How to Paint Nihilakh Dynasty Necrons – TheChirurgeon’s Method

This article is part of a larger series on how to paint Necrons. To return to that series, click here.

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. The Nihilakh Dynasty combine teal and gold with green energy and weapons to create one of the more striking schemes for Necrons.

I started by priming this model with Leadbelcher spray.

Step 1. Basecoats

I kick things off by painting the gold parts and the gun. The gold parts get a coat of Retributor Armor while the gun is painted with Corvus Black, though I’ll come back to that in a moment.

Step 2. Green Parts + Highlights

I do a small amount of highlighting here – I’ll cover the black parts of the gun with a mix of Incubi Darkness and Abaddon black – and I paint the coils, orbs, and cables with Warpstone Glow. 

Step 3. Washes + Striping

I wash the metal parts of the model with Nuln Oil, wash the gold parts with Agrax Earthshade, and he gun with Drakenhof Nightshade. Then it’s time to do the striping.

The stripes are done with Sotek Green. There’s one stripe down the middle of his forehead and one on each shoulderpad, tracing the countours of the pad. Keep the paint fairly wet for this and paint it in a sketchlike fashion; don’t try and do the entire line in one brush stroke.

Step 4. Final Details

There’s not a ton more here. I’ll highligh the cables, orbs, and coils with Moot Green, blending that up from Warpstone Glow, and use Moot Green to dot the eyes. The gun gets edge highlighted with Sotek Green, and I’ll highlight some parts of the body with Runefang Steel. 

Bonus: Trazyn the Infinite

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. If I were doing more Nihilakh characters, I’d likely follow his lead by doing more blue armor on their upper bodies.

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.

This article is part of a larger series on how to paint Necrons. To return to that series, click here.