Necron Showcase, Part 1

My Necrons have awakened from their decade-long slumber, to once again set forth on their mission to scour all life from the galaxy. I've never posted any photos of my collection, so this seems like the perfect opportunity to show them off...

The Necrons were the first army that I ever began collecting for 40K, back during the 3rd Edition, when they didn't even have a codex. Their rules were published in White Dwarf, and the initial all-metal range of Necrons consisted of a Necron Lord, some Warriors and Immortals, a Destroyer (which was essentially a Warrior in a hover-chair), and individual Scarabs. I had painted a handful of those figures, but eventually decided to collect Space Marines as my main army, which had a much more robust range of available models.

In 2002, when the Necrons received a full codex and an expanded range of plastic and metal miniatures, I jumped at the chance to play with an army of metal techno-skeletons. I had a lot of fun painting them, even though I eventually stopped playing with them in favor of my Black Templar Marines. As I'm writing this and looking back over the models and catalogues, I think my retiring the Necrons may have again had to do with their limited model range. I had built and painted every available unit (except the C'Tan Deceiver– I don't really care for that model), and there really wasn't anywhere left to go with the collection. I still had plenty of unopened boxes of Destroyers and Warriors, but they just seemed like dead-end projects for what had become a stagnant army. So, my Necrons went in their stasis-chambers and slept as the years (and newer editions of 40K) passed them by.

These days, the Necrons have a significantly expanded range, with large walkers, fliers, vehicles, and even more characters and unit types. Just enough to spark my interest again now that the new edition of 40K has gotten me back into the game. To kick of this reawakening of my Necron army, I painted up a new lord:

 

 

 

 

The theme for my army is based on The Terminator films, so I went with simple metallic skeletons on rubble-and-skull-strewn bases. Olive-green cloaks and cables add a flourish of color, and the neon green of the light pipes add another brighter element, which is further embellished by painting lightning crackles over the translucent green plastic. In order to paint the smooth plastic, I first spray it with Testors Dull Cote, which works nicely as a "clear primer" which I can then paint over.

The Warriors and Immortals receive the same treatment:

 

 

For the Monolith, I went a little further with the conversion work. Since it teleports Necron troops to the battlefield, I replaced the translucent green plastic portal with a styrene backdrop painted with crackling electricity to match the weapons. Bits of Necron Warriors were attached to that, to appear as though they are emerging from the portal. The tricky part was positioning the Warriors so one could be standing on the steps while allowing the steps to fold up so the door could close.

 

 

 

 

I've got two Heavy Destroyers. If I ever decide to add more, I'll have to struggle with the horribly-warped resin gun frames. I think it might be easier to simply cut away the thin rails and keep the muzzle and center piece, and then replace the rails with square styrene rod. (I've seen some of the Heavy Destroyer upgrade kits in stores, and not one of them had a weapon frame with less than a 90- degree bend. Pretty disappointing.) But before I do that, I need to paint some of my regular Destroyers for these guys to join. I found six in my backstock, which are currently primed and awaiting paint.

 

 

 

 

Some scenic pieces that I made for my army are these Necron stasis-chambers. They were featured with a brief tutorial in issue 58 of GW's old Troll Mail Order Magazine. The tubes were made from a plastic craft bottle, with a wooden wheel for the base, and spare weapon bits for the greeblies attached to the exterior.

 

 

 

That's it for now. I'll cover the rest of my units and the C'Tan Nightbringer in part two.

'Til next time!