Hive Fleet Cerberus

We’re in ‘New Year, New Army’ season, so now is the perfect time to introduce my next big project – the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Cerberus! I already have a Tyranid army that has been plaguing the galaxy for decades. In fact, they’re the only army I own that has – in some form or another – consistently seen the tabletop in every single edition of Warhammer 40,000. They took part in the global Ichar IV campaign back in the 1990s, so it has always been my ‘headcanon’ that Hive Fleet Cerberus was a splinter of Hive Fleet Kraken, skulking off to terrorise the Eastern Fringe in the aftermath of that epic conflict. The name Cerberus is intended to allude to the “multi headed” threat of the splinter fleets.

This army has soldiered on with many of the original Tyranid models for many years now, as shown above. These were among the first xenos models I ever purchased, and they will always hold a special place in my nostalgic gamer’s heart. But the arrival of the Leviathan boxed set last summer convinced me that it was time for a long-overdue revamp of this force. I will be adding the Hive Fleet Cerberus tag to my blog, if you want to follow search for any posts relating to this project as it progresses.

If you’re a regular reader, you may also recall I made a ‘soft start’ to this project back in July 2023 with my Leviathan Screamer Killer.

Paint Palette

When it came to picking the colours for this revamp project I wanted to stick fairly close to my original Hive Fleet Cerberus scheme, which was also the “official” Games Workshop scheme back in the day. So this meant red for flesh and bone for carapace. After some thought on what colour bioweapons should be I eventually settled on blue. This forms a triadic colour harmony with the red and the yellowish tint of the bone. I find this free Colour Wheel website a useful reference for choosing complementary colours schemes for painting projects.

You can see some examples below of the classic Tyranid colour scheme from the 1990s. This is my main source of inspiration for the colours of Hive Fleet Cerberus.

When I list my painting recipes on this blog, I’m not only recording them for those of you who are interested in using them, but also as a reminder for myself. Below are the paint recipes for Hive Fleet Cerberus, and I’m sure I’ll be referring to this post frequently throughout the project. All paints listed are from the Citadel range and are applied over an undercoat of Citadel Wraithbone spray.

• Red Flesh
• Contrast Blood Angels Red
• Wild Rider Red highlight
• Troll Slayer orange dot highlight on sharp points

• Bone Carapace
• Contrast Skeleton Horde
• Screaming Skull highlight
• Skull White dot highlight on sharp points

• Blue Bioweapons
• Contrast Talassar Blue
• Lothern Blue highlight
• Blue Horror dot highlight on sharp points

• Black Claws
• Contrast Black Templar
• Eshin Grey highlight
• Dawnstone dot highlight on sharp points

• Head Mottling
• Naggaroth Night irregular dot
• Genestealer Purple layer inside dot

• Yellow Eyes
• Averland Sunset base coat
• Agrax Earthshade shade
• Yriel Yellow layer
• Abaddon Black pupils

• Urban Ruins Base
• Mechanicus Standard Grey base coat on rocks
• Warplock Bronze base coat on metal debris
• Contrast Skeleton Horde on skulls
• Nuln Oil shade over rocks and metal
• Dawnstone drybrush on rocks
• Administratum Grey drybrush on rocks
• White Scar drybrush on rocks
• Retributor Armour highlight on metal debris
• Screaming Skull highlight on skulls
• Skull White dot highlight on skulls
• Citadel Middenland Tufts (used sparingly)
• Abaddon Black rim

When I’m painting a display miniature or a small model count army, then I prefer the traditional painting methods of base coat, shade, multiple highlights and glazes. But if I was to try and apply that to the Tyranids I don’t think my sanity would hold out (although that would be fitting)! So I’ve decided that Contrast paints and one or two highlights are the best compromise between speed and acceptable quality. You can see the first test Termagant above, and I’m pleased with the results.

LED Palette

Since my Crimson Fists project I tend to specify a limited LED colour palette for new armies. This is to ensure they don’t look like multi-coloured Christmas decorations when the force is fully assembled on the tabletop. Hive Fleet Cerberus will use the following limited LED colour palette:

• Blue for bio plasma, psychic weapons and psychic abilities.
• Yellow for bullet impacts and fire.

I expect to use less LEDs in this project than in my space marine armies. My first rule of LED miniature design philosophy is “follow the art”. What this means is that I won’t put effects like LED muzzle flares on bio weapons that launch their projectiles through muscle spasms rather than gunpowder, as that wouldn’t make sense. Pyrovores on the other hand…

Army List

Below is the initial 1000 point army list that I’m aiming for. I hope to have this done by the summer so I can start playing some small games with this force. This list uses the ‘Invasion Fleet’ detachment.

• Hive Tyrant
  • Heavy venom cannon
  • Monstrous bonesword and lash whip
  • Warlord
  • Enchancement: Perfectly adapted
• Termagants x 10
• Termagants x 10
• Termagants x 10
• Barbgaunts x 5
• Neurolictor
• Screamer Killer
• Tyranid Warriors x 3
  • Melee bio-weapons
• Von Ryan’s Leapers x 3
• Zoanthropes x 3

Once the initial 1000 points are finished, what will be next? Tyrant Guard and a Biovore will be high priority, as I think they are awesome models. I’ll probably also need more fire power in the form of either Hive Guard, Exocrine or a Tyrannofex. A second Screamer Killer would be great too, as would some Lictors! My army list choice is always based on what I think looks cool, not what makes any tactical sense. I just can’t bring myself to paint miniature I’m not enthused about.

Like all my armies, I’m sure Hive Fleet Cerberus will be a slow-burn project. The Crimson Fists took about three years to complete, and the Flesh Eaters are also coming into their third year. So don’t expect to see a new unit of Tyranids every week! Having said that, here’s a preview of a another Tyranid miniature that is currently on my workbench…

What Else This Year?

It won’t just be Tyranids all the way down in 2024, I’ll also be continuing to expand my Flesh Eaters, painting a small Age of Sigmar force, plus working on a couple of one-off display projects.

That’s all for today, I hope you’ve enjoyed this introduction to my Tyranid project. Thanks very much for reading, and please remember you can also find me sharing my work on Instagram, Threads, Twitter/X, Bluesky and Mastodon.