Necrons in the Grimdark Style

I'm a sucker for starter sets and I'm always on the look out for interesting new ways to paint up my miniatures. When I saw a recent video on painting Necrons using a subtractive method of painting, I had to check it out.

Here We Go!

I picked up the Command Edition of 9th Edition 40K. It has rules, Space Marines, Necrons, terrain and more. Wonderful! I knew I wanted to start on the Necrons and try out the Grimdark style... but with a speed painting twist. 

The first Necron over the finish line... well... the base still needs to be completed.

The Grimdark style begins with basecoating. The key is to pay close attention to contrast. Everything gets coated with AK Interactive Streaking Grime, so you have to make sure that parts on the model go from light to dark to light to dark. For this color I airbrushed Badger Stynylrez Gray over the whole model. Then I airbrushed on Stynylrez Black onto the black bits. Finally I airbrushed a bone color onto the armor plates. I thinned down the black and gray Stynylrez a bit and touched up the overspray. I was ready for the Streaking Grime.

This is just after I hit it with the white spirits and Qtip

I still need to get the Qtip lint off of the model

Now For the Fun Part

I sprayed two coats of Streaking Grime and then dabbed the dark brown model with a Qtip soaked with White Spirits. This removes the dark brown from the top areas and lets it run into the recesses. It gives it a grungy look. After that it was a few highlights on the armor, some stippled black and gray and rust spots, dots of white, drybrush light blue, and a few blue glazes. Done! Except for the base.

I modified the tutorial to turn this into a speed painting technique. And it is very fast. The detail that you get with dabbing off the Streaking Grim is fascinating... it's complicated and crackly and visually interesting.  

A Word of Caution

I did make one huge error in this process. The first time through after I sprayed the Streaking Grime I only white spirited one model... then I went to bed because it was late. A few days later I went to try to dab the other models with white spirit... and nothing happened. The Streaking Grime had gassed out, dried, and was permanent. Oops. I had to strip them with Super Clean and start over. Luckily it was only six models. But I learned my lesson: don't wait to white spirit your models after you spray them with the AK SG.

Next up: Oil Paints on my Space Marines