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I'd greatly welcome some feedback on my results thus far with this Necron Warrior, I'm getting closer to what I want but not quite there yet, some areas it might be my choice of paints or layering might be wrong; others it might be my painting method is wrong or could do with improvement.
Any feedback/advice/hints/tips would be most welcome. Don't be afraid to be critical - I'll only learn and improve with constructive feedback.

Previous attempt
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/747900.page



The Step by Step method I used, along with one or two notes to change that I made whilst working on it. Note I've also got steps for edging the weapon and shoulders, but didn't perform them this time (weapon isn't quite what I'm after possibly)


Additional photos/angles.



So a few thoughts from myself;
1) Certainly need to clean it up some, as this was a test I wasn't "too" worried about perfectly cleaning it up, though I've taken note on trying to get a painting order that should produce the best result for cleaning up the model as best as possible.

2) Need to clean up the sides of the torso more so before painting, faint cracks show up on both sides.

3) The leg sections (show in extras) note that after completing the painting I added a second wash to the dirty metal areas (legs, joints, etc...). This I did with both Agrax Earthshade on one side and Nuln Oil the other. The Nuln oil gives it a much more dark metal look whlist the Agraz is a slightly lighter hue, its hard to pick between the two as they do both work well.

4) As the light brass areas of the model (wrists, ankles, shoulderblades) are not really holding any shaded areas of their own I'm thinking on cutting out the Reikland Fleshshade step of the model. I don't suppose it should impact the layering too much, and it did soften the edges of the wrists/shoulders beyond what I wanted.

5) I need to make some sort of setup to hold the gun with. Fingers don't work and cause way too much accidental damage/rubbing. I'm thinking of drilling a hole into one of the arm balls and pinning them with a bit of brass and then put that into a bit of cork to produce a handle.

6) With the ribcage the method outlined above was used on the darker side, whilst I gave the other a quick layer of Wazdakka red + lahmian medium +water. Whilst I like the darker tone, I think that the brighter result carries better on the model for viewing.

7) Still not happy with how silver undercoat and redstone are working. I'm either trying it on too small an area or using the redstone wrong.

8) I'm not sure how to get the circles and gaps on the weapon to come out as I want - red glow effect. I think that I'll have to layer the reds into the recesses well before the first stages of adding the bronze so that I can use the bronze to clean up (giving some kind of edging effect of red as the final stage).

9) The box on the weapon should be red as well, not yet challenged myself trying to get that to work yet. Again I'm thinking I'll have to make it the first step rather than the latter so that I can correct and slippage of the brush.



As said I would greatly welcome any critique and feedback on my results and my thoughts on how to improve things.

I like necrons menasing. I find this one is a little bit to little menacing. Grey and brown and red has no good contrast. I think a dark metal would help a lot.

The gun needs work. Bronze / gold guns don't really work, imo. I tried it and it never looked right. Personally I think something like black drybrushed with grey or a dark silver looks better.

Other than that its fine. Have you considered a black wash? I personally find that it gives better results than agrax, as it gives the recesses a sharper definition.
Usually I prefer a black undercoat as well when it comes to necrons, but that's just me.

For a red glow effect try using a thin layer of white or experiment with wild riders red. I know how to do a sort of glowing green effect by mixing moot green with white scar over a darker green layer to provide contrast, so from that principle you might come across a similar effect through experimentation.
For the grills on the gauss flayer try a red wash and carefully and gently brush over them with a fine brush.

I've tried using black on the previous version of the model. Thing is I think getting a good black requires very good edging to really work well; very thin lines right on the edges to carry the effect.

I think I'm not really ready for that level of skill to get it to work as well as I like. Hence why I've experimented with the bronze on the shoulders/arms in this one.

I don't really want the gun in another shade of silver as I feel that, just blends it into the model itself. I could see using a darker colour for the back/stem and front and keeping bronze on the barrel section.

Metal

Black wash

Dry brush N compound

Black wash

Highlights?

Drybrushing would be rather tricky over the smaller areas of the gun without it spilling over the rest of it. black would still require those highlights to be done - in time perhaps I'l lave the skill to do it but at present that might have to be reserved for vehicles and such.

Nice work. I am not a fan of the red though. Especially with the Brown and Gold areas.

How about you try use Blue instead of Red? Contrasts the gold a lot better as well as the brown. Would "pop" more imo.

you could use a Blue shade as well. Something like Coelia Greenshade or Drakenhof Nightshade.

The nice thing about Necron warriors is you can get away with a little sloppiness with the dry brush since they are usually a little beat up, and in the numbers you will generally field them, it will go unnoticed.

For mine, I primed them black, did a heavy dry brushing with silver, going lighter over the gun, then a black wash, then a sepia wash on the body, then the details. You could do the same, just skip the sepia wash.

They are about to get a repaint since these were some of my first models that I painted and the paint job is over a decade old, but it has worked well-enough for that long.

Odr - aye losing some contrast is something I'm noticing over the barrel of the gun mainly at present. I want to keep the red as I feel that its got that more sinister edge to it with robots whilst blue is a more electric colour than a blood colour (since Necrons are supposed to be living machines made from the bodies of once living organics).

I quite like it. You could add some contrast within the red by adding some darker shades and orange highlights, but it might take it away from "sinister" and more toward "cartoonish".

Starting off with slightly darker metals and drybrushing the edges will give you a bit more pop - if what you want it more pop. I actually quite like the subtle different shades of metal you have going on and drybrushing highlights will tend to wash that out a bit.

I do feel like it could use some black somewhere to make the other colours contrast a bit more while still keeping a dark and menacing look.

Also, i'd definitely paint the coils of the gun red. They appear to be grey or silver at the moment.

Gun coils are certainly going to be red - I've just yet to find a working red approach for it. I've also come to the conclusion that I likely want to paint that area first and then use the bronze on the gun to clean the edge areas; then I can run a final red wash over the edges to give the glow.