Necron Invasion

Necrons are a fixed part of the 40k universe, and most people probably don't remember a Grim Dark Future without them. They were around since the early days, but more design-wise. The Chaos-Androids from Space Crusade / StarQuest are clear predecessors of the later Necron design, but the Necrons were properly introduced to the game mere months before the end of the 2nd edition in White Dwarf 217 and 218 (January and February 1998 - German issues #25 and #26). In the third edition they should shine, with a full codex in 2002 along with proper plastic kits.

But in this "small" time frame in 1998 from January to September (because in October 1998 the third edition dropped) all we had were a few pages of units for an entire army. Because all you could place were the only HQ choice they had, a Necron Lord, the regular Necron Warriors along with scarabs and the Destroyers for support. That was the entire armylist. We even had some Immortal sculpts, but now rules for those.

Warhammer Community even covered the Necrons through the ages, yet as the page is no longer available, you find it on the Web Archive / Wayback Machine. Covering their humble beginning as chaos droids in Space Crusades and their return in the very late second edition, until a full revamp in 2002 during 3rd edition.

I still had a few Necrons in a box, with the Necron Lord and some warriors and scarabs, but far from an army, more like some NPC event for I-Munda. But was offered a small lot of the classic range, that would just be enough to provide me with the miniatures I would need to build something around 1,500 points. Using the battle report from White Dwarf 218 against the Sisters of Battle for orientation, I came up with the following army list.

• 1x Necron Lord - 84 Pts
• 4x Necron Warriors - 176 Pts - The Lord's "Bodyguard" (using the Immortal sculpts, as they don't have specific rules for themself)
• 5x Necron Warriors - 220 Pts
• 5x Necron Warriors - 220 Pts
• 5x Necron Warriors - 220 Pts
• 5x Necron Warriors - 220 Pts
• 2x Necron Destroyer - 150 Pts

Don't I have enough on my plate? Why start Necrons? I thought it would be an easy paint job and small army (we're talking 27 miniatures for the whole project). And of course, they would go for a classic design, fitting for the middlehammer 2nd edition era. Proper shiny metal, goblin green bases, the full nine yards.

But first we have to assemble and base them. A black primer should provide the proper black base coat and heavily drybrushed metal the base colour to begin from there.

The original paint guide for the Necrons, published in the 1998s White Dwarf was as followed

Primed in Chaos Black, heavy drybrush with Chainmail for the entire model with the exception of the weapon which went with Boltgun Metal. Eyes, diamond in chest and scope with Ruby Red, chest plate with Regal Blue, trim in Burnished Gold, coils in Bestial Brown and tip of the gun with Emerald Green. And the base of course with Goblin Green.

As I don't have access to the old / classic range of Citadel Paints anymore, or at least didn't have the time to order some Nostalgia 94 by Warcolour. But as a starter, I blocked in the base colours during the paint meetup:

• "Skin" - Army Painter Gun Metal
• Contrasting Metal - Citadel Runelord Brass
• Base - Vallejo Game Colour Goblin Green
• Eyes and Laser - Army Painter Green
• Blue - Deep Blue (but might replace with a turquoise)

Further clean up and this is the base for a first wash, but I like what it looks like so far. Very retro.