Army Painting: Hive Fleet Leviathan Easy Mode! [How I Paint Things]

Just as Ultramarines have, over the years, changed slightly in GW's house style, so too do Tyranid Hive Fleets occasionally switch up a colour or two. I'm a sucker for the red hooves and dark chitin of Hive Fleet Leviathan, so if you prefer the slightly older style with the raft of new paints that're available these days, check this out!
00:00 - Intro
00:45 - Priming
01:20 - Painting Time!
09:15 - The Finished Termagant
Thanks to Producer Patrons Alan, Kyrie, Andrew, Jimmy, Rod, Phil, Robison and Woodcock - as well as all the other Patrons that made this video possible, and Exit23 Games for recording equipment that helps keep the channel ticking over! Find out more at the following links:
/ sonicsledgehammer
/ sonicsledge
/ sonicsledgehammer
ko-fi.com/docwholigan
exit23.games
THE BASE: Vallejo Brown Earth textured paint, drybrush Dark Sand and paint base rim with Brown Sand. Tufts to taste, and done! Nice and fast.
PAINTS USED:
PRIMER:
White Scar (Citadel Spray Primer)
CITADEL:
Magos Purple (Contrast)
Pallid Wych Flesh (Layer)
Shyish Purple (Contrast)
Warpfiend Grey (Layer)
Reikland Fleshshade (Shade)
Imperial Fist (Contrast)
Black Templar (Contrast)
Flesh Tearers Red (Contrast)
Carroburg Crimson (Shade)
White Scar (Layer)
VARNISH:
Varnish+ (Instar)

[@MariusGage]

I’d really like to see this scheme used on one of the larger leviathan models

[@wookieerage66]

seconded

[@casieofarr]

I agree! Would love to see it on a larger Leviathan model

[@Specterish]

Thirded. 🤚

[@owenlinford]

Fourthed

[@TaxemicFanatic]

I'm gonna do it but don't think the contrast paints are the way for the bigger ones

[@Cyd99]

I love this scheme, the flesh is perfect and you are totally right about the red claws and darker carapace

[@brunswicklord6365]

Great production as usual. I will be using this guide and your Imperial Fist guide for my box of Leviathan. You are a gentleman Sir, always polite and never condescending and your tutorials are always very easy to understand. To a hobbyist of more senior years (64) this style is just what I am looking for.

[@jmaccsarmiesofmiddleearth]

Incredible result for no time at all

[@ThePaintingChap]

I’ve watched a few guides recently for these and decided to follow up with your recipe! Paint arrives tomorrow, can’t wait to try it! Thanks for sharing!

[@ARed-TailedHawk]

A tutorial so nice, I wish I could “like” it twice! 😂 Seriously, awesome as usual. I hope you’ll consider showing us how to do even more Tyranid schemes!

[@simonharwood7318]

Love it, was literally in my local hobby store watching this and picking out the paints. Roll on smashing out the leviathan box set! Thanks for guide 👍

[@justinkotrba2197]

this is such a great way to paint these termagants so quickly and easily. With their new sculpted details the drybrushing and contrast paints really make it stand out so nicely.

[@LoboDerPraesi84]

Man, I just love your videos! For me, your painting tutorials are the best of all that I`ve seen (im in the Hobby for over 26 years). Its just that you have the perfect method of explaining things and wich are easy to follow. Thx man and keep up the good work.

[@ClubTCG]

This guide is awesome! Matched the gun armor on hooves/claw with dry brush and looks great! Thanks a lot!

[@riprendandroar]

The end result on this is Excellent! Cant even imagine how good they will look as a full unit!! Great work!

[@Sj0bergC]

Thanks a lot for this video. The results are amazing. Watched your Winged Prime as well and its just so stunning. Finally found the colour schemes for my Leviathan box set armies, and they're both based on your vids! Hive Fleet Leviathan vs. Minotaurs :D Thanks again and take care! Christo

[@johnkelley9877]

That is a quick method and the model looks great! Thanks for sharing this.

[@thelonepainter4760]

Fantastic work! Keep up the great content.👍🏽👌

[@1701Starfish]

Incredible. Thanks for explaining and showing this method so clearly.

[@douglasreynolds76]

I was really unsure on how to paint my Nids, but after seeing this I am sorted! Great video as usual my friend. Keep it up and you are a legend.

[@michaellinford2790]

Amazing work, as always!

[@wpeaston]

Brilliantly done 👍👍👍

[@Robopengy]

I've been in a hobby doldrums lately and this video got me inspired to paint my first tyranid! Going to be doing the winged prime with this method! :)

[@jamesfirth-haydon7381]

That’s so nice. I mean Nice in a Nid way. Looks so amazing and effective. Look forward to you painting up some more from the set.

[@philgagnon275]

Just finished building the Nids half. Once there's nice weather I'll be priming it all

[@lorddyson6487]

Awesome guide mate! Would love to see one for Kraken, im thinking of doing the brains bright green but not sure yet haha

[@pocketrocket129]

This has become my favourite tyranid scheme. Love that darker carapace

[@jamesfirth-haydon7381]

Just tried this scheme on a Genestealer and it’s a scene stealer. Did it in around 20 minutes after the initial dry base of Magos had dried. Awesome. Now for the rest of the horde!! Thanks Sonic. You rock dude! 🤘🏻🤘🏻

[@lukewheeler8703]

Brilliant stuff as always

[@roochman]

Amazing tutorial! If you're looking for suggestions, I'd love to see your take on Behemoth's look in older editions, what with the bone-colored carapace and the areas of bright turquoise, that's a color scheme I've always loved for nids. Also glad to see I'm not alone in preferring red hooves for Leviathan!

[@fharbord]

Would love to see some Behemoth :) keep up the great work!

[@voidimperatrix406]

Beauty, you did the old scheme justice. Would love to see your take on one of those new hive fleets they introduced for tenth

[@Matt-md5yt]

Sweet glad you did this my friend

[@tungstentoothpick6788]

Looks great. Definitely how I would paint this give fleet to keep me from going insane after the 27th gaunt.

[@goforitpainting]

Cool as always. 👍

[@tyrodinpainting]

Love to see your take on the Kraken scheme.

[@gunm808]

You said "10 paints" and I kind of groaned. Then you said "contrast paints" and my eyes got wide. Thanks for these videos! :D

[@teamkeogh]

Troy, you’re done it again. Legend !

[@pv_hobbying]

Both of the new tyranid hive fleets would be awesome, the green/purple/black one is really nice

[@LyndenFender-gf9mm]

Great tutorial

[@stevepickering5978]

This is the colours I will use looks really Good

[@justsomeguy5851]

Thanks so much!

[@muhammadhilmi7590]

Please! I really want to see you paint other Hive Fleets. Heck! I even want to watch if you have your own colour scheme for your own custom Hive Fleet. 😊

[@dadofwar292]

Thank you for this. By far, the best on KZbin.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Glad you think so!

[@simonday3740]

Going to steal that colour scheme for my Dark Elder all female Wchye army.

[@JustGem87]

This lookes awesome. Hive Fleet Jormungandr is my hive fleet of choice.

[@andrewdelaittre1132]

Ordered my own box recently, can’t wait to create my own splinter hive fleet, Jabberwocky, for a narrative campaign against my chapter, the Iron Repentant. No color scheme yet though.

[@Anyway99973]

Awsome guide! It would be awsome if you could do an update version of hive fleet kraken. Its would help a lot of us that are nostalgic about our first army of tyranids of the 90'.

[@Mythodust]

I used your same recipe except I primed with wraith bone turned out great. Shyish purple has a bit of a learning curve

[@bencemuller4415]

I nearly used the same paints for my own. It is nice to see that some of my fellow hobbyist and I think alike. Will deffinetly use your skeme in the future! Comment for the Comment God, Like for the algorithm throne!

[@popburnsy3207]

What's the classic Space Hulk hive fleet? I'd like to see that done

[@EJayNine]

deffo do more fleets! :)

[@MrCBennett100]

I personally think it would be cool to see the new unknown hive fleet GW posted a while back if you saw it? The like pale blue and black one with magenta on the heads. It's my favourite scheme I've seen but looks intimidating to me.

[@brother_wesley]

I'd love to see you visit Kraken again. Thanks

[@randomlinkage1058]

You had me at ‘no mixing’ ;)

[@nickellingham1764]

I brought 10 x termigents off ebay this week for £9 including postage just for something different to paint. I'm breaking my 'no-contrast' rule as it seems the obvious way to go here. Need some practice to paint my Space Hulk Genestealers too so this looks like a winning method!

[@wookieerage66]

awesome video, i vote for hive fleet behemoth next!

[@4DaDiamonds]

I'd really appreciate some kind of speedpainting video on Tempestus Scions in the Drop Force Imperator colours - the usual Kappic Eagles is nice and all, but I'm really not sure how to keep the black, reds and golds looking nice whilst still getting them out more quickly!

[@prime3967]

I mean i am gonna be doing behemoth I'd love to see your take on that

[@SirCircon]

Also, Hivefleet Tiamet would be cool. Oh and a custom one that you _could_ see yourself doing for a whole army. : )

[@SirCircon]

Love this, please do more flavours if you can. I love that i dont need to mix and dilute anything makes it so much easier to replicate. :D

[@faba1985]

Awsome Tutorial as always from you! Would love to see more colorschemes for tyrandis from you. I'm no tyranid-player ... but how some greenish colour schemes? :)

[@brandonransley7091]

I'd also like to see this scheme on something big like the screamer killer, drybrushing the skin on has me worry that it'd come out chalky looking on the bigger models

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

If your first layer comes out chalky, you just go over again lightly with the same colour. Plus a varnish will often smooth out that finish in drybrushing; it's nowhere near the issue that some will make it out to be. As for painting a screamer kill, I'm waiting on general release - those things aren't just laying around yet.

[@samsowden]

I like black teeth on mine, looks properly alien

[@patrickt2746]

Great stuff! Do a Behemoth please!!

[@danielengle4876]

Would love to see the new hive fleets...

[@Daktangle]

I'd love to see how to do whatever the hivefleet was that was on the cover of the 3rd Edition Codex. I don't think they were ever named sadly.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Pretty sure it was Behemoth. It's just a way darker look due to the style of the time.

[@sotbs2641]

there's a channel called InfernalBrush run by a chap who used to be an 'Eavy Metal painter who has a video on exactly this! it's obviously competition-level painting but you could adapt it down to suit any level

[@mattferris3767]

This looks fantastic! You always come through with good painting schemes. Do you plan on doing any more Tyranid models from the new box?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Whether or not I can get my hands on them remains to be seen. 😅

[@Sam_Smith1987]

I always mess up the Palid Witch Flesh phase. Can drybrush metal etc no problems but really struggle getting this right.

[@Feanor2024]

Would love to see hive fleet Kronos please! Or an inverse of their color scheme

[@andreast.8762]

Nice

[@2023_DC]

Great guide, thanks! I’m using this with my kids for their first ever 40k painting. How did you do the base? I am just back into painting for the first time in 10 years or more, and I used to just glue the base and dip it in a sand material.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

It's just a thick sand paste with a drybrush over the top. The product names are in the description down with the paints; Vallejo does a pretty wicked range of base gumpfh these days!

[@toastermctoastface321]

Awesome work. Any chance you could show us a similar way to do hive fleet Tiamat?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

I'm finding out about a lot of weird little Hive Fleets today... 😂

[@-NeonLizard-]

Absolutely stealing that Reikland Fleshshade idea for the weapon. You're right its freakin' ewwww. Adds a massive body horror dynamic to it.

[@owenlinford]

Did you add more brushing to the carapace afterwards? The final model seems to have better detail on it then before Great tutorial thank you :)

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Nope, just what you saw me do in the drybrushing step. The varnish will help bring out a lot of the texture by removing the shine and making it easier for the eye to spot the drybrushed highlights.

[@fatllama5782]

Hey I’m returning after like 10 years away and I’m doing tyranids. I love this look for them so I’ve decided to try and do it. I have a death leaped so you have any recommendations for his membrane cape thingy?

[@degant1239]

Hey, I had a question. Did you ever thought of painting up any Polish troops for Bolt Action or a game like it? Myself I was interested specifically in soldiers of 10th Motorised Brigade, due to their distinctive black leather coats, and I would like to see your take on painting a black leather coat. Almost forgot, awesome tutorial!

[@phoenixdragoon]

Could you do a video for Hive Fleet Hydra, the classic Genestealer look?

[@40ktobin]

Going to try this during the week! What was used on your base as it goes really well? Also just subbed to the channel ❤

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Welcome aboard! Take a look down the bottom of the description; the base materials are listed along with the paints used. ✌

[@40ktobin]

@@SonicSledgehammerStudio awesome thanks very much 👍

[@vytrium]

As my box arrived today, I can say this video is really timely. Thanks for uploading good content like that, because It really helps me to get back to the painting desk. I might do my tyranids a little bit brighter, with medium-dark purple carapace (using sigvald's burgundy), but this take on the leviathan scheme is frankly quite cool, and I always liked your style that is a little less grimdark than what we can commonly see, and as effective as it is quick. By the way, I've seen there is some tint you use quite often in your video (zandri dust as a primer, for example) and I wanted to ask you if there is some color you feel like they are must-have, or very handy (preferably vallejo/AK/scale 75, since I don't use much GW nowadays) ?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Most of my alternative recommendations would be either Vallejo or Army Painter. Definitely grab some VJ German Black, and their ordinary Black is a must-have as well. I really like VJ Flat Brown and VJ Beige Brown for lots of things, too. Army Painter Tanned Flesh is a great basecoat for skin, and AP Matt White is one of my favourite whites out there.

[@vytrium]

Oh ok, thanks for answering so quickly, I'll be sure to keep this little list in mind the next time I go shopping for some paint. Just wanted to thank you again for keeping up the good content, thanks to you I discovered gloom trenches and I find it quite relaxing to have a channel to watch where the level is actually quite reachable and the technique is simple (as much as I enjoy watching Ninjon or Vince Venturella, for example, I don't think I'll ever be able to reproduce what they do in their video, unlike your handy advices like the "always keep the brush moving in one direction" that I try to apply everytime I'm working with washes/contrast paints). Sorry if I'm writing too much, but I don't write youtube comments often so I have quite a lot of things to say.

[@markrpunkt8244]

Great sceme! Do you have any suggestion for xpress or speedpaints for the colors? Gruß aus Deutschland 😊

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

I couldn't really say for Speedpaints since I don't have any, but Gloomy Violet and Deep Purple are the only purples in the Xpress range at the moment so your choices are limited without mixing. There is a second batch of new Xpress colours coming later this year - August was mentioned, so we'll see what Vallejo has in the works!

[@liam4606]

Do you have another varnish recommendation? I basically can't get Instar products in Australia, would something like the Tamiya Gloss Coating Varnish work well with the organic figures?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Personally I don't much care for gloss varnishes except in very specific use cases; they end up making a miniature look cheap and plastic, at least to my eye. Citadel's Stormshield varnish is a brush-on satin finish which is pretty good, or Vallejo's 'Premium Airbrush Matt' or whatever it's called - you don't need to jam that through an airbrush for it to work just fine.

[@liam4606]

@@SonicSledgehammerStudio fantastic! Thank you

[@Atlas_16474]

Will it works’ with leviathan purple

[@fiskstim207]

Why do you put Varnish on? for what puruse?

[@mattylebatty1518]

What model is this? It looks different to the new termagants in from games workshop ?

[@PrimaryGoon]

Yeah I've realised that, was wondering why my details looked different, thought I'd painted too thick or something. Seems to be a model that's specifically better for drybrushing?

[@thundergoat421_6]

Might we see Hive Fleet Typhon?

[@JuicyMangoMango]

what makes the model look almost dusty? is it the dry brushing

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Yup!

[@lethalhomeless4317]

I'm planning on doing an Tunisia campaign American army for bolt action, but can't find nowhere how to paint my tanks and infantry. Could you do one video about that? Also I would love to learn how to paint Italian tanks

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

The US infantry you could paint in pretty much any of the methods I've done on the channel before; lighter and more sun-faded would suit the theater, but their uniform didn't change all that much until the M43 uniform came along. If you're using the plastic Warlord Games infantry, you don't need to worry about all that green! 😜

[@lethalhomeless4317]

@@SonicSledgehammerStudio that's great to know! I already have British and DAK but my father wants to play with some Americans, so I'll make a thematic army for him to play with me. Thanks for answering!!

[@TheSpectralFX]

I'd be curious about what color you would pick for Hive fleet Hydra, I find the average painters makes them look way too bright to my liking.

[@thee_pyro3590]

How would one do hive fleet Tiamet with contrast? Would it be Arldari Emerald, or would it be something different?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

I'm not sure. Maybe a green shade over the flesh first, drybrush in white, then go back over the armour with Akhelian Green? People's miniatures in the scheme seem to be quite dark.

[@thee_pyro3590]

​@@SonicSledgehammerStudioso far I personally tried white/grey seer for the whole model, use akelian green or arldari emerald(both thinned) to cover everything. Than use mechanicus standard grey on the "armour" with arldari emerald for the older green of tiamet, or go akelian green for the newer one.

[@SgtScreamD68]

Thoughts on using an airbrush with the Magos Purple as an alternative?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

You could do? I've never put it through an airbrush, mind. Some of the examples I've seen where people airbrush their Contrast makes it come out more like a glaze than a heavy ink, so I dunno. Couldn't hurt to try.

[@SgtScreamD68]

@@SonicSledgehammerStudio Thanks for the response! Love your work! Cheers from Australia

[@TheKsalad]

Can we get one for hive fleet hydra?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Hydra looks kinda like I'd just skip the drybrushing stage on this skin after the purple, and paint the armour in Black Templar. They're almost 'dark mode' Leviathan, it looks like.

[@TaxemicFanatic]

Is that a matt or gloss varnish you used?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

It's a matt.

[@TaxemicFanatic]

@@SonicSledgehammerStudio thank you

[@mynameisntbobbybob]

Why does my shyish purple look so much brighter then what you've done?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

I couldn't say. It shouldn't, not much brighter. It might sound silly, but I've had people ask me similar when they've accidentally grabbed the wrong pot - if it's *much* brighter, is it Leviathan Purple by mistake? But otherwise there's not much reason a bottle of Shyish Purple would look that different to mine.

[@mynameisntbobbybob]

Thanks for coming back - I realised I just needed to give the pot a good shake 😂 haven't used contrast before and fairly new to painting.

[@Jim-yk9if]

"The meaty part of the gun". LOL Indeed, yuck!

[@CasualTS]

I was looking at my termagants and noticing they're not quite as detailed as yours. Maybe the quality dropped a bit from 9th to 10th?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

They're 3D prints. More opportunity for detail where you don't have to tool a metal die to cast them in.

[@CasualTS]

​@@SonicSledgehammerStudioOh, that's fancy!

[@nickdavis5420]

Mmm guns made of meat 🥩

[@anselmoffrisia2930]

I always thought it was pronounced "shy-ish" or "shai-ish", not "sheesh". Who knew!?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Eh, I've heard it about twelve different ways from various sources - it's like trying to spell fuchsia!

[@andreasburman]

Great result for how quick it was... How about doing Hive Fleet Ouroboros? The brown/green hive fleet from the Anphelion book