A Step-by-Step Guide to Painting Tyranids and Getting Stunning Results with Just a Few Colors
Want to paint your Warhammer 40k Tyranids quickly and still get impressive results? Then this tutorial by Jon Gómez (Pintureando) is for you. We're going to paint a Tyranid Termagant using a simple palette and Vallejo products: Xpress Color, Game Color, Primer, and a touch of airbrush or spray. Perfect for large armies or speed painting!
Get all the paints from this tutorial
Download the PDF version at this link
🧪 Miniature Preparation
Before painting, prime the miniature properly to achieve good contrast:
Base Primer
- 7 parts Brown Leather Primer (70.626)
- 2 parts Black Primer (70.602)
- With spray, you can use a Leather or black spray primer directly.
This mix creates a dark base that's ideal for applying vibrant colors like Velvet Red.
Zenithal Highlight
Using an airbrush or spray:
- 3 parts White Primer (70.600)
- 1 part Skeleton Bone Primer (70.627)
- With spray, you can use a white or bone spray primer directly.
Apply this from a zenithal angle to establish your initial highlights.
🎨 Applying the Main Colors
Skin
Carapace
Just two colours and the miniature already has shape and character.
✨ Highlights and Edge Highlights
Overall highlights with drybrushing
-
Game Color Dead White (72.001) on edges to bring out volumes.
Skin highlights
-
Mix of Game Color Bloody Red (72.010) + Dead White
Carapace highlights
-
Game Color Stonewall Grey (72.049) followed by Dead White, reducing the area covered with each pass.
👁️ Key Details
Eyes
- Xpress Color Nuclear Yellow (72.404)
- Finish with a dot of Dead White to bring them to life.
Tongue
Claws
- Mix of Black Magnolia + Copper Brown (72.421)
- Then highlighted with Game Color Charred Brown (72.045) + Bone White (72.034)
🪨 Basing
Colours applied wet directly onto the base:
- Xpress Color Wasteland Brown (72.420)
- Xpress Color Orc Skin (72.415)
- Xpress Color Copper Brown (72.421)
Finished with drybrushing using:
✅ Final Result
And that's it! In just a few steps you have a Tyranid with contrast, depth and personality — perfect for the battlefield or themed display cases. Thanks to the versatility of Xpress Color and the power of drybrushing with Game Color, you achieve a high-quality result without any hassle.
🛒 Want to Try It Yourself?
Find all the products used in this tutorial right here:
💡 Bonus Tip
This colour scheme is based on the Hive Fleet Behemoth swarm, but you can swap out the main tones to represent any other Tyranid fleet. Get experimenting!
✨ Happy Painting! 🚀
Thanks to Acrylicos Vallejo and Jon Gómez (Pintureando) for the tutorial