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...Or Beetle-Bots; as I like to call them, have been on my table getting the treatment.

A long time ago...I bought a box of Necrons because I had vouchers and didn't know what to buy. Once I had stared at the contents for a while, I came up with these:

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d161/Inso/Beetlebots/BotHowTo1.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d161/Inso/Beetlebots/BotHowTo2.jpg
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d161/Inso/Beetlebots/BotHowTo3.jpg

Which led me to build a small unit of building clearance robots for one of my Grymn (Space Dwarf) armies:



I still had a few Necrons left and decided to add a robot helper to a Grymn Starship crew:



With the crew:

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d161/Inso/Grymn/Starship%20Crew/SCrew26.jpg

Finally, I got a few more vouchers and bought a few more Necron boxes but this time I thought I'd make an army rather than just have a few troops here and there. I will be using the Necron Codex but not the fluff...these are manufactured robots with the brain patterns of existing, serving troops being downloaded into the robot's neural net (sort of robotic clones of serving troops). By doing this, generals know what sort of troops they are going to get without having the moral obligations to keep them alive .

Here is the prototype:



and here is the BASE-COATED, WIP, first squad:



http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d161/Inso/Beetlebots/BeetleBotWIP9.jpg

Here's an idea for scale:



I started on some destroyers but had a change of heart and broke them up...so I no longer have any pix for those...but will have once they are finished.

The units that I will be using from the Necron Codex will be:

Lord
Warrior
Immortal
Scarab
Destroyer (and all of it's variants)
Monolith (but not looking like the existing model)
Tomb Spider (but not looking like the existing model)

Once I have some more pix to show off, I'll post a bit more fluff and maybe some ideas for how the army's more interesting units will look .

Ahh Inso you come up with such original miniatures. I'm officially jealous.

...

Cpl Jones slowly lowered his head into the headrest of the special chair. Once he was comfortable the nurse tightened the restraining strap over his forehead and asked if he was ready.

Cpl Jones said that he was and the seat slowly lowered to a roughly horizontal position. Once it was there, a robotic arm raised a laptop sized scanner and adjusted it so that it was about three inches from Jones's face. There was a click and about ten seconds of a barely audible hum before the arm withdrew the scanner and the seat began to raise to the normal position.

"All done!" said the nurse.
"Was that it?" Jones replied.
"Yep. Robot Jones will be waiting outside to meet you".

Jones left the small room and walked into a small collection area. Standing on a big yellow spot in the corner, was a blue/grey coloured robot who looked at Jones as soon as he entered. Jones stopped and looked back at the robot.

"Now that is just weird!" they both said together.

..."This will take a little getting used to" they both thought...

Really nifty idea. The lower stance definitely changes the look of the Crons. I'm really looking forward to seeing what your Monolith counts as ends up as!

I was wondering what happened to the squats...

Lord Scythican wrote:I was wondering what happened to the squats...

Weren't they eaten by Tyranids?





Automatically Appended Next Post:
I've just been taking an inventory of components and it looks like I'll have enough bits for:

1 Lord
1 Destroyer Lord

2 squads of 10 Warriors

4 Destroyers (1 is likely to be a heavy one)

...so I have enough for a small army .

I have started work on the Lord on foot and he is ticking along nicely. He's going to have a staff of light and I'll add gizmos to show what wargear he has (I haven't decided what yet...).

I just wish that the glue would dry quicker :( .

I have got a bit further with the bots...just need to paint the bases:



I will paint up another bunch and then try to get hold of some tiny transfers to mark them all up.

I'm still ticking along with the Destroyers, a Lord and a Tomb Spider...

There's more on Inso's World .

The walking Lord:



I guess I'll have to start on the Destroyer Lord soon...

More info over at Inso's World (link in my sig).

Painted Lord:

Those are pretty awesome. I like the very simple paint job, it is very neat and clean. Awesome work!.... How long does it take you to convert up a squad?

These are really, really cool! Thanks for the tute, if I ever get hold of some necrons, I'll be sure to give em a go

Lol i loved the robopug, and i think i might steal some necrons from my bro

Extremely cool and unique! And the models look like something GW would release, very good job!

Those are incredible! What a fantastic design, very fun but still menacing.

I would suggest a contrasting colour for the eyes though. Maybe the show up better IRL, but they get a bit lost here.

Can't wait to see more!

The Lord models great I'm slightly wondering how you'd tell him apart from an Immortal mind. I'd personally use that design for them and use something slightly more ornate as the Lord.

I'm really not sure what to do with the Immortals...I may end up bulking up a standard Bot rather than using a Destroyer torso...I'll also have to build double barrelled Gauss weapons.

I am trying to keep these looking like military equipment so ornate isn't really in the plans...although I can see where you are coming from with regards to 'setting the Lord apart'...

...I still need to add some decals/markings (once I decide on which ones to use and actually buy them) so I'm hoping that I can add a bit of individuality using those.

The eyes were a bit of a disappointment...they have been washed with Asurmen Blue over a white base-coat...and it really didn't work that well...maybe a second wash will help to sort it out? I'll give it a go at some point (if I go wrong it won't take much to put it right due to the simple colours I've used).

Thanks for all the comments and I'm glad these are being well received .

Very nice! I love it! Am going to have to look up your other threads as the DE model looks pretty hawt too

The only DE model I've painted is the one shown...so don't go hunting too hard .

Inso wrote:
The eyes were a bit of a disappointment...they have been washed with Asurmen Blue over a white base-coat...and it really didn't work that well...maybe a second wash will help to sort it out? I'll give it a go at some point (if I go wrong it won't take much to put it right due to the simple colours I've used).

Since you're using a cool grey (unless the camera is responsible for that) I'd suggest a warm colour to make 'em pop. Red or orange.

Hmm the iconography decals might well work. I guess I'm to used to seeing hyper-ornate commanders that practicality distracts me.

The three Destroyers are coming along (still need to sort fairings, gaps and a third pilot):



The battle of the cake is on my blog too (see link in my sig).

Was wondering how you would avoid making them look to much like normal necrons. And I must say that really is a both a nice start and quite inspiring to.

Those are great.

How big are the Immortals suppose to be? You could use Ork Dred legs and the Destroyer butt for the body.

Very cool take on the necrons. You use so many bits from them and other armies, but they look completely different. When I saw the first pic of the painted one, I thought it was an old metal model that you were going to duplicate with plastics, as close as possible, but these are fantastic and original.

Immortals are about the same size as the Lord...but there are Tomb-Spiders that could be converted from the destroyer bodies.

The destroyers are now finished:

Those mini-crons are amazing !!! I can imagine them wrestling to cheering Imperial Guard haha ! Good job mate

Must be said. These are pretty sweeet.

Win? Good luck los.
Oh no, we are advancing into the open!
Dont worry, that short grass with render us invisible

They look lovely

Love the destroyer!!

Looks like a fliying scooter!

wyrd boy of da naith wrote:Looks like a fliying scooter!

Yep...that is exactly what I was aiming for . I have sort of nick-named them 'death-scooters' and I thought that they would suit the army better than evil-looking speed-machines.

I will be disappearing for a month or so but plan to start converting some Tomb-Spiders when I return. I have all sorts of components for them and will be taking a completely different approach with them. Their stats suggest that I could get away with...dare I say it?...Necron Ogres? Especially with their high strength, multiple wounds and the fact that although they hover, they are treated as foot-sloggers where the rules are concerned. Add to that a particle beam and we have a pretty viable Ogre-style character in the offing...

...I was thinking that Mongrol from the ABC Warriors (2000AD comics) would be a good place to start...

...I was also thinking that each of the Tomb Spider count-as models could be different characters (seeing as they don't have to stick together on the field of battle).

...and for those of you who worry about such things, line of sight does not apply when you only use the rules to build an army and not to play the game .