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The theme of my army is having very robotic-like vehicles, instead of having them piloted by normal Necrons. Because why wouldn't the Overlord have his lowest dudes completely integrated with each vehicle? It's not like he considers them people, and integrating them with vehicles, removing unneeded limbs etc increases efficiency. It also adds to the horror, inhumane disrespecting life aspect that defines Necrons.

Anyway, to achieve this I had to do something about the pilot of the Scythe. My first attempt of this was lackluster, so I revisited the problem using the two new Scythes I'm building.

I'm much happier with this one. Here it is:



Using a Necron Wraith back plate component and some bass guitar string.



There's a couple more pics on my blog, and thanks for looking.

- Bocete

Wonderful idea, would like to see how your other vehicles look with this theme

Kharne the Befriender wrote:
Wonderful idea, would like to see how your other vehicles look with this theme

You can check them out on my blog, all the units I painted are listed on the sidebar to the right.

Nicely done I went with a similar theme but losing pilots altogether (it just seems silly to me to have pilots when they obviously can build combat capable A.I.)

I used greenstuff and a LOT of sanding for this WIP:

 Maelstrom808 wrote:
Nicely done I went with a similar theme but losing pilots altogether (it just seems silly to me to have pilots when they obviously can build combat capable A.I.)

I used greenstuff and a LOT of sanding for this WIP:

Spoiler:

Great work!

I just started smoothing out my conversions by adding green stuff to all the sharp edges. It's not going well. To date, I've only ever sculpted somewhat spherical lumps of green stuff.

There is definitely a learning curve. The only real sculpting i've done with it is the night scythes and I had to fill some massive gaps in a FW bloodthirster that required sculpting to match the natural texture of the body.

So here's a few pics after adding green stuff to the mix and sanding it:



Honestly, I don't know what to think. It's bad and unlikely to get any smoother with the tools I have, a few flat and round files up to ~300 grit. It's hard to reach all the bits that need sanding, especially at the nose.

Here's a few pics of my old Scythe, paint partially stripped and the same conversion applied but before sanding:



I'm very unhappy with how this green stuff stuff is going, and I won't proceed further until I have something worth priming and painting.

Got some advice?

Thanks,
- Bocete

Hmm. That's a tricky one.

Would you be able to use a fine grade of sand paper to get a better finish?

Hope you're not disheartened as it's a cool concept.

D

GS will not give you the sanded finish you're looking for, due to it being a rubbery putty. You can rescue this - your best shot is to get some milliput and smooth over with that. With it on there, take a paper towel, fold it up, wet it, and you can smooth the surface to a porcelain finished standard. It's very easy and not too pricey.

GS can give you the sanded look (my scythe above is evidence of that). It does take a LOT of work though. Here are a couple of tips that i've found working on my own:

- For sanding, you want a slightly higher ratio of the blue component. It will set up harder and take the sanding better. It looks like the initial bit of gs you put down had a lot of yellow in it, which will give you a softer final product, which tends to be too gummy for sanding down in my experience.

- when you are mixing the blue and yelllow components, the better mixed they are and more homogeneous they are, the better result you'll have. If poorly mixed, the tiny pockets of the different mixing components will sand down at different rates, making it more difficult to get a smooth finish.

- less is more. Only use as much greenstuff as you absolutely need, erring on the side of not enough as opposed to too much. It's much easier to add a little more than it is to sand down an excessive amount. Add the greenstuff in little flattened strips rather than a big lump that you try to shape.

- patience is crutial. I use a fine grit (320) and I keep working it and working it. It took me a good hour and a half to two hours of sanding to get my scythe where I was happy with it.

As far as your scythe goes, it'll be tough for sure. The nooks and crannies will be hard to get to, but I think it's fixable to some degree. You may need to simplify the shape you are going for with the green stuff to allow for easier sanding

Could you buff it down with a dremel and a softer buffing head, rather than a more rigin sanding head? You might be able to smoothe the curves more evently that way.

Worst case sand as best you can and get one of those self leveling paints and see if it will fill the sand marks.

Next time you want to sand get a different putty. I forget the name but there is some stuff that sands good that is often used for mechanical things.

I really like the idea of an enclosed cockpit. I think the largest problem right now is where you are applying the GS. I personally thing you need to have it start higher up on the wraith shell and have a smoother transition onto the scythe. Then from there it may actually help with the cleanliness of the transition.

Yeah, I definitely shouldn't be using green stuff for this. I just imagined I could use it as clay, add excessive amounts of it and file it smooth afterwards.

With that said, after reading more about how people approach green stuff, I spent maybe an hour carefully sanding one of the cockpits. Applying very light to no pressure to the stuff. Then, even though it looked ugly and messy, it felt smooth to the touch. I applied some brush-on primer just to test how it would look like, and it looked very good. There was no visible transition.

I guess I should just take it easy, and spend as much time as it needs. It won't be fun, but that's the price of fixing screwups. In the future I'll use a different material for this.

Really nice alternatives here fellas.

I always thought the idea of a Necron pilot was dumb, it even looks stupid. My Scythe has the pilot in it just so I could finish the assembly, though.

"All right guys. Let's stick one of our machines in the cockpit to . . . pilot the machine . . .

I'm fired, aren't I?"

 PrehistoricUFO wrote:
Really nice alternatives here fellas.

I always thought the idea of a Necron pilot was dumb, it even looks stupid. My Scythe has the pilot in it just so I could finish the assembly, though.

"All right guys. Let's stick one of our machines in the cockpit to . . . pilot the machine . . .

I'm fired, aren't I?"

Thank you

Heh, I did the same thing. All 6 of mine have the pilots. As I get around to converting each one, the poor guy gets his head snapped off and is then entombed in the green stuff

It's all good!

After weeks of carefully sanding using a very fine sanding sponge, then moving places making me unable to work for a while, I'm back at the desk and I consider this done. It's not perfect, and in time I could make it better, but it's very good already and I want to paint them.

This is after applying a rough basecoat of different grays. I'm on a new setup so the paint ended up being very thick, I can make it work though.

Here are a few pics and there are more on my blog. Thanks for looking!

Looks great! Glad it turned out well.

If I were to make my necron army from scratch, I would do something very similar to this. I feel the same way about Necron vehicles being AI controlled instead of piloted. Plus that looks awesome and very clean.

That is so cool, I am considering retro fitting my existing necron flyers. thank you for sharing.

Here are a few work in progress pics. The one to the left is my old scythe with the cabin part paint-stripped, basecoated and ready to be repainted. The one to the right is a new scythe.

I painted the wings differently now. I intensified blues to be on par with the rest of my army, as the old scythe was noticeably too subtle. I also painted the inlays black instead of leaving them soft gray. As a result, the new model looks very.. alien and vibrant. There's lots of work to be done but it's definitely looking good, heading in the right direction.

I also decided not to get some inlays/symbols/whatever added to the wings. The old Scythe really needed something more, the new one does not.

Thanks for looking!

All done! Phew. This was an adventure.

Here are a few pics, you can find more in my blog, and thanks for looking.

nice work, i was thinking of converting some myself i wanted to see it with sharper less crescent like wings