Showcase: Hive Fleet Kraken Tyranid Warriors (inc. tutorial)

It’s been a grind, but now my Tyranid Warrior squad is finally complete. In this post I’ll show you all three models and also share the tutorial I used to paint my Hive Fleet Kraken splinter paint scheme.

With the Warrior on the far right, my Tyranid Warriors fire team for my Hive Fleet Compendium Kill Teams is now complete. In total, it took me just under two months (with minor interruptions) to build and paint these models. In the end, I admit I lost a bit of steam. There is a saying that the final 10% are the hardest, and I think that’s true.

I closely followed the free Hive Fleet Kraken splinter fleet tutorial I posted a while ago here on the blog, using a combination of zenithal basecoat / slapchop techniques and edge highlights. A change I made was making the flesh slightly lighter. I did this by basecoating the model with Vallejo Game Air Scar Red, followed by zenithal highlights of Game Air Barbarian Flesh and Game Air Dead White. Then, I just washed the flesh with a coat of Dreadful Visage (on larger flat areas such as the tails I used two coats thinned with Contrast Medium instead).

Even though I’m still a few gaunts short of a fully painted kill team (see the first half of the Hormagants I painted here), I’ve already successfully led the team into battle. Most recently I was able to score a resounding 13 to 4 victory against my mate’s The Blooded. I think that was the first game of kill team I’ve ever won! As one of the strongest Compendium Kill teams, the Hive Fleet team can still keep up well with mid and lower tier teams.

But before I complete the Kill Team, I’m going to paint a few Striking Scorpions, as you may have already seen in my latest video. Feel free to comment how you like my Warriors, leave a reaction, and post your questions here or on our friendly hobby Discord server.