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 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 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.
Hive Fleet Behemoth
Blue flesh, red claws and carapace — the original hive fleet. High contrast and unmistakably classic; looks especially good with a subtle gloss on the carapace.
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.
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.