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Hi guys!

Finally finished my first two squads of warriors I initially painted up a ghost ark (was half assembled before I realised it would be easier to paint it in parts, rookie move on my behalf ), but that was just a test to get the layout and scheme right before I tackled my army. I figured one average paint job on one model will spare a lot of mistakes on a whole army

I was scared that the traditional necron greens would clash with the nihilakh blues, however it seemed ok on the ark (green and gold, aussie aussie aussie!) and coupled with the gauss tubes on the warriors it looks way better than what I was expecting.

My main personal gripes currently are the glow coming out of the guns, it just doesn't look right to me, might go in and highlight it? The wet blending on the gauss tube is ok, it seems its something that will improve with practice. I also need to find a way to give depth to the gauss cartridge in the centre of the gun, unsure how to do this as of yet. Finally the edge highlighting could be a lot neater, as could the details, but again this is a practice (and patience) thing it seems to me.

OveralI am super happy with them, I have nearly a 4.5k army to get through, so I plan on painting the other 20 at the end of all that and see how much I've come along on this project.

I invite any and all constructive criticisms, I am learning as I go and any and all tips/pointers are greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Whats up with that necron's head in the first few pics? The back of his head is fused to his neck, I actually feel sorry for him.

He is meant to be looking up.

I thought so, but my problem is that its very unrealistic for his head to be like that even if he is an emotionless killing machine!
Personally, I would just tilt the head back slightly to give the impression of looking up but its your models so you are happy with it then that is all that matters.

In terms of your painting, I feel like its a bit thick in areas so you should thin your paints a bit more and a wash on the gold would help define it a bit more.
For your glow effect I would go in and highlight it with a lighter green to build up the glow effect. There are lots of tutorials on how to do glow effects so they might be of use to you.
That being said, its a nicely painted model and I look forward to seeing your Ghost Ark.

Looking at the mini from a human perspective on a tabletop, it doesn't look too wonky, but after looking at it in the pictures I agree, it does look strange

With thinning the paints, do you do more thin layers of each coat (i.e 2x leadbelcher, 2x Ironbreaker etc) or just the one of each. I think this is the problem with my gold on my ark, as being such a large area, it doesn't look evenly applied over the whole thing. It looks a tad messy. I do wash the gold with agrax earthshade, it dulls the auric armour down a bit. On the troops I think I need to put it on heavier to get more definition in the crevasses. Should I use a glaze like lamentors yellow over the top to highlight it, or go back in again with straight auric on the high points?

By the time I got to the glow I was getting impatient so it was just a white scar/moot green mix but with no gradients. I will have a hunt for glow effects, I feel this will be a good indicator if I am improving as a paint slinger

Thanks for the response mate, constructive criticism helps quite a lot

Klowny wrote:
With thinning the paints, do you do more thin layers of each coat (i.e 2x leadbelcher, 2x Ironbreaker etc) or just the one of each. I think this is the problem with my gold on my ark, as being such a large area, it doesn't look evenly applied over the whole thing. It looks a tad messy. I do wash the gold with agrax earthshade, it dulls the auric armour down a bit. On the troops I think I need to put it on heavier to get more definition in the crevasses. Should I use a glaze like lamentors yellow over the top to highlight it, or go back in again with straight auric on the high points?

Yeah, you should be painting with a minimum of 2 thinned layers to get an even coverage. I usually do 2 layers and only use a third for areas that I have missed in the previous layer.
Washes do dull down the colour of your painted areas and so you should go back in with the original paint (in your case auric armour gold) and redefine the high points again to make the shaded areas more distinct. Don't use a glaze on gold, I have never tried yellow glaze on gold but I don't think it would work.

On a side note, sometimes you want the shade to dull down the previous layer and so you don't always need to go back in with the previous paint. It really depends on what sort of look you want.
Glad to have been of use to you and I look forward to seeing your army grow!

At first, I thought he was wearing some sort of visor, then I was thinking he may have been going for a Geth vibe. I agree with the consensus. It looks odd. Overall, though, a decent looking Necron squad of a solid tabletop quality. It looks better than many of the armies I see at local stores. It will look better with the whole army finished.


Ghidorah

Thanks for the responses and feedback guys. I will endeavor to thin my paints down from now on, is there a ratio of paint to water that is a general rule of thumb or is it just a certain consistency I would be aiming for? Ill have a look for some tutorials before I start my next lot.

I am going to leave the head in the position it is in, like I said on the tabletop it doesn't look so bad, but I wont make that mistake in the future

I usually go for a 1:1 ratio of paint to water/thinner but some paints are thicker and so require just a bit more thinning. Its more of case of experience in knowing how much to thin a paint by so that the paint flows smoothly onto the model.
But as you paint more models you will quickly get a hang of it so don't worry too much about it.

Sweet, thanks mate

I like to aim for the consistency of milk. I find that it tends to bead up or cover more like a wash if you get much thinner. I find that it's easier to transition/blend.


Ghidorah