How to Create Your Own Tyranid Hive
- 1). Create a backstory for your Hive Fleet. Think about what makes your hive distinct from others. Where did it come from? Who are its main enemies? For example, Hive Fleet Behemoth primarily battles Space Marines and Orks, while Hive Fleet Leviathan's major conflicts have been with the Imperial Guard.
- 2). Create a color scheme for your army. There are three main areas of color on Tyranid models: the skin, the carapace plates and the weapon symbiotes. Established Hive Fleets tend to have these in strongly contrasting colors. For instance, Hive Fleet Kraken organisms typically have pale, bone-colored flesh, dark red carapace plates and black or bone-colored weapon symbiotes. You may want to follow this trend, perhaps by having dark-skinned creatures with light plates, or you may wish to go for a subtler, more blended paint scheme.
- 3). Paint a model or two to test your color scheme. For speed, use simple models such as termagants. Experiment until you find a color scheme that you like and that you can paint quickly and cleanly.
- 4). Apply the color scheme to your Tyranid army. Use small details such as eye color or markings to distinguish between broods or types of organism.
- 5). Individualize your "character" models. While the ordinary swarm organisms should be a featureless horde, larger models such as Hive Tyrants and Carnifexes can have their own histories. One example of this in the Tyranid codex is the monstrous Carnifex known as "Old One-Eye." Create histories and personalities for your own monstrous creatures and paint them with more care and detail to make them stand out.
- 6). Give your hive a name. Because the Tyranids communicate telepathically, the names of Hive Fleets are given to them by the Imperium. These are typically of legendary monsters such as the Kraken and Leviathan, but they may also be named after ordinary animals, such as Hive Fleet Locust, or mythical figures, as in the case of Hive Fleet Perseus.
Source...