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Well, I can officially say that painting space marines is perhaps the most BORING thing I've ever done (sorry Time Phantoms T3T ). Since I needed something else to paint, I decided to repaint my necron lord from months & months ago. This is rather fitting, as I am getting a Necron Phalanx for Christmas. *cough* Grandma FTW *cough* For me, necrons are the BEST models to paint, as the time just flies by as I paint them.

This is the necron lord Menaziel, the leader of the necron rebel (or loyalist, rather) forces. Freed from the control of the c'tan by data corruption in his obedience algroithms, Menaziel seeks to bring death and destruction down upon the c'tan for their enslavement of the Necrontyr. Killing other necrons along the way is permissible, as he views this as a form of release for his former brethren.

"Under moonless night skies, dead armies march ever onward, their preternatural silence broken only by the march of metallic feet and the hum of exotic alien weaponry."


Edit: Changed to the unmodified photos from photobucket.

He's actually a lot brighter, but the camera made him darker. I used mithril silver/skull white for the base, and then drybrushed mithril silver over that. The blue parts were based regal blue and then highlighted with gradually greater mixes of regal blue and enchanted blue. The gold bits were painted with, well, shining gold. There are some screw-ups here and there, but this is good enough for tabletop quality. Tomorrow I'll sand-base him.

You thoughts/C&C?

Thirty views and no comments... >_<

could use some contrast to break the massive blue look.
fill in the eyes, the wires on the torso area , and finish the base

I like it buuuut I have found that three or more washes of black(first wash brown) or more can do WonderS to a necron painted in bright metalics. just a suggestion, cause I find it lacking highlights.

LunaHound wrote:could use some contrast to break the massive blue look.
fill in the eyes, the wires on the torso area , and finish the base

You prefer the massive metal look? XD
I did fill in the eyes, but they didn't show up in the pic. I might also paint one of the wires green, hmmm...

Paul Atreides wrote: I like it buuuut I have found that three or more washes of black(first wash brown) or more can do WonderS to a necron painted in bright metalics. just a suggestion, cause I find it lacking highlights.

Highlight metal? Does not compute...>_> Metal highlights itself IMO.

Why does everyone always basically say dump the black wash pot on it to improve it? I did give it some black washing in the recesses, but I guess the camera didn't pick that up EITHER...oh well. I prefer bright & shiny necrons.

I like the colour scheme, but the colours blend into one another pretty badly. It looks the worst at his knees. I'd give it a nice dark wash to help seperate all the pieces a bit more (I run into this problem with almost everything I paint, save for one Necron Destroyer Lord that I'll never use, but looks pretty damn nice sitting on my drawer).

I love what you've done with the orb, but I'd work a little more with the light you have it casting on to the lord. The green bits look really spotty on it as it is.

Overall, I like what your doing to him. The colourscheme itself is really nice looking, not quite ceramic, but not quite metallic looking, and the fluff sounds pretty cool.

Fafnir wrote:I like the colour scheme, but the colours blend into one another pretty badly. It looks the worst at his knees. I'd give it a nice dark wash to help seperate all the pieces a bit more (I run into this problem with almost everything I paint, save for one Necron Destroyer Lord that I'll never use, but looks pretty damn nice sitting on my drawer).

I love what you've done with the orb, but I'd work a little more with the light you have it casting on to the lord. The green bits look really spotty on it as it is.

Overall, I like what your doing to him. The colourscheme itself is really nice looking, not quite ceramic, but not quite metallic looking, and the fluff sounds pretty cool.

Too much blue for you, eh? The knees don't look that bad - the blue knee bits are darker than the cape behind so they seem to seperate IMO. All this talk of black washing will end up making him as grimy looking as he was before...

Do you think a different color cape would look better?

Try a little freehand on the shoulder pads.
A thin white or gold line could make the blue pop more!

I love what you did on the resurrection orb, very nicely done. The top of the spinal column seems to cry out for some addition; dunno what could go there since I'm not familiar with Necrons.

PestilenceBlossom wrote:

Paul Atreides wrote: I like it buuuut I have found that three or more washes of black(first wash brown) or more can do WonderS to a necron painted in bright metalics. just a suggestion, cause I find it lacking highlights.

Highlight metal? Does not compute...>_> Metal highlights itself IMO.

Why does everyone always basically say dump the black wash pot on it to improve it? I did give it some black washing in the recesses, but I guess the camera didn't pick that up EITHER...oh well. I prefer bright & shiny necrons.

sorry about that :'P
but you must remember we can only make comments to the picture you posted, as we cant see the mini for its real color as you can see in person.
i noticed your pic does indeed have a blue hue ( evident to the ground and background ) so we might actually perceive it to be more blue then
it is. But you have to forgive us for that, its the camera's fault :"P

if i may ask, do you happen to be using a desk lamp for the light source? those light tend to have "cool light" some store sells sun light bulbs
that are better for both your eyes during painting, and photographing. hope that helps!

PestilenceBlossom wrote:

Fafnir wrote:I like the colour scheme, but the colours blend into one another pretty badly. It looks the worst at his knees. I'd give it a nice dark wash to help seperate all the pieces a bit more (I run into this problem with almost everything I paint, save for one Necron Destroyer Lord that I'll never use, but looks pretty damn nice sitting on my drawer).

I love what you've done with the orb, but I'd work a little more with the light you have it casting on to the lord. The green bits look really spotty on it as it is.

Overall, I like what your doing to him. The colourscheme itself is really nice looking, not quite ceramic, but not quite metallic looking, and the fluff sounds pretty cool.

Too much blue for you, eh? The knees don't look that bad - the blue knee bits are darker than the cape behind so they seem to seperate IMO. All this talk of black washing will end up making him as grimy looking as he was before...

Do you think a different color cape would look better?

as i mentioned in earlier post it might be your light bulb, but as from what i see
it does indeed look like your metal parts are painted via mixing mithril silver + blue wash.
it might look different in person, but in pic yes :x

I absolutely love the concept for him. Im all about fluffy armies. I was going to suggest a bit of rust or corrosion, but then I realised now he isnt in stasis constantly he probably has time to devote to keeping his necrodermis clean.

just a little advice for the OP, when you a sk for C&C its normally a good idea to listen to the critisism instead of argueing your way out of it.
if you didnt mean it to come out like that then im sorry but it came across like it.

Changed a few things...



I wanted to make it seem as though green light was glowing out through his ribs, but I think I might need to make the dark lines green for that. I also changed the cape to black to contrast with the blue.

I found that using optical zoom + flash works a lot better than flash alone (you can get the same detail and the flash is farther away).

MUCH nicer now, the blue isn't overpowering.

its super, all the *glowing parts are now very easy to see without the distractions. major improvement!

i agree. i liked the first pic but the last one was way better. funny how a small detail change can really bring a mini around

Nice correction on the new pic. I agree the black cape is better now and I like what you're doing w/ the glow from the ribs. It'd be a helluva hard thing to do but painting the area between the ribs, like you mentioned, would likely do it. I'd recommend a very light green closer in to the center of the chest tapering off to your normal green.

Now with glow effects...



The green feels a bit dark to me, and there seems to be a bit too much of it (should have rinsed my brush a bit more), but you get the general idea. I'll go back and fix it up in a bit.

Edit: Fixed.

Seems like a little too much green to me.
If it were a darker model it would work better, but on a light model it looks weird.

Orkeosaurus wrote:Seems like a little too much green to me.
If it were a darker model it would work better, but on a light model it looks weird.

It looks better in dimmer light. The flash makes it look a bit weird.

Ah, okay.
I could see how the flash would mess something like that up.

Add a bit of white or yellow to the deepest parts of the light, and then thin the light out as it goes along the body. I know I prefer highlights to be suddle, but even in terms of style, that's a bit much. The biggest problem is that your lights don't even look like they have a focused point of emission. The eyes are the worst example of this.

Also, if possible, try taking a pic without the flash.

Fafnir wrote:Add a bit of white or yellow to the deepest parts of the light, and then thin the light out as it goes along the body. I know I prefer highlights to be suddle, but even in terms of style, that's a bit much. The biggest problem is that your lights don't even look like they have a focused point of emission. The eyes are the worst example of this.

Also, if possible, try taking a pic without the flash.

The point of emission is inside the chest, so light will show through the ribs, under the ribs, and above the chest. That's why there are green sections in all of those places.

What's wrong with the eyes??? >_>
(Rememeber, this is tabletop quality. If I'm not going to see a detail from 3+ feet away, then I'm usually not going to paint said detail.)

Here's with no flash...

Drybrush some silver over the ribcage again. Not enough to completely cover the green but to diminish it a little and don't get any inside the recesses. Currently it looks like something from Nurgle puked on him and he hasn't had the chance to wipe it off. If you soften it a little, you might be able to get the "glow" effect you're looking for.

The problem with the eyes is that it doesn't look like the light is coming from anywhere. It can't be coming from the chest, so it has to be coming from the eyes themselves. However, there is no central point shown within the eyes. Simply take the tiny tip of a tiny brush, touch it in white, and then just touch it to the center of the eyesocket. I'll show you a picture of my Destroyer Lord as an example(note, I don't play or collect Necrons, this is just an old model I had lying around, and decided to repaint one day).



Notice the focus point in each eye? Makes him look a lot more sinister. Also, the lighting is more subtle and erie. This is just personal taste, really, as I perfer less light in greater effect, but you can still see the idea of light emenating from key areas.

The metal still needs to be properly highlighted and shaded and the 'green glow' is a bit over done.
Throw some highlights on the blue (or make the current ones noticeable) and maybe paint his eyes (or again make them more noticeable).

A good base to start from right now I think, needs finishing in all areas though.

EDIT: The orb is done, and done well, it can be left alone

If you do go over the green with a bit of silver, try adding just a drop of the snot or scorpion green to it to maintain the tone of the surrounding glow. It will save you from having to paint over or wash the silver. This looks really nice and I like the fluff for your 'crons as well.

Lastly, if you have any photo editing software, try using it to adjust the brightness and contrast of the photo before posting it. That really, and I mean REALLY, helps to alleviate the "dark even though I used the flash and took the pic in bright, diffused light" effect. You can also adjust the color balance so that if the camera is taking slightly yellow or blue photos, you can add a hint of violet or orange to offset it. Just remember your basic color theory or look at a colorwheel and use complementary (opposite) colors to produce a more accurate and natural looking photo!

If you don't have any photo editing software or if your software doesn't have these editing options, try using "The Gimp" photo editor - it's shareware, pretty easy to use, and works just as good as photoshop or adobe for someone who doesn't use it professionally. Search for by typing "Gimp program", just searching for "the gimp" gets some pretty weird results that you may or may not want to investigate...