A few years back, my friend Brendan gave our mutual friend Liam a fully converted Necron army for his 18th birthday, with a steampunk vibe and scratch-built vehicles. It looked (and still looks) spectacular, and Liam was much more keen to play games once he had it. However, like many young men, Liam became distracted from the hobby by a combination of school, relationships and the systematic poverty society insists keeping students in.
Now that a few years have past, Liam is getting back into Warhammer 40,000 with his fantastic army, but the change of edition and Codex has left his collection lacking a bit. New units and new combinations sent him scurrying to Swap Meets and online resellers to fill out what he needed. As Liam hasn't really kept up his skill, he asked me to take a swing at his new additions on commission. I wasn't keen at first, as I don't think I'm as good a painter and modeller as Brendan, but I had the time, so what the hell.
Steampunking up Necrons is relatively straightforward, as they're essentially robots, just add some rivets and cogs and you're there on the rank and file. However, I had to work with two Transcendent C'Tan, a C'Tan Shard of the Deceiver and a Doomsday Ark, which made my job a little trickier. The aesthetic I was trying to match was what Brendan had done originally:
That's a pretty neat Necron Warrior, but the C'Tan are decidedly humanoid, and were really challenging me in terms of how I could tie them into the army, as added rivets and steam pipes probably weren't going to work. Luckily, I had a wander around my local Spotlight's costuming and scrap-booking section and found a rack of "Steampunk Jewellery" items on special. This is what I came home with:
Now that a few years have past, Liam is getting back into Warhammer 40,000 with his fantastic army, but the change of edition and Codex has left his collection lacking a bit. New units and new combinations sent him scurrying to Swap Meets and online resellers to fill out what he needed. As Liam hasn't really kept up his skill, he asked me to take a swing at his new additions on commission. I wasn't keen at first, as I don't think I'm as good a painter and modeller as Brendan, but I had the time, so what the hell.
A look at what I had to work with.
Steampunking up Necrons is relatively straightforward, as they're essentially robots, just add some rivets and cogs and you're there on the rank and file. However, I had to work with two Transcendent C'Tan, a C'Tan Shard of the Deceiver and a Doomsday Ark, which made my job a little trickier. The aesthetic I was trying to match was what Brendan had done originally:
En-masse these guys are amazing, but even on their own the workmanship is brilliant.
That's a pretty neat Necron Warrior, but the C'Tan are decidedly humanoid, and were really challenging me in terms of how I could tie them into the army, as added rivets and steam pipes probably weren't going to work. Luckily, I had a wander around my local Spotlight's costuming and scrap-booking section and found a rack of "Steampunk Jewellery" items on special. This is what I came home with:
The little pipe elbows were actually from Bunnings, but they got used too.
I'm not big on the Steampunk aesthetic, so just how everything tied in, I didn't know, but I was flush with ideas for getting into at least the Deceiver and the Doomsday Ark. The Doomsday Ark, being a second-hand purchase, was a real mess; too much glue, parts missing and parts assembled incorrectly. I really don't know why someone would spend so much on a model to do a woeful job, but I wasn't keen to start and the Deceiver was the first to be constructed. My thoughts ran along the lines of "Deception. Lies? Secrets?" and came up with this:
The wire holding up the keys is a combination of fuse wire and steel wire, so it should be stronger than it looks here. The "watch back" from the Steampunk fit just about perfectly on a 40mm base, giving a bit of stability and a way of tying in with the other elements in the army without altering the more "organic" look of the C'Tan. Next up came a decent coat with Retributor Armour spray.
I've never been super keen on just hitting a model with a colour spray without having a Chaos Black undercoat, but the newer ones really do give great coverage in one coat. From there, painting was mostly washes and drybrushes, like the original models painted by Brendan.
Next up, I tackled the Doomsday Ark, because I still didn't have an idea of what to do with the other C'Tan. The first thing I had to do was break off every poorly glued section and broken piece, which created a nice little pile of plastic and a rather bare miniature. Armed with my bits box, some Chuppa-Chop sticks and small cogs, I got to work, just doing what "felt" right.
Overall, I was really happy with how it turned out, especially given how much swearing was involved in trying to make it look decent after the hack-job the previous owner had done. The painting process was much the same as the Deceiver, but will fewer colours as the Doomsday Ark is much more mechanical. I added a smoke plume with some plush toy stuffing and the final product was something I was proud of.
That left the two Transcendent C'Tan, for which I finally had an idea, but I had to wait a couple of weeks for the parts to arrive in the mail. Meanwhile, I did my best to clean the models, but being resin, the fine parts were brittle and they took a bit of damage in the process. Thankfully, Liam wasn't put out, as he knew this was likely to happen. With a little bit of fiddling, both C'Tan had got their Steampunk makeover:
Painting followed much as it normally does, with the final results being much better than I expected, given the damage they'd suffered during construction.
It was a fun experience working on a different army with a different asthetic for a change, especially as I had the pleasure of only having to do "character" models rather than dozens of rank and file. I'm already looking at doing some more commission work just to flex my painting skills a little more.
The wire holding up the keys is a combination of fuse wire and steel wire, so it should be stronger than it looks here. The "watch back" from the Steampunk fit just about perfectly on a 40mm base, giving a bit of stability and a way of tying in with the other elements in the army without altering the more "organic" look of the C'Tan. Next up came a decent coat with Retributor Armour spray.
I've never been super keen on just hitting a model with a colour spray without having a Chaos Black undercoat, but the newer ones really do give great coverage in one coat. From there, painting was mostly washes and drybrushes, like the original models painted by Brendan.
Sorry I don't have a better picture.
Next up, I tackled the Doomsday Ark, because I still didn't have an idea of what to do with the other C'Tan. The first thing I had to do was break off every poorly glued section and broken piece, which created a nice little pile of plastic and a rather bare miniature. Armed with my bits box, some Chuppa-Chop sticks and small cogs, I got to work, just doing what "felt" right.
Replaced the (broken) prow with a smokestack.
Replaced the (broken) cannon with a more Baroque Warhammer Fantasy one.
Nothing says "Victorian" like a Top Hat, this one came from a Heroclix of The Penguin.
Cogs to add to the Steampunk look, along with Chaos tank accessories, like molded exhausts on old steam-powered machines.
The Necron originally didn't have the "Pimp Cane", but with the head, he was crying out for one. I later added some shoulder spikes from old Dark Eldar to make him a little more fancy.
The existing flying stands were broken, but this old piece of terrain worked pretty well as a base.
Unused pieces from a Dystopian Wars model made suitable exhausts and covered up some patching and gap-filling.
Overall, I was really happy with how it turned out, especially given how much swearing was involved in trying to make it look decent after the hack-job the previous owner had done. The painting process was much the same as the Deceiver, but will fewer colours as the Doomsday Ark is much more mechanical. I added a smoke plume with some plush toy stuffing and the final product was something I was proud of.
That left the two Transcendent C'Tan, for which I finally had an idea, but I had to wait a couple of weeks for the parts to arrive in the mail. Meanwhile, I did my best to clean the models, but being resin, the fine parts were brittle and they took a bit of damage in the process. Thankfully, Liam wasn't put out, as he knew this was likely to happen. With a little bit of fiddling, both C'Tan had got their Steampunk makeover:
The hat is from a Mad Hatter Heroclix and the monocle is made by twisting wire around a cocktail fork.
Painting followed much as it normally does, with the final results being much better than I expected, given the damage they'd suffered during construction.
It was a fun experience working on a different army with a different asthetic for a change, especially as I had the pleasure of only having to do "character" models rather than dozens of rank and file. I'm already looking at doing some more commission work just to flex my painting skills a little more.
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