Xenos on Crusade: Awakening the Tomb I

Awakening the Tomb I

Hey everyone!

So June was the first month of our Xenos Crusade preparations. The aim was to plan a 50 Power Level force of our chosen faction and to begin assembling it with the intention of painting at least one unit before the end of the month.

As I mentioned previously the preview of the Indomitus box and the new Necron models sold me on the faction and sent me scurrying around to Medge's house to pick up Forgebane. Such was my excitement I had assembled and painted virtually all of this starter set before the 10 June post we made announcing the Crusade! So I'm going to show off progress so far and feast upon the life energies of the rest of the Warlords knowing that I am out ahead in painting progress!

That said, June was not a great month for painting and I barely made much more progress, stalling with the Lychguard and getting sidetracked into painting the Lord model I converted. My main excuse was finishing and moving into a new garden office that will be serving dual roles as my lockdown working from home fortress, a hobby space and future gaming hangout. It turns out I have had a lot of models to move and unbox into my new hobby den!

Colour scheme

The process below is how I have worked through painting these initial units. Hopefully it will help as I paint more and ensure I maintain a level of consistency across the collection.

• Primer - Abbadon Black
• Spray coat - Leadbelcher
  
  
• Touching up - Leadbelcher in all those hard to reach places
• Wash - Nuln Oil across the whole model
• Drybrush I - Leadbelcher in a heavy and fairly rough coat over large open areas of armour
• Drybrush II - Necron Compound across the edges of the armour
  
  
• Base - Retributor Armour on armour sections that will be bright gold
• Layer - Shining Gold towards the edges of the Retributor Armour
• Wash - Seraphim Sepia all over
• Wash - thinned down Reikland Fleshshade along grooves and details
  
  
• Base - Balthazar Gold on capes, crests, tabards and claws
• Layer - thinned down Retributor Armour on the edges of the Balthazar Gold
• Wash - Agrax Earthshade
  
  
• 2x Layer - Sotek Green on carapace areas
• Wash - Guilliman Blue glaze
• Drybrush I - Skink Blue on the edges of the carapace
• Drybrush II - Terminatus Stone on very edges of carapace
  
  
• Base - Khorne Red on 'eye' lenses
• Layer - Evil Sunz Scarlet in upper quadrant of the lens
• Layer - dot of White Scar in upper of the lens 
• Wash - Carroburg Crimson over whole lense
  
  
• Base - Caliban Green over globe
• Layer - Warpstone Glow over most of globe
• Layer - Moot Green over centre of globe
• Base - Wraithbone in centre of globe
• Contrast - thinned Warp Lightning over whole globe
  
  
• Base - Mechanicus Standard Grey over the gun
• Contrast - Bascillicum Grey over the base
• Layer - Eshin Grey on several panels
• Layer - Balthazar Gold on several panels
• Edge - Administratum and Ulthuan Grey on the edges
• Contrast - Tallasar Blue over Grey Seer on the glowy bits 

Wraiths

The first unit I painted up were these three Canoptek Wraiths. They provided a great chance to test out the colour scheme for the Nihilak Dynasty and plan out how I would paint the various sections of my Necrons going forward.

Immortals

The hard-working, objective-capturing, lightning-shooting troop choice. I assembled the models without their guns, then spent an age trying to edge highlight the tesla weaponry. I doubt I will be so thorough with future warrior or immortal models. Too much time was spent and it was frustrating work to try and assemble them together when done!

Lychguard

The anvil of the force! Whilst pricey, I think I want to expand the unit up to a full ten at some point. I am waiting on the release of the new Tesseract Glow technical paint to finish up their swords, so it might be a month before they are finished. Sadly I tried my hand at blending the colours on the weapons and it went "wrong"...

Cryptek

The current leader of this small tomb patrol. I decided to remove the large construct from the model (I might use it later on as a scarab swarm) as I felt it a little cartoony. I'm really pleased with the colours on the model, hopefully it performs well in games!

In conclusion

So a very productive start to June that saw me get well ahead of the pack, but my painting slowed to a crawl... I've ordered Indomitus and will be doubling up a large part of the box set with a like-for-like exchange with Tim and the Primaris. I also picked up a Doomsday/Ghost Ark kit but I have yet to decide how it which option I will run it as (I suspect the heavy support choice will be most likely) along with a load of old extras and broken Necron models which I will likely use for scenery or basing.

July's report will most probably feature a lot of grey models as I begin a mammoth assembly project and finalise my 50 PL list. See you soon!