Conversion Corner: Necron Monolith LED (no putty, soldering, or programming!)

Greetings!

Oi! I've been too far gone from the keyboard. I meant to at least write up this one after Adepticon, but between a move and new job I haven't been as mindful of this as I should have been. I have new things to write about now that things have settled down though, so let's start with a bright one! A light up Monolith.

The kit I used to light up was an unexpected and happy find at Meijer: spokebritz by Brightz . It was on sale and I thought "hmmm, Necron green..." So I got it.

Because this totally says "Warhammer stuff" to the average Joe.

What you get in the package is a strap (to attach to the bike) and the actual lights, along with some mini zip ties. It's not much, but for $10 I wasn't complaining. It actually has two settings: blinking, and constant on, so if you want to give your opponent a seizure you can go for the cheap win! (not recommended)

There are multiple small LED's embedded in each string, which should spread out the light well enough.

To start with, I built the model without its base plate. This was tricky as it didn't have the nubbins there to help keep the shape properly. Still, all I had to do was use a bunch of rubber bands and some items to help square it up and it was fine.

I sprayed the inside of the monolith white so as to better reflect and intensify the lighting, since I only had one package to work with. I then sprayed the outside black and then painted it to completion so that I wouldn't get any spray on clear parts or LED's. I cut a hole in the bottom just big enough to fit a strand of lights through, as I didn't want much light leakage. As well, that's where the battery housing and switch will go, so you don't want to remove too much.

I also cut out the center of the top plate right under the light, to allow it to shine up through the crystal. I don't have a picture, but to cover it I simply took some clear packaging such as from GW's clampacks and painted it clear green (used an airbrush so it'd be a smooth coat).

Since I wanted decals and multiple clear coats on the finished model it had to be totally done before adding the cool stuff, including the clear bit in the top.

This end down. I just took a pic of it to remember what replacement batteries to get.

I threaded one strand up into the interior. One nice thing about this product is that the strands are partially metal, so you can shape it to your desire, allowing it to stand up inside without any support.

To keep it in place, I superglued it on the left and right column tops as you see here. This optimizes the support and shape of the strand, and it really doesn't need anything else.

The other two strands I used to wrap around the bottom. Conveniently the model base is already perfect here, so I wrapped the lights to my preferences and superglued them in place. Using two strands down low gives plenty of underglow like how you see in Dawn of War. I also superglued in the battery housing, since it fits perfectly in that slot on the bottom. One thing to remember is to keep enough space between the model and the bottom so that you can sneak a finger in there to turn it on!

That's all there is to it! After you install the lights, all you have to do is glue the top to the bottom and stick all the clear green bits on, and you'll have an eerily glowing piece of xenos technology, which looks ace on the table.

It's aliiiiive!

I hope this article has been helpful in lighting up your own Monoliths (or other Necron vehicles). Til next time, dear readers!