Necron Abyss colour scheme highlight and complimentary colour suggestions

Hi guys! So I have an idea for a colour scheme for my DE but I'd like some suggestions on what to highlight it with.

The base coat will be Necron Abyss over a black undercoat. Now I'm in two minds about doing a blue wash over this but wash or not, what do you guys suggest as a good first and second highlight blue for the edges of the armour? I want the models to look quite dark but at the same time slightly proud and regal. To reflect this I'm going to do all the cloaks and cloth bits on models in a deep red. (Imagine a Spartan cloak or Roman pretorian robe). The weaponry will be a combination of gold and silver. Any ideas guys? Many thanks.

Well aside from the Necron Abyss problem you have (there should be an equivalent in the GW paint range I think) I have 2 ideas as for what to highlight it with:

either go for something like Hawk Turquoise... new name is Sotek green or stick with blue and do Enchanted Blue or Ice Blue as a highlight... new names are different, but the colour schould be easy to spot. For things like eyes, gems, weapons and glows I'd choose a complimentary colour which would be either purple, orange or yellow. You can go for bright greens or red as well, but that stretches the regular observers view on aesthetics quite a bit... from my experience with people that is.

If you don't want everything in those 2 colours pick a third neutral color like a dark brown, grey or white.

Hope this helps.

Dogmar

Dogmar wrote:

Well aside from the Necron Abyss problem you have (there should be an equivalent in the GW paint range I think)

I've actually found somewhere I can get a couple of pots so I have more than enough to do my entire army with

Dogmar wrote:

I have 2 ideas as for what to highlight it with:

either go for something like Hawk Turquoise... new name is Sotek green or stick with blue and do Enchanted Blue or Ice Blue as a highlight... new names are different, but the colour schould be easy to spot. For things like eyes, gems, weapons and glows I'd choose a complimentary colour which would be either purple, orange or yellow. You can go for bright greens or red as well, but that stretches the regular observers view on aesthetics quite a bit... from my experience with people that is.

If you don't want everything in those 2 colours pick a third neutral color like a dark brown, grey or white.

Hope this helps.

Dogmar

I actually have both Enchanted Blue and Ice Blue but they seem very brighton as highlights....I thought perhaps to have something in between Necron Abyss and Enchanted Blue (perhaps a 1:1 mix of both) for the first highlight and then Enchanted blue as the second highlight or would that not stand out very much?

Does Blue clash with red then as you said it 'stretches the regular observers view on aesthetics'?

Mixing enchanted blue with necron abyss for the first layer is fine, pure enchanted blue as a second is fine too. If you think it's enough stick with that, if you feel you need something brighter go for very tiny highlights with a enchanted blue / ice blue mixl

In my opinion red does clash with blue, as it is neither a complimentary colour (that would be yellow) nor is it that analogic with blue (that would be turquoise or purple). I think it sort of stings in the eye, but you might now the Crimson Fists space marine chapter. They use a Dark Blue and Blood Red and look alright, even though not my personal taste. In the end it comes down to how and where you apply the colours. If you did your army in mostly blue and used red just for glow eyes and weapons for example that'd be fine as red is then not a dominant colour. If however the model is 50:50 red and blue then it would look odd.

Sorry for such confusing ramblings, but I hope that makes sense.

Cheers

Dogmar wrote:

Mixing enchanted blue with necron abyss for the first layer is fine, pure enchanted blue as a second is fine too. If you think it's enough stick with that, if you feel you need something brighter go for very tiny highlights with a enchanted blue / ice blue mixl

In my opinion red does clash with blue, as it is neither a complimentary colour (that would be yellow) nor is it that analogic with blue (that would be turquoise or purple). I think it sort of stings in the eye, but you might now the Crimson Fists space marine chapter. They use a Dark Blue and Blood Red and look alright, even though not my personal taste. In the end it comes down to how and where you apply the colours. If you did your army in mostly blue and used red just for glow eyes and weapons for example that'd be fine as red is then not a dominant colour. If however the model is 50:50 red and blue then it would look odd.

Sorry for such confusing ramblings, but I hope that makes sense.

Cheers

Not at all it makes very good said. Yea the only red I'd be using would be on the warrior sashes that hang down from their belts. However, reading this advice makes me think I might make them orange but I don't know if that would look to bright or a bit lame. Failing that I could just do them in the cream colour that is on all the boxes and in the codex.

The other red was initially for the trueborn cloaks (they're going to have black arc corsair cloaks to distinguish them from Kabalite warriors). This would bring the ratio closer to 50:50 on the model so what colour cloaks would better compliment the blue armour?

Many thanks for your advice.

For the loincloth on your kabalites I'd say try both, you can always repaint it. Red is a little more outside the box than cream and I actually think orange could look really good. Remember those poisonous lizards?!

As for the cloaks, they are sea dragon cloaks, so they have scaly structure, a cream colour would certainly look odd there, you might just try red and see how it looks. Your trueborn want to be different after all If that doesn't please you I'd suggest something more in line with your blue base colour like turquoise or the old scaly green if you have access to it. There might be a similar colour in the new range. In the end it's your army so you should try it out and take what you're most happy with. Of course I'm honored that you think of my advice as so important

Have fun painting your test model(s)

Dogmar wrote:

For the loincloth on your kabalites I'd say try both, you can always repaint it. Red is a little more outside the box than cream and I actually think orange could look really good. Remember those poisonous lizards?!

As for the cloaks, they are sea dragon cloaks, so they have scaly structure, a cream colour would certainly look odd there, you might just try red and see how it looks. Your trueborn want to be different after all If that doesn't please you I'd suggest something more in line with your blue base colour like turquoise or the old scaly green if you have access to it. There might be a similar colour in the new range. In the end it's your army so you should try it out and take what you're most happy with. Of course I'm honored that you think of my advice as so important

Have fun painting your test model(s)

Oh I do believe all the advice on this fine forum is valuable.

For the sashes I'm going to try orange and I like the idea of green influenced colours on the cloaks. I'm thinking of following the citadel's Dark Eldar scheme which is: Incubi Darkness - Coelia Greenshade - Kabalite Green - Sybarite Green - Hellion Green - Waywatcher Green. This will hopefully fit with the Necron Abyss/blue armour right? It'll be a while before I paint the trueborn though as I haven't bought the cloaks yet.

Pics of first test model will hopefully be up in a week or so if I can get enough painting in. Then people can leave their thoughts before I cover the rest of my army in clashing colours