Tyranids WIP: Xenomorph Carnifex

I'll be playing the Tyranids in the upcoming Apocalypse battle with the gaming group. I assembled and primed lots of Nids. The aim is to at least basecoat the models for some colors hehe! But I did take a break and experimented with something I wanted to add on to the army for a long time.

So the above pic is a close up of a Xenomorph Alien toy I bought a couple years ago. I really liked the unique transparent skull head of the model. So I decided to kinda replicate it on my Nids. There was no unique monster or Tyranid skulls, and there sure wasn't any transparent plastic carapace that I could get or make on my own. I decided to paint the internal skull onto the head carapace instead.

I painted the skull design first. The colors for the skull was done with a basecoat freehand of Baneblade Brown. I then added Ushabti Bone to the mix. The final highlight was Ushabti Bone with white. I then outlined the gaps with a thinned down mix of Scorched Brown mix with black. Then 2 coats of Devlan Mud wash with concentration more to the sides for the effect of the skull fading into the dark flesh.

For that semi-opaque and translucent effect of the carapace, I added a coat of Gloss Varnish onto the initial paintjob to make it smooth (pic above).

I then added some Ulthuan Grey (very watered down) mixed into the Gloss Varnish.

 I let it dry before applying another similar coat.

My focus here is mainly the head of the creature, but the rest of the mini is just basecoated Warlord Purple.

Top down view of the beast's skull. I plan to do this for the entire army, right down to the small gribblies. It's a bit of work but I think it really makes the model stand out more.

Well, its back to basecoating the rest of the Nids :)

Its been really hot where I live of late. Stay cool and classy everyone! And have a great week ahead.