Return of the metallic Terminating machines: Necrons

Spurred on by their relative ease of painting and the avid interest shown by my eldest (though still very young) son I attacked a batch of Necron Warriors.

A metallic killing machine advances:

Assembly Tip:

For the Green Plasma Tube, I avoided the plastic cement trap of smearing the clear plastic, but was again unimpressed with the GW PVA recommendation (that won't last methinks). I used the thick and gloopy Humbrol Clearfix I use for aircraft canopies, applied not with a brush but a cocktail stick, I kid you not.

Painting

The paint job thankfully ebbed away at my thinning stock of Games Workshop paints. I will keep their "three shade" painting guide but but transfer my alligiance to the Vallejo like-for-like alternatives over time (a cheaper price and half again of the amount of paint).

Painting Note to Self:

The undercoat was GW Chaos Black, then mixing in varying amounts of GW Mithril Silver, wet brushed on with a final dry brush of pure GW Mithril Silver. Not that hard to remember after all ;)

A close up:

I was relatively unimpressed with the GW painting guide, over complicating (using more paints than are really necessary) something that looks good essentially in "rotting silver" (from the depths of "Dead Space") with grime and gunk clinging to it. Necron forces are to be viewed from a distance before they get up close and kill you.

Painting alternatives do exist though:

An Indie Way
The GamesWorkshop Way

The bases were PVA and rough sand, then a very watery mix of Anita Acrylic's Dark Earth mixed with Anita's Acrylic's Metallic Black (a bit of a hidden experiment here) to let shiny bits reflect of the red planet dust.

Another Painting Note to Self:

Then followed the GW Terracotta wet-brush, with a GW Bubonic Brown 50:50 mix, followed by a GW Bubonic Brown wet-brush and a final GW Bubonic Brown dry-brush. Not quite satisfied with that so I gave it a GW Skull White wet-brush highlight. All the above GW paints were in their "gelling stage" and needing to be used up. Attrition continued with a a bottle of GW Kommando Khaki being thrown into the bin, solid and useless (a third of it unused).

The little 'bots', for scurrying around, disassembling and repairing 'things' I found quirky and cute. I decided not to use the GW big bases and have them rather as individuals (I'll get better generic use out of them that way in SF RPG games, I may or may not ever play). Painted identically to the Necron Warriors.

Future work: Maybe red/green eyes and perhaps a selective darkening wash with Anita's Acrylic Metallic Black.