Servants of the Omnissiah: Part 1: Sicarian Ruststalkers

"We are the iron fist of the Imperium,

what possible use is there for the velvet glove?"

- Magos Explorator Cynia Breazeal, Cetus Cluster 4.160.834.M41.

Yes folks, today starts a new project just for me. A somewhat shiny, metallic project: A large Skitarii warband designed with Inq28 in mind. All glory to the Omnissiah!

Today's offerings are two Sicarian Ruststalkers. Let me tell ya folks, some of the Adeptus Mechanicus models are the best things GW has made since the Dark Eldar. Much like the Dark Eldar there are some slightly "ho hum" examples among the range (the electro priests having the most Warmachine/Warcraft ugliness for example) but the bits that I like? They are lovely. These Sicarians are delicate, elegant, have gorgeous pierced components giving lots of easy to paint visual interest. In short: Fantastic.

Ruststalker 985.Rho.14

Now, I shall level with you guys, I find some of the fluff for the Skitarii forces a little... silly. Very overblown and emphasising the ultra fanatical end of the Mechanicus spectrum. Thus I am choosing to ignore certain elements. The Ruststalkers though? They make sense, assassin cyborgs, what's not to like huh? I see these two as being infiltrating killers. Thin and agile, able to crawl through tight spaces and leap about. Anyone who has seen the Clone Wars cartoon series: I'm imagining the way the commando droids move in that. The kits have more variety than they first appear to have. The the extent that I could represent one Ruststalker favouring an Okinawan-style two sword technique (985.Rho.14) and the other (656.Rho.14) preferring a blade and main gauche dagger duelling style.

Ruststalker 656.Rho.14

Finally, lets actually talk painting! These two chaps were very much test models for the rest of the Skitarii warband so I was paying more attention to the overall impact than I was to what exact colours I was using, but, what I remember is: All of the Mechanicus models will almost certainly start with sequential drybrushes of steel colours all the way up to silver. In this case I also used a dark brown and german grey before I washed the whole thing in black ink to get nice black fatigues and dark brown leather. I wanted a very different vibe to the studio scheme, so no bright reds - only Tech priests are getting red robes - and no shining lights because, well, assassins right? I used bronze as the contrast for the armour and decided that I quite liked the dark glass-like blades the studio did. Dark Reaper shaded with black and highlighted through Thunderhawk Blue to almost white then glazed blue-green did the job. I finished it off by greasing and oiling the joints with Ammo Oil enamel paint. Exposed oily joints don't make a lot of sense in this context as it would just pick up sand and dirt but it looks cool and we'll assume the Mechanicus has solutions to that issue... totes.

I really like how these turned out. The basing was an experiment too, I wanted a scheme that would work in both urban and rural settings so went for "long collapsed overgrown rubble" with Baneblade Brown edging as the pale brown looks like the thin, sick soil you see in urban waste-grounds. I've got the next five - Skitarii Vanguard - on the workbench for evening and weekend sessions so there'll be more very soon. Until then

TTFN