Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So, I used to paint/convert for fun a long time ago, then took a half-decade-long hiatus, and got roped into playing by friends. I'm working on assembling a 2000pts-ish Necron army with more of a pirate raider-y sort of theme. Unfortunately, the 9 or 10 boxes of stuff I ordered are still in the mail, and I'm grumpy that I can't use all this holiday time to paint. So instead I've been mucking around in GIMP doing up a paint scheme - so here you go, Part 1: The Mockup.



I'm trying to keep this simple, so colors I plan on using are:

- Boltgun Metal/Chainmail for the chassis
- Mechrite Red/Blood Red for the armor plating
- Dheneb Stone/Bleached Bone for the face masks
- Tin Bitz/Dwarf Bronze for the gilding and ornamentation
- Blazing Orange/Skull White mixing for the weapons and glowy bits

I'm trying to go for more of an weathered armored vibe, hence the mostly two-tone drab color scheme. For infantry I'm mainly going to be fielding Immortals, Lychguard and maybe Deathmarks - not really a huge fan of Warriors. The higher in rank they get, the more red armor plating they have, and the Overlord and his guard have bone-tone death masks with no mouths (covered with green stuff) - I was sort of inspired to do that from seeing how the Lychguard/Overlord models actually have their faceplate held on with tabs to their skulls itself. I plan to use Triarch Praetorian heads instead of the ones with silly headdresses, too - not that I mind the egyptian vibe, but it's not really what I'm going for right now. And of course, quite a few more conversions in the works.

I'll update once my models arrive and I can get down to priming and painting the first few. For now, any opinions on the color scheme for the Tesla Carbines? I'm not quite sure which way I should go, having it just more of a menacing black/gunmetal weapon, or blinging it out a bit with red and brass bits.

Most of my stuff finally came in today!



I've still got 6 boxes of Immortals on the way, too. Eesh. Guess I know where all my free time for the next coupla months is going.

I managed to assemble up my entire Lychguard squad for today - I'll most likely be running a squad of 8 with a Lord (warscythe, res orb) seconded from my Overlord's Royal Court to give it some extra punch. It's been a while - I didn't remember flash removal + assembly being this labor-intensive, and I'm getting a serious migraine from eyestrain. But it's all worth it in the end. I'll most like start priming and painting tomorrow (after filling up the joins in the shoulder plates with green stuff, they're beginning to annoy me).



I'm trying not to go crazy with conversions for the moment - my main focus with my infantry will be dynamic posing (more emphasis on action and looking threatening instead of just having them standing there awkwardly) and making every single model look like it has a story to tell. For the Lychguard, that means I want them to look like they're striding into battle and getting ready to hack things down like an implacable lawnmower of death.

Close-ups of each row so you can see the posing a bit better:



I'm using Egyptian-ruins-ish scenic bases I got off eBay, they're pretty neat and allow me to give a bit more height to already tall units - they tower over Terminators even without the bases!



The Lord's arms are off a spare Command Barge Overlord I got from a bits seller (that I unfortunately ruined the rest of by trying to paint strip it in acetone thinner).

More updates soon!

First couple models painted up, and my first time trying out freehand highlighting - I really like how it turned out on the armor. I know the paint is a bit rough, but I don't particularly mind, it adds a bit of texture after all. My color scheme turns out to be pretty intensive, given I take about 7-8 hours per model even while trying to streamline stuff - on the whole though, I'm pretty proud of how they turned out.











Going to take a hiatus from painting a bit and assemble up my Immortals, until the varnish I ordered comes in. I'm noticing that paint tends to rub off pretty easily if I don't watch where I'm holding the figure while I paint, so a bit of protection for gaming wouldn't hurt. I'm working on one of the Doomsday Arks, too!

I love these. Where did you get the bases from?

Very nicely painted! Cool scheme and neato use of Photoshop to work out the scheme.

Still think i prefer my necrons more knackered looking though. Like the idea of them being vitrified or fossilized if you will, like the jockey from Aliens.

Thanks! The bases are off eBay, just search for 'scenic egyptian ruins' or something like that.



Also, totally non sequitur and canon-violating, but this is what I've been working on on a whim. I figure I'll use him as an overlord on foot in smaller games. Whatcha think?

Got all my troops assembled, and a couple painted in a proto scheme. Here're my Immortal and Cryptek from Red Squad:







I'm fielding 3 squads of Immortals with a Harbinger of Destruction leading each one. Each one's going to be color-coded according to their skull plating (and also because I've posed each squad differently). Red, bronze, and then bone (for the Pyrrhian Eternals if I end up fielding them)



My Overlord with green stuff extra armor. Probably going to be an Anrakyr counts-as, so I'm gonna need to figure out a way to represent a tachyon arrow. He's going to be riding in a Command Barge, but I like the scenic base too much, so there.



One of my other Crypteks.



Doomsday Ark WIP, assembling it like a Ghost Ark because it looks cooler that way.

First: The Commissar Overlord looks awesome.

Second: The Crypteks looks awesome, due in no small part to the simplicity of the conversion.

Third: I agree about the Doomsday Ark. I was thinking about magnetizing mine so that I could take the Doomsday Cannon off and sticking 8 or so models in it (you can fit 8 Warriors in there if you do it right).

Fourth: those pictures are really big.

Wicked color scheme you got there!
Awesome CommissarCron. Maybe he can be a marker or something?
"Sir, we found your coat and your hat! It looks like one of the robots are... wearing them."
"GIVE THEM BACK THIS INSTANT, FILTHY XENO!"
And I see you ditched the Lychguard heads and used the Praetorian ones. Now that I've seen what they looked like, I'll probably do the same.
Thanks for posting, and keep it up! Looking good, there.

Sorry for the huge pics! I hope they aren't too bandwidth-intensive for others, my screen seems to auto-resize them so they fit though.



I've finished up most of my Lychguard squad, and thought I'd take pics during the varnishing process. Probably going to paint up one or two more, since I'll most likely be running a group of 6-7 + the lord /w warscythe, res orb and mindshackles. They aren't stellar against hordes with their I2, but against small groups of elite troops/TEQs, with their 3+/4++ saves, 5s/5t, and getting back up on a 4+, they can definitely hold their own and even tear them apart if they get the charge. Of course, they can tear apart any non-dedicated-melee unit, and mindshackle scarabs are just great for making Mephiston whack himself in the face with his force weapon or other fun things like that.



Here's a picture with flash to show off the reds better. Basically, my paint scheme is:

-Prime /w huge jar of black gesso (that one in the background)
- Metal chassis is done with boltgun metal DB, devlan mud wash, and then lighter chainmail DB.
- Armor plating and shields are mechrite red, blood red highlight, then blazing orange highlight.
- Loinplates and skull masks are bleached bone with skull white highlight. And khemri brown basecoat, if I remember to.
- Handle wrapping on the weapons is khemri brown with devlan mud wash.
- Glowy orbs and eyes are blazing orange, sunburst yellow highlight, skull white highlight.
- Ornamentation is tin bitz coat, then dwarf bronze coat.
- Base is khemri brown DB all over, then light desert yellow DB on the sand.
- Everything is then covered with 2 coats of vallejo matte brush-on varnish. I'm debating whether to gloss varnish the black onyx parts (blades, triarch ankhs, res orb).



Pose-wise, these are my two favorite of the lot. I think I did a pretty good job of capturing them mid-strike.



These two are more at-ease, but skulking forward.



And of course, no army is complete without matching dice.



Another final group shot, featuring one of my really old throwaway Khorne Berserker models from back in the day who's kindly volunteered to serve as a varnish tester.



We thank him for his noble sacrifice, and hope his bolter wounds heal back eventually.

I'm at work so i can't see linked pics :( what i read about your necrons made me excited! red crons ftw!

Not bad at all! Very nice!

Gorgeous models! Love them! The commissar is pure genius my friend, cant wait to see more!

I love the "commisar" overlord. What are your plans with painting him?

Thanks for the comments! I'm probably going to do Commissarcron in the standard boltgun metal necron color scheme, just to make his coat stand out just a bit more. However, right now I'm just focusing on getting the last couple members of the Lychguard phalanx ready, then I can finish up my first Immortal squad...busy busy!

Oh, man, these look fantastic! You've really taken your Necrons and made them something special!

Beutiful Scheme and well executed. I welcome you to check out my Necron blog as well. I hope you find something to inspire you as I have found much to inspire me with your models.

I've been working on painting up my second Immortal squad so I haven't had much time to update. More assembly pics though!





My other two Immortal squads that I haven't started yet. Each squad is positioned differently - one has guns at ease, one has guns pointed at the enemy, and one has guns post-firing. I'm planning on going for a hybrid tremorcron/dual doomsday ark list with a c'tan with Grand Illusion and Writhing Worldscape to bring it all together, so I'm keeping the squad sizes a bit smaller to skimp on points - 6 + a cryptek for now, but I have enough models to expand them to 8-9 each if I need to.





I had a few spare Lychguard bits lying around so I mocked up a proper Overlord for the barge, using one of the one-eyed heads from the Ghost/Doomsday Ark kit to give him that good ol' pirate king look. Not sure if I want to give him a cape or not.





I'm quite happy with how I got the arms, it took a bit of clipping and repositioning. Good thing 'crons are pretty conversion-friendly!

Yeah, the sheer ease in mashing the different kits together is one of the reason why I like these products so much. You’re definitely a prime example of why you should plan an army ahead and buy all at once… the extra bits and things you get can really help you mix and match to get a unique look for the army.

I’m really digging the color scheme, particularly the orange/yellow energy glow. It really gives it a clean, organized look that I love to see. (Please don’t OSL it… pleeeease).

I really like the look you gave the Tesla Carbines in the photoshop test, the one where the back parts of the gun are red but the majority of the gun is the more black/gunmetal look. I think that makes the whole thing look a bit more menacing. Also if it’s all red, there’s a risk of it getting lost in the model.

All in all the models look killer, it’s certainly inspiration to start working on Necrons, keep up the good work.

Thanks! I know what you mean about the carbines - i kinda wanted to do them more utilitarian and all, but I figure 'cron overlords put a lot of stock in their weapons/vehicles, what with them being worth more than their soldiers and all, so I thought I'd make them more ornate.

Had my first game today vs. Grey Knights, 1750 points. Went pretty well - my Overlord cut his teeth and can openered a psyfleman dread, my Monolith took down a Stormraven, and his GKGM for some reason solo-charged my Lychguard, took down two of them, and got utterly annihilated in return (and then both of the casualties got back up thanks to my lord's res-orb).

I'm not too enthralled with the Doomsday Arks'/tremorcrons' performance, but I was playing five objectives on a ruin-heavy map, so it was a lot of camping and not moving. I did wipe out around 900 points of his stuff compared to a loss of about four lychguard (epic failed 8 4+ saves in a row against meltaguns and RP), a couple immortals and a junked DArk thanks to really stupid deployment on my part, though.





Here're a couple pictures to tide you guys over, though (bad lighting, I know). I did up my Overlord on foot in as much heavy armor plating as I could get away with and gave him a double-bladed polearm/staff/projector thingy - so I can use it as a warscythe, staff of light, or even as a warscythe with attached tachyon arrow for Anrakyr.

The model next to him's the first Necron model I ever bought back in Dec, and the prototype for my original color/model scheme (before I stopped wanting to stick those weird headdresses on everything) - also featuring one of the oddest axe-staff-hybrid weapons I could think of, inspired by my trying to salvage the broken Finecast staff at the time. I just picked him up from the LGS where I left him languishing in a display cabinet, and I'm most likely going to touch him up to the finalized color scheme just for the hell of it. Dunno what I'll use him for, though. Maybe field both of them as Zahndrekh and Obyron in large games?

Subscribed. I <3 Necrons.

Liking the Overlord (the one without the headdress). So, what's next on the block for painting?

Amazing stuff matey! You've inspired me to paint. Shame its Valentines day...:(

Does the orb influenced by Tacitus (C&C series)?

Nope to the orb. I'm not exactly sure what I was inspired by for the paint scheme/overall army look, really - I picked up the original overlord (with the headdress) 'cause he looked really samurai-ish, and I guess from there it gravitated off to ornate egyptian space raiders.

I'm not too sure what I'm going to tackle next - I'm done up with one of my Immortal squads, so maybe I'll start on the next one so I can get all my troops painted. I'm waiting on a C'Tan as well.

So you're going to keep the blades and other shiny-bits black rather than doing that wicked orange color? Because I really really liked that orange on the power weapons and all the cabling. That being said, I know how much of a pain in the arse orange is to paint, so I wouldn't blame you.

That being said, if you're thinking about hitting the 'obsidian' stuff with a high-gloss varnish, do it, it will really make them stand out as being done, rather than just looking like you haven't got around to painting them yet. That's what I did with the carapaces (carapaci? carapacesess...) SHELLS on all my tyranids, and that came out great.

It's too early for the spellings...

I didn't think you could pull off red on a necron army, I was wrong. They look great and the poses really help them out. Keep it up, I am looking forward to seeing a completed army all painted up and based. Are you planning on getting a c'tan? I would love to see how you would paint it up.

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:So you're going to keep the blades and other shiny-bits black rather than doing that wicked orange color? Because I really really liked that orange on the power weapons and all the cabling. That being said, I know how much of a pain in the arse orange is to paint, so I wouldn't blame you.

That being said, if you're thinking about hitting the 'obsidian' stuff with a high-gloss varnish, do it, it will really make them stand out as being done, rather than just looking like you haven't got around to painting them yet. That's what I did with the carapaces (carapaci? carapacesess...) SHELLS on all my tyranids, and that came out great.

It's too early for the spellings...

Yep, I've actually done all those bits up in two coats of gloss varnish already (including some other black parts like the triarch ankhs and tesla carbine barrel shrouds). It's primarily because of the orange reason, heh - but the whole black-hole-energy-field look is growing on me. Saves me a lot of headache highlighting, too lord knows I already get enough of a headache just doing the armor plating.

PapaPiggy wrote:I didn't think you could pull off red on a necron army, I was wrong. They look great and the poses really help them out. Keep it up, I am looking forward to seeing a completed army all painted up and based. Are you planning on getting a c'tan? I would love to see how you would paint it up.

I totally am - didn't plan to at first, but I ended up running one with Writhing Worldscape (3 tremorstaves in my army) and Grand Illusion (just to get my two Doomsday Arks into prime firing position). I'm probably going to get the Deceiver and convert him up with some wings from the Bretonnian pegasi - I just think he really looks like Kefka from Final Fantasy 6, if anyone remembers that. Thought I'd just do a subtle homage.

Waiting for green stuff to cure.







BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD G- no wait

He's definitely looking good, the wrap on the staff is nicely done.

If I roll out greenstuff for any purpose it just ends in tragedy. God bless paint-on gap filler.