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Hey guys,

I have some ork necron conversions and initially I hadn't wanted to do any necron specific colours, however i'm in absolute love with the Nihilakh Dynasty scheme, looks so badass in the necron codex, however, I have no idea how they achieved the washed out blue/green on the flat surfaces, especially on the tomb blade image.

Is it a drybrush technique? a stippling effect maybe?
Or do they use the nihilakh oxide?

I have been sod out of luck trying to find a photo that shows what I mean, as the only ones I can find are in the necron dex. But heres an idea;

This is pretty darn close to the codex look, so any ideas how I go about achieving the washed out blue/green look?

Sotek Green, drybrushing.

Gragga Da Krumpa wrote:
Sotek Green, drybrushing.

Thanks Gragga
Any recommendations for the base colour? As I will be priming by airbrush, I was thinking maybe a pale grey? to help give it the worn out feel with the blue drybrushed over the top. Initially I had thought of going with a standard silver all over the model, as there will be quite a bit of metal on me crons But with such light drybrushing I wouldn't want the silver to show through. maybe i'll just have to bit the bullet and do some masking

If you get the "How to paint Necrons" guide from GW's site, it's the Nihilakh dynasty that they do in the guide

Vallejo model blue-green (turquoise) base. Add a little light grey (VMA pale grey, whatever) to lighten it up, concentrate on the upper surfaces. If your airbrush control is good enough, also work on the panel lines (yes this will lighten the recesses, if necessary put a directed stronger wash in them to darken them again) and skip drybrushing later for edges for a cleaner / smoother look.
Thin brown (agrax) wash.
Add a little more light grey and drybrush.
Add more light grey for edge highlights.

The example you show is drybrushed for sure. Add another very thin brown wash to tone it back a bit afterward.

winterdyne wrote:
Vallejo model blue-green (turquoise) base. Add a little light grey (VMA pale grey, whatever) to lighten it up, concentrate on the upper surfaces. If your airbrush control is good enough, also work on the panel lines (yes this will lighten the recesses, if necessary put a directed stronger wash in them to darken them again) and skip drybrushing later for edges for a cleaner / smoother look.
Thin brown (agrax) wash.
Add a little more light grey and drybrush.
Add more light grey for edge highlights.

The example you show is drybrushed for sure. Add another very thin brown wash to tone it back a bit afterward.

Hey Winter thanks for such a detailed explanation A few questions if you dont mind?

I am considering doing some OSL, but im worried how much it will clutter up the model as the models are actually Ork grots converted with necron warriors, so they are still necron warriors, but they are really bizarre and broken. My initial plan had been this;

Nihilakh colour scheme for the actual warrior torsos and heads, rusty silver for the warrior arms and legs.
Then any additional bits of metal work I added I was going to do in chipped badmoonz colours and then obviously green for any ork flesh.

So im not too sure whether the model might be a little overcrowded for some OSL? As its already got, gold, blues, greens, yellows, silver and rust worked into it?
Secondly, how would you approach the OSL? I was thinking that once i've got all my colours down, just to do a little light white spray where I want my OSL and then to use the badger ghost tints? as the transparancy would work to tint the white without being super over-powering.

To help make that clearer; this is them at a very early stage

I almost never airbrush OSL. For the most part it's too much 'bloom'.

Good OSL is all about the *directions* of light, not necessarily the strength of it.

There are a number of things to think about:
1) Remember that light makes things LIGHTER, never darker. If your paint is darker than what it's going on it WILL look wrong. A good trick is to take greyscale photos to check the lightness rather than being fooled by colours.

2) Light tints, doesn't replace. Your OSL highlights should be a mix of whatever they're going on and a lighter version of the light colour.

3) Light goes in straight lines from the source. If something's in the way, it stops.

Following those principles will give you a 'true' OSL effect.

This can be weak, visually. It's normally bumped by 'bloom' which is actually a camera artefact (type of lens flare). This is what most people mistake for OSL, and is the blending of the light colour (following rule 1 and 2 above) in the general 'visual' area of the light source (ie ignoring rule 3), from whatever direction the model is mostly looked at.

You are very correct winter,

The OSL im referring to isn't true OSL, because the 'bloom' as you call it in reality doesn't occur, because the only way to bend light is with huge gravitational masses (stars typically). Pretty sure my Crons aint got enough mass for that

I might go with the lens flare effect, as I know its not a true effect, but I do like the look of it. I'll have to do a sample dude I believe. Thank you for the advice. I will probably airbrush the bloom, because while I will spend a reasonable amount of time on these models, they are just my infantry and I need them done hopefully i'll get priming tonight! il post the completed model pics when I get home, as they should be all good now

Best advice is BE SUBTLE.

Really, really thin, very light coats; it's easier to build up to a strong finish than overcook it and try to dial it back.

It can help when airbrushing very thin applications to use an alcohol based medium (tamiya thinner, windscreen wash) as this dries fast in flight and leads to less running. Low pressure, very thin paint, very very low paint flow (if your airbrush has a limiter on the action for paint flow, use it). Downside is you'll get a lot of tip dry. Don't expect it to be a fast process.