A Study in Dry-Brushing "Gun Metal": Necrons

I will say it again and again, for me a historical painting impasse is often unblocked by a trip down Fantasy or Science Fiction lane. In this case it was a return to Necron metallic robotic Vallejo Gun Metal and an exercise dry-brushing. I applaud the Games Workshop design team for some incredible robotic sculpts, but try as they might with other worldly paint schemes, but I am going to always see them as Terminators and steely-gun metal (see below, my Necron hoard gathered across a decade): 

At least they have all been, primed, then black-washed and dry-brushed gun metal. What follows will be silver highlights and perhaps inking in detail. The "orb" power sources need a unearthly shade of green or the like. I seem to have a platoon like structure of three squads of eleven and a HQ unit, not far away from Chain of Command! A welcome "Work In Progress" (WIP). 

The Necron Fixation Continues ...

I have a few Necron kits that have been hanging around, unloved but assembled in the loft. Time for a spot of random painting. I use Sci-Fi to king of "jump-start" my painting mojo! These Necron monstrosities look harmless enough when assembled and coated in Airfix Grey (01) Acrylic Primer (see below, Necron Praetorian Nasty Killer Robot things looking rather bland):

But when you Vallejo Black Wash them they seem to spice it up a bit and turn all "nasty looking" (see below):

Then you do the same to some 'other' Necron Nasty Killer Robot sort of thing (you may sense I am not so up on the Necron OrBat but buy things sort of for their "look") and a "killer death-match" buzz sort of happens (see below, these being Deathmark/Lychguard Killer Robots [apparently]):

All this Killer Robot thing is fair enough but what I need is a leaders type. So I walked the walk to the GW shops and took the hit, knowing this to be a designated Dad present from the kids. Fearing the worst (a direct hit in the wallet region) I befriended the staff (they were excellent painters 
and we "jive talked" all around the hobby, from historical to Sci-Fi) who pointed "you can get a lot more plastic for your buck" if you buy a commander in a tank and base the Command Robot separately. Let me "take me to the Necron Leader" (see below, in dire need of Airfix Grey Primer and Vallejo Black Wash to "nasty" him [it] up):

Looking around my Necron Box of Evil I saw that I had some normal sized "Kill-O-Zap" Robots ("tee-hee"sneaked in a Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy reference in when nobody was looking) that were duly Airfix Primed and Vallejo Black Washed along with the ubiquitous scavenger mini robot droids (see below, I constantly use these in place of Space Gretchings in my Space Crusade Games  - being referred to as "cleaning/lavatory bots". They have taken out a surprising number of hardened Space Marines with their high powered "cleaning fluid jet and sharpie duster attachment"):

Even though I may moan about the price the derail on the robots is good. The more I look at the artwork the more I see I can return to the basic paint job and spruce it up a bit (see below, the Black Wash in particular is good at picking out hidden detail):

xxx

OK, I had a choice pay £17 for a figure (single .. I am sure its Combat Ratings were good, but seriously?) or pay £22.50 and get a Necron tank with a couple of Mega Cannon as well. Seeing that the mega Cannon configuration (sadly not shown below) reminded me of the things the baddies in Flash Gordon used ("Gordon's alive!) I was a sucker for the tank (see below):

The whole Necron episode painting lasted but twenty fours of "priming and washing" madness but it seemed to clear the air [or rather "painters block"] for historical stuff to come along and be fearlessly attacked (see previous Russian 28mm posts)

Necrons ... Just because they looked GOOD being so BAD!

Sometimes I cannot help myself or should that read most of the time? It is that SHINY feeling. I do not actively play GW 40K but I do like the Necrons, Tau and Tyranids models .. and come to think of it (some of the) Adeptus Mechanicus "robotic men". And somehow I have a large collection (well large to my mind when I didn't expect to have any at all) of those things called "Space Marines"  .. you might of heard of them. So when I saw these particular Necrons I immediately failed my Wisdom check for "scary robots of death" (see below, cash exchanged hands .. same old story):

Killer Death Robot (Style A) #1:

Killer Death Robot (Type B) #2:

Killer Death Robot (Type A again) #3:

Killer Death Robot (Type B again) #4:

Killer Death Robot (Type A again, again .. my favourite style) #5:

As per my usual attitude to GW kits, I just stick things together for aesthetics rather than their corpus or rule sets (limited eBat resell perhaps but that is not what I got it for). Here I broke their pedantic rules with glee mixing weapons from the wrong types of figures .. cast me into the pit of shame, I dare you ;)

They don't care they anymore they got my money. I should really move over to the Kick Starters, bigger bucks but you get the benefit of a bulk buy! 

An unplanned distraction .. Necrons .. some of the large biped robot varients

In my defence, they were in a sale! (see below):

Unpainted, raw plastic but they still look nasty .. meanwhile er, back to WWII, in silly large scale plastics.

The Necron Warrior Hoard

Necrons don't come in ones and two they seem to spring up in large bunches of Alien robotic killing machines and swarms of tiny friends.

Here they are rotated ninety degrees:

One hundred and eighty degrees from behind, is their armour any weaker I ask?

And finally two hundred and seventy degrees

What next?

Well I have looked over the other offerings in the Games Workshop Necron range and I have to say the cash stayed firmly in the pocket. The only exception perhaps being the quirky Tomb Spyder, but no rush to get one of those just yet (the GW shop is thankfully too far away for frequent visits)

So back to those WWII 20mm Russians from Revell methinks. That will help clear the painting desk so I can get a crack at the Fairey Battle.

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.

Necron Destroyer

Sticking to the late New Year's Resolution I took in hand this wandering Sci-Fi addition and started work on "him" the day of purchase. Not a complicated build and I did not opt for any real form of sophistication with the paint work.

I did wash the sprue in warm soapy water beforehand which is a step forward in my preparation technique ;)

Nasty brute:

Shades of the "Terminator" though the vivid green see through plastic in the weapon is a nice touch.

Every gamer need a futuristic killing machine or two in their back pocket, especially one which looks a "tad" (Yorkshire vernacular for 'a little') like a trillobite.

The worrying thing was that my eldest boy, rather took to him and asked if I had any more! Curses GW already have him and I had so much high hopes for my Airfix 1/32 collection.

Painting:
GW Chaos Black Paint (undercoat)
My GW Boltgun Metal had all dried up (another one bites the dust, hmm), so I used a mixture of GW Chaos Black and GW Mithril Silver (successively increasing the latter to lighten the effect)

That was pretty much it.

I toyed with the idea of detailing it, or black washing but in the end liked it as it was. I do have an admission of also having a packet standard Necrons (bought from a previous visit to the same HobbyCraft, well they didn't have my Airfix Fairey Battle in stock) to populate my future Science Fiction one-off scenarios (I cannot be considered as a 40K gamer [yet? They'll get me through the kiddies!]

Next: Back from an "alternative future" to the "historical modelled past" ;)

Reply to Comments:
Seeing as I still cannot post (have I been black-listed? I think not) I'll pen my replies here.

Al, it's a whim thing.
I see a pack I like and I'll but and paint them.
I don't intend to follow the GW Necron army list.
The odd " alien thing" will come in handy, as per my pride and joy Sci-Fi Robot of AD2000 fame "Hammerstein",  from Wargames Foundry

Greek Geek: Not sure, all the cartoons these days are Space/SuperHero oriented.
The young chap is only six but into Sci-Fi and Fantasy, although I managed to put the odd tank in there ;)