Customer briefing

The Resurgence of the Swarm: Tyranids with Chrome Finish

The client came to us with a very specific idea: he wanted his Tyranid Kill Team to stray from the classic biological approach. He had seen previous projects from the studio and wanted to convey that grimdark finish.
He told us that the creatures should look like they were emerging from the ground or a cave, so the bases were designed from scratch and 3D printed.
The color scheme was clear: metallic black skin, metallic blue shell, with reddish and purple variations on the soft areas of the leaders. In addition, the claws and jaws of the melee specialists had to show traces of blood to accentuate their ferocity.

General picture of the project Ornate level

Underground, under metal: a Kill Team emerging from the abyss

The project was approached in a unified manner, painting all the miniatures at once to ensure color uniformity between units. We started with the base metallic tones, gradually applying bluish highlights and transitions to the skin.
The bases were undoubtedly the main challenge: their relief was very pronounced and offered hardly any flat areas on which to anchor the miniatures. We had to manually adjust each contact point and reinforce some of the joints with putty to ensure that the final pose looked natural.
The fleshy areas were done with layers of deep red and purple glazes. The claws were given pigments and blood effects to bring the whole thing to life.