Guest Tutorial: Necrons?

Ok, let's start Monday off with a bang shall we?

Here is a tutorial on how to paint up some quick Table Top worthy Necrons in a quick and easy manner. And when I say quick, I mean doing a batch of 11 in 80 minutes. And for the mathematically challenged out there, that means roughly 7 minutes a model.

I just want to state once more... THIS IS NOT MY WORK! I wish it were, but it is not. I just have some good buddies that are great painters who are willing to share their secrets to the rest of us. This being one of them!

So let us kick this off properly here and show the step by step process that Nathelis goes through to paint up his latest side project, Necrons!

Step 1: Prime the model. Pretty simple step here really. Word of comment here. The basing is actually done with a paint material called Crackle. Brilliant stuff, if used right. Goes on thick-ish, and when it dries, it creates that broken earth look. Great stuff for quick basing ideas.

Step 2: As stated in the photo, drybrush with a dark gold. Bronze might work here also, but would need to be a mid-level bronze. Not too dark, but not overly bright either. And when he says drybrush, he means overly hitting the model with the brush to get some decent coverage in the places where light would hit this model the most.

Step 3: Here we do a "proper" drybrush on the model with a silver. This is to show the age on the model, while letting some of the gold/bronze below to show through. Still looking quite rough here, but again we are aiming for quality and quantity.

Step 4: Here we start to see that he adds some color variation to the model. Using the GW Waywatcher green glaze for the joints. At this point the model can be finished except for the green light effects!

Step 5: Here we begin the steps to do some quick OSL effects. Prepping the areas with a quick shot of white from the airbrush. It is looking good here, slightly strange, but good all the same. Heck, you could skip this step but then you wouldn't get that good old fashion Massive Voodoo BAM effect going for the models like in Step 6..

Step 6: BAM! Vibrant green glow effect happening on the models. Strong enough to push the corneas back a few levels while looking at them. Again this is applied with the airbrush. The mixture being Vallejo Airbrush Thinner+Matte Varnish + Day Glow Green Pigments from Forged Monkey. It is with this that you can get the nice spread, and "glow" effect happening on the model. The overspray in some areas can also be the glow of the gun itself!

And to show that this works on other units.. here are some scarabs with the effect in place as well.

Damn fine effect there! And great work for something that takes so little amount of time as well!

But... how do they sit against other units on the table? Such as the Sons of Medusa?

I think they pop so nicely that the Sons are not rethinking if they should attack ;) Especially if beginning a fight in the dark, and then all you can see in the distance is the green glow.

So what do you think of the effect? Pretty good for a table top work, with barely 7-8 minutes per model when done in large batches? It really makes me want to paint Necrons now! More so when you combine how well they are doing on the tables as well!

Stay tuned for more from our Austrian painter and his speed painted table top army projects!