Please, Not Another Green Rod! (Blending)

Hey Wargamers,

Just a little note before I get started - what follows is a fairly general painting technique, and is by no means specific to Necrons.

As you may know, a few weeks back I decided to strip the paint from my Necrons and repaint them. So far the new Paint Jobs are coming along great, but it left me with a certain problem… or opportunity. A Problatunity, if you will. You see, Necrons have these shiny transparent green rods, that never, ever, under any circumstances, get attached to the model prior to painting, lest their crystalline appearance be tainted and painted.

I now had 28 Warriors and 4 Destroyers, bearing no paint, and with Green Rods fully intact. Ultimately, I had to paint around them, and for the most part this was going quite well, with very few hiccups.

It was then that I came across a rather interesting paint at one of the local Hobby Stores (sorry Matt!) - Model Master Acryl, in Clear Blue. This paint goes on thin, and is actually transparent. I applied it in light, even layers to the rods, and after 4 or so coats, ended up with mostly-blue, mostly-transparent rods - but they still maintained too much of the typical Necron Green for my liking. It seemed that the only real solution would be to paint over them.

I put that idea on hold while I painted the rest of the Warriors, and then picked up and assembled a Necron Lord. Luckily, the Necron Lord comes with 4 Green Rods, and only needs one - I decided this was the perfect time to try a few different techniques on the Rods. What follows is the first of these experiments (and since I’m happy with the results, this might be what is applied to my whole force).

Firmly grasped in my set of Helping Hands, I began by coating the entire Rod with Enchanted Blue.

I then mixed a small amount of White Paint with some Water. I didn’t measure this out exactly, but I’d guess it was about a 10:1 Water:Paint ratio. Using this very diluted White Paint, I brushed over most of the rod, leaving a small amount of Enchanted Blue intact.

I then painted another Layer of the Diluted White, leaving just a bit more of the rod unpainted this time.

And so on…

After about 6 coats or so, progressively painting less and less of the rod White, I had this:

I touched up the very end with straight White Paint, and painted the small bit of exposed green with Enchanted Blue. Incidentally, this is also one of the best pictures I’ve taken to date.

More for the Photo Op than anything else, I trial-fit the Rod into the Staff of Light:

I’m sure you can guess what’s coming next

Buy your Necron Lord here!