of Citadel Sotek Green and Lupercal Green. This one’s a matter of playing by ear, progressively adding more Sotek Green to the mix as you highlight closer to the edges and add any striations.
- Edge Highlight Citadel Deepkin Flesh to the very sharpest points of the chitin and striations.
Skin/Flesh
- Wash over the flesh with a 1:10 mix of Citadel Russ Grey and Contrast Medium. If it still looks too thick add more Contrast Medium. While still wet use a clean, damp brush and Q-Tips/Cotton Buds to gently drag the exesses away from flat surfaces and from overflowing shallow recesses, feathering the wash as you go.
- Deep Shade a wash of 1:12 Citadel Incubus Darkness and Contrast Medium to the recesses between the carapace and fleshy parts, once again removing excesses and feathering out, though not as far as the previous wash.
- Tidy up and Highlight with a 1:1 mix of Citadel White Scar and Grey Seer (or whatever your choice of primercoat was), adding more White Scar to the mix to edge Highlight the most raised parts.
Those Weird fleshy inner parts hey GW what are those weird slits on the limbs for why does ‘every nid have them they look like they’d be painful to get sand in:
- Tidy up from previous steps with Citadel Grey Seer.
- Wash the weird limb slits, joints on the limbs, tongue and the tubes on guns with Citadel Magos Purple. You can further wash it with a mix of 1:2 Vulpus Pink and Contrast Medium for parts you want to particularly stand out such as the tongues.
Claws
- Wash with Citadel Black Templar contrast.
- Highlight with a 1:1 mix of Citadel Corax Black and Thunderhawk Blue.
- Edge Highlight the sharpest points with Citadel Administratum Grey.
Eyes
- Tidy up from previous steps with Citadel Grey Seer.
- Wash with Citadel Bad Moon Yellow.
Tying it All Together
- Varnish the entire model with a Gloss Varnish.
- Wash the carapace and claws with a black tone of your choice. If you have access to and are used to Enamel or Oil washes as I am then slather it around the recesses, soaking up anything that gets on the flesh. Then clean it up and feather once dry. If only using Acrylics, a wash of 1:10 black to Contrast Medium will also work, but will require more babysitting as it dries.
- Wash the recesses of the eyes with Citadel Nazdreg Yellow.
- Varnish the entire model with a Matte Varnish.
This article is part of a larger series on How to Paint Tyranids. To return to that series, click here.
