H.O.W. TO: Painting a Necron Overlord

A step-by-step guide to painting the Necron Leader.

Grabbed this guy the last time I was in Tokyo, and finally painted him up! I chose to use the default color scheme to set him apart from the rest of my dynasty -- there was getting to be too much yellow, and I thought the army needed some variation.

I left the model in two assemblies, as painting and basing under the cape would have nearly impossible.

I primed him black using vallejo primer.

Then I based him using vallejo gunmetal and polished gold.

I airbrushed the warscythe using vallejo scorpion green and goblin green to create a fade. I painted the base using GW steel legion drab. Any overspray on the legs can be easily touched up later.

I brushed black onto the base, so that the cracks from the GW Agrellan Earth paint would show up in higher contrast. I also covered any areas that would be gold. Normally, I would use a brown undercoat for this, but I wanted the gold to have a pure, cold finish to reflect the necrons' personality.
Lastly, I retouched the silver on the feet.

I brushed grey on the skulls, warscythe blades and crystals. This covers the black, and allows us to work up towards white with less coats.

I painted white over the grey. This will allow for a pure, bright green on the crystals and blades.

I painted the skulls with bleached bone, and brushed on the first thin coat of gold.

I washed the skulls using GW Agrax Earthshade, and painted the second coat of gold. The blades and crystals  were painted with scorpion green. I also added a tuft of grass from the GW basing line.

I dry-brushed the skulls using bone white, and then edge highlighted them using white. I painted the rock at his feet burn umber. I then applied a black oil wash over the silver areas of the miniature to bring out the details.

I decided the cape added too much gold to the model, so I pained the smaller fringes using gunmetal. I then applied a black oil wash to the silver, and a brown oil wash to the gold.

I highlighted the crystals and the blades using a combination of scorpion green and white. I then applied GW Agrellan Earth to the base. When it dried, it cracked, revealing the black paint underneath, making the pattern more evident.

Once the base was dry, I highlighted the details on the miniature, painted the Ankhs and spheres and attached the cape. Done!

It's a great model, but I'm not too keen on the cape thing. Considered leaving it off altogether, but kept it to set the model apart from my other Overlords.

-trip