Tyranid Phenotype Fluff

[Jeff Hofmann]

Hey there, I remember someone commenting on brightly colored \'nids and how in nature this only occured as a warning sign from potential prey species. Insects that are poisonous or somehow dangerous are bright yellow/red/orange and black...even metalic. While those that have few defenses are camoflaged. Predators seem to be camoflaged to sneak up on prey. So why are \'nids brighly colored? Old one eye has a color based on a poisonous insect.

I figured perhaps the color allows \'nids to recognize one another in the absence of their leaders. When there isn\'t an army to fight the gaunts and genestealers just wander around eating and converting biomass for the hive ships, so a way of recognizing each other in the absence of leaders would be usefull.

Of course I don\'t own the codex yet so.....thoughts?

 

[t_haye2]

well, iun abcense 0of any prey, they consume themselves and absorb their warrior species back into the hive....it\'s a nice theory though....

 

[freakinacage]

or maybe because realistic colours don\'t stand out much on the table and the gw are \'pretty\'. thats fair enough as far as i\'m concerned a load of mini stuff is unrealistic but aesthetic. don\'t forget real space marines would be a lot bigger than normal humans yet there is barely a difference in the models

 

[Aragorns_mate]

if i had a nid army, id paint them like the alines off the film aliens, i know, the xenomorph 1,s with loadsa saliva lol!

they luk mint!

 

[No Such Agency]

They\'re brightly colored because it looks better to the player. You could make your big powerful units colorful to draw enemy fire, while your line fighters and gene stealers are drab to avoid it. That\'s at least as viable as any other evolution-based Tyranid color scheme.

I\'m not familiar with the fluff. Do Tyranids consciously breed themselves, or do they just absorb other species\' biomass/genes as a source of diversity, and let evolution-by-combat take its course?

 

[Firespin]

Weeeeeeell I painted my nids a nice flaming orange because its really intimidating to go against a well painted flood of black and orange little nids.

As far as the \'realism\' thing goes, in the insect world the predetors are camoflauged (sp????) might be true but otherwise look at the bengal tiger, Orange and black babay

 

[Aragorns_mate]

hey firespin, post some pics up on here of your nids man!

 

[frenchkid]

Originally posted by Firespin
Weeeeeeell I painted my nids a nice flaming orange because its really intimidating to go against a well painted flood of black and orange little nids.

As far as the \'realism\' thing goes, in the insect world the predetors are camoflauged (sp????) might be true but otherwise look at the bengal tiger, Orange and black babay

No I think that in the insectect world insect that are poisonous or have a defense mechanisme are not camoflaged wereas the vulnerable insects, are camoflaged. Or at least I think it works that way.

 

[Jeff Hofmann]

Originally posted by frenchkid

Originally posted by Firespin
look at the bengal tiger, Orange and black babay

No I think that in the insectect world insect that are poisonous or have a defense mechanisme are not camoflaged wereas the vulnerable insects, are camoflaged. Or at least I think it works that way.

You\'re right frenchkid.

Firespin, I understand that bengal tigers blend in a lot better than it might seem when they are in dried grass, but you did remind me of something else. Most vertebrates are more colorblind than humans, so the shade is more important than the color anyway.

What do the \'nids care cabout real insects attacking them? The\'re designed to kill the big critters, like us.

 

[Wolf_Fang]

i tend to use \"natural\" colours... im starting a new scheme shades of brown and green

 

[iplaythisgame]

Actually the way nids come to a planet and devour it in such a speedy manner, there is no time for them to evolve. and to evolve to any one color scheme could look out of place in another systems with different styled organisms.


http://www.coolminiornot.com/browse/submitter/iplaythisgame

 

[MrBunnies]

I always wondered that myself. Being the sort to be interested in biology, I always told myself that when I build a \'nid army (and I will....eventually) I will paint them all in earthtones and greys, with a few exceptions for some visual interest.

 

[MrBunnies]

Most vertebrates are more colorblind than humans, so the shade is more important than the color anyway.

What do the \'nids care cabout real insects attacking them? The\'re designed to kill the big critters, like us.

Most vertebrate mammals are, but most everything else has much highed color sensitivity than we do. Our color sensitivity is actually quite poor. We can\'t even see UV, which is pretty standard for almost everything else. Our poor color sensitivity is why digital photo compression degrades the color more than the luminance (tone from white to black).