Starting a Tyranid army: Colorscheme

I've been a miniature hobbyist for over 10 years and have played a lot of different games (Warhammer Fantasy, Infinity, Frostgrave, Malifaux, Kings of War, etc.) but still hunger for more. In my gaming group, my friends convinced me to take a look at the Warhammer 40k lore. After reading a dozen books (Horus Heresy!) and pretty much got sucked into the crazy 40k lore, I decided to get into Warhammer 40.000. 

As for my first 40k army choice, I was torn between the Childs of Slaanesh and Tyranids. Really love both design and lore of these 2 armies. Finally, I went with Tyranids because they are easy to paint and I wanted to get more into the lore before heavily converting some Slaanesh forces. Also, there are some stunning non-GW Tyranid designs out there (check out this Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/artbyhalfpint/) and I was very curious how these models would turn out. To say it upfront: These 3D printed resin miniatures have some amazing details and very high quality of the print.

Regarding the color scheme, I tested 2 very different ones: A very dark Xenomorph one and a more vibrant and organic color scheme:

Instead of the black background I found a brown background better and went with it:


I really liked both paint jobs and the decision of how I should take on a whole army of these bugs was not an easy one. As an individual choice, I think I would prefer the Xenomorph one but as an army decision, I think 100+ purely black painted models are boring to paint and will look at an arm's length like a huge black blob. Therefore I went with the organic colorful one color scheme.


I couldn't wait and soon started painting one of the HQ choices of my Tyranid army: Old One Eye






Such an amazing beast! Next will be the backbone of the army: a lot of Hormogaunts.