Recipe: Black Armour / Hierotek Circle Kill Team (Necrons)

I like the dark armour and white heads shown in the boxart for the Hierotek Kill Team, so I wanted to recreate it when I painted up my squad. While it is not an exact match (particularly with the lighter spine), I think the blue-black armour turned out very well.

Reference

Paints Used:

A * indicates a specific paint that should be used without substitution. All other paints listed may be substituted if need be.

 

Acrylics:

• Standard:
• Citadel - Celestra Grey
• Citadel - Fenrisian Grey
• Citadel - Mechanicus Standard Grey
• Citadel - Moot Green
  
• Citadel - Ulthuan Grey
• ProAcryl - Bold Titanium White
• Vallejo Model Color - French Mirage Blue 70.900
• Vallejo Model Color - Black 70.950
• Vallejo Model Color - German Grey 70.995
• Metallics:
• Army Painter Fanatic - Gun Metal
  
• Citadel - Grey Knights Steel
  
• Citadel - Iron Warriors
• Citadel - Ironbreaker
• Vallejo Model Air - Chrome 71.064
• Washes:
• Citadel - Drakenhof Nightshade
  
• Citadel - Nuln Oil
  
• Contrast/Speedpaint:
• Citadel - Black Templar*
• Citadel - Celestium Blue*
  
• Citadel - Contrast Medium*
• Citadel - Hexwraith Flame
• Citadel - Imperial Fists
  
• Citadel - Leviadon Blue*
  

 

Instructions:

Subassemblies are not required for this process. Use them if you wish.

 

This recipe is meant to replicate the scheme seen in the Necron Hierotek Kill Team; I will only include instructions and pictures for Immortals/Deathmarks and the Technomancer. If you want to apply this to other models (Warriors, Skorpekh, etc.), many of the same steps apply, though you will need to figure something out for the energy weapons on melee units.

1. Using an airbrush or a heavy drybrush, apply Iron Warriors to the entire body of the model. The gun and any tubing may be excluded.
2. Drybrush Ironbreaker on the prominent and upward-facing areas of the model. This step does not need to be very precise, as we will coat over all of this.
   
3. Paint the armour panels (excluding the joints, head, and shoulderpads) with a 1:1:1:1 mix of Black Templar:Celestium Blue:Leviadon Blue:Contrast Medium. This may need two coats to get even coverage. The goal is a dark blue-black satin finish to the armour.
4. Apply an additional coat of Black Templar to the joints of the Necron (such as the elbows and feet assembly) to further darken them. We want a contrast between the armour and the functional skeleton of the Necron. When you apply the Black Templar, try to pull it to the center of any flat parts so that the edges remain metallic. You may need multiple coats.
   
5. Paint the shoulder pads and chest symbols with German Grey.
6. Apply a first edge highlight to the shoulder pads with a 1:1 mixture of Mechanicus Standard Grey:Celestra Grey
7. Apply a second edge highlight to the shoulder pads with Celestra Grey
8. (OPTIONAL) Apply a third edge highlight to the shoulder pads with a 1:1 mixture of Celestra Grey:Ulthuan Grey
9. Apply spot/corner highlights to the shoulder pads with Ulthuan Grey
10. Paint the face of the Necron with Ulthuan Grey. Leave the eye sockets dark if you can - otherwise, touch them up with VMC Black.
    
11. Apply Nuln Oil to the mouth of the Necron. After it dries, come back in with the Ulthuan Grey to fix any spillover.
12. Paint the casing of the weapon with VMC Black.
    
13. Apply an edge highlight to the head with Bold Titanium White. Also brighten the dots of the eyes and the weapon and paint any tubing for energy weapons.
    
14. Apply a 1:1:2 mixture of Hexwraith Flame:Imperial Fist:Contrast Medium to the eyes and weapon to create the glow effect.
15. Apply a 1:1 mixture of Hexwraith Flame:Imperial Fist to the tubing on the weapons to create a stronger glow effect.
16. (OPTIONAL) Highlight the center of any glowing areas with Moot Green.
17. Paint the spine and raised Necron symbol on the chest with Grey Knights Steel. The "spine" is the raised section on the back - leave the central column of the Necron as the Black Templar we already did.
    
18. Highlight the spine and Necron symbol with thinned Chrome. We are aiming for a bright silver spine with a hint of blue.
19. Shade the spine with Drakenhof Nightshade.
    
20. Apply a first edge highlight to the main armour with French Mirage Blue.
21. Apply a second edge highlight to the armour with Fenrisian Grey.
22. (OPTIONAL) Using a brush with a VERY small amount of Gun Metal, stipple the black joints to create the impression of wear. If you were able to accomplish this back in Step 4, you can skip this step. This should be very subtle - we want the focus to be on the armor.

This should get you a mostly painted Necron. Some models (like the Despotek, Apprentek, and Technomancer) will have additional components.

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