How to paint realistic Tyranid Skin, Warhammer 40k Hive Tyrant 

How to paint realistic Tyranid Skin, Warhammer 40k Hive Tyrant, Iv'e had a lot of requests for a larger Tyranid in the scheme so thought I would do a couple of videos on it. As always I hope it's useful! If you want tution or more in depth video content please check out my Patreon . www.patreon.com/PhoenixCommissions Feel free to check out For commissions or tuition please get in touch. facebook.com/PhoenixMiniatureArt instagram.com/phoenixminiatureart/ For additional video content and tuition check out www.twitch.tv/phoenixminiatureart Twitch streams will be on Monday 19.00 - 00.00 GMT Friday 10.30 - 14.30 GMT Saturday 19.00 - 00.00 GMT Free Discord below. discord.gg/WYW9cFNeBS #miniaturepainting #Warhammer40k #miniatures

That is absolutely, positively, the most ridiculously beatiful Flyrant Ive ever seen.

THANK YOU! It's rare to find guides for the big monsters where a more natural tone is used. Usually the other artists go for bright, striking, cartoony themes (not a dig on them, just not what I'm looking for). I don't paint gaming pieces, my projects are mostly miniatures of elephants/rhinos/dinosaurs so this guide is a big help. I was looking for a method to get rid of the "plastic toy" look of my finished models - and apparently stippling (with different colors) was the answer I was looking for.👍

Wanted to give a warning for some hive fleet colors. You may need to prime a lighter color instead of black. When I did my Jormungandr this way the yellow took 4 coats to build up. Anything with a tan, green, or yellow I highly suggest using a grey or slightly brighter primer. (I found using a pink primer, works best for yellow and a red for green)

I first found your channel thanks to your original Tyranid paint tutorials, and I’m thrilled to see more top-notch nid tutorials, particularly on this larger model. Incredible

Very nice! I really like how you made the carapace look, highlighting the flexed muscles and adding definition to the wings! Thanks for posting!

Thank you for this tutorial! Have been paining tyranids for almost 9 years already, and by far this is one of the best tutorials I've seen! Regards,

incredible video, these have been super helpful as finding higher level paint scheme breakdowns for nids has been a struggle. cheers, can't wait for the next one!

really detailed decribtion very well explained, think its the first time i hear the mention of fallowing the shapes

This is excellent! I also really appreciate your tips on edge highlighting in terms of opaque vs transparent paint used, the brush stroke and the breathing. All great tips for someone still trying to hone their sharp edge skills. Your technique of many layers of multiple lines to create the texture of the skin is also the best ive seen. Well done!

Awesome tutorial! Love your Tyranids paint scheme

This is the first video I've seen of yours and it is one of the absolute best tutorials I've seen. Thank you! Instantly subbed. I have FND, so I can shake, so massive thanks for the tip about exhaling, I tend to find myself holding my breath, so will have to practice.

I absolutely love what you have shown here. Thank you for sharing your skills!

Dang, this is obscenely awesome.

Very nice scheme! Enjoyed the talk through too - keep going.

Thank you for this tutorial!

Really awesome and helpful!

You're going to make me end up doing something similar on my Hive Tyrant XD Beautiful work, thanks for sharing your process!

Looks cool.

You sir got a new subscriber, just iff this one video. I dont have a airbrush and it seems alot of how to videos are for airbrushing, this is awsome thank you so much

Masterpiece :)

Awesome job! Had painters block with my Crusher Stampede army I have to paint. Picked up some useful tips for how to do the texture on the nids skin!

i would love to see you do a tyrannofex or a exocrine or somthing like them as im liking ur painting styles and color options and am trying to figure out how to make it look good on those models in particular as their chests have a lot more boney looking structures to them that i cant figure out how to make look good yet. i know you posted this 2 years ago so im going out on a limb hoping ur still painting haha. thanks heaps!

I dont comment very often but I gotta say. amazing video. thank you!

Awesome paint scheme! Could you share what colors you used, please?

beautiful

PMA: "This model is huge." Me: "Why are the these tyrants so smol?" Love the look of this model. It really gives you something to aspire to. Just started painting and playing the other month and can't get over how large everything looks in a BR and then when you handle it how small it all feels.

Really great tutorial and a fantastic paint job. Def earned a sub from me.

hey man. Thank you so much for this in depth video. I wanted to try something different. Been painting lots of Space Marine-Stuff and Scale Vehicles and it got dull and "uncreative". Bought a few Nids to basicly start fresh with something completly different. That being said I'm not really that kinda dude that just jumps into stuff blindly. So - This for a quick reference on how to get started is just gold for me. This gets me going and then I'll just make stuff up as I go =) Thanks again.

amazing!

This is my favourite paint tutorial ever. Airbrush looks cool, but to me it looks obviously airbrushed. No animal looks airbrushed. Also for Tyranids most tutorials use airbrush! This looks natural and a fun method. Finally I can start my army! Thank you 🤘

Thanks for an amazing vid 😃

nice video but vallejo game color whole red does not exist. Do you mean gory red? What exact red tone are you using?

Amazing, thanks so much for sharing! That detail brush - the tip looks amazing - what kind is it?

Thank you for this amazing video, I was looking for a nice scheme and painting technique for my Tyranids and I really love this style. Unfortunately I really struggle finding the paints on the internet, could you please tell me the references for the paints you used so I can find them ? Thanks :)

Nice looking ! I'm just starting paint and I would love to try this technique. My model are primed white, do I have to do something différent to get this fleshy bronze leather skin ?

Would love to see how you paint the carapace. I'm not sure how you get those straight light highlights on them that make them look more natural.

Do you have any tips for stippling? When you build the lighter brown do you paint thicker on the hand then lighter to none to the elbows?

There’s 3 colors on your pallet and you only name 2 , you should post what colors you have in the description

Cool 0_0

Awesome tutorial. Can i just ask…. How do you keep points on your detail brushes? I clean them etc but find they ware very quickly.

Fantastic tutorial. Can I ask, what is the GW shade that you used at the end for the finishing touch? Also an issue I am having is my lines are coming out a bit thicker than I would like, I can use a smaller brush but your brush doesn’t seem particularly small. Any suggestions?

How would you recommend painting a tyrannofex since the rib cage is all down ward? Would you just do the first darkest layer or would you do the highlights and line towards the edges?

Brilliant video , can i ask where you get your stippling brushes from ?

thats sooo cool! i was wondering if i could get the paint list plz?

Hey mate, I wanted to use this tutorial to start my necromunda gang. Gene steeler cults. I was wandering if you would represent this colour scheme translated to a cultist?

What would the citadel equivalents be for the paints used. Was thinking mornfang brown, baneblade brown and wraitbone but not sure

Do you think the skins colour are changeable or will ex: pale purple or green look dumb? Or would adding brown to respective purple and green make it more realistic perhaps?

could you share how to make the scales and the texture in the wings :)

I'm just getting started with painting and this will be my first figure. I want to make the skin kind of like this but wondering how you go about making the armor a completely different color. Do you just use masking tape / paste ontop of the already colored skin?

What colors would you use In citadel? I have a much easier access to citadel paints.

what is the base blue color you've used on the shell?

is the light brown scrofulous brown? I ask because I see Valejo does not have a light brown Game Color--only a light brown Model Color.

Can anybody tell me what the 3 paints he's using are? I know he definitely spelled out Hull Red and Light Brown, but what's the 3rd? I've listened to this video several times and I don't think I heard it. Did I just miss it?

So you do dark color first then use the lighter ones when the dark paint still wet?

What colous could be same from GW ?

I would put 40.000 likes on this video if it was possible :) Thank you!

Realistic in what way?