Necrons Nihilus

I've done Necrons before - in fact it's one of my favourite and most popular projects. But while my "red Necrons" are a kitbash project made with almost no actual Necron parts, I was in the mood recently to try out a more traditional version using the (excellent) official models. Tons of pics and background below the jump...

Sometimes it's cool just to put together some very well designed kits in the way they were intended. Several things led to me doing this project - firstly James The Empyrean's excellent Necron project inspired by the 3rd edition Necron lore (when they were mysterious automatons that had something of the cold of the void about them). This year has been very hard going for me personally (thankfully I'm out of the hardship, and in a much better situation now), and I think a dip into some nihilistic cosmic horror really appealled to me! Good to get it out of my system!

The plan for this project was to pick up some kits from eBay, and focus on a core of Necron troops as different grades of infantry differentiated mostly by shape and weaponry - in this case, Warriors, Immortals, Lychguard, and a couple of extras. I equipped everything with their own variant of gauss weaponry to emphasise this. I avoided characters because I was aiming for Necrons as a personality-less undead horde.

There was still some opportunity for kitbashing! My favourite is the Heavy Lokhust Destroyer taken off his flying platform and given a pair of legs from a spare Royal Warden (the biggest Necron I could easily source). Those legs are still a little small for the model's huge torso! But this way it looks like a single very large Necron, helping to emphasise the different "tiers" of infantry while acting as a centerpiece. I also replaced one of its robotic arms with another Warrior arm to further tie it in to the infantry style.

In most cases, I used Necron Warrior heads instead of the heads that came with each kit. They are sharper sculpts than the older models, and have a cool variety of battle damage. They're a little smaller than the specialised heads on the other models (especially the Lokhust), so they improve the heroic proportions a little. And I drilled out their eye lenses to leave hollow eyes.

Perhaps a more involved conversion than the Lokhust leg-swap, I cut and re-posed the Lychguard, using brass rod for their weapon hafts. I also cut away most of the weapon heads (which are, as typical for Warahmmer, ridiculously big). The resulting scythe-spears are still pretty massive! They now look like they're advancing menacingly, instead of chilling out.

Painting was the main appeal of this project for me. I went for a heavily textured finish to the metal by generously sponging on different metallics. The paints used were Pro Acryl Dark Silver, Vallejo Gunmetal, and Tamiya x-11 Chrome. The latter is an alochol-based paint that is very reflective. All were undiluted, and sponged on in several layers to really build up a thick grainy texture. Afterwards I applied several washes, and some desert sand coloured pigment. This is the sort of project I'd consider a "material study" - focusing on replicating a physical material over a large area of the model.

It was important to get the lightest metal around the faces, to properly define the facial features (which are easy to lose on something like Necrons).

After the metals, the remaining details were difficult to decide on. I wasn't sure about adding a standard "Necron glow" since I liked how sinister they were looking with "dead" faces. In the end, I added a few touches of green glow to a few of the weapons, and to about half of the faces. I guess they're in various stages of "activation".

So the full roster is 5x Immortals, 5x Lychguard, 1x Heavy Lokhust Destroyer, 1x Royal Warden, and 8x Warriors (2 were previously sacrificed in kitbashes). I think if I continue with this group, I would aim to convert some more things into infantry. Perhaps a trio of Skorpekh Destroyers would look cool as extra-large warriors with close combat weapons.

I wanted to add a Lord/Overlord, but couldn't source the parts I would use. I would want to make it especially broken and tragic looking, since these are the 3rd Edition Necrons who are fully enslaved to the will of a C'Tan. I think a Lord would have to be an especially ruined and cursed figure.

Of course I'd also like to add the C'Tan who proudly ruined this civilization! I haven't yet come up with a good idea for that though.

In the meantime, I'll be continuing on with my Cities of Sigmar force, which is almost done at long last.

Cheers,
Hek