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Hi Dakka,

I'm about to start painting my necrons (immortals/warriors) and wondered what techniques you guys would recommend for speed and quality?

I have them base coated black and plan to do the standard leadbelcher, iron breaker, nuln oil approach but wasn't sure whether to go with drybrushing the base layer, leadbelcher spray or painting it on normally.

I loathe painting squads (much prefer characters!) So am happy for them to be done a bit quicker whilst still looking decent.

Cheers all!

Necrons in a standard metallic scheme are probably the easiest/quickest army to paint.

I'd probably start by spraying them with a dark metallic, just for the sake of speed. Then drybrush/wash as you desire to give them a bit of depth. It's usually best to combine drybrushes and washes, drybrush then wash or wash then drybrush or just wash -> drybrush -> wash -> drybrush. Then just pick out the details and you're done.

You can make them look a bit dirty by stippling a darker metallic or a dark brown as well (I'd probably do that before the drybrushing and washes).

I would suggest if you like darker Necrons you base with black as planned, if you like a bit lighter, prime grey.
If you want to get really fancy with little effort: Zenithal Highlighting: prime black and then give a quick shot of grey like the direction of a light source: above, and a little to the front.

Spraying on Leadbelcher looks quite different than brushing on, I would try two "volunteer" models and see which you like more.
I would typically suggest using a non-metallic grey paint to the tone you want be painted on first THEN apply the metallic.
I find all GW metallic paints are very transparent and look better with the colour desired underneath (hence the grey prime suggestion).

Then dry-brush Iron Breaker (a bit on the heavy handed side).

Then hit with the Nuln Oil... if you want a smoother looking shade, a gloss prime done first will allow it to flow well OR I add some flow-aid to mine to make it wick more.
At the very least, try to brush-on aiming for the recesses and wipe off quickly any surface pooling.

There is a drybrushing paint sold by GW "Necron Compound" (oddly enough) that could be the last paint you use for edge highlight.
I would target sharp raised edges or any areas of potential wear or damage.

Just remember to keep the metallics well separated from your other paints (different water, brush, hard cleaning after): glitter on non-glitter surfaces look goofy.

Best advice I can think up from my own challenges with metallic.

For a standard Sautekh Dynasty Warrior:

Buy Leadbealcher spray. Spray all your models. Done

Spray prime black

brush on your metal color
wash black
dry brush same metal
spot highlight areas with lighter metal
do any detail pieces you want (keep to minimum)
and seal if you want

you could do all of that in groups of 20 fairly easy besides the detail.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Tactical_Spam wrote:
Buy Leadbealcher spray. Spray all your models. Done

HA!

but yeah you could just do that then wash then dry brush and be done with it.

 Tactical_Spam wrote:
Buy Leadbealcher spray. Spray all your models. Done

... or do that too.

Hey, wait.... Prime black, Zenithal with a quick burst of grey, then follow with a spray shot of Leadbelcher on front and back.
Decide from there if done, it may need a bit of Nuln but if targeted right, would need little else for a fast paint-up.

Excellent responses guys, really appreciate the time taken to respond!

I have some metallics in my airbrush paints so will give a few testers a go.

Much love

 Talizvar wrote:

 Tactical_Spam wrote:
Buy Leadbealcher spray. Spray all your models. Done

... or do that too.

Hey, wait.... Prime black, Zenithal with a quick burst of grey, then follow with a spray shot of Leadbelcher on front and back.
Decide from there if done, it may need a bit of Nuln but if targeted right, would need little else for a fast paint-up.

Does zenithal highlighting work well with leadbelcher spray? I've always found you need a decent coat of most metallics if you don't want it to look sparkly. The only time I've seen that rule broken is with extremely fine metallics like alclad's high polish range, where you can spray them on very lightly over a gloss black basecoat to get a mirror like dark metallic look.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Does zenithal highlighting work well with leadbelcher spray? I've always found you need a decent coat of most metallics if you don't want it to look sparkly. The only time I've seen that rule broken is with extremely fine metallics like alclad's high polish range, where you can spray them on very lightly over a gloss black basecoat to get a mirror like dark metallic look.

That is why I figured you go with the undercoat as Zenithal and then a more front and back quick spray with the metallic, I am hoping the undercoat would show through a bit (which it typically does due to the metallics tend to be a bit transparent).

<edit> I am curious to try this, I honestly think it would work pretty well as a fast paint method.

For my quick 'n easy green Necrons I primed black, gave a quick overhead spray of silver, then washed it all in green. If you do a fast silver spray it misses all the cracks and shadowed areas and looks great en masse. The longest part was basing all their eyes white then red.

Prime black, leadbelcher spray, wash with nuln oil/agrax earthshade (if you want dirty, rustier ones) highlight with a drybrush of necron compound. Touch up details like chest ankh and gun parts with greens (caliban, warpstone, and moot). Done. All told, I painted 30 warriors and 10 immortals just like this in a combined 4 hours, not including assembly

When I do my crons, I do them in batches - the size depending upon the complexity of the models - it is a balance of efficiency vs. boredom

For example, warriors I do in lots of 10.
Immortals, elites, etc. in lots of 5
Wraiths, etc in 3
Commanders in eaches.

etc.

I alternate between unit types, as to not get board
Unit of warriors
a vehicle
unit of immortals
unit of warriors
a spider
unit of scarabs
unit of warriors
etc.

best of luck

I'll let you in on a little secret -

1. Choose Metallic Colour
2. Buy that Metallic Colour Acryllic Spray Paint
3. Spray the entire army.
4. Hand paint detailing.
5. ???
6. Profit!