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The Compendium · Warhammer 40,000

Tyranids paint schemes

Organic shapes, blended skin, carapace contrast — an airbrush artist's favourite army.

Tyranids reward a completely different skillset from power armour. There are no flat panels and no straight lines — everything is muscle, chitin and membrane, and the schemes that work are the ones that treat the whole swarm as a single organism.

Hive fleet colours are really two decisions: the flesh tone and the carapace. Studios tend to develop a signature recipe for the transition between them, which is why the same fleet can look wildly different across painters.

Hive Fleet Leviathan

Bone-white carapace over deep purple flesh. The current poster scheme, and deceptively hard: the bone needs warmth and shadow without turning muddy, and it has to stay consistent across a hundred models.

The recipe

  1. BaseCitadel Wraithbone over the skin
  2. ShadeCitadel Magos Purple, thinned, over the skin
  3. BaseCitadel Naggaroth Night on the carapace and claws
  4. LayerCitadel Warpfiend Grey on the carapace edges
  5. EdgeCitadel Thunderhawk Blue, a finer edge highlight

Hive Fleet Kraken

Pale flesh with red-orange carapace — fast-moving and bright on the table. Batch-paints beautifully with zenithal priming and glazes, so it's often the value pick for big swarms.

The recipe

  1. BaseCitadel Wraithbone, then Morghast Bone on the skin
  2. ShadeCitadel Skeleton Horde (Contrast) over the bone skin
  3. BaseCitadel Flesh Tearers Red (Contrast) on the carapace
  4. LayerCitadel Morghast Bone re-applied to the raised skin
  5. HighlightCitadel Screaming Skull on the skin edges

Hive Fleet Behemoth

Deep red flesh under near-black carapace and claws — the original hive fleet, the one that fell on Macragge. High contrast and unmistakably classic, with a cool blue edge light keeping the black plates from going flat.

The recipe

  1. BaseCitadel Mephiston Red on the flesh
  2. ShadeCitadel Carroburg Crimson over the flesh
  3. BaseCitadel Corvus Black on the carapace and claws
  4. ShadeCitadel Nuln Oil over the carapace
  5. EdgeCitadel Temple Guard Blue on the carapace edges

Bioluminescent & custom fleets

Glow effects on membranes, spines and eyes — object-source lighting across an entire army. A modern favourite for display-tier commissions, and a genuine test of an airbrush hand.

Watch

Tutorials from painters we rate, teaching these schemes brush in hand. Each one opens here on click and links back to its creator.

Painting Purple Tyranids with Duncan's Two Thin Coats

Sir Paints A Lot ↗

Batch Paint: Battle Ready Hive Fleet Kraken Termagants

Warhammer ↗

Batch Paint: Battle Ready Hive Fleet Behemoth Termagants

Warhammer ↗

The Gallery

The photo gallery opens as studios license their work to us. Every image we show is a real commissioned miniature, credited and linked to the artist who painted it — no stock, no renders, no AI.

Commissioning

Thinking about your own army in one of these schemes? The Warhammer 40,000 studios in the directory take commissions, or you can describe your project and we'll match you with painters who suit it.