Making the Tomb Kings Necropolis Knights (pt. 1)

I’ve started on the Tomb Kings Necropolis Knights. Initially I was put off by the high price for what seems three fairly simple models. It remains strange that this box is 2 euro’s more expensive that an entire Khemrian Necrosphinx. That said the models turned out quite nice and as happens more often, I’ve grown to appreciate them a bit more during assembly and painting. Games Workshop miniatures certainly have come a long way since my first metal Space Marine figures in flat static poses. I remember the shift to plastic which caused a massive outrage by many hobbyists. I seemed to be one of the few actually liking the plastic kits more. Easier to assemble, easier to convert and paint and they didn’t damage so easily when dropping. Lets just say my metal Venerable Dread did not fair too well after dropping off the table’s edge. And with the increasingly fine details and variations/pose options in plastic kits I would not want to go back really, save for the price.

That said, I’ve assembled a first Necropolis Knight and put it on it’s base. My only issue with this kit is that the underside of the snake body has virtually no good contact points to glue it to the base. Also one of my bases was warped beyond use. So I’ll have to get a replacement. After assembly I super glued some small pebbles on the base and covered it quickly with Blackfire Earth texture paint. A couple of minutes in the afternoon sun was enough to let it dry. Finishing off the prep work with a basecoat of Mournfang Brown I was now ready to paint!

As with all models in my Tomb Kings army I am trying to reproduce that golden/ochre sun light atmosphere from the codex artwork. To achieve this I drybrushed orange and yellows on the topside of the model. I specifically chose to not highlight everything leaving some parts un-touched to suggest rays of sunlight filtered through sparingly. My theme color is Blue so I added some blue details around. I also used Sotek Green to drybrush a blueish tinge on the bottom side of the model here and there. This gives the “shadows” a nice little cool touch. Lastly I went back and highlighted some parts with bright gold and added some tufts of grass to the base.

  

 

I’m really liking it so far. The super minimalistic paint scheme still takes some getting used to. But I try to refrain from adding more until I can see the whole army in total. I’m not painting up to my highest abilities, for this army I chose to do nice looking model fairly quickly, focusing more on getting a total army out than spending weeks on a single model.

What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below!