Conversion Corner: Crypteks
So as I'm sure most new (or old) Necron players have discovered just how important Crypteks can be for your budding force. They add much needed anti-tank, as well as other versatile roles, such as increasing your mobility or decreasing your opponents. Unfortunately however, GW only makes a single model for the Cryptek, and its not exactly cheap or poseable. Armed with my knife, files and glue, I've take on the task of coming up with an easy and inexpensive way to make an impressive unit of Crypteks. My conversion is fairly straight forward, you can get nearly everything you need from a box of Triarch Praetorians, just add heads from Deathmarks. I assembled them as if I was building Triarch Praetorians, except on the back, instead of putting the weird rib cage thing that connects to their shoulder pads, I carefully glued the extended spine from the Lychguard. Then, I cut off the extra ribs from the shoulders and filed off the detail on the back of the shoulder pad where the ribs connect. I was also sure to use both the Lychguard loin cloths as well as the Praetorian tails, so that it has all sorts of techno-doodads hanging about. Simply attach the Deathmark head from there and voi la, Crypteks!
They're a bit larger than your standard Cryptek, since they're built on a larger body, but to me this is a good thing as it makes him stand out more in the unit they join when you split them off. You could do what Matt Ward did as well, which involves using Praetorian arms on Deathmarks, but I think the arms are just a tad long and throw off the proportions, unless you're just going to use the arm holding the blade one-handed as he did, which allows you easily to use different arms. One other thought I had was to cut off the Staff of Light looking ends of their weapon and instead use the tips of the Deathmark weapons to make them unmistakably Eldritch Lances, but I preferred to keep them looking uniform and able to be used as whatever I want.
Without further adieu, pictures:
In this picture you can see the difference in the back piece on the center model. This is going to probably act as my Harbinger of Eternity with Chronometreon. The back piece was simply made from a spare Particle Caster I had lying around.
This is the Solar Pulse for the unit, it was made from a cut apart Lychguard Warscythe.
For anyone wondering how I'm going to paint my Necrons, I'll be going for the Thokt look from the codex:
There you go! The conversions are pretty straight forward, but also very effective. If you've done any Cryptek conversions, please link to them in the comments, I'd love to check them out!