To get a 7+ you obviously have to be a decent enough painter, but you can help the mark up by including a combination of at least a couple of the following: detailed base, some freehand work, some conversion, quirky idea, miniature people like, NMM, lighting effect etc.
Good photography and a larger than actual size shot or multiple angles help too. All of these things only boost the mark if you do them well. Throw in all of those elements but don’t pull any of them off and you’ll just end up with a lower mark. Get them right and you’ll get a great mark...
That would be my response if I was being calculating about it, but to be honest I don’t work by this checklist, I don\'t apply specific criteria to the rating I give miniatures, and I try not to rate unless I have something interesting to say in a comment as well.
I decide how much I like a mini as a finished piece, and then try to place it on the scale. I take 5 as average quality, 7 as good, 9 as bloody brilliant and 10... well I rarely give 10s because it\'s perfection isn\'t it? If I give a 10 it means I think the mini is as close to perfection as I can imagine! I’ve given minis with less great paint jobs well above average marks because I like the pose, or the idea, and I’ve given amazingly painted minis rather low marks because they just don’t work for all kinds of reasons.
I suspect that many initially come to CMON to see what kind of mark their minis get and I also suspect that many people also feel that their miniatures are rated harshly. This was the case for me but after a short time it ceased to be my real motivation and I became more interested in getting better at painting than getting a better average mark.
At this point comments became much more useful than ratings, so I started to post links to my minis in these forums to really get some good constructive feedback.
As for your minis, I think unless you do a Necron in NMM they are always going to struggle to get a good mark because everyone’s seen so many of them. I personally like your guys. The colour scheme and different coloured gaus weaponry is cool, so it’s not a big issue that they aren’t NMM for me. They’re a clean, solid job. The problem is that no matter how clean the metallics are it is rather easy to paint metallic Necrons, so they’re a far from perfect showcase of your painting skill. On the other hand NMM Necrons are rather tricky (especially in that funky orange colour) and not seen so often, so they actually would be a blatantly awesome showcase of your painting skill, very different from the norm, and therefore underrated.
Hmm, did I just contradict myself... not sure... too many words... why do I always ramble like a tedious old man?
Sadly I am not so good with photo\'s. 
