One of five Canoptek Spyders that have joined my growing Necron army. Some are very old metal models picked up at a hobby convention’s flea market, but they’ll still kill Imperial Guard just fine.

TheGM: With my weekly gaming club on hiatus, my hobby activities have been limited to painting and solo gaming. To stay in touch with everyone, one club member started posting his painting output and encouraging others to do the same.

So, as I love to paint, my output in the last three weeks have been pretty high. It’s also been dangerous for the denizens of the Corvus Cluster. I’ve been focusing on Necrons.

I started my Necron army years ago. But, as I was struggling to stay ahead of The Gaffer’s growing ork army (dakka, dakka), my cybernetic warriors always were the lowest of priorities. Usually, I pulled out a  unit or two when I went to the beach—a small project to work on when I wasn’t being lazy in some other manner.

A Battle Ark, Doomsday Ark, Annihilation Barge, Doom Scythe, five Canoptek Spyders, and six Immortals—all picked up at flea markets at ridiculous prices and most already primed or painted.

But my collection did grow. I managed to finish off three squads of warriors, some Tomb Blades, Wraiths, a Catacomb Command Barge, Triarch Stalker, and Night Scythe. I was getting there.

Then, three weeks ago, I pulled out a unit or two while I was waiting for some newly primed Space Marines to dry. The two units were finished so quickly that I said, “Hey, you know what, I think I could get to 2,000 points if I just put ia week or two into it.”

These Immortals were painted okay, but I touched them up a bit so that their color scheme matches some Immortals I painted out of the box.

It helped that I had a lot of stuff built and primed. I go to conventions of the HIstorical Miniatures Gaming Society (HMGS), where I often find gamers selling off old stuff that they no longer use. Often, the miniatures are painted or at least primed, and the prices are as low as 20 percent of the retail price.

So I had a Ghost Ark, Doomsday Ark, Annihilation Barge, a Doom Scythe, some Immortals, and Canoptek Spyders ready to go. Three weeks later, they were all done.

Now, as I’ve said before, I’m a paint-by-the-numbers guy. My stuff is usually neatly painted, but there’s nothing special about it. But, at three feet away, the miniatures look pretty good on the table.

I’m looking forward to seeing what an Annihilation Barge can do. I’m sorry the photos do do the model justice.

The Necrons are a great army to paint. I prime them with Leadbelcher. To break up the silvery blandness, I paint some parts of larger models with a mix of Abaddon Black and Rhinox Hide (the Rinox Hide softens the black), and I touch up the details with reds and greens. Simple, effective, although not always fast, as I cannot resist painting lots of details to help them stand out.

The enclosed photos aren’t great. I’m really busy in retirement: computer games, painting, making terrain, writing this blog, generally lazing about.

Ranks of Necron warriors rest silently as a Ghost Ark prepares to take them into battle.

But I wanted to join in with my club’s sharing of photos, and I figure that this part of the hobby is part of the Corvus Cluster story, too. After all, now that I have a solid 1,500 to 1,800 army list, the Necrons of the Dryillian Quarantine Zone are going to become a whole lot more active.

Indeed, I feel the need for a solo battle in my near future . . . just to get a feel for what my new army can do. (Insert evil laugh here.)

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The Corvus Cluster is a Warhammer 40K blog documenting our gaming adventures in the fantastical sci-fi universe of Games Workshop.