Necromancing the Stone

[AtmanAbecedarian]

What's this? A new plog? Oh dear...and it would seem to be a Necron project none the less. Well, I guess I ought to explain myself.

Within my massive collection of bits I happen to posses a few sprues of warriors, a lord or two, and a fair number of scarabs. A long time ago, in a galaxy very familiar to you all, I actually had a small force of simply painted Necrons. That army was traded for bits after I got an itch for another project, but my interest in the Necrons never truly died. So, like the robotic zombies they are, the Necrons have returned to my workshop.

With the release of the new codex (which I do not currently own) there have been a lot of interesting changes in the overall background of this enigmatic elder race. Personally, I really enjoy the new personality of the army and some of the new units are particularly awesome. After seeing the many Necron plogs pop up in such rapid succession, it was hard for me to resist falling in to this new project.

So, what am I making here then? Since I like bullet point lists, I have one here:
-Necron Warriors that aren't so slouchy (repositioned legs primarily)
-Homemade Flayed Ones
-Über custom Necron Lord
-Green stuffed Scarab hordes (hats off to the genius who thought up that one)
-A white marble paint scheme with sources of energy painted in purple

You will notice something unique for me in this plog. That is the fact that I have a paint scheme plan from square one. I have tried painting marble before, and with some tweaks I should be able to pull it off on these guys with relative ease.

So why marble? It ties in to the fluff I am still concocting for these guys. Long story short, these Necrons aren't made of living metal, but a kind of 'living' stone. I will elaborate on this idea further in the next few updates. Really, I just like to go against the grain is all.

I'm really excited to get started on this, even though I have my traitors on the painting slab right now. I have been resisting starting this bit for a while, but temptation is a cruel mistress and she has again prevailed in complicating my personal agenda.

Anyhow, no pics as I am currently on a personal vacation near the Canadian boarder. I am just going to accept that this is probablly going to take over my Warhammer attentions for a while. I promise, the Boogies will still get love

Updates will begin as soon as I return home.

[Dark Magos Gillam]

Can't wait to see this. By the way.....did you ever finish the zombies in space?

[AtmanAbecedarian]

Gillam!! Ahoy! Great to hear from you after all these years
Sadly, the original Zombies in Space plog petered out about 2 years ago. That said, I did begin a reincarnation of that plog in the Chaos logs. It hasn't been updated for a while now, but it is still a back burner project. It will definately be updated down the road, but I'm really waiting for the rumored Chaos update to get moving on it. The new title is 'Return of the Zombirines'. Not sure how far in you will have to dig, but it is in there.

By the way, a general question for all of you Necron players. How much bigger are the new plastic Immortals? And how do you use them as a troops selection? I want to try to convert some from my batch of Warriors. I've seen some converted Gauss Blasters in a plog I can't recall off the top of my head. I'm primarily wondering if the torso on the Immortals is substantially larger or not. Any input will be appreciated

Cheers everyone!

[Dark Magos Gillam]

Yea, kinda been outta the loop for a while. Good to see there are still some familiar gamers still here. Anyways......diggin the concept for your necrons. Cant wait for the pic to start rollin in. Love the title of the plog.

[xedric]

-Homemade Flayed Ones

Looking forward to these! Are you doing the "plastic warrior gets plasticard claws" build? Ive always been a fan of that Been thinking abot doing it myself just for fun but Ive got enough unfinished projects to sidetracked by something like that... Have fun and show pics!

-Über custom Necron Lord

This will be interesting. It seems like all the new necron threads are doing great interesting conversions. Looking forward to see yours.

-Green stuffed Scarab hordes (hats off to the genius who thought up that one)

Yea truly hats off that that genius. Have you tried oyumaru? I higly recommend it for making your molds to GS cast out of. Hop on youtube and search for oyumaru if you dont know what it is.

[AtmanAbecedarian]

Gillam: It is indeed good to hear from familiar Warhammer enthusiasts
By the way, I found those servo skulls you sent me a while back and I am trying to find a good use for em. Got a couple ideas, but they are 'distant future' projects at best right now.
Glad you like the name too, I had a 'teehee' moment when I thought of it

xedric: Thanks for the suggestion on the oyumaru. I will be ordering some soon I hope.
And yes, I'm going to be converting my Flayed Ones with plastic warriors, plasticard for the claws, and a bit of GSing for the gribbly bits. Given your conversion abilities, I am sure you could pull off some sick Flayed's. That is of course if you can find the justification
I'll be doing a lot of step-by-step photo updates for this project so you won't be disapointed.

I've already invested a lot of thought into this plog so I'll be hitting the ground running once I'm home tomorrow. I am going blind without a codex, but I think I have enough info from the other plogs in here to make some good headway. Once I can justify buying it I will do so. Until then I will likely have a lot of questions for you all.

In fact, I have one here
-As I asked earlier, are Immortals troops now, or do you need to do something special to have them fill a troops slot?

And here is what people would call a plan of action. My plan for tomorrow night is as follows:
-Prepare 10 warrior legs. This will require three cuts on each leg. One at the hip joint, the knee joint, and the ankle. Gluing them together again will be the biggest challenge.
-Begin collecting bits for my Lord. I have two pewter cast Lords with Warscythes from the last edition. I want to bling the Warscythe, along with the rest of the model, and add a resurection orb. If the metal pisses me off I'll just scratch build one off a plastic Warrior. This guy will be getting a lot of GS.
-This is a 50/50 thing, but I might do a tester mini tomorrow as well. Time permitting.

Anyhow, thanks for the support despite the lack of photos!

[Hadriel Caine]

All right I'll bite. It's unlike you to get an itch for a new army Atman. If you aren't carefully you'll end up project addicted like G.Hawke although I wouldn't mind as I'd have lots to look at.

Marble scheme sounds very cool. Living stone is a nice idea. Need to name one of your units golems or something like that.

Paint some renegades though. That's what I wanna see. Suspense is killing me. Enjoy your holiday.

[AtmanAbecedarian]

Funny you mention G.Hawke, as he did kinda give me the inspiration to do this. I do, sadly, suffer from the plastic crack addiction already. Many tangent projects have came into my head throughout building the Boogies. I'll finish em, no skimping out like I did in previous plogs!
I like the idea for golems, I'll have to work it in. And don't worry, my next update will not be in this plog

Now I am home from a weekend of raucous drinking, cribbage, loud stories, and skiing. All in all a great way to see my brother off to his new life in Sweden. When I had a silent moment, I was planning in my head with the gleeful anticipation any conversionist feels when they are planning the first slices and sculpts.

So yes, on with some updates. First off, all of the bits I have to start this plog with right now.


After doing a preliminary count, I have enough parts to get my first ten warriors, between five and eight Flayeds, my Lord, and I'm planning on eight Scarab bases.

Speaking of Scarab bases, here are two old bits I did that I have been hoping to use for a long time. They will need a bit of updating, as you will see, but I think they are pretty cool for how long ago I made them.


Before I decided to cut all ten of the legs into segments, I went ahead and took a few bits and threw a Warrior together as a 'proof of concept'. Here it is with a regular GW Warrior for comparison.


I decided to remove the jaw for aesthetic reasons. I think it adds a nice menacing element. You can barely tell in the photo, but another thing I did was remove the cables from the torso. As part of the WIP fluff, these Necron's don't use mechanical components. They are statues with a type of 'sentient energy' possessing them. It is going to be based heavily in pseudoscience, but we will cross that bridge when we get there.

Something I have realized is that I have to figure out whether I want to keep the Gauss Flayers. Since I removed the cables from the Necron, I feel like I have to follow the same rules with the weapon. Since a Gauss Flayer that is simply missing the cables bores me, I think that I either have to keep them, or make a completely different weapon out of them. I have considered making a staff for them, so I will probably try doing a prototype when I work on them next. Any input regarding this last paragraph in particular would be excellent.

Anyways, moving on. After pulling out all of my bits, I came to find that the metal Lords I had seem to have been buried in some obscure place. Not wanting to flounder around, I opted for using a plastic Warrior. The following is the base around which a lot of GSing is going to be done.


At the moment I think he looks a bit off balance in a few places, but I am pleased with him so far. I think that once I get to the GSing and bulk him out, he will really come together. His back in particular will be larger, what with the enhanced spine and all. I'm debating on whether he should be holding the orb out in front of him, or his Warscythe. Decisions, decisions.

Anyways, that is that for tonight. I got a satisfying change of scenery from my usual project, but I really do need to get back to it. After I get some more painting done on my traitors...I'll be back.

[xedric]

We have photos! Your off to a good start.

Id keep the cables on the Gauss Flayers. Just my opinion. Though I wouldnt mind seeing a prototype for a staff of some sort.

And on behalf of the people of Sweden we welcome your brother here

[Hadriel Caine]

Looking cool. I quite like the staff idea and would love to see a proof of concept. The lack of jaw certainly looks menacing. What's ur brother up to in Sweden?

[colonel kane trine]

Looking good so far!
Bit unsure on the stood up straight necron im quite a fan of the hunched look! I would like to see a full squad ofthem though

[AtmanAbecedarian]

xedric: Thank you. And I agree with you, I didn't like the idea of taking the cables off of the Flayer. I went the staff route, as you will shortly see.
Thanks for the words to my brother. I'll be sure to pass them on

Hadriel Caine: Proof of concept below. And yes, this is not an update in the Boggeymen plog, but it is paint. And have a look in the backgrounds
As for my brother, he has decided he wants a change of scenery. He is going out to Sweden to work as a carpenter, says he. Pretty sure it has a lot more to do with the pretty blonde he is off to live with. Quite a long story really.

colonel kane trine: Many thanks. You will definitely be seeing a full group of upright Warriors, but do not fear! I intend to leave the legs for my Flayed Ones as they are. The slouching posture suits the deranged nature of them.

So I am learning that the Necron's are a very fun army to put together and tinker with. I have been painting a lot in the last two days, and one thing I am particularly happy with is my tester Warrior. Before I get to the pictures of the painting though, I have some Gauss Staff conversions to show.

First up I have a picture of the disassembled Gauss Flayer I used to convert the staff.


I discarded the larger ring and reshaped the 'energy source' as well as the grip. I then pulled out an old Lizardmen spear and cut it into two pieces. After some glue set, the result was this. Mildly crooked, but this was only a tester.


After assembling the staff, I set about fixing it on to my test Warrior. After a lot of repositioning, I got this.


Being very satisfied with the result, I set about painting him pretty much immediately. I looked up 'white marble' on google for inspiration. According to the image search, the type of marble I was most inspired by was 'Volakas white marble'. The next photo is a step by step of the painting I did so far. Bear in mind that this mini is my tester. I have not invested all of the detail into him that I will on the rest of my minis.


The first image is the mini after a base coat of black, dry-brushed from gray up to white. Next I used black ink to create the dark lines of the marble, and then washed them with watered down white. I repeated this process twice before I was happy with it. Finally, I simply filled the parts that will be 'energy sources' with Warlock Purple. This step was the most nerve-wracking by far. Getting paint into those ribs is very difficult, and I am not entirely pleased with the result. The natural shadows really beat down the purple. I want to achieve a glowing effect, so I am going to continue to experiment on the tester until I find a good solution.

Also...it has dawned on me that, though useful, my phone camera needs to be replaced with a real one soon. The photo quality does the mini no justice.

Anyhow, hope you all enjoy the update. Let me know what you think of the staff, and the purple in particular. Off to class.

[TheConverter15]

Very nice, the scheme makes the necrons feel especially grimdark. Great conversion of both the legs and staff, well done

[luchog]

Very interesting style. I look forward to seeing more.

[colonel kane trine]

I really like the marble warrior and I take back what I said about you making them stand up straight! It looks great!

As a new necron player myself I think il keep an eye on this. I think you will have some unique ideas in store for us :-)

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[Dark Magos Gillam]

Diggin the marble look. The staff could be a little more staff like imo. Looks a little thick to me. The warriors are so skeletal makeing the staff look off balance. Sorry bout the criticism. As for the purple energy source, maybe a thinned down warlock purple over a silver base? Might give it a glowing effect.

[Hadriel Caine]

Following blonde around the world is generally beneficial I find!
The Nexron looks wicked. Loving the red accent colour. V cool marble effect too.
I'm also happy to see colourful renegades in the background.

Keep it up. And get a camera not that I can use mine at the moment due to only Internet on my phone still...

[AtmanAbecedarian]

Lots of responses!

TheConverter15: Glad you like everything so far. I was pretty happy with the result of the marble

luchog: Thank you! Hope to have more to show soon!

colonel kane trine: Many thanks! I'm glad the legs turned out. Looking forward to seeing your Necrons

Dark Magos Gillam: I'm all for critique, no worries. I see how they are a bit bulky for a 'staff', but I'm not sure how I would make it slimmer without a lot of extensive converting.
Thanks for the idea on the glow effect. I'll give it a shot when I set about more test painting.

Hadriel Caine: Thank you, sir. I wasn't about to make that post without proof that I was working on my other plog
And I am keeping my fingers crossed that a camera will show up on my birthday. Little more then a month away!


No pics, but I did do a little bit of work on the tester. Adding a gloss varnish adds a wonderful 'marbly' sheen that I am a fan of.
Haven't done anymore work on the glowing effects, but I have a few ideas in mind. I'm likely to do some painting tonight after work, so I might have something to show later.

Thanks for all the kind comments and ideas

[Jihad_Ragsta]

I was a fool to fall into following your threads, Atman, even now my productivity bleeds into the aether...
I spotted your test piece in the background of one of your PIP shots for the Boogeymen and I thought 'He hasn't. He has too much stuff to finish.' But there ya go!

I like the conversion - seems relatively straightforward? It's an excellent piece and the staff idea looks good. I kinda see what others mean by it's bulk BUT it's distinctive and cool, so run with it.

Your bases. Scarab the heck out of them.

I'm not sure about the purple glow - the photo has made it look rather red and without depth. Gillam's suggestion for the glow effect might work nicely. Have you considered using blue instead? That would compliment the marble look. Either that or experiment with Liche Purple instead - Warlock has always struck me as rather difficult to work with.

I'll be watching - my motivation has been somewhat meh recently BUT I am beginning to get the stir of hobby lust again. Good luck with yours