
Who are the Necrons?
The Necrons were first introduced in late 2nd edition as a group of enigmatic, silent robot invaders from the stars. They were known for being made of incredibly resilient materials and their ability to self-repair, standing back up again and again after being felled. They were also known for vanishing mysteriously back to whence they came, phasing out as an entire army when enough were disabled. The range launched with four metal models: Warriors, which came in two poses, Necron Lords, and Scarabs, and Destroyers, skimmer craft carrying a Necron Warrior armed with a larger gun. These early Necrons lacked a Codex, introduced in White Dwarf 217 and 218 as part of a Necron Raider list with a custom scenario, but they were the first new menace in the 40k universe since the Tyranid overhaul. Necrons were further updated in 3rd edition through White Dwarf, when they received an additional troop choice and metal model kit in the form of the Necron Immortals, who stood taller and bulkier than warriors, and carried a more damaging gun. At the time, Necron lore still had them as an ancient race of undead robots awakening from a long slumber and making first contact with the Imperium. The rules themselves were unfinished at this time too — The Chapter Approved article itself said as much and asked readers to send in postcards detailing their experiences playing against the Necrons in order to help the designers balance the army! However it would be some time before Necrons would finally receive the treatment they deserved – almost three years, in fact! In April 2002, Games Workshop released the first ever Codex: Necrons, along with a whole new range that included plastic versions of old units like the warriors, scarabs, and destroyers, and all-new units like the Monolith, Flayers, Wraiths, and the C’Tan. Gone were the goofy, bulky robots of old – these new Necrons were thin skeletal, warriors asleep for millions of years after a devastating war with the Old Ones left the galaxy in ruins. They were the silent servants of the C’Tan, immortal star gods known for eating entire stars and souls. And now they were back and ready to reclaim a galaxy that was rightfully theirs. They still phased out of the battlefield if you killed 75% of them, but now they had some incredible new models and some sick green plastic rods. These Necrons were the implacable warriors of an uncaring, unknowable race of near-omnipotent beings, ancient enemies of the Eldar whose motives were to feed their ever-hungry gods. But narratively, this was a bit of a problem: While the Necron threat was real, and they were pretty scary, there was already an unfeeling, uncompromising threat besieging the universe that couldn’t be bargained with, and that was the Tyrands. Necrons lacked personality, and the only characters with the ability to talk in the army were its two C’Tan – the Nightbringer and the Deceiver, and of those one mostly just murdered things. The Necrons would see another major overhaul to their story with the release of their 5th edition Codex, which came with more new models and fleshed out the range and backstory. No longer were the Necrons all silent servants of star gods, now the star gods were theirs to command. Hailing form a small planet orbiting a deadly neutron star, the Necrontyr were technologically advanced but lived brutal, short lives, often riddled with cancer and disease to their frail forms. When they encountered the advanced, immortal Old Ones they demanded the Old Ones share the secret of Immortality. The Old Ones refused, and the War in Heaven began. The Necrons were no match for the Old Ones initially, and were beaten back again and again, until their empire dwindled and they were left with only their homeworld. That was when the Silent King Szarekh first contacted the C’Tan, immortal star gods as old as the universe itself. The C’Tan offered the Necrontyr a path to immortality that had them transferring their essences into metal bodies but losing their souls in the process, leaving those behind to be devoured by the C’Tan. In this form they became the Necrons, and they were immortal and powerful, but an emptiness gnawed at them. Working with the C’Tan, the Old Ones were no match for the Necrons, and soon they had been driven to desperation, seeking help from the psychic races they had spawned, creating more psykers in the process. As the Necrons won and the C’Tan turned on each other out of boredom and hunger, the galaxy became a fertile feeding ground for warp entities, eventually becoming overrun by warp beings called Enslavers that feed on psychic energy. With the Old Ones defeated and the universe in disarray, the Silent King at last turned their weapons on the C’Tan, shattering and enslaving them in an act of revenge for stealing the souls of the Necrontyr. With his work done, the Necrons retreated to a deep slumber, staying dormant for more than 60 million years as the Enslavers eventually starved off and the galaxy evolved. Meanwhile Szarekh, the silent king, freed his people from the mental programming that bound them to his will and fled the galaxy, looking for penance in the dark space between galaxies. Unlike their original incarnations, the Necrons are no longer mindless automata, and are now led by Overlords who retain their personalities and seek to rebuild the dynasties of old. They war amongst each other and squabble for power with no clear successor to the Silent King, and have been known to work with the Imperium when it suits them. Most famously when they worked with the Blood Angels to stop a Tyranid invasion of Baal. Their current iconography draws heavily from Egyptian and Persian jewelry and hieroglyphics, and their technology makes heavy use of a material called blackstone, which is coveted by the Adeptus Mechanicus for its anti-psychic properties.Where to Read More
The Necrons are primarily viewed as antagonists in 40k fiction, and have very little personality in those early pieces of fiction owing to how they were positioned. There’s been more recently, but it’s still tough to find a book with Necrons where they get to be more than enemies.- The Everliving Legion is a collection of short stories focusing on the Necrons and various aspects of their culture.
- The Fall of Damnos, Dead Men Walking, and The World Engine all show Necrons as antagonists, but do so in a strong way, with Dead Men Walking considered the strongest of the bunch.
- The Gathering Storm I and Shield of Baal campaign books from late 7th edition both feature Necrons in key roles working with the Imperium to protect key worlds from threats that they’d rather not deal with themselves. In Gather Storm, Trazyn works with Cawl and Imperial forces to stop Abaddon and in Shield of Baal Anrakyr works with the Blood Angels and the Mephrit dynasty to fend off a Tyranid invasion.
- Fabius Bile: Clonelord is the sequel to Primogenitor, and while it’s really a Fabius Bile story, it does feature Trazyn the Infinite in a major role, and details how he came into possession of one of his greatest prizes.
Playing Necrons
Warhammer 40k
- Necrons just got a completely new codex for 9th edition! Check out our review of it here.
Kill Team
- We’ve also got a guide to Necrons in Kill Team, where they fare a bit better. Check out Kill Team Tactics – Necrons.
Painting Necrons
In their earliest incarnations, Necrons were a simpler force, consisting primarily of robots clad in metal bodies with little adornment. As the faction has been revised, they’ve become more elaborate, and subfactions that call for different color schemes have emerged, creating a good deal of variety in the way you can paint them.Szarekhan
The newest(?) dynasty are the Szarekhan, followers of the Silent King. Now that he’s back from his 60-million-year midlife crisis joyride around the galaxy’s outer rim, they’re back with a vengeance. They’re unlike the other Necron factions in that they’re primarily a gold or burnished bronze color.Skails’ Method
Paints Used: Scale 75 Victorian Brass (sub Citadel Screaming Bell) Scale 75 Pure Copper (sub Citadel Brass Scorpion or Runelord Brass) Vallejo Game Color Silver Vallejo Game Color Polished Gold Citadel Leadbelcher Vallejo Game Color Dark Green Vallejo Game Color Goblin Green Monument Yellow Green Vallejo Model Color Basalt Grey Vallejo Model Color German Grey Vallejo Game Color Stonewall Grey Monument Dark Grey Blue Citadel Reikland Fleshshade Citadel Nuln Oil Citadel Lahmian Medium Umber Ink Wash (this is a custom mix of Umber Ink 1:1 with matte medium + about 4 drops of flow improver to mimic contrast paint- Sub Contrast Wyldwood) Copper Armor: Basecoat with Victorian Brass (optional- just pure copper could be used to save time for battle ready), then cover everything but the recesses with Pure Copper. Mix Pure Copper and Silver about 1:1 and apply to to the areas where most light would catch, under eyes, along cheekbones, upward facing parts of arms, feet, and legs.
Initial metallic layers.

Shade wash and ink wash.

Final copper layers, also bones and first layer of silver armor.

Nuln Oil stipple/splotching.

Umber Ink stipple.

Dark Green, Goblin Green, Yellow Green

Gauss Blaster Dark Grey Blue layer, and Stonewall edge.

Polished Gold layer and Reikland wash + Silver highlight

Szarekhan Royal Warden

Szarekhan Royal Warden
Nihilakh
The Nihilakh dynasty are visually notable for combining teal and gold/bronze coloring on their armor. Most notably, Trazyn originally hails from this dynasty, and the studio paint job for Orikan the diviner also follows this color scheme.Kamichi’s Method
I love the ostentatious colour scheme of the Nihilakh Dynasty, not afraid to show off their riches on even the lowliest Necron Warrior. Paints used: GW: Leadbelcher, Nuln Oil, Nuln Oil Gloss, Stormhost Silver, Retributor Armour, Reikland Fleshshade, Liberator Gold, Sotek Green, Skink Blue, Tyrant Skull, Steel Legion Drab, Lamenters Yellow (or Iyanden Yellow), Moot Green, Biel-Tan Green, Abaddon Black, Iron Warriors, Yriel Yellow, White Scar (Optional: Caliban Green, Warpstone Glow) My Necrons start as most Necrons do; with a healthy spray of Leadbelcher. I then tend to hit them with a quick drybrush of Leadbelcher as well. This serves two purposes as it means any touch ups I need to make later on will match as the Leadbelcher in the pot is a slightly different tone from the spray can, but it also provides a better texture for shade to cling to. The model is shaded with a 50/50 mix of Nuln Oil and Nuln Oil Gloss, then finished up with a light drybrush of Stormhost Silver. To separate the weapons from the body I start from an Iron Warriors base and give this a couple of coats of the 50/50 shade mix before drybrushing with Stormhost Silver.
A converted Necron Lord

A great example of the gold after final highlights

Paint in many, many sub-assemblies!

Lychguard: Fear their glowy eyes and paltry 2 attack each!

ZuultheCat’s Method
Nihilakh Supremacy. Nihilakh is my favorite dynasty, and not just because I once got a shout out on how to paint them. If someone ever tells you “Painting Necrons seems like it would be really easy because you’re basically just spraying them silver”, listen to them because they’re 100% right. Necrons are an easy army to knock out quickly. I painted up my entire Necron army in less than two months, starting on March 8th and finishing them at the on May 5th. My method of painting Necrons is simple. It’s made up of a few simple steps that when added together looks great. The metal skeleton is the first step. Simply prime then wash the models. I primed my Necrons with Bare Metal Primer from Ammo by MIG and then washed them with 2 coats of Nuln Oil, letting each coat fully dry before proceeding to the next step. The skeleton should be very dark following 2 directly coats of Nuln Oil. Following this the entire skeleton gets a drybrush of Necron Compound, starting from the top and only brushing straight down. The teal bits are very simple: 2 base coats of Sotek Green to get a solid base coat. Once this is dry, load up some Temple Guard Blue on a small dry brush and get most of the paint off, like you’re going to drybrush. Stab the brush directly onto the sotek green parts, breaking up the solid blue base coat. Once this dries, simply glaze over the teal parts with an undiluted coat of Lamenter’s Yellow. If you don’t have any of that long-lost liquid gold, you can mix up Iyanden Yellow contrast paint with Contrast Medium or just make your own Lamenter’s Yellow. The green is the part that takes the longest on my models. For this, I use the following paints in successive, very thin layers, building up the intensity through successive layers: Caliban Green, Warpstone Glow, Moot Green, Yriel Yellow and finally Skull White. Make sure you let each layer dry before moving onto the new one. The Gold is relatively simple. I use two different methods for the gold in this army. Troops got a simple base coat of Retributor Armor followed by a wash of the contrast paint Guilliman Flesh thinned out. The characters & vehicles got a treatment of Scale 75 gold paints. Starting with a base coat of Decayed Metal, then Dwarven Gold and lastly Elven Gold. Once this is all laid down, I give it a thin coat of Guilliman Flesh. The Black sections are by far the easiest – simply do 2 thin layers of Vallejo Black. That’s it! A few simple steps that make for a striking appearance on the table top.TheChirurgeon’s Method
I painted Trazyn up here as an ally for my Astradus campaign, since he’s the perfect kind of character to have ally or work with any faction to accomplish his own ends. I went with a quick studio default paint job on him, and he painted up pretty quick. The metal body is Leadbelcher washed with Nuln Oil and then brushed with Leadbelcher and Runefang Steel for edge highlights. The teal parts are painted with a base of Incubi Darkness then covered with Sotek Green and edge highlighted with a 50/50 mix of Sotek Green and Reaper Pure White. I painted the gold bits with Retributor Armour and then washed them with Agrax Earthshade before edge highlighting them with Ironbreaker. The green parts are based Caliban Green, then I work up to Moot Green and edge highlight with Ogryn Camo.Sautekh
In many ways the “Default” Necron style, the Sautekh style is most reminiscent of the 3rd edition aesthetic from the Necrons’ big debut as a codex faction, combining silver and green with darker gray/black portions on models like the monolith and destroyers. It’s a striking scheme and as a bonus, easy to paint.One_Wing’s Method
While it doesn’t feature on the site nearly as frequently as my Eldar, I have a moderately sized Necron army already and am eagerly looking forward to them maybe being… good actually? I started the army up around the time of the 8th Edition codex release – it was just getting to the point where I was bored of using my Eldar at club nights and starting to do enough events that I thought having a second army to use would be a good idea. I also, bluntly, thought they would be pretty easy to paint, and selected the Sautekh scheme for my army because it was super simple. That did, basically, turn out to be true, but ironically the process of working on this army (plus some other projects I was doing in parallel) was enough of a level-up moment for my painting ability that by the end I was looking for ways to add a bit of flair rather than keep things easy! The baseline method I started with was inspired by two GW painting videos – one for how to do Sautekh warriors, and one for how to achieve the “glowing green” Necron vehicle effect. The former I follow pretty closely, the latter I adapted a bit to simplify, leaning a bit more into the green. My Destroyers are a good example of what I’ve ended up with in the past: For Indomitus, I decided I wanted to start out with the Skorpekh Destroyers, as they’re an exciting new unit and I thought they’d provide a decent canvas to work on. The Skorpekh Lord is also the unit I’m most excited by on a tactical level, so warming up on the Destroyers seemed like a good plan! Step 1, of course, is to assemble all required tools – I set up here with the sprue for the Skorpekh and roughly the set of paints I thought I’d need.











- Base Caledor Sky
- Wash Hexwraith Flame
- Wash Drakenhof Nightshade
- Drybrush Sotek Green
- Very lightly drybrush Gauss Blaster Green – you only want to hit the sharpest edges.
Novokh
The Novokh Dynasty are close combat monsters on the battlefield, and are visually distinct with a striking red color scheme that uses splashes of white.TheChirurgeon’s Method
The models in the Indomitus box are my first Necrons – I’ve previously thought about doing Necrons but never pulled the trigger on them. I’m kind of glad I waited now because these models are awesome — they wonderfully combine the creepy eldritch horror of the 3rd edition Necron fluff with the character of the Tomb Kings-style 5th edition reboot. I’ve always really liked the red Necrons that one of my college roommates painted, and so I wanted to do something similar in style to his Necrons, albeit with a little more visual flair on the characters. I also wanted to get away from the green energy rods, since the red/green combo can end up looking a little too Christmas-like. So the general scheme – and I’ve decided they’ll be Novokh – is to do deep red shoulder plates, chest armor, and heads for the core warriors, with more red plating for higher-ranking models in the army. I’ve decided to do the heads on my characters with a bone color, because it looks bad ass and gives them more of an undead feel.Necron Warriors
For the Necron Warriors I went with a really simple scheme that can be easily replicated across a large number of models. Metal bodies, Red chests/shoulders/helmets. It’s roughly a 9-to-12 step process.

The Characters
My characters tend to follow the same process, with some minor variations and more complicated schemes.

Craig “MasterSlowPoke” Sniffen’s Sarnekh Dynasty
Necrons were my first real passion army for 40k. I got incredibly lucky and picked up a massive amount of the goofy-yet-amazing 2nd edition metals for an absolute steal about 2 weeks before the first leaks dropped in 5th edition. I gave a lot of thought to the color scheme I wanted to go with, and ended up deciding on one based around the old Rotting Flesh color. It’s a sickly pale yellow-green that I felt was perfect to represent the slow degradation of a once beautiful ceramic casing – kind of like an old Super Nintendo. Unfortunately, Citadel switched out their paints a couple years after I started my Necrons, and there really was no replacement color for it. I had a good amount of Rotting Flesh left, but that’s long since dried up and I’ve moved onto other projects.
“Spare me your condescension human. You speak to a Phaeron of the Infinite Empire. I was conquering the stars while your kind was wallowing in your own filth like witless beasts. Do not dare address me with such lack of respect again. Truce or no, I will see you buried in a lightless tomb with only the scarabs to hear your screams.”
-Phaeron Thaszar the Invincible of the Sarnekh Dynasty , addressing Lord General Hausmann during the Hadrima Summit

- Using an airbrush, cover the entire primed model with Citadel Rhinox Hide.
- Next, zenithally airbrush on Citadel Zandri Dust at about a 60 degree angle. You’re looking to keep the Rhinox Hide in the underside and crevices of the model.
- Finally, zenithally airbrush on Citadel Nurgling Green at about a 45 degree angle. I’m not super great at keeping the Zandri dust visible, but you should aim to keep some of it in the middle to get a good gradient.

- Next, we begin shading it down. Go through glazes of Citadel Zandri Dust to bring back a little of the midtones. Mix in progressively more Citadel Rhinox Hide as you establish the shadows. Finally, a pin wash of Citadel Nuln Oil is good in the deepest recesses.

- We will then start the highlights. Glaze on some Citadel Nurgling Green to set where the brighter parts of the model should be.
- Continually add Citadel Deepkin Flesh into the glaze to further brighten up the ceramic.
- Edge highlight with pure Citadel Deepkin Flesh. On character models you can go even further, and add in a little Citadel White Scar to the Deepkin Flesh to do reflex highlights.

- Now we’ll tackle the gold. I want it to be a tarnished and uncared for gold, so we’ll basecoat with Scale 75 Necro Gold.
- Next, establish the midtones with a mix of 50/50 Scales 75 Necro Gold and Peridot Alchemy.
- Use pure Scale 75 Peridot Alchemy as an edge highlight. For reflex highlights, mix in a little bit of Scale 75 Speed Metal or White Alchemy
- Finally, use Citadel Agrax Earthshade Gloss to establish the shadows. For the green part in the middle of the Necron’s necklace thing, I carefully washed over the gold with Citadel Biel-Tan Green

- 2nd edition models deserve bright red weapon casings! Considering the age of this model, basecoat the area with my everlasting pot of Citadel Mechrite Red. If you don’t live in 2009, I think that Khorne Red is a decent substitute.
- Wash over the entire weapon with Citadel Nuln Oil.
- Edge highlight everything with Citadel Evil Suns Scarlet.
- Do a final reflex highlight with Citadel Wild Rider Red. We didn’t break any new ground with this red recipe, but I’ve always thought it looked great.

- Everything will start to come together when we do the silver metals. Basecoat them with Scale 75 Black Metal.
- Wash all the silvers with Citadel Nuln Oil. While we’re at this, basecoat the corrugated tube thing with Citadel Abaddon Black.
- Establish the highlights on the silvers with Scale 75 Heavy Metal. For the tube, edge highlight it with Citadel Thunderhawk Blue.

Corrode’s Method
If you’ve read any Necron articles on Goonhammer at all, you’ve almost definitely seen this Overlord kicking around. He’s shown up basically every time we’ve needed a picture of a Necron. I like this guy a lot, but my Necron army never got past the stage of being “fledgling” and was mostly painted two years ago, and I think now i would do them differently. The body is just Army Painter silver spray washed Nuln Oil, the carapace is Naggaroth Night then Xereus Purple highlighted with Genestealer Pink, and the green is Warpstone Glow -> Moot Green. The gold is just Retributor Gold washed Seraphim Sepia, and the brassy bits are Runelord Brass which I think was also washed Sepia. If I end up picking the Necrons back up – maybe after all those sweet new models drop in the probable 9th edition starter – I would do a similar procss, but add a little more – the gold would be Retributor -> Auric -> wash Druchii Violet -> Auric again, and instead of the somewhat anaemic looking Runelord Brass we have here I’d do Brass Scorpion and then Sycorax Bronze. I like the body well enough, but to give it a bit more depth I’d spray Leadbelcher and then drybrush Ironbreaker. I also need to update the bases using the method from our How to Base Everything: Deserts and Wastelands article. The green and purple can stay, though. I love purple and gold as a scheme – it also appears on my Imperial Knights – and I think that i executed the greens pretty well here.Rockfish

Technomancer With Canoptek Cloak. Credit: Rockfish





































Thokt Dynasty – Skails’ Method
I’m doing a take on the Thokt Dynasty, going with a largely blue and grey scheme.
Paints used-
GW: Leadbelcher, Temple Guard Blue, Nuln Oil
Vallejo: Model Color Basalt Grey, Model Color Dark Prussian Blue, Game Color Stonewall Grey, Game Color Dead White, Game Color Ultramarine Blue
Daler Rowney: Indigo Acrylic Ink
Golden Acrylics: Satin Glazing Liquid
Metal: Base the metal bones bits with Leadbelcher and give that a wash with Nuln Oil
Base: The armor/carapace/face and gun housing were all based with a mix of German Grey with little bit of Dark Prussian Blue mixed in for a bit of tint- in the range of 10-20%. I don’t think this is strictly necessary, how blue you want it (if at all) is up to personal taste.
First edge highlight: A mix of Basalt Grey and a bit of the base color plus 10-20% Dark Prussian Blue (to taste) again. This is put on as thicker edge highlight and over the whole face. (At this point I also went back and did the axe and haft in leadbelcher, then gave it a wash. I fixed the brown wash later to match the rest of the metals.)

Second edge highlight: Stonewall Grey 1:1 with Basalt Grey and a small amount (in the 10-20% range again) of Temple Guard Blue. This is a finer highlight along all the edges. Then the same color was used to paint the whole face again along with the gauss tube, wires, and coils on the gun. The wires hanging out of the chest were painted this too, along with the raised portion of the chest emblem.
Third edge highlight: Stonewall Grey and plus 10% or so Temple Guard Blue was done as the final edge highlight on most of the body, focusing on the top edges and sharpest corners and covering less area that the last one. This mix was also painted over most of the face, leaving the recesses as the previous layer. It was also used to paint the emblem, edges of wires and gauss coils, and squiggled along the sides and top of the gauss tube as the first layer of the energy effect.
Blues: Pure Temple Guard Blue was used to edge all the gauss wires and coils, and the eyes and emblem. I put a small drop of Indigo ink on my wet palette and thinned it with water until it was transparent. This was put into the eye sockets, the mouth lines, and dabbed along the gauss tube between the previously painted light areas. It was also allowed to flow into the recesses on all the wires and coils. White highlights: White is put on the sharp corners of the face, dabbed along the bright areas of the gauss tube, and on the most raised portions of the gauss coils and wires. At this stage I could call this guy done, he’s ready for the battlefield.
Refined: To push this one a bit further I glazed over the gauss bits with a transparent mix of Temple Guard Blue and glazing medium, then glazed white at the edges again and refined some of the electric effect with glazes of white. The glow in rib cage was done starting with a coat of Prussian Blue in the whole recess. Then layer Ultramarine Blue was painted in half of the recess toward the spine and emblem, followed by half that area covered by Temple Guard Blue. Next was a transparent glaze of Ultramarine Blue to smooth the color transitions, and finally a mix of Temple Guard Blue and White in the center corner of the recess.
Cowie’s Method

Overlord & Royal Warden. Credit: Chris Cowie

Canoptek Reanimator. Credit: Chris Cowie
How to Smoosh Necrons, Beanith Style
Here at Goonhammer, the editors have their best ideas at 5am in Downunder time, the perfect time to convince a bleary-eyed Beanith to take on extra hobby work. So when Rob “TheChirurgeon” Jones loudly proclaimed that “It is time for HTPE: NECRONS”. I either said “yes” without giving it much thought (I’m never at my best before my first dose of caffeine), or I got “voluntold” into the content mines so I could submit my quick contrast paint-smooshing technique to this article for our beloved site and its Overlords… also I think Liam mentioned something about there being Punch and Pie as well?

Sautekh – Accurate Pew Pew

Mephrit – Bonus AP Pew Pew

Novokh – Reroll melee… wait, really?

Nephrekh – A major case of Zoom Zoom

Nihilakh – Movement is for suckers

Weapons, Glowly Chest inserts, pipes, bits and Head Nipple
The weapons were all given a coat of Contrast Black Templar and then some Contrast Warp Lightning on top. I’ve also smooshed in Contrast Warp Lightning inside the grooves in the chest, the pipes in the stomach, the balls on their back and on their power button on their forehead. I also did the recess on the thigh too while I was there.Finishing touches
Nuln oil… just smoosh Nuln oil on all the grey metal. Go to town with it in the recesses not already claimed by Contrast Warp Lightning. Boom, job done. Five Necrons ready to bring the beep boop. Time for Punch and Pie now Rob?


