Necrons Painting Guide

Now, this isn’t necessarily the best or the fast way. But it’s fairly quick and yields nice results. This was rushed a little so feel free to take more time if you want. My setup is pretty simple. A tile (or in this case, plate), some water, some tissue and some paints.

I’m using standard GW brushes and the following paints:
Blood Red, Scab Red, Bleached Bone, Codex Grey, Skull White, Chaos Black. I’m also using Gryphonne Sepia wash.

Brushes & Paint

Necron with white basecoat

Step 1, White and Black

After a white undercoat, water down some Black and paint the whole base. Also paint the whole gun. Don’t worry about going over the rest of the model, we can cover it up with white after.

Step 1 White & Black

Step 2, Washes

Get your Gryphonne Sepia and wash the whole model with the brush straight from the pot. If you get some on the gun, it doesn’t matter. Make sure it flows into the cracks in the armour on the chest and neck. Wait for this to dry. Go make some tea.

Step 2 with wash

Back? Now do it again, except this time try to focus only on the joints, spine, pelvis, chest symbol and neck. If you get some on the armour plates, don’t worry. Wait for this to dry completely.

2nd wash

Step 3, Armour Plates

Slightly thin some Bleached Bone and cover all the armour plates, including the back of hands and hips. I left the fingers brown. I decided to do the front of the head (the face) only, giving it a skull mask look.

If you were careful with the 2nd Wash, you should only need one coat - two at most.

Painting the armor plates

Get the Skull White and mix a tiny amount of Bleached Bone. Paint this on the extreme edges of armour sparingly with thin lines. I did the collarbones, edges of the head and brow, edges of the shoulder plates and the top of the hips.

Front

Rear

Step 4, Gun

I wanted to keep the paint job simple, so highlights were minimal. Use Codex Grey to highlight the sharp top edges of the main areas, shaft and head of the gun.

Painted the tube feed Scab Red. Wait for it to dry then paint over it with Blood Red.

The gun

Step 5, Finishing Touches

At this point I drybrushed the base twice. Once with Codex Grey, then with a very light drybrush of Skull White. Tidy up the base edge with black. The few pieces of slate rock or ruin were done the same. By using a dark and relatively simple base, it emphasises the colours of the model.

I used Water Effects here, but any Gloss would work. Pain the tube feed of the gun a few times then let dry to make it shine.

Almost finished

I then cut a section of rod out slightly longer than the green rods. Compare it to the gap in the gun and then file down the ends to get them smooth. Add a small bit of PVA on the ends and carefully slot it into the gun. Polycement (plastic glue) would work but PVA dries completely clear.

Job Done

Job done! Hope that was clear and possibly helpful for anyone

13 Responses to “Necrons Painting Guide”

1. Frank G on October 10th, 2008 1:29 am
   

   I really like the color scheme…now I want to put my Orks to the side and build some Necrons!

   BTW, what type of red rod did you use?! Where’d you get it?!

   Again…great job!
2. Ravendove on October 13th, 2008 4:08 pm
   

   The coloured plastic rods can be bought from a company called Plastruct. There are lots of sizes and colours, mine are Flourescent Red (FARR-3H). The size you want is 2.4mm (3/32″), which is the same width as the GW Gauss Rods.

   I bought mine from this shop on eBay, they’re quite cheap.
   http://stores.ebay.co.uk/MyAtomic-Hobbies
3. KH Livid on October 16th, 2008 3:02 pm
   

   Could you paint the long tube red as you did the feeder?
4. Ravendove on October 18th, 2008 4:00 am
   

   I guess you could if you really wanted to?
5. Fungus on October 19th, 2008 11:37 pm
   

   G’day mate

   I wanted to do the red rods but could never find any and now you’ve shown
   e the light! I bought ome straight away from the link you provided but
   ow I need a favor. What size are the LARGE MONOLITH rods? Id really
   like to have the army match ( I can make the red main gun crystal)

   CHeers!

   Fungus
6. Ravendove on October 20th, 2008 11:24 am
   

   Hi, the size you want for the Monolith-sized rods is 1/8″ (3.2mm). Good luck!
7. Fungus on October 20th, 2008 10:04 pm
   

   Awesome they are ordered and coming now ill remove the crappy green ones and make a post when the army is finished with some awesome pics :)! THANKS AGAIN!!!!
8. Fuhrer on October 21st, 2008 7:20 pm
   

   great colour scheme raven, i plan to do this for my entire army.
   Hey Fungus in regards to doing the main monolith crystal red, how are you going about doing that?, after planning my army and buying red rods i realised this was the only part i couldn’t change are you just going to paint the prism red? or have you found a red replacement kit?
9. NovaCat on October 30th, 2008 6:11 am
   

   You could get blue rods too i suppose… use enchanted blue or a similar colour for the eyes and maybe a lighting effect on the chest insignia
10. NovaCat on October 30th, 2008 6:12 am
    

    by lighting effect I mean make it look like its glowing blue
11. CdnBacon on October 30th, 2008 11:57 am
    

    Raven, VERY nice tutorial mate! I’m a painting noob and I was amazed at the effect the wash added to your model just after 1-2 coats of it! I’m a Space Marine collector but some of your tips can easily be used on any model.

    Wonderful work.
12. Jadedragon318 on October 31st, 2008 4:14 pm
    

    I have purple rods that I am using to redo my necrons. I like the technique you used to paint yt out on mineour necrons and the feeding tubes. I am going to try it out on mine.
13. Ulfast on November 25th, 2008 5:38 am
    

    I was looking for a good paintwork for my necrons as I have had a big problem finding a good one. This one was very good and at the same time very easy! Thanks.

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