The Mandragola Dynasty emerges

[Mandragola]

I'm starting a new necron army. It's based on 3x the necron half of Indomitus and the stuff out of the old Forgebane box (which I bought for the Armigers, years ago). 

 

I'm imagining a horde army, which is something I've never done before. The core will be 60+ warriors and I'll back them up with various other fun stuff. I'm planning a few conversions for characters like a CCB, assorted Crypteks and Nightbringer. However, the core of the army will be shambling hordes of warriors built straight out of the box and painted largely using contrast paints and drybrushing.

 

Here's my test necron warrior. He's painted in apothecary white over Corax white spray, then a white drybrush. Vallejo steel for the metal and the necron glow colour for the green.

 

I think I might need to add a spot colour, probably red, to differentiate units. Some fairly simple lines ought to do it I think.

 

 

I've also painted a reanimator, as a practice for how I might do bigger models. I added in some Dark Angels green for the blade bits of the legs, which I think works fairly well.

 

 

I'm not sure how I'll do the bases yet, or if I'll add much weathering, rust and so on. I'll probably play around with various options.

 

I'm going to have 12 Skorpekhs, so I wanted to vary their positions a bit. For the 2nd set I swapped bodies and legs, then for the third I chopped up the arms and repositioned them with some careful pinning. I'll do something similar for the 4th set.

 

 

Here's my current pile of mostly grey plastic. There's a bit more stuff still on sprues: a unit of wraiths, skorpekhs and Lychguard, two "royal court" sprues from Indomitus and 20 more warriors. 

 

 

I'm looking forward to doing a lot of conversions for things like Crypteks and other characters. I picked up a Chronomancer and I'm going to kit bash a second one using the spare arms he comes with, and some snaky tendrils from my Wraiths. I think I'll want a technomancer with a control node too, which I'm planning to make as a little canoptek critter that shares his base, possibly based on a plasmacyte. We'll see how that works out!

[Captain Coolpants]

Nice! Id definitely try a bit of colour or weathering, or event both! I've neve done weathering, so no idea how difficult it is.

 

Although the models individually look nice, when you see a whole army of white, they can look "unfinished". I learned that the hard way when I painted up my grey knights all in relatively basic white.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Captain Coolpants

[Miek]

Very nice, and I think a rusty red base would really suit your scheme (I would test it with a model that has your spot color).

 

Looking forward to seeing your conversions and fully painted units.

[Mandragola]

Thanks all. The scheme is inspired by the old Space Crusade Chaos Android. Happy days.

 

Interesting point about a white army looking unfinished. That'll be something to watch out for, for sure. I might consider adding some more colour, like maybe using a bit of that DA green on places like shoulder pads.

 

In terms of basing I quite like a muddy battlefield. Mud splashes on these guys might look quite fun too. I think it'll need to be something relatively dark to make a good backdrop for the white. The kind of thing I do for my AT Titans might actually work fairly well for these I think. I'd use rocks and/or tufts instead of the little trees though.

 

 

In terms of rules and play style there are two options I'm looking at. One is fairly conventional but highly aggressive, based around an Eternal Conqueror + Relentlessly expansionist battalion. The other is a weird double-patrol list with Imotekh, two C'tan and as much mortal wound spam as I can reasonably (or otherwise) fit. Here are the lists:

 

List 1:

 

Eternal Expansionist Battalion

 

Catacomb Command Barge 180

Gauss Cannon

Res orb

Enduring Will

Voltaic Staff

 

Chronomancer 110

Countertemporal Nanomines

 

Chronomancer 80

Veil of Darkness

 

20 Warriors (Reapers) 260

 

20 Warriors (Reapers) 260

 

5 Immortals (Gauss) 85

 

6 Skorpekh Destroyers 210

 

6 Skorpekh Destroyers 210

 

Plasmacyte 15

 

C'tan Shard of the Nightbringer 370

 

5 Canoptek Wraiths 175

 

3 Canoptek Scarab Swarms 45

 

List 2:

 

Sautekh Patrol

 

Imotekh the Stormlord (Warlord) 145

 

Plasmancer 70

 

5 Immortals (Gauss) 85

 

C'tan Shard of the Void Dragon 350

 

Eternal Expansionist Patrol

 

Overlord 125

Voltaic Staff

Resurrection Orb

Enduring Will (or nothing)

 

Plasmancer 70

Veil of Darkness

 

Plasmancer 90

Quantum Orb

 

20 Warriors (Reapers) 260

 

20 Warriors (Reapers) 260

 

C'tan shard of the Nightbringer 370

 

5 Wraiths 175

 

C+C on lists and painting is most welcome, of course.

[Mandragola]

I kicked off kind of a massive paint batch today. 20 reaper warriors, 5 immortals, 6 destroyers and scarab bases, a plasmacyte and chronomancer. They’ve all been hit with Greg seer and apothecary white. Next step is a white drybrush, after which I’ll probably break the batch down a bit.

 

I’m thinking of using flesh tearer as a spot colour instead of the DA green I used on the reanimator. I might use it for shoulder pads and the leg blades on destroyers. I’m considering keeping the green for units with rapid fire guns - the immortals and flayer warriors. This would let me use them as a different but similar dynasty, or could just represent a different sect within the same one.

 

I’ve got a vague idea for fluff. They “live” on a world that’s in a tidally locked orbit around its star (like our moon, or Mercury I think) so one side is always really hot and the other always dark.

 

This produces a somewhat divided society. The majority are on the sunny side, with lots of energy but also danger from radiation and too much heat, which drives them a bit mad. They’ll have stuff like the reaped warriors and destroyers.

 

A smaller number on the dark side require much more careful resource management so tend to favour the more deliberative stuff: immortals, flayers, maybe the heavy support stuff if I get some. This stuff will potentially be fielded as Sautekh in my list above.

[Miek]

Nice idea for the fluff, are you planning on integrating it to your paint scheme? Ex.: Frosty on the dark side, scorched on the sunny side?

[Mandragola]

I'm not sure how I'll integrate it yet. Two key options: a different spot colour, such as red and green, or a much more significant different main colour. For example, I might swap the white for black on the "dark side" guys but keep the spot colour the same. Not sure.

 

Here's my current set of WIP stuff anyway.

 

 

This morning I gave the lot a white drybrush. I put some talassar blue on the Cryptek's staff and cubes to see how it would look. Pretty good I think, though maybe some line highlights would improve it further.

 

 

On the other hand I'm not too happy with how his carapace bit has come out. That big flat area hasn't really worked with a lazy drybrush and will need more attention.

[Miek]

You could also mostly change the base; icy or scorched. Then again, that doesn't really make sense if they are fighting together at the same location... Where do you consider battles to take place, somewhere on your tombworld or on other planets? Either way, accent colors seems to be the most logical solution.

 

A pretty cool variation would be to have super reflective metal on the sunny side, and very dark and matt metal on the dark side. :O

Edited March 21, 2021 by Miek

[Mandragola]

I really like the cryptek spheres. Is it just the talassar blue?

We’ll kind of. It has the apothecary white and drybrush first.

 

The idea for white and black was kind of similar to going with very shiny or dark metal. Basically a finish suited for heat, and a different one for cold.

[Mandragola]

Ok some loot arrived! This should be most of what I need for my army I think, with a few options.

 

 

I also did a bit of work. I had the idea of combining a Skorpekh Lord (which I have 3 of - more than enough) and a heavy destroyer to make a Lokhust Lord. So far I've managed to attach the Skorpekh Lord's body to the chassis without too much trouble. A bit of GS will be needed in the joints but nothing major. The front of the chest isn't glued on so I'll figure out how to do the arms - which is going to be a bit tricky. He's going to have a Res orb I think, plus a choice of choppy spear or scythe. I might need to do some clever magnetising for that, as I'm not sure if he's better off with the voltaic staff or the blood scythe.

 

Weirdly, he ends up being a bit shorter than a standard Skorpekh Lord.

 

[dice4thedicegod]

Oh , nice idea on skorpekh lord/lokhust kitbash!

[Trollbeard]

 

I really like the cryptek spheres. Is it just the talassar blue?

We’ll kind of. It has the apothecary white and drybrush first.

 

What’s the exact recipe for this? Are you drybrushing the apothecary white over the thalassar blue? It looks great and I would like to use it for energy weapons on my Deathwatch!

[Mandragola]

It’s grey seer spray, apothecary white, the white drybrush paint (I forget the name) and then the talassar blue. I’m almost embarrassed how well it’s come out, given how little work it required.

 

That said, I’m not too happy with the carapace bit on the chronomancer. I think that shows the limits of what this contrast and drybrush approach can achieve. It’s not really good for flat areas like that. I think I’ll make it bronze or something instead.

[Tyriks]

Really like the white scheme so far!

[Mandragola]

Nothing like seeing a big pile of goodies, even if they belong to someone else! What color you gonna do the Void Dragon?

Not sure. Probably pretty close to the "official" scheme, though I might have a go at NMM on him. We'll see. I'm trying to make myself do the "boring" hordes before the cool stuff.

 

To that end, I'm working through this large batch at the moment. Making fairly good progress I think.

 

 

This is where I'm up to on the 20 warriors, so far. I need to do black around the gun, bronze on the chest icon and then the glow stuff. Oh and base them of course. The biggest job was the metal though and that's done.

 

 

I had a go with some contrast warpstone on this destroyer's blades. Not perfect blending but I like the colour combinations. An edge highlight might make these look decent.

 

 

I also built my Psychomancer. I'm not sure he'll often make it into lists but I love how insane this model is. 28 pieces for a single "infantry" figure!

 

[Captain Coolpants]

Maaan I wish I was able to paint that quickly! You've got so much done!

I like The colour on the shoulders too.

[Mandragola]

Thanks. It's not really a huge amount of work. I've so far done contrast, drybrush, flesh tearer and vallejo air metal steel, brushed on. The vallejo metallics are far better than GW's I find and look fine on small details like this without needing any highlighting.

 

I find the trick for batch painting like this is to put something like a documentary or a podcast on, so the brain has some other input. Otherwise painting the same details 20 times is a bit rough.

[Miek]

Do you have any recommendation for a 40k related podcast? I tried listening to YouTubers without much success (either the screen distracts me, or the lack of visual input doesn't work for me, at least for the YouTubers I follow).

 

I have several podcasts I love (and listen to while painting), but I'd like to find one related to 40k.

[Mandragola]

I'm afraid not. I usually put something from netflix on, or occasionally a batrep. I quite like the tabletop titans guys.

[Plague _Lord]

Tabletop titans are great.

[Mandragola]

Not a lot of progress to report, but a bit. First I've tried out a bunch of bronze on my Chronomancer, and I think it works. Annoyingly my pot of nihilakh oxide has died so I need a bit more, but actually I think it might look good new anyway. It does need highlighting up though. This didn't leave a lot of room for red, but I got a few details in there. Glow also still required.

 

The normal guys will only have a bit of bronze on, for the chest plate thing. Higher ranking guys will have more.

 

 

I've also put Imotekh together. He comes with a ridiculous 25mm base, meaning he needs to be on that to be legal at some events. I've therefore magnetised him to fit on that or a proper 40mm one. I need to do a bit of GS work on his staff and cloak to fix failcast issues.

 

[Mandragola]

I'm making some pretty slow progress. One milestone is having my first fully painted (though not based) necron warrior.

 

 

The rest of us unit are nearly there too, just missing the glow. It'll be good to have a unit finished.

 

I've had a play at doing the blades on one of my Skorpekhs. So far this is just applying Warp Lightning over the light green I started with. It's far from perfect but I think the colours are right. An edge highlight could make this look pretty good.

 

 

And I've been gluing stuff together. Built my deathmarks and tried to pose them like they were some sort of special forces unit - though without actually doing any conversion work. Also I started building Wraiths... and it turns out there's a lot of work involved! I'll get there.

 

C+C very welcome.

Edited April 13, 2021 by Mandragola

[Captain Coolpants]

Finished guy looks good! The red and the glow really work to break up the white. What sort of base are you thinking?

 

And the blade looks fine! I'm pretty bad at that whole affect, so i can't really give advice on it aha. I get so frustrated trying to do it. Alllways mess it up somehow.

 

I've also never built wraiths, but i do have some on order, im going to build them upside down to make them look like scorpions instead (or attempt to anyways lol)

Edited April 13, 2021 by Captain Coolpants

[Mandragola]

Thanks. Yeah I'm quite pleased with how the Warriors are coming out. And very glad to have 20 of them nearly done.

 

Upside down Wraiths sound interesting. I think it could work fairly easily, depending on how fussy you are. Turning the legs the other way will be simple. However the body and its armour plates are curved downwards slightly. Not a problem if you're happy with the armour to be on the underneath, but otherwise it could be. And the tails have flat spots where they stick to the base, which would probably need some filling.

 

I'm not totally sure how I'll do the bases. My plan has been to do mud. However, lots of the models have these bits of girder and stuff sticking out, which suggests more of an urban environment. So maybe something like Astrogranite debris would be better. I don't have any of that though. I think maybe if I shaded it with agrax and left little brown puddles (flat bits of base with wet effects on) they could look like a long-ruined city. But maybe I want it to look recently-ruined, and like my army's responsible!

 

Speaking of my army, I've been playing around a lot with lists. This is my favourite one today. It has quite a lot of scary units in I think, though not many people available to do stuff like actions, which could potentially be an issue.

 

Eternal Expansionist Battalion

 

Catacomb Command Barge

Gauss Cannon

Res orb

Enduring Will

Voltaic Staff

 

Chronomancer

Veil of Darkness

 

5 Immortals (Gauss)

 

20 Warriors (Reapers)

 

20 Warriors (Reapers)

 

6 Skorpekh Destroyers

 

6 Skorpekh Destroyers

 

C'tan Shard of the Nightbringer

 

3 Wraiths

 

3 Wraiths

 

9 Scarab Swarms

Edited April 13, 2021 by Mandragola

[Bjorn Firewalker]

The models are well-painted.