Convergence of Dominion, Element 3

The final component in this series is the piece that has had most of its stonework fall away from its surface, revealing the strange alien metal beneath. 

In some ways, this is the one that I feel least comfortable with. The main reason for this is the sheer extent of the hard metal surface on display here. Lots of plank and smooth surface makes for a tough painting challenge regardless of what miniature it is placed upon. I've taken a dry brush and weathering approach to the large black areas here, and tried to suggest worn metal that has been scraped over years of exposure, likely due to the stonework chipping away.

The green power nodes have been picked out with the air brush to create a glowing effect over the top of the flat areas. This provides contrast and takes the eye away from the extensive black areas. Otherwise, the remaining stonework has been picked out in the same manner as the other elements. 

This finishes the trio of necron terrain for the collection and although it has had its challenges, I'm happy with the painting approach taken overall and how it fits on to the battlefield. 

Convergence of Dominion, Element 2

The second element in the Convergence of Dominion is the half-worn away stone variation.

The painting for this piece follows the same basic approach as the first element. The stonework is contrast paint with Guilliman Flesh and the marbling effects have been achieved using a watered down black applies to the recesses and the grooves. 

Perhaps the main difference here is the increased use of the airbrush to go over the "shining" green spheres located in the centre, top, and sides of the top of the monument. More of the black and silver underneath parts are also exposed here and they have seen some weathering using metallic silver paints (e.g., lead belcher and so forth) to create a slightly worn effect, and some of the raised surface has had their bits highlighted and picked out.

I'm really liking the Convergence of Dominion -- it is a great addition to my (far too extensive) terrain collection!

Convergence of Dominion, Element 1

This is the first of the three elements of the Convergence of Dominion that I've finally managed to get painted up. 

After undercoating in black, the surface of the stonework was painted in a light grey colour to give it enough of a base and texture to hold some contrast paint. Here, the contrast paint that was used is Guilliman Flesh. This gives a nice overall effect, and whilst there is some pooling of the ink evident (notable at the ridge line three quarters of the way down, as well as some splodges elsewhere), from a certain distance this works very well for the miniature. 

The cracks in the stone work were inked by using watered down black and carefully painting them along the cracks, as required. This step has accentuated the worn stone effect by yielding a rather nice marbling effect to the miniature that I might carry over to other paint jobs I have in mind. 

For the recesses, I have left them mostly black and given them a drybrushing of lead belcher and a few highlights. Some of the edges of the stonework are similarly highlighted along the edges.

The final step here was to use the trusty old airbrush to give the green glow effect to the central orb and other orbs along the length of the body. These other orbs are more obvious in the other pieces in the dominion set which I will post soon enough. 

Dominion of convergence: 3/3

The final part of the Dominion of Convergence is the most worn away and stripped down of the triplet. 

With this piece, it is possible to see the entire inner working of this machine. Full Necron technology on display and naked to the world save for a few bits of characteristic stonework near to the bottom of the device. The piece does look alien in origin, I'll give it that. But I'm not so sure about the whole stripping away of the stone work around the outside of the technology. It strikes me as physically rather odd looking; not withstanding the narrative of what they are supposed to be. 

In terms of construction, once again this is a very easy terrain item with minimal amount of parts being used and needed to glue together. No special notes here to make really other than to check the filing of the smoother edges prior to painting. Speaking of which, I'd better get underway with that at some point soon!

Dominion of convergence: 2/3

This is the second component of the dominion of convergence set. What I find most odd about this particular piece is the extra bit of Necron stone attached to the upper regions of the monolith. In the image below, it can be seen stuck on the front facing panel to the upper right of the monolith.

I think my feeling of oddity stems from the way it is just kind of hovering there without support. Sure, its techno-babble magic something something holding it in place - yeah I get that. But from a gravity point of view, it just feels a little bit wrong to my eyes. Further, the reverse of the piece -- which can be seen sticking out at the left hand edge of the above image -- also feels a little bit off. I might fill in the gap that can be seen in the image with a bit of green stuff to make it a bit more convincing to my eyes before I paint it up, and potentially just add a little bit of support underneath it. 

Other than this visual, I do like the piece, and I like the feeling of age that it communicates with the weathered front "rock" face being eroded away to reveal the internal technology behind. 

Dominion of convergence: 1/3

When I originally saw the release for the Dominion of convergence, I knew that I wanted to have this set as part of my (far too extensive now) scenery options. What I like about this kit is the sheer simplicity. They literally are just line of sight blocking obelisks. But they're more than that: they have the feeling that they can slot in well on almost any kind of set up outside of set-piece space hulk style battles. Even deep in the subterranean confines of hive cities and spires, they might not plausibly look out of place to drop in there. 

The putting together of these scenery items is very simple indeed. There are so few parts to be worried about, and they all slot together very nicely. My only tip is to be aware of the base that comes in two halves. It is imperative that that base lies flat to prevent wobbly model syndrome affecting this otherwise glorious looking scenery. In some following posts, I will show the others obelisks one by one with a couple of thoughts on each. More to follow. 

Alien Wasteland Gaming Mat (Kraken Mats)

Following a high profile and well-conceived kickstarter campaign a few years ago, Kraken launched a wide range of gaming mats for sale. They presently retail through the German company, FantasyWelt, for about the same price as high quality mats from other companies (about the same as special runs from Game Mat EU for instance -- which in turn is higher than their regular gaming mats or mats from Deep Cut Studio). 

One of the key things that Kraken sells their mats on is that they really constructed genuine playing boards for their principle photography. Most of their mats has their basis in a custom board that has been specifically constructed for gaming. After building and painting their boards, they then proceed to photograph it professionally at high resolution multiple times over. After this, it enters post production where the individual photographs are stitched together and overlaid (if needed) to produce a final big composite image. This image then has some post-processing applied to it. Some of their gaming mats have more post-processing effects applied than others it seems. The bottom line though is that the final image for production in to a gaming mat is simply not one hundred per cent digital. It really is based on a custom board build specifically to be photographed and transferred to mouse mat material for printing. 

It was on this basis that I decided I would make a purchase or two from Kraken.

Below is one of my purchases, laid out in partial sunshine in my back yard. This is the Alien Wasteland gaming mat. Clearly, it is Necron inspired in background from a first glance. But there is a whole lot more going on within the details here. 

The first thing that strikes me about the mat is the sheer level of detail present. Unlike some rival products, the gaming mat is not simply a backdrop that is filled up with much bland detail -- I'm sure many of us know of featureless mats of green grass, yellow sandy deserts, or NASA produced pictures of the Martian surface from orbit for instance. Instead, since the gaming mat has been produced from a real textured gaming board, there is an incredible level of detail present here. This ranges from the grains of red and black sand that are clear in the board, through to the painting of the green highlights that streak across the plains. 

My only real criticism is that some of the shadows and reliefs might have been implemented better. But to be honest, it really is not noticeable at all. Plus: it is actually what it should look like from a top-down vantage point anyway. Hence this is no criticism at all. It is actually a compliment that the photography is absolutely spot on and what it should look like in "real life". 

Below is a close up of one of the plateau regions.

The shadows caused by the nearby "raised" plateaus are clearly visible here toward the lower right of the shiny molten looking sea portion. Speaking of that, it is very clear that a whole lot of work has gone in to the construction of the real life custom board that was produced for this photograph. Everything, and I mean everything here is just in so much detail. The game mat is just as much a piece of artwork as anything else if I am perfectly honest. The raised plateaus have been done tremendous justice with their green markings across the surface. I have no idea how the molten looking ocean was made, but that is a real highlight for me as well. It really is so well textured overall. As if that were not enough, the paint job looks splendid with the right combinations of what I presume are airbrush techniques, highlighting and some selective drybrushing going on. It really is just splendid. 

How does it play though?

I subjected it to the best test that I could come up with. The daughter test. Jumping up and down on the mat and dancing and twirling all over it caused no real issue for it, and my girl was delighted with the mat. She wanted to use it herself for her own games (of Warhammer ... and of other games too). Full marks for robustness from me then. The rear of the mat is mouse mat material (I refuse to use anything else these days) hence the tumble of die on its surface is muffled rather than very loud. Additionally, any little spills of water on the surface of the mat can be rubbed / wiped away with minimal fuss.

Overall then, this is a very high quality product. I am highly pleased with this purchase and would certainly recommend these mats to my friends across the blogosphere and the gaming community. 

My intent is to try to produce some pseudo-necron looking scenery in the longer term to go with this gaming mat. I'm thinking dark coloured monoliths highlighted by green streaks across their surface (see here for a much earlier prototype) or maybe even electronic looking devices strewn across the surface to make for a very alien feeling planetscape. 

Warhammer World: Necron Cabinets

Following on from what seemed to be a rather popular post yesterday on some of the cabinets at Warhammer World, today is a selection of the necron goodies on display there. I really like some of the colour schemes in these, as well as the rusting and weathering effects that have been deployed. 

Alpha Legion Sniper, with Necron Deathmark Rifle

Another day, another completed Alpha Legion sniper with a Necron Deathmark rifle. This one is mounted on one of the bases that was displayed a few days ago. I think the pose and everything else really clicks well here for me. So I won't write much more and will simply leave you with the image.

Completing an Alpha Legion Sniper (or perhaps Mor Deythan)

Not sure if this one is an Alpha Legion reconnaissance marine, or whether it is a Raven Guard Mor Deythan marine. Or arguably, a Mor Deythan marine that is an Alpha Legion marine in disguise. Or Alpharius himself. Yeah - infiltration. It drives you mad.

The marine follows on from my earlier concept piece with a Death Mark necron weapon. This particular variant is in a running pose and features legs and cape from Anvil Industry as well as the almost compulsory Dark Angels head. 

The base for the marine is a sliced up rhino hatch, covered and edged with some fine sand and a little bit of slate here and there. All that's lacking is the left shoulder pad which is on its way…

Alpha Legion Contemptor

For the Emperor! Hydra Dominatus!

Alpharius fell early on in the Great Crusade whilst waging righteous war against foul xenos. Or Imperial traitors. We're not sure. Luckily, Apothecary Alpharius was on hand to save Alpharius. With the aid of Alpharius and Tech Marine Alpharius, Alpharius was interred in to the sarcophagus of a Legion Contemptor. Always loyal, Alpharius volunteered to field test new weapons that were recovered by Alpharius on a different battlefield. Reverse engineered, these weapons were fitted to Alpharius' chassis by Alpharius. Alpharius now strides the battlefield targeting Space Wolf and Thousand Sons alike on Alpharius' orders. For the Emperor. Hydra Dominatus.

Parts:

Torso, Right Shoulder, Left Calf, Feet = Alpha Legion Contemptor.

Left Shoulder, Right Calf, Legs, Groin, Knees = Emperor's Children Contemptor.

Weapons = Necron Tesla Destructors from the Annihilation Barge set. 

Missiles, Head = boxed set from Forge World.

Base = scratch built (see yesterday's post). 

Magnets (for the weapons) drilled in place as well.

Sniper Scout Death Mark Concept

Q: What do you get when you mix together a Death Mark sniper rifle with some 40k space marine parts?

A: A model the is playable as both a 30k and 40k space marine sniper scout model that looks pretty unique!

The model is constructed from necron parts (the sniper rifle), Dark Angels (the hooded head), space marines (accessories, back pack), chaos space marines (arms), Grey Knights (torso), and Anvil Industry (legs, cape).

I'll be using him as part of a recon squad for my growing 30k Alpha Legion forces. I think he really fits the bill rather well. In particular, one of my goals for this army was to convert absolutely everything. In line with this, I also wanted them to have a feel of using xenos weapons and reverse-engineering others. Here, I've taken the lead from Alpharius himself who is described as wielding a spear of alien construction. Like others, I've interpreted this as Necron in origin and therefore decided that some of his sons could be similarly equipped!

Necron Lord

A little bit of a diversion today. This is a Necron Lord that comes as part of the command barge play set. I assembled it as part of the barge, but thought it merited its own small corner of the blogosphere.

As mentioned in the original post, the orb was a bit of a pain to get together. The elbow joint is really odd and seems a little bit weak to my mind.

The pose of the miniature is one that I am not 100% sold on. I think I've make the stave a little bit low pointing -- it looks fine on the command barge, but I think for the battlefield, it is pointing a bit too downward. Perhaps something that was a bit more on the horizontal level would have been superior in this regard.

I am going to use this miniature for a test painting scheme for my Alpha Legion. Don't laugh. I'm serious. Well, at least in the regard of testing out some painting using compressed air spraying. Then again, I might just paint him up in Verdus Prime colours and be done with it.

Necron Command Barge

In a bit of a change from the usual pace, today I wanted to display an image of a necron command barge that I recently completed with my daughter. I've not built this kind of monstrosity before, so I was really looking at the instructions very closely every step of the way for this one.

What I found was:
(1) the shoulders of the pilot and the gunner at the front of the command barge can be a little  bit awkward to place. If you look closely, you can see on my barge that at least 2 of the arms on these guys look a little bit odd -- they're out by several mm compared to where they should be. This has been caused by wanting the fingers of the hands on the correct place of the control panel. But the problem that caused this was that these two figures are the first bits to be constructed according to the instructions. But sadly, these necrons are also placed farther back than they perhaps should be (I think I might have placed the seats too close to their groins for comfort). And as a result of this, the arms are not quite snugly where they should otherwise be.

(2) the necron lord comes with his own base. I constructed him separately (although the orb that he is holding is an odd one to glue together due to the elbow joint) and simply placed him on the command barge. Whilst this has the benefit of being able to remove him, I'm not totally sold on the pose being equally good for a ground commander as he is for commanding from the back of a barge.

(3) the curvature of the back "spine" of the barge was a little awkward to get in place with the horizontal struts that come off it. Although at first it looked like it was going to be an easy part of the construction, actually getting these struts in to place is something that I would recommend some dry fitting of before grabbing for the superglue.

Other than that, the build went reasonably well and I think I'm pleased overall. When I get chance, I'll apply some black undercoat and start to think about the colour schemes to paint it in. I want it in Verdus Prime colours (white and leaking brown effluent / oil) to match my previous small squads of necrons. The only question is how to paint the barge itself -- perhaps it should be in a contrasting black and metallic colour and going sparingly on the white?  Choices!

Painted Necron Scenic Piece

This is the fully painted necron scenery piece that was made out of balsa wood. As can be seen, the primary colour is black.  For the inset grooves, I base coated with dark green and then used selective highlights (stretching through mid-greens to goblin green and even a splash of scorpion green) to pick out the aetheric energies that may be coruscating through the device. 

For scale, one of my Verdus Prime necron warriors is standing next to the finished piece.  From a distance, the piece looks very good.  Close up, one can still see the wood grain and the un-even hacking of the grooves that I made during the construction phase.  For the next one of these that I think I'll try to make, I'll attempt to get the grooves in the balsa wood a bit more smooth.  That said, I'm still pleased with the final outcome here and I think it correlates well with other necron scenery that I've discovered during tournaments and travels (etc.).

Making a Necron Scenery Piece

Inspired by a combination of themed boards that I've played on and Dawn of War flavour scenery, I decided to attempt constructing my own necron-flavoured scenery.  For this project, I have used a block of balsa wood, coupled with a hobby knife and a circular file.  All of these are available through regular hobby outlets or even a broad-based hardware store.

The construction is straight-forward: I marked out several lines on the block of balsa wood.  Since the wood is very easily indented, I wanted to be sure that I had the angles right before I started cutting.  With the lines in place, I simply chopped away a "v"-shaped groove using the hobby knife along the lines, before using the circular file to cut deeper and make a smooth indentation. 

That said, for balsa wood, the grains are easier in some directions compared to others.  This can be seen in the image, where the lines on one face of the block look aesthetically much better than on the other face.  A fully painted image of this block in blacks and greens will be forthcoming...

Necron Kill Team

Thinking about necron killteams / killzone squads is no longer a straight forward task thanks to the shiny new codex that is packed full of cool ideas and upgrades.  I've been toying with a couple of ideas and themes, but here's one that I like, based on models that I have (or might be likely to purchase) rather than uber-competitiveness.

7 necron warriors (91 points)

2 canoptek scarab bases (30 points)

2 deathmarks (38 points)

1 lychguard (40 points)

total = 199.

The main weakness is a reliance on gauss weaponry to inflict damage on armoured targets or troop transports.  I just hope that they're going to be uncommon!  The scarabs are there for the beast rule and entropic strike, whilst the death marks deal with any target that looks likely to do significant damage (terminators and the like).  The lychguard is the all-rounder in this team and also the fire magnet, running during the shooting phase and wanting to get in to combat quickly.  

I'd quite like to see how this list would fare against some daemons killteams (especially a Tzeentch killteam, but also a Slaanesh themed killteam might be a good testing ground).  But that's a tale for a different time.

How Many Tesla Carbine Shots Are Required to kill Plague Marines?

Nurgle's plague marines are tough; no doubt about it.  But how worried are plague marines when taking incoming fire from Tesla Carbines (as used by Necron Immortals)?  Let's look at some statistics.

An immortal will hit a plague marine on a 3+ (probability = 0.67).  

The tesla carbine will wound on a 4+ (new combined probability = 0.33).

The plague marine saves the wound on a 3+, followed by a feel no pain roll of 4+ if required.  Hence the probability of the wound being saved is 2+.  Therefore an unsaved wound has a probability of 0.056.

But the Tesla special rule will activate on a hit roll of 6.

So we'll modify the above calculation to count for only a roll to hit of 3, 4, or 5.  That yields a probability of an unsaved wound of 0.042.  

Now let's add in the roll to hit of 6 (probability of 1/6 = 0.167).  This causes an automatic 2 extra hits.

So we're taking 3 hits with a wound caused on 4+.  That's 1.5 wounds * 0.167 = 0.25 wounds.

Each wound is saved (as above) on 2+.  This gets reduced to 0.042 unsaved wounds if the necron rolls a 6.

Combining the two results (0.042 unsaved wounds on a hit roll of 3,4,5 with 0.042 unsaved wounds on a hit roll of a 6) yields 0.083 unsaved wounds per incoming tesla carbine shot.  That means 12 tesla carbine shots are required to down a plague marine, on average.  That compares to 27 bolter shots (or indeed, gauss flayer shots) to down a plague marine.  So an immortal armed with a tesla carbine is more than twice as deadly as a regular necron or space marine to my plague marines.

How Many Khorne Berzerkers does it take to Down a Necron?

Berzerkers of Khorne are (were?) noted for their close combat prowess.  So, today I wanted to look at how many berzerkers it will take to kill a necron warrior in close combat.  I am assuming that the berzerkers managed to charge and also got off a bolt pistol shot prior to charging.

The simplifying assumption here is how to deal with the necron's natural save of 4+ followed by the 5+ reanimation save.  Combining them together grants the necron an effective save of 3+ (i.e. it saves half of all regular wounds, followed by ignoring one third of those that get through).

Let's resolve the bolt pistol shot first.  It hits on 3+ and wounds on 4+.  In other words a 0.33 chance of wounding.  Using the effective save of 3+ (as above), the necron will suffer 0.11 wounds per shooting, charging Khorne berzerker.

When the berzerker makes close combat, he will have furious charge (assuming that this hasn't been denied to him thanks to the adaptive tactical genius that is Nemesor Zahndrekh).  The berzerker attacks first and is hitting on 3+ and wounding on 3+.  That means 0.44 wounds per attack.  The berzerker has 4 attacks on the charge, which will lead to 1.76 wounds landing.  Of these, the necron will fail to save 0.59.

Combining this melee result with the above shooting means that a singular, regular Khorne berzerker will cause 0.7 unsaved (and non-reanimated) wound when charging.  Phew!  I was worried that that would work out a lot worse!

Necrons of Verdus Prime revisited

A long time ago, I purchased a box of necrons with the explicit purpose of using the parts for conversion work. Although my conversions with them have been limited (see: 1, 2), I did end up assembling a whole squad (or perhaps killteam) of them and painted them up in Verdus Prime colours.

The idea for Verdus Prime originally came from the Dawn of War computer game wherein that faction of necrons appealed to me due to their colours and ease of identification on the battlefield. I still like the colour scheme, but painting white still holds problems for many people; including myself. I recently had a go at doing white properly for a long-barrelled marine miniature and was happy with the outcome.  But for the necron, the white is pretty solid and makes for a stark contrast with the darker, silvered parts.  Moreover, the oily streaks that I've added to all of these Verdus Prime necrons accentuates and, indeed, feeds off the sharp white colour of the necron's colours.  For the eyes, I tried to use blood red to give them a grim-determination terminator style look.  In a number of my images, this feature is lost as the colour gets washed out by the brilliance of the white in the colour balance.  The necron symbol / rune in the centre of the chest is picked out with a goblin green colour.

For the Gauss barrel, I wanted for something a little more original than gluing the green plastic in to place.  So, I painted dark green in erratic strokes along its length to give the impression of energy coursing through it and ready to erupt at the terminal end.  Since the barrel is transparent, it is easy to see the strokes on the opposite side and therefore the adage of "less is more" applied to this process. Moreover, the barrel has the benefit of looking different depending on the angle that the observer views it from -- this aspect appealed to me greatly in the final result. 

But should I turn my small killteam of necrons in to a full-blown army now that the new codex: necrons have come out?  Hmmmmmmm.