OWO what’s this?
Skitarii? Sort of?
I’ve had a pile of Skitarii sitting around, left over from stealing their heads to use on Heresy Militia. I had intended to sell them as just the Rangers but the secondhand AdMech market is pretty flooded - it’s at a perfect point where there’s effectively no market for built or partial Skitarii kits but somehow it’s not quite good value to just buy the full kits for the helmets. I bought them all in previous years so they’re not technically new on the pile 
but they are definitely on the pile now.
I was musing on this and I got a sudden burst of inspiration from a Reddit post showing off someone’s unpainted Ad Mech army, which looked like a fun set of models that I could reach pretty easily. I really do quite like the Ad Mech range, and would love to have a fully painted army some day.
So I pulled my Skitarii off the “for sale” pile and built a few with some Solar Auxilia heads that I had, ironically enough, bought for my Heresy Militia.
Yeah, I don’t know what I’m doing here. I put these together roughly following the Midwinter Minis video where he cut off the jackets and used pouches to hide the odd pants.
Then I painted them, I suppose. Somehow they’ve come out looking like Cadians. I’m not sure how I feel about that, but here’s how I did it:
- Starting from a grey prime, I gave them a layer of thinned AP Dark Wood, which wasn’t dark enough so I gave them another layer of 3:2 Dark Wood : Grim Black.
- Once that dried, I drybrushed the models all over with GW Leadbelcher, and again more lightly with GW Runefang Steel.
- Then I picked out all the cloth with Rakarth Flesh (actually a ProAcryl paint that I’ve forgotten the name of but it’s a perfect match and has better coverage), washed it with AP Light Tone, and re-highlighted it with Rakarth Flesh again while the wash was drying.
- I had to futz around with the pouches and backpacks a bit, but ultimately settled on Deathclaw Brown with a shade of AP Strong Tone.
- I painted the armour with Waaagh Flesh Contrast paint, and highlighted it with Runefang Steel to make sure it still looked metallic.
- Finally, I picked out some details with ProAcryl Dark Bronze, Vallejo Copper, white, and red, and added glowy blue plasma and yellow radium to the Plasma Caliver and Radium Carbines, respectively.
These felt a bit fiddly, and I’m not sure if it’s just me getting the hang of a new kit or if I was taking my time, particularly. I don’t know if I’ll do more of these, it might end up like my forays into Sons of Horus, Aeldari, and Troggoths… (I.e., abandoned).
Anyway, for now that’s five off the pile.
BATG Score: +77
