⚠ Games Workshop updates Necron paint schemes, Citadel Colour ranges, and painting guides regularly. Specific paint names below are based on ranges available as of mid-2025. Always cross-check against the current GW painting app and your Necrons Codex for the latest official guidance.
Necrons are one of the most paintable armies in Warhammer 40,000. Their smooth, mechanical surfaces reward both beginner techniques (drybrushing, washes) and advanced approaches (Non-Metallic Metal, Object Source Lighting). The classic Necron colour palette — dark silver with green OSL (Object Source Lighting) energy — is immediately iconic and achievable at every skill level. This guide covers how to paint Necrons from prime to finished model, with approaches for beginners and for painters who want to push further.
Starting Out: Necrons Combat Patrol
If you are building a Necrons army from scratch, the Necrons Combat Patrol is the recommended starting point. It provides a competitive, playable force in a single box at a significant saving over buying units individually — and gives you a variety of model types to practice different techniques on. The Necron Warriors in the Combat Patrol are ideal first models: simple silhouettes with large, flat armour surfaces that respond well to drybrushing.
View Necrons Combat Patrol on Amazon →
Painting Necrons: What You Need
Primer
For classic silver Necrons, most painters prime black. Black primer fills recesses with shadow automatically and makes silver metallic paint pop. It also simplifies the painting process: any surface the primer cannot reach — deep recesses, the interior of ribbing — remains black, which reads as shadow. Citadel Chaos Black Spray is the standard primer for Necrons.
Citadel Chaos Black Spray on Amazon →
Paints: The Core Colours
For the standard Necron Warriors silver-and-green scheme:
- Metallic base: Leadbelcher (silver base paint)
- Shade: Nuln Oil (black wash for metals)
- Metal highlight: Ironbreaker (mid silver), then Stormhost Silver (bright edge highlight)
- Green energy: Tesseract Glow (Contrast paint — applies green glow in one coat), or Moot Green layer paint
- Green OSL shadow: Warpstone Glow or Warboss Green
- Bone details (where applicable): Zandri Dust base, Agrax Earthshade, Screaming Skull highlight
- Eye gems/rods: Tesseract Glow or Moot Green with a white highlight dot
How to Paint Necrons: Step by Step
The Fast Approach: Drybrush + Wash
For an army of Necron Warriors painted to a solid tabletop standard quickly:
- Prime black (Chaos Black spray).
- Drybrush the entire model with Leadbelcher. The black primer shows through in the deepest recesses; the silver drybrush catches all raised surfaces.
- Apply Nuln Oil wash over all metallic areas. Let it flow into recesses. This is the most important step — it adds depth and gritty shadow to the silver armour.
- Light drybrush of Ironbreaker over the raised surfaces to restore silver brightness.
- Apply Tesseract Glow Contrast paint to all the green energy rods, the chest cavity gem, and eye sockets. One coat, let it flow.
- Dot a small white spot on each eye rod for the energy reflection point.
- Varnish with matte varnish.
- Base to taste.
This approach gets a Necron Warrior painted in approximately 20–30 minutes. A squad of 10 takes 2–3 hours in a batch. The result is distinctive, recognisably Necron, and looks excellent at gaming distance.
The Standard Approach: Edge Highlighting
For a sharper, more competition-adjacent result:
- Prime black.
- Basecoat all armour surfaces with two thin coats of Leadbelcher. Do not worry about leaving black in deep recesses — this is intentional.
- Wash with Nuln Oil. Let dry completely.
- Re-apply Leadbelcher to the flat armour panels (not the recesses) to restore the bright silver base after washing.
- Apply Ironbreaker as a first edge highlight — a thin line along raised edges of every armour panel. This requires a size 0 or size 1 fine brush with a good point.
- Apply Stormhost Silver to the sharpest upper edges for a second, brighter highlight.
- Apply the green OSL (Object Source Lighting): base the rods and chest gem with Warboss Green, then highlight the centre with Moot Green, then add a Tesseract Glow or Moot Green highlight dot at the brightest point.
- For OSL glow effect (optional): apply very thin Tesseract Glow to the metal surfaces immediately surrounding the energy rods, suggesting green light spilling from the source.
- Varnish and base.
Alternative Necron Colour Schemes
Gold Necrons (Sautekh Dynasty / Custom)
Replace silver with gold: Retributor Armour base, Reikland Fleshshade shade, Liberator Gold highlight, Stormhost Silver edge. The gold-and-green combination is striking and much less common than the silver standard. Many painters combine gold and silver — gold bodies with silver weapons, or vice versa.
Void Dragon / Purple Energy
Replace green energy with purple: Luxion Purple Contrast paint on the rods and gems, highlighted with Magos Purple and a white specular dot. Silver armour with purple OSL is visually distinctive and photographs extremely well. Suits darker, more arcane Necron dynasties.
Bone / Aged Necrons
For a more ancient, deteriorated look: base with Zandri Dust (off-white bone), shade with Agrax Earthshade, highlight with Ushabti Bone and Screaming Skull. The aged bone colour with green rods looks like a dynasty that has been dormant for millennia — highly thematic for the Necron lore.
Painting Necron Character Models
Necron characters — Overlords, Crypteks, the Silent King — have more detailed surfaces, often including ornamental gold details, headdresses, and complex weapon shapes. These models benefit from:
- Gold details — Retributor Armour base, Reikland Fleshshade shade, Liberator Gold + Stormhost Silver highlights
- Green scarab gems — small dark green base, Tesseract Glow highlight in the centre, white specular dot
- Robe/linen fabric (where present) — Zandri Dust base, Agrax Earthshade shade, Screaming Skull highlight
- Extended OSL — on character models, the green energy glow can be extended to the surrounding armour surfaces for a more dramatic effect
Frequently Asked Questions
What colour are Necrons?
The standard Necron colour scheme is silver-grey metallic armour with green energy (rods, eyes, weapons). This is the Sautekh Dynasty scheme and is the most common in official GW artwork. However, different dynasties use different colours — and custom schemes are encouraged by the lore. Gold, bone, and dark steel are all popular alternatives.
What is OSL and how does it work for Necrons?
OSL (Object Source Lighting) is a painting technique where you simulate the effect of light emanating from a model’s internal light source — in this case, the green energy rods and weapons — by applying thinned versions of that colour to the surrounding surfaces. The metal near the green rods would glow faintly green; the surface further away would be unaffected. Even a basic OSL effect (a thin layer of Tesseract Glow around the energy sources) dramatically elevates Necron models.
Are Necrons easy to paint?
Yes — Necrons are one of the most beginner-friendly armies to paint. The silver armour drybrushing technique is fast and forgiving, the green energy is a simple Contrast paint application, and the minimal colour palette means fewer decisions per model. You can produce a striking, complete-looking Necron Warrior in 20 minutes. As your skills develop, the smooth armour surfaces also serve as an excellent canvas for more advanced techniques like OSL and edge highlighting.
For more painting guides, see our drybrushing guide, washes guideund priming guide. For army building, see our 40k Combat Patrol guide.