Aaaaaargh! Painting Deep Ones Block!

[Onebigriver]

So I'm finally getting round to painting the Deep Ones I collected for my Shadows Over Imboca project many moons ago, but I'm completely daunted by painting them. I've collected some amazing art and prosthetics from t'internet but the variety of possible painting schemes isn't helping. Yet I don't want to do them all (hybrids & full Deep Ones) the same. Am I alone in being daunted by Deep Ones? Any suggestions for painting schemes?

[Arundel]

I've always pictured them darkish green with glowing yellow eyes, though I have no links for such a treatment. And I might be wrong, of course! Just be sure to give them some gloss coat to make them look wet and slimy.

Please tell us how you get on. 

EDIT: Weird, but in looking at another post on the Fantasy boards there are some Deep Ones (labeled Kuo Toa) that are pretty close to how I imagine them. Scroll about 2/3 down and there they are: old Grenadier sculpts, now sold by Mirliton in Italy - I'd give them yellow eyes and another shade for their underbellies, though. And more gloss coat!

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=104078.180

[Sinewgrab]

I used the base color scheme for a great white shark on mine - the medium gray on the back (i.e. 'top') of the figure, and a lighter gray below.



Don't let them intimidate you.   

[von Lucky]

A range of earthy green/greys/blues seems appropriate. You might just need 3-4 different skin colours.

Similar to the range of colours Eureka painted their Innsmouth heads:
https://www.facebook.com/eurekamin/photos/a.269261905508/10155438627990509/?type=3&theater

Aaaaaannnnndddd there's a Wikipedia page for them:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_One

"I think their predominant color was a greyish-green, though they had white bellies."

(So basically what Sinewgrab's done with his nice looking miniatures.)

[Captain Blood]

Don’t know if these help... I went for a wide variety... 

Although, to be fair, these are rather more fishy deep ones, than fish-men...

[matakishi]

I was going to do mine green as I have in the past but I couldn't think of any green fish so I did them as goldfish.

[Onebigriver]

Thanks everyone for their thoughts and suggestions.

I'm aware of the Cthulhu Wikis and may have read the original story once or twice 

Think I'll go with a variety of greys, green & browns for the full-time oceanic residents and have a play with pale flesh with pink & purple washes for the hybrids.

Thanks for the heads up  about the Eureka heads!

[Dezmond]

I followed the recipe for painting Slann in How To Paint Citadel Miniatures: Lizardmen.



As for the green:-

I think their predominant color was a greyish-green, though they had white bellies. They were mostly shiny and slippery, but the ridges of their backs were scaly. Their forms vaguely suggested the anthropoid, while their heads were the heads of fish, with prodigious bulging eyes that never closed. At the sides of their necks were palpitating gills, and their long paws were webbed. They hopped irregularly, sometimes on two legs and sometimes on four. I was somehow glad that they had no more than four limbs. Their croaking, baying voices, clearly used for articulate speech, held all the dark shades of expression which their staring faces lacked ... They were the blasphemous fish-frogs of the nameless design—living and horrible.

Blasphemous fish-frogs. So green I say!

[ced1106]

Here's how I painted mine for Cthulhu Wars. : https://boardgamegeek.com/article/18165449

You could take it further with additional contrasting highlights and detailing.