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So, I'm a massive fan of the film Alien! And as you might imagine, when I saw the Necron vehicles painted up in green & black, my first thought was



and my second thought was: I need this army!

Anyway, when I started taking it seriously, I decided I didn't like the usual metallic Necron Warrior. I liked how they looked here, black and green. So I decided on doing them in the manner of the Sautekh Dynasty vehicles, black with green highlights over the armour (actually, I had been painstakingly searching the internet for an 'almost-black green', wondering what they all used in those vehicles?? until I found someone here with the same problem )

Anyway, I've decided against it for a number of reasons. One, I'm already kind of sick of the colour scheme! Two, being that this is basically the first time I'm going to be painting something, I feel like the techniques involved in getting those green highlights are a little advanced for me. Most people use a combination of drybrushing + edge highlighting... I know those are pretty basic techniques really, but I've already decided that I want to go with the usual three-tone method: Basecoat, Shade, Mid Highlight, Extreme Highlight, and Glaze

So, I was looking for an applicable colour scheme, and I found one that I really like: white necrons! And it reminded me even more of Alien, actually:





Anyway, all this aside, I have two problems:

1. I can only really find two tones of white in the GW range. Ceramite White for the base, and White Scar for the mid-tone highlight... I feel like my warriors will really lack depth with only 2 colours. So does anyone have any advice on a possible fix? Maybe a darker white colour for the base?

Otherwise, I'm toying with something like Balthazar Gold for the joints + gun, with Hashut Copper or Brass Scorpion or Gehennas Gold, or one like that, for the highlight. Wash over everything in Devlan Mud. Usual greens for the gauss. That's fine... But this brings me to my next point:

2. What will I paint my vehicles? I still love the black & green, but I feel like it will clash with the white & bronze. It'll look like I have two different armies. I don't really like the idea of painting the vehicles white - the appeal is that its bone! On bony necron warriors! If I paint it all in bronze like I plan to with the metal joints, I think it'll look tacky. So I'm stumped. How do I paint the vehicles?

The Space Jockey tends to be positioned around a kind of dull grey/metallic, like here. That might work for an Annihilation Barge, but I don't think it'll work on a Triarch Stalker, or a Monolith :/ Anyway, I'm flexible on the colour scheme, so any advice is appreciated.

Thanks for all your help,
Laura

Welcome to Dakka!

For white, you really want to be building up from an off-white basecoat, and only really using white for extreme highlights. This will add more depth and look a lot neater than flat white (which is hard to get an even finish on). From the GW paints, I'd suggest:
Base with Ushabti Bone, Wash in Seraphim Sepia, layer Screaming Skull, highlight with White Scar.

If you look at some painted Deathwing, that can show you a variety of ways to paint bone.

As for vehicles, a silver and gold look would work, and to be honest, I think bone would as well. It works well enough on Deathwing/some Eldar/Tau vehicles with an off-white tone, so I think you'd be ok there. If not, silver with gold detailing would be my suggestion.

ah, thanks a lot! This sounds really good, thanks!

Edit: what glaze would I use? Yellow seems to be the closest but idk how that would look.

Yeah hes right, as soon as I read this I thought deathwing. But, let me try to help from a color theory perspective, since it sounds like you are just starting out. There is one thing that you said that kinda highlights why you are having an issue. You said (and I'm paraphrasing) "GW only has about 2 colors of white". This is incorrect.. GW and every other company only has one white. all of the other colors are extremely light shades of another color. White is not a color really. Try to think about it like this. If I took red paint and mixed white into it 50/50 what color would you say it is? probably just pink. If I did the same thing with the new lighter color it would just be an even lighter pink but you would still consider it pink. I could do this over and over and you wouldnt consider it white until it was in fact white.

All of that being said (and please don't think Im being sarcastic. Because Im not) you will not be able to start your color scheme at what you are painting this really light shade that you pick. You would have to start with the part of your army that is not this "whitish" color. Lets say you chose the black and green codex color scheme for ghost arks. If you wanted your warriors to match that and still be "whitish" then you would want to take the most predominate dark color in your scheme, in this case black, and work up to white by shading through lighter and lighter colors of grey. You would do the same thing with blue or red or orange or yellow.

Not matching color in this way is why alot of people will paint there army really well and look at it and think "why does it seem like this just doesnt tie together". Just look at dark angels armies that attach Deathwing. dark angels are obviously mostly green. and deathwing is a very light shade of brown or tan. They clash ALOT. Now I know that no one would ever do this paint scheme but, now imagine if instead of going from brown to very light brown almost white with the deathwing armor, start from green. It would not look deathwing but if you are picturing it you already know it would look more pleasing to the eye.

Anyway, I cant help you choose a color because thats up to you. I can only say that the black with green hard lining from the codex is out of most peoples capability. If its not done correctly it looks awful and to do it correctly is next to impossible. Trust me because I cant hardly do it and Ive been painting for about 20 years.

Oh and if you have the money or if you already have one, shading through dark to light is the perfect job for an airbrush. And google "color wheel" that will help you with complimentary colors

Hope this helps

@138steelrain: ah! You see, this is why I talk so much garbage when I'm asking for help. I always find that someone can pick up something where I'm going seriously wrong even from my throwaway comments!

Yeah, I understand, now. It sounds kinda like when you're selecting a BBCode colour & you click on like pink & it brings up black at one corner, white at the other, and every gradient in between. hmmmm... Also, yeah, I've noticed a good deal of awful Necron models going for that colour scheme, lol. I guess its a good thing I reconsidered after all!

I really like the look of an airbrush, but for my first models? I think I should wait until I have a little experience first ><

Edit: you know I actually have some Dark Angels (cuz of Dark Vengence lol), n considering the similar colour scheme, I might assemble them & paint them up before I try my necrons...

All I can say about an airbrush is this...

No matter how long you paint you will still have to learn from the beginner point with an airbrush. If I went back and handed Da Vinci an airbrush... Well he would accuse me of cavorting with the devil. But then he would have to start from scratch. Painting with a brush is a lost art and there is a reason for that. If you are going for really good looking tabletop quality models you have to use an airbrush. it does blending that just cant be achieved in a realistic amount of time with a brush. Dont get me wrong, a brush has its place. right now im doing a night gob army in the old old old GW codex schemes.You HAVE to use a brush to make it look like that, and for many other techniques and most detail. Im just saying dont not get an airbrush because you think being good with a regular brush will help.

If you do decide to go airbrush dont go crazy. get the cheap ebay special master series. its $70.00 and comes with the compressor and you can do tabletop+ quality with it.