Tyranid warriors - desert scheme III

I decided to paint up my next batch of retro Tyranids in the desert colour scheme I've been testing!

The three similar warriors are first edition, multipart plastic models, despite being amazingly ugly they're way ahead of their time in terms of size, complexity and material. When these guys were released the vast majority of all miniatures were metal. The heavy weapon warrior is from second edition and metal.

The darker carapace isn't very obvious but it helps to break up the flat sandy colour a bit.

The stages are identical to the Carnifex and the Genestealers, if you want to know the colours I've used!

I encountered a few issues as I was painting these models.

Firstly, my spray primer was on its last drips, so it ended up uneven in places, I need to decide what I'm going to replace it with now though. There's an airbrush grey primer that I'd like to try but I don't know if it's suitable for GW paints.

Secondly, after adding the undercoat, base coats, highlights and the first shading wash I realised whoever gave me these models had assembled the gun/arms upside down. They're rather a mass of flesh so it was only when I made the detail pop with the wash that I saw their hands on top rather than underneath the guns. I had to break them apart, reassemble and then repaint the guns... ugh!

Finally, the paint job was looking very flat, so I came in with several additional washes - darker brown on the carapace, yellow on the claws, purple on parts of the guns - and then added an additional highlight to the guns. The effect is subtle but I'm much happier with the finished result!

That's a couple of troops painted up and a heavy unit with the Carnifex, next up will be an HQ - a converted Tyranid Prime or a converted Swarmlord and Tyrant Guard? What do you think? Leave a comment!